Wednesday, November 07, 2012

Shaker Shaker!

One of our favourite on-line resources to use here at Braam's is houzz.com.  If you're planning a home renovation or new build this is about to become your new best friend.  There is endless inspiration for home design with access to designer and builder portfolio's from around the world.

We're very excited this morning because one of our projects has been featured in an article on houzz's homepage!  Gabrielle Di Stefano writes about the classic shaker style door, which has always been a popular choice for our clients.  You can read the article here!

Braam's also has a Professional Profile page on houzz.  Check out our most recent projects and information about our company.  


Tuesday, November 06, 2012

Oma Podi / Carom Seeds Flavored Plain Sev




I always rely on my mom and grandma when it comes to traditional, festival recipes.They are very good source of those recipes and I simply call them and get the recipe over phone whenever I want to prepare it.



As Diwali is nearing, I want to prepare and post few diwali recipes in my blog. Called my grandma and asked few easy recipes. She suggested few and I have tried this Oma podi first as it called for only few ingredients(and all were available at my pantry when I thought of preparing it) and the method is also very easy to try. I prepared them in the evening time after my work and shot the picture in the next morning. I like the convenient with these kind of snack recipes as I can shoot photos anytime after preparing it. Now, Off to the recipe.



Basic Information:

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Makes: ~ 3 cups



Ingredients:

Gram Flour / Kadalai Maavu / Chickpea flour / Besan - 1 and 1/2 cups

Rice flour - 1/2 cup

Salt - to taste

Ajwain / Carom seeds - 1 teaspoon

Hot oil - 1 tablespoon

Water - to make a tight dough

Oil - for deep frying



Method:



1) Dry roast the carom seeds till it releases nice aroma and slightly crush it using a pestle and mortar. I used mixer to do this job.


 

2) Add 3 tablespoons of warm water to this crushed carom seeds and keep aside. Let it soak for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, filter the water from it.

3) Meanwhile, sift the chickpea flour and rice flour.


 

4) Put together the chickpea flour, rice flour and salt. Mix well.

5) Add hot oil.


 

6) Now, Add the water from carom seeds(we soaked carom seeds in warm water in step 2) to the flour mixture.


 

7) Add water slowly and make a soft and tight dough (It should not be very tight). It took 1/2 to 3/4 cup for me to make smooth and soft dough. It will vary depends on the chickpea flour and rice flour type.


 

8) Grease the idiappam press(Refer here for the picture of the idiappam Press) / Sev press using oil. Use the smallest hole lid for making oma podi.

9) Stuff the dough into the idiappam press/ sev press.

10) Heat oil in a thick bottom kadai/ frying pan.


 

11) When the oil is hot(It should be medium hot. drop a very small pinch of dough into the oil. It should pop out to the top surface of the oil.), press the sev directly to the oil. Start pressing from ends of the pan to

the centre of the frying pan for even cooking.

12) Fry just for few seconds and turn to other side to fry. Oma podi will get fried quickly after pressing.

13) Remove from oil and drain the excess oil using a kitchen tissue. Repeat these steps for remaining dough.

14) Allow it to cool to room temperature. Crush it and store it in a air tight container.

15) Enjoy with hot tea or coffee.



Note:

1) Add turmeric powder if preferred.

2) Make sure to prepare dough in right consistency for easy pressing of oma podi. If it is very tight, add very little water and make soft dough.

Ranga Aloor Puli or Sweet Potato Jamoons - a (not very) easy sweet for Deepawali!

Ranga Aloor Puli or Sweet Potato Jamoons - a (not at all) easy sweet for Deepawali!


Dibs wanted to treat us and our cousins here at Sydney, to a traditional Bengali dinner party. Though I have savoured Bengali food at her in-laws’ home at Calcutta, I have never tried cooking any Bengali dishes till now.  When Dibs planned for a traditional dinner consisting of 16 dishes,  I was very excited. Here was a chance to learn to cook new dishes from my daughter.

I learnt that Ranga Aloor Puli or the Stuffed Sweet Potato Jamoon is one of the many   traditional sweets prepared on auspicious occasions in a Bengali household. When Dibs briefed me about the sweet, I confidently offered to prepare it all by myself one day prior to the dinner. She shared with the recipe link  of her very good Bengali friend, Indira Mukherjee, who is an accomplished cook (among many other talents), and is a familiar face in Bengali TV channels with her recipes.
The recipe looked simple enough, but little did I know of the various hitches that I would soon have to face at every step! Here’s how I prepared it, along with all the problems I encountered and the fixes as well!!
Ingredients for the Sweet Coconut Filling
Fresh grated coconut – 1 cup
Sugar – 1 cupGhee – 1 tbspCardamom powder – 1 pinch

Method to prepare the  Sweet Coconut Filling
1.       Cook the coconut, sugar (optional - you can also add 1 cup of milk) together on low flame till it comes together into a mass.

2.       Stir in ghee and cardamom powder, switch off flame and transfer it to a container to avoid crystallization. The sweet coconut filling should be soft enough to be shaped into balls.
 

Ingredients for the Outer Shell of Sweet Potato

Sweet potatoes – 2 big Plain flour / Maida – 1 tbspRice flour -1 tbspGhee - 1tspS
alt – 1 pinch

Method to prepare Jamoons
Fat Sweet Potatoes!

