Dry Fruit Laddu

Enjoying my stay @ Chennai. Swargame enrallum athu namma ooru pola varuma!!!! No way!!!!

yeah Chennai stinks a lot, that too after rain, it really stinks a lot, but its ok, its Chennai, my place, where i enjoyed the most wonderful years of  my life, My School, My College, College Swimming pool, Balaji Bhavan, haaa Great days!!!

Ok, coming to Dry Fruit Laddu. Wonderful recipe, taste great. Got this recipe from Channel [V]  Pakao.
Very simple to make.

Ingredients
Almonds - 1/2 cup
Cashew - 1/2 cup
Walnuts - 10-12 nos.
Dates - 10- 12 nos.
Marie Biscuits - 10 nos.
Milk - 1/4 cup
Chocolate - 4 squares of diary milk/any plain chocolate
freshly grated coconut/Dessicated Coconut - 2 tbsp

Method

Warm the milk slightly, add 2 squares of chocolate to it. Roughly Chop all the nuts.  Remove the seeds of dates and chop it. Powder the biscuits. Roughly chop 2 squares of chocolate. Mix the nuts, dates and biscuits  and chopped chocolates in a big bowl.

By this time the chocolate would have melted in the milk.  Now add this milk to the Nuts-Biscuit Mixture and make balls.  When you find the balls are not shaping, add 1-2 powdered biscuits and shape it well. Roll the laddus in freshly grated coconut or dessicated coconut.  Store it in an Air-Tight Container. Stays good for 4-5 days when refrigerated.

Laddus will be very mild in sweet. For a Sweeet Laddu, Instead of Chocolate Milk use Condensed Milk. Follow the same procedure, Just pour condensed milk lil by lil and make laddus.

Stollen

Last year, I made Panettone for X'mas but did not manage to try out any Stollen recipes. So, this year I got to try a Stollen recipe first before Panettone. It's something new to me and I think the texture is something like Panettone. Again, Stollen is also one of the bread that Italian will have during the X'mas but now everywhere having it for this lovely season.

I'm not sure why Stollen had its unique shape, anyway I just followed the recipe. The texture is soft on the day it's baked and taste quite good with some dried apricot, cranberries, raisin and the crunchy pecan had given it extra texture. Not to forget, my favorite ingredients "cinnamon" make this bread taste better. My hubby and I very much prefer Stollen and Panettone instead of Fruit Cake.

The bread wasn't that soft the next day. So, I tuck it back to the oven at 200C losely wrapped with aluminium foil to warm it back, then it's turn soft again and it's nice to serve warm I feel. My first experiment told me that I should make it again to give away as a gift very soon.

Recipe from 65度汤肿面包 (make two loafs)

(A) 270g bread flour / 30g plain flour / 1 tsp cinammon powder / 30g sugar / 3g salt / 6g yeast
(B) 135g milk / 30g beaten egg

(C) 90g unsalted butter

(D) 130g dried fruits (apricot, raisin, cranberries) / 50g pecan nuts (toasted and chopped)

1. With a dough hook mixer, mix ingredients (A) and (B) at low speed unitl a crumbly consistency.
2. Gradually add in the unsalted butter until everything combine. Change to a medium low speed continue the kneading process until it become smooth and elastic.
3. Add in ingredients (D) until everything stick with the dough. Take out the dough from the machine, add in any dried fruits or nuts that didn't stick to it. Make the dough into a smooth round shape and let it proof for 40 minutes in a clean bowl cover with cling wrap.
4. Divide the dough into two portions and shape them into smooth round dough. Let it rest for 15 minutes.
5. Roll out the dough to a flat round shape, fold 2/3 of the dough from left to right. Use a rolling pin press all the way down at the other 1/3 of the dough. So here you've got three paddle stollen.
6. Let the doughs sit at the baking tray proof for 40 minutes cover with cling wrap.
7. Bake at 180C for 30 minutes until golden brown. When the bread out from the oven, immediate brush some melted butter on the dough and sprinkle over lots of sugar powder.

Dal Makhani

Dal makhani sans butter and cream makes this dish light and healthy. It's surprising that my blog which is a collection of over 160 recipes does not have a basic recipe for dal! Hence I thought of posting this simple recipe which amateur cooks will find useful.

Ingredients:

1. Whole Black urud dal-1 cup
2. Oil-1 tbsp
3. Jeera-1 tsp
4. Chopped ginger-1 tsp
5. Chopped garlic-2 pods
6. Green chilli-1 slit into two
7. Cloves-3
8. Cinnamon-2 inch stick
9. Onion-1 small
10. Tomato-1
11. Salt
12. turmeric powder-1/4 tsp
13. Hing-1/4 tsp
14. Red chilli powder- according to taste
15. Kitchen king masala-1/2 tsp

Method:

Soak dal overnight. Pressure cook till it turns soft.
Heat oil a wide pan. Add ingredients 3 to 8. Fry for a few seconds.
Add chopped onions and sprinkle some salt. Fry till they turn soft.
Add tomato and rest of the ingredients. Add some more salt. Fry till tomato turns soft.
Add cooked dal and some water  and bring the mixture to a boil.
Simmer and cook for at least 15-20 minutes. The longer it simmers, the tastier it gets.
Garnish with coriander leaves.
This recipe can be used as a base to make dal with any lentil.

Note:
It is customary to use red kidney beans along with black urud dal in this dish. It makes the gravy buttery and yummy. In this case, use 3/4 cup of black urud and 1/4 cup of red kidney beans.
For rich gravy, top it off with 1/4 cup of heavy cream and saute the veggies in butter.
Soaking is not required for mung dal/green gram dal/thur dal. Cream is not added when these lentils are used to prepare dal.