Khare Shankarpale/ Namak Pare

This is all time favorite tea time snacks in our house. In Diwali I prepare more Khare shankarpale than God shankarpale.  It is preapred with mixture of Maida and whole wheat flour.

Ingredients

Whole wheat flour - 1 cup
Maida - 1 cup
Hot oil (Mohan) - 2 tablespoons
Ajwain - 1/2 teaspoon
Crushed cumin seeds - 1 teaspoons
Salt as per taste
Oil for deep frying.


Procedure
Mix all ingredients (except oil for deep frying offcourse ;-)) . Knead a stiff dough. Keep aside for 15 minutes. Heat oil for deep frying in Kadai. Make 5-6 equal portioned balls of the dough. Roll out a ball and make a thin roti. Cut it into diamond or thin rectangel shaped pieces. Deep fry this pieces in oil on medium flame till it becomes crispy and golden brown. Cool comletely and store it in airtight container.


Besan Ladoo

First of All I want to share my happiness with you.... 2 days back we shifted to our new house. Till now my house is in mess..... lots of things to do..... have to decorate house for Diwali...prepare Diwali Faral............hmmm lets see how things work for me....... but I am enjoying it ;-). As everybody knows from tommorow Diwali will Start. So I want to share a authentic and easy recipe "Besanache Ladoo" For this Diwali eve.

Ingredients
Besan (Gram flour) - 4 cups
Powdered Sugar - 2 cups
Pure Ghee- 1 cup
Cardamom Powder - 1 teaspoon
Raisins - 10-12
Chopped cashew/ Almonds - as you like.

Procedure
Heat pure ghee in heavy bottom kadai. Add besan and Mix well. Be carefull that lumps should not form. Roast it stiring continuously on low flame. Initially it will feel dry but if you go on stiring it will get little loose. When the colour changes to golden brown and you can feel nice aroma. Turn off the flame. When it get cool add powdered sugar, cardamom powder and chopped dry fruits in it and mix wel. Make small balls.... ladoo from it and on top of it put one raisin and slightly press it. Lovely ladoos are ready for Lakshmi Poojan Naivedyam.

Karanji

One more Typical Maharashtrian sweet. Specially prepard during Diwali or Navratri. It is just like Gujiya or Ghugra of Gujrat. In Maharashtra we make stuffing of either fresh or dry coconut. Traditionally it's a fried dish. But soon I will post the baked version of it.

Ingredients

For cover 
Maida (All purpose flour) - 1 cup
Fine Rava - 1/4 cup
Hot oil (Mohan) - 2 tablespoon
Milk - 1/2 cup
Water - 1/4 cup (or as required)
Salt - a pinch

For stuffing
For Fresh coconut stuffing same as Fried modak stuffing.

For Dry coconut stuffing
Shraded dry coconut or Desiccated coconut - 1/2 cup
Powdered sugar - 1/2 cup
Poppy seeds - 1 teaspoon
Cardamom powder - 1 teaspoon
Roasted & chopped nuts - 2 teaspoons
Raisins - 2 teaspoons
Ghee/ oil for deep fry.

Procedure

For cover
Mix all ingredients of cover and knead a hard dough of it. Keep aside for 30 minutes. Then knead, till the dough is soft & smooth. (this is a very skillful job).

For stuffing
take all ingredients of stuffing in a bowl and mix well.

For Karanji
Make small lemon size ball of dough. Roll it as puri. Place 1,1/2 teaspoon of stuffing at the center of the Puri. Apply little milk on the edges with finger tip. Now fold the puri and close the edges so that it will get half circle shape. Tightly seal the edges.(otherwise karanji will break while frying) And cut the rough edges with pizza cutter or special cutter of Karanji. Make all karanjis with same procedure. Cover it with damp cloth. Deep fry it on a low flame till it becomes slightly brown. Cool it and store it in airtight container. Dry coconut Karanji, you can store till 8-10 days. But fresh coconut karanis have to finish within 2-3 days.