1.       Boil and peel the sweet potatoes.

HITCH 1:

I microwaved the sweet potatoes submerged in water in the Tupperware steamer, for 10 minutes. The halved sweet potatoes cooked outside and remained hard in the centre. I mentally ticked myself off, for under-estimating the toughness of the big fat sweet potatoes

Solution:

I them dumped them in the pressure cooker with water in the cooker, but not in the pan with the potatos and cooked until three whistles.
Stubborn and uncooked in the centre!
 

2.       Peel and mash the cooked sweet potatoes smoothly.

HITCH 2:

I took out the sweet potatoes after the pressure subsided. Peeled the still hot vegetable and mashed it with the back of the ladle. The   steam condensed into it while mashing resulting in a very loose sweet potato mash. I regretted for not having allowed the vegetable to cool down thoroughly before mashing.

 

3.       Add the plain flour (maida), rice flour, ghee and salt to the sweet potato mash and knead into dough. The original recipe called for Khoa, which we didn’t add, as we didn’t have any!
Shell mixture with too much ghee!

HITCH 3:

Kneading was impossible because the dough remained loose even after mixing in the flours. In addition, I added too much ghee, which made the dough even more slippery!  I did not want to add more flour as a fix as that would make the jamoons floury and perhaps very hard.

Solution (not really!):

Dibs encouraged me to continue when I started panicking, saying that if at all it went wrong we could always make a kheer, and store the sweet potato for soup on another day.


 

4.       Flatten a ball of dough in your palm, place a ball of sweet coconut filling in the centre, pull the edges together and shape it into a jamoon.
Mash filling on Mash shell!!

HITCH 4:

The mash stuck to the palms and there was no way of stuffing or shaping it into a jamoon even when the palms were greased.

Solution:

I washed my hands, patted out the excess water and left the palms still wet. I slapped a spoon of the sweet potato mash on the wet palm and placed a ball of filling in the centre. Took another spoon of the mash and placed it on top of the filling. Using the fingers gently I covered the filling by plastering  any cracks or uncovered portions with more sweet potato paste just like a mason would fill the cracks with cement slush!
 

5.       Shape it like a jamoon fruit .
Rolling  like dice with palm open - but gently!!!
 

HITCH 5

Shaping the paste? Out of question!

Solution:

I gently tried to roll the ‘jamoon’ by tilting my wet palm up and down, like I would roll the dice before casting,  and gently shaped both ends using the other hand. The jamoon was carefully slid on to a flat plate dusted with flour. After making all the jamoons similarly, we covered the plate using silver foil and left it in the refrigerator overnight, with a big sigh.
Phew! Ready for the fridge!
 

6.       Fry the jamoons to a dark brown colour and soak them in sugar syrup.

Hitch 6:

Since I was nervous to handle the delicate jamoons, Dibs took over the next morning. She carefully slid the jamoon into hot oil .The first jamoon got burnt because the oil was too hot.  The second one opened up and disintegrated in spite of low heat, because Dibs tried to flip it too soon.
Burnt or Disintegrated - so sad! (Ignore potatos - they for another dish!)

Solution: Dibs slid the next two jamoons into the oil on low flame. She did not touch the jamoons till the submerged portion turned to a golden brown colour, and firm as well. She used a spoon and gently turned over the golden jamoons one by one, and waited till they turned into a deep brown colour. She could successfully removed the jamoons using a perforated ladle,  and placed them on a paper towel!  Cooking jamoons took a long time on low flame - almost 25 -30 minutes for one batch. 

Finally getting somewhere on a low flame!
 

Ingredients for the Sugar Syrup

Sugar – 3 cups

Rose water/rose essence – 1tbsp

Method to  prepare the Syrup

1.       Add two cups of water to the sugar and cook on low flame.

2.      Cook till the syrup is sticky and remove from flame before it reaches one thread consistency.
3.    Don't add the rose water yet!

Method to Soak the jamoons in Syrup

1.       Lower the first batch of drained jamoons into the syrup.

2.       Allow them to soak till the next batch is ready.

3.       Remove the first batch of jamoons soaked in syrup very carefully and place them in a wide mouthed serving bowl.

4.       Fry and soak all the jamoons similarly.

5.       Warm up the remaining sugar syrup just before serving and add the rose essence.

6.       Pour the rose flavoured syrup on the jamoons and serve them immediately.
Sweet Success!
 

           What we will do better next time:
1. Slice potatos into 3 pieces at least, before pressure cooking it.  We may need to cook only for two whistles.
2. Drain on a towel  and allow potatos to cool completely before mashing.
3. Add ghee sparingly.
4. Refrigerate overnight before frying.
5. Exhibit great patience, and fry on a low flame.
6. Not handle or flip the jamoons once dropped in oil, right until they turn  completely rosy brown on one side.
7. Hold the 'kadai' and VERY GENTLY tilt to cover jamoons with oil, before attempting to turn them over to cook the other side.
 
Overall Verdict on Ranga Aloor Puli!
Yum Yum YUM!
 
The Sweet Potato Jamoons tasted amazing and unbelievably good! They were rich and delicious giving regular jamoons a run for their money! The coconut filling inside the jamoon is a genious idea, and transports you to another world...especially when its least expected inside a jamoon. The colour was rosy, and taste of sweet potato unmistakeable. We did not miss much by not adding khoa (or for that matter -instant jamun mix powders (yuck!), as some websites suggest!! 
 
Guests were intrigued and loved Ranga Aloor Puli, and it was  a great hit in the party.  Dibs and I shared a secret grin, when the Sweet Potato Jamoons were praised and by our finger-licking guests!