Kala Chana Ghughni / kala chana ghughri

• 

Well this is a very healthy and tasty recipe which u can eat at any point of the day . Quite famous in Eastern UP and Bihar , here goes my Kala Chana Ghugni recipe.

Ingredients-

• Kala Chana / Horse Gram- 1 cup.
• Jeera 1 t Spoon .
• Hingh  / asafoetida .
• Green Chilly -2to 3.(slitted)
• Onion - one small finally chopped.(optional )
• Dry Mango Powder (amchur)- 1/2 spoon.
• Garam Masala Powder- 1/2 spoon.
• Ginger - 1/ 2 inch (cut into tiny pieces).
• Salt- 1/2 Spoon. 
• Red Chilly powder-1/2 spoon.
• Corriander leaves.

Recipe-

Soak Horse Gram over night or minimum for 5-6 hrs. 

Wash them and put into pressure cooker for 2-3 whistles.

Now strain them and keep aside. 

In a pan add 1 1/2 table spoon of refined or any oil of your choice . add Jeera  into it . Once jeera start cracking add Heeng then  Onion and  green chilies. Once onions start to turn pinkish add boiled Horse gram into it . Now put  garam masala, red chilly powder , saute now add salt , saute and cover it for 2-3 Minutes .

Now add amchur powder in it . saute' for more 1 minute and switch off the flame .  Sprinkle some chopped coriander leaves, if u want can add some mint leaves to it too. 

Now serve it. It really goes well with Tea but you can serve it along with hot parathas too.

Enjoy the yummy and delicious Ghugni.

Happy Cooking.

Noopur

murmure / lai ke laddu - sankranti special

 Makar Sankranti is here and we celebrate it to welcome new crops, make sweets , khichri/pongal and fly kites.
Here by i am posting the recipe of a famous Sankranti sweet. Lai ke laddu.

Ingredients: 
Murmure (puffed rice)- 250 grms.
Gur (jaggery) - 100 grms
Desi ghee- 2 table spoon.
sesame (til) seeds- a handful.
Recipe:

Roast murmure in a dry vessel or microwave it for one minute.
Now tak a wok or pan ( i prefer non stick here).
Put  ghee and after 30 seconds add gur into it.
once the gur mets and start becoming thick add the murmure and sesame seeds and switch of the burner. and mix it well.

Next you have to be bit careful. wet your palms with water and start forming laddus with the lai jagery mixture. B ebit careful as it will be hot (that why we wet palms). Make laddus fast as if the mixture cools down it will be hard to give it the shape of a laddu,

Thank You,
Happy Feasting,
Noopur

marble cake

Its long after i am posting on my blog, so thought to start of with some thing sweet, so here comes my recipe of marble cake which comes in two flavor vanilla and chocolate. its a easyrecipe buts comes bit tricky when togive the right texture. so here we go.

• Ingredients:

1. Grinded Sugar- 1 Bowl 
2. all purpose refined flour :1 bowl.
3. eggs:3
4. cream/refined oil: 1 bowl.
5. chocolate powder;2 table spoon.
6. vannila essence: few drops.
7. Baking soda : 2 ounce or half t spoon.

• For Icing:

1. whipped cream (I prefer powder) ;1 pack
2. chocolate sauce/powder: 3 to 4 table spoon.
3. strawberry sauce; 2 table spoon.
4. water (for making whipped cream).

•  Recipe:

Whip the egg well in mixer then add all purpose flour to it mix again , now add , sugar do the same and at last add cream/refined oil.

Now take out the batter and divide it into two bowls . Add chocolate powder and some baking soda into one and vanilla essence and left out baking soda into other. whip well.

Pre heat your Oven at 300degrees . Now grease the baking pan and then dust it with some flour.

Now the main task starts- take two spoons, dip each into each batter .First put one spoon of choclate batter into the baking dish then next to it put one spoon of vannila batter and so on . Keep topping the layers like this .

At the end take a knife and gently shake the batter with it to give it a marble texture as shown in the below given pic. Dont do much otherwise it will become full chocolate cake.

Now bake it at 300 degrees for 30 - minutes poke it to check the consistency that its cooked well or not.
Put the lid and let it rest in the oven for 10-15 minutes even after its done.

Now Comes The Icing Part :

As i generally prefer the powder form so i get whipped cream powder mix it with some warm water and whip well to get nix and thick whipped cream. Now divide it according to ur usage like i needed more of choclate cream so took around 3/4th of this cream and mix chocolate sauce to it. Now spread it well on the cake with the help of a blunt/ butter knife.for the decoration part (which i messed a bit here) mix strawberry sauce with the rest of cream and put it in cone and decorate according to your choice and voila your marble cake is ready, which will be creamy on top crunchy in between and fluffy inside.

Happy Baking,
Noopur.

#care4food: how to keep your food items fresh for long.

Dear Foodies,

Till now i was posting about various recipies but here in this column will post about how to store your food items for long and how to retain their freshness. Thanks to Tupper ware and their care4food initiative which inspired me to write this blog page.

As Diwali was round the corner and we made many savories and also got stocked up with sweets and dry fruits.