This is for my event Only "Festive Food" brainchild of Pari.

ONLY "AWARDS".....

As all of you know currently "ONLY FESTIVE" event is going on my blog. And yesterday day was ONLY AWARDS day for me. Two very good friends of mine, Akila of Akila's Kitchen & Harini of Tamalapaku has sent a lovely Award for me. Thanks a lot both of you. I think it's a precious Festival gift for me :-)

 After celebration some Rules …..

  

1. Accept the award. Post it on your blog with the name of the person who has granted the award and his or her blog link.

  

2. Pay it forward to 15 other bloggers.  Please don't leave it general and just invite all your blogger friends to collect the Award.  It's always nice to be nominated so please do the favour and nominate 15 bloggers to share the Award with.

3. Contact those blog owners and let them know they’ve been chosen.

I am very much confused to select only 15 among so many blogs….

Blogs , I have selected are having awesome collection of recipes you must give a look ………

1. Lakshmi of Taste of Mysore
2. Chaitrali of I am not a chef
3. Sanyukta Gour of Creative Sanyukta
4. PJ of Seduce Your Tastebuds
5. Meera of Enjoy Indian Food
6. Nivedita of Nivedita's Kitchen
7. Pratibha's The chef and her kitchen
8. Umm Mymoonah of Taste of pearl city
9. Aipi of US MASALA
10. Ambika of Ambikas Kitchen
11. Lataji of Flavours and tastes
12. Tanmaya of Chamchameet
13. Jagruti of Joy of Cooking
14. Anjali of Annaparabramha
15. Sheetal of My cooking Experiment

Chakli

We are great fan of chakli………….. I think one who eats chakli first time becomes fan of it. I think in all parts of India, everybody makes these chakli with different name. But Maharashtrian's special is 'Bhajni chi chakli'. Bhajni is roasted grains and dal's flour. Like Bhajniche Thalipith. On 'Nark Chaturdashi' day of Diwali, when we wake up very early in the morning, we make fresh hot hot chaklis for breakfast along with chivda and ladoo. Fresh hot chaklis are must on that day. So instead of wasting time in Description we will directly move to recipe.

Ingredients

For Bhajni

Rice - 4 cups

Chana Dal - 2 cups

Urad Dal - 1 cup

Poha - 1/2 cup

Toor Dal - 1/2 cup

Coriander seeds - 1/2 cup

Cumin seeds - 1/4 cup


For Chakli

Bhajni - 2 cups

Water - 2 cups

Red chilli powder - 1 teaspoon

Asafetida - 1/2 teaspoon

Turmeric powder- 1/2 teaspoon

Ajwain - 1/2 teaspoon

Sesame seeds - 1 teaspoon

Hot oil - 2 tablespoon

Salt as per taste.

Oil for deep fry.


Procedure

For Bhajni
Roast each ingredient one by one on low flame till it changes it's colour slightly. Do not use oil while roasting. Cool it and mix it. Grind together all the roasted ingredients in flour mill. This flour is called as bhajani. You can store it in airtight container for 5-6 months.

For Chakli
Boil water in a vessel. Add Hot oil (In Marathi it's called 'Mohan'), Red chilli powder, Asafetida, Turmeric powder and salt. In another bowl mix bhajni flour, sesame seeds and Ajwain. Now add this flour in water. Switch off the flame and cover it with the lid for 5 minutes. Then Knead the flour to make a soft dough. You can use little oil for kneading. Now Take a ball of dough and put it in the chakli mold. Press it and simultaneously move it in circular motion to make chaklis of desired size. Mean while heat oil in the kadai. Slowly put one chakli in kadai and deep fry it on medium flame. When it stops bubbling and colour change to slightly brownish take it from the kadai and drain it on kitchen towel. Let it get cool and store it in a airtight container. Me and my husband likes to eat chakli with curd and My father loves to eat it with butter.

This is for my event Only "Festive Food" brainchild of Pari.

& for Akila's event Dish Name Starts With C