 Now not all gets finished and we are left with so many things which need to be preserve for further use. ( I can't throw those yummy dishes like anything).
 Specially with dry fruits if you dont preserve them well they lost their crispiness and freshness. For all this i will suggest you to invest in good quality air tight containers. I always Prefer #Tupperware for this as cant relay on others for the grade of plastic they use and as tupperware gives me full air proofing.

#Below pointing out various ways for different food items.

• Snacks Items: Put them in a good air tight jar and store in a cupboard . Check for no moisture in the cub board.
• Dry Fruits: Do the same as for snacks .
• Masalas: Seal them well and preserve them in freezer or in chill tray.
• Chocolates: Put them in a box and refrigerate them ( no need to freeze them).
• Besan, maida etc: They loose moisture easily and attract worms.So Keep them in a Tight box and put them in refrigerator or freezer.
• Kneaded floor:  To keep them fresh add a little oil when kneading and wrap them in cellophane sheets and then keep them refrigerated.(dont refregerate them for more then 2 days).
• Left over Food items: store well in good boxes and then refrigerate them ( Make sure that its properly leaded).

Here are few items i talked about , if you have query for any other please feel free to comment and ask for the same.

One thing always keep in mind that dont store food items in cheap plastic boxes as they are not healthy.

Happy Munching,

Nopur.

besan ke laddu

If you have a sweet tooth and an Indian chances are high that   besan laddus is in your favourite list. So here goes easy but patience full recipe of besan ke laddu.

• Ingredients:

1. Besan (Gram Flour): 3& 1/2 cup.
2. sooji : 1/2cup.
3. Sugar: 2 cup.
4. Desi Ghee: 1 cup.
5. Grounded green cardamom : 2 table spoon.
6. Dry fruits ( of your choice): crushes roughly.

• Recipe:

Take a pan/ wok and put on medium heat put desi ghee to it , don't let it to be heated much just when it liquidify add besan and sooji to mix well and stir well. keep it on medium flame and keep stiring from time to time , when the aroma starts spreading around you have to make sure that you stir continuously so that it dont burn the whole process from putting the ghee to full roasting of besan takes about 25 minutes .By the time you will be done with the roasting people sittin in others room and even outside your house will know that you are roasting the besan.

 The smell will be so tempting that you will want the laddus to be done soon. But now the waiting has to be done . 

Now shift the roasted mixture into a big plate or big mixing bowl and let it cool down for around 15 minutes. In the mean while grind your sugar fine and now mix chopped dry fruits , sugar and cardamom and mix well into the mixture.

Now make round round bolls with your hand and on top decorate with almond pieces.
Now enjoy these delicious mouth watering and soft Besan laddus.

Happy Cooking,
Noopur.

makhaane Ki kheer (lotus seeds porridge)- fasting special

Noopur's Kitchen

A refreshing and healthy way to go through your fast . Makhaane ki kheer.

• Ingredients: 

1. Makhaana/ Lotus seeds: 2 bowls.
2. Sugar: 3-4 table spoon.
3. Dry fruits : a hand ful of your choice.
4. Milk Half Litre.

• Recipe:

First roast makhaana a bit in a pan with out oil. Now take a vessel and boil milk once the milk is boiled put the flame on medium and add makhaana to it. Let it keep boiling , keep stiring from time to time so as to prevent milk from spiling. Once the milk starts getting thicker add sugar and mix well. keep on the flame till the milk become close to half of its original quantity in the starting . Now chop dryfruits and add to the kheer.
Its Not just a yummy dish but also gives you much energy to go through the fast and ofcource the taste has its own story. Try it once.
Happy Fasting;
Noopur

kuttu and aloo tikki with green chutney (fasting special)

A tasty and yummmy tikki/ dumplings made of kuttu/ singhara flour and potatoes served with Green  coriander chutney.

• Ingredients: for 8 pieces Tikki.

1. Kuttu/ singhara flour: 1 cup.
2. Boiled Potaotes: 5.
3. Green chilli:2
4. Coriander leaves: few.
5. Tomato: 1 medium.
6. rock salt( sendha namak): as per taste.
7. Oil: for Deep/ shallow frying.

• Ingredients for Chutney:

1. Green Coriander : 1 bunch.
2. green chilli: 2.
3. Tomato:1 big.
4. lemon: half.
5. Rock salt : as per taste.

• Recipe:

For Tikki:

Peel and mash potatoes well. Now chop tomatoes, chill and corinader very finely and mix in potato along with rock salt.

 In a big bowl take kuttu/singhara flour and add some water the consistency should be thick say 2:1 ratio. add some rock salt to this mixture too.

  Now if you want to shallow fry your tikkies take a non stick pan and add some oil on it or take a pan and add enough oil for deep frying (choice is yours).

Now make small round tikki like shape from aloo mixture dip t well in singhara aata mixture and then shallow/ deep fry it from both side to give it golden texture . fry on medium flame so that tikkis should not burn from outside and get cooked well from inside and out both. 

Take them out carefully on a kitchen towel to siak extra Oil.

For Chutney: 

Take all the ingredients except lemon and grind well in a mixer. If required add few drops of water. Now. squeeze the lemon and your chutney is ready.

Enjoy this tikkis hot with chutney and feel full and satisfied .

Happy Fasting,

Noopur.