Sweet Melange For A Merry Christmas - Peanut Brittle

SWEET MELANGE FOR A MERRY CHRISTMAS

PEANUT BRITTLE

Peanut Brittle is another avataar of the traditional Kadalaikai urundai ( Peanut laddoos ). The texture and the glassy look of this addictive sweet attract not only children but the grown ups too. A box of roasted and husked peanuts stored in your kitchen shelf will come in handy when you crave for an easy to make instant sweet.

.

INGREDIENTS

Peanuts - 1 cup

Powdered jaggery - 1 cup

Butter - 1 tsp

METHOD

1. Dry roast the peanuts on medium flame till they crack.

2. When they cool down rub the nuts between your palms to loosen out the skin .

3. Remove the husk and grind the clean peanuts into a very coarse powder using the blender.

4. Dissolve jaggery in one cup of water and filter it.

5. Spread a greased butter paper on a plate before you start cooking.Keep a greased spoon also ready.

6. Cook the jaggery water on low flame till the syrup reaches the hard ball stage. ( A drop of syrup should instantly harden when it touches cold water).

7. Add the butter,

 and the powdered peanuts.  

8.Stir till the mixture comes together into a mass.

9. Switch off flame.

10. Drop the mixture one spoon at at a time on the butter paper and flatten  using the back of the greased spoon.

 The brittle will immediately set.

Peel out the set Peanut Brittle from the butter paper and start munching on and on!

Palak Parathas with Chana in Onion Tomato Gravy and Gujrati Kadi - Virtual Baby Shower for PJ

That's a long title!!!! Thats is fine, coz this is an Extra Special Post as we are hosting a Virtual Baby Shower for our Blogger Buddy PJ of Seduce your taste buds. When we decided to a Virtual Baby Shower, we first thought of cooking something that would interest her now or some interesting Kid's Recipes. After some discussion we all agreed to Cook something from her blog and post. Now, this became even more tough choice, she has an amazing collection of recipes and to decide on one was very tough job!! So, i ended up Cooking 6 dishes from her blog and decided to do this as two post instead one. Hope this little gesture of us, brings a broad smile on her face and makes her Happy!!!!! Here is a Big Shout from all of us  PJ, Have a Safe Delivery and God Bless!!!!!!

Check out the other bloggers doing this Virtual Baby Shower with me Aarthi

Cool Lassi(e),Gayathri Kumar,Kalyani,Kaveri,Mireille Roc,Pavani,Pradnya,Priya Suresh,Suma,Vardhini,Veena,Vaishali

Palak Parathas
Ingredients
1 bunch of palak
3 cups of Wheat Flour
1/2 Cup Yoghurt
1/2 tsp Cumin
Salt to taste
1 tbsp of oil

Method

• Blanch the Palak and MAke a Puree of it with yoghurt and Cumin Seeds.
• Take the Wheat Flour ina Wide Vessel, add the palak-yoghurt puree to it, add salt and make Soft chapathi dough.
• Divide the dough into equal-sized balls.  Roll them out as discs and Cook them on a Hot Tava on both the sides.
• Serve Hot with any Side-dish of your choice.

Chana in Onion-Tomato Gravy
Ingredients
2 Cups of Chana/Chickpeas
2 Medium Onions, chopped
2 tbsp of Tomato Puree
1 tsp Red Chilli Powder
1/2 tsp coriander powder
1/4 tsp Garam masala
1 inch ginger
2 cloves of garlic
1 green chilli
Salt to taste

Method

• Soak Chana Dal overnight and Pressure cook it next day with enough water and salt.
• Heat oil in a Pan, Add Onions and saute till translucent. Take it off the stove and let it cool.
• Grind the onions, along with ginger, garlic and green chilli to a fine paste.
• Heat some more oil in the same pan, Add cumin seeds,let it crackle, add the ground paste to it and saute till gives out a good aroma and oil separates.
• Add tomato puree and 1 cup of water.  Add all the masala's and mix well.
• When the rawness of the masala's escape, add pressure-cooked chickpeas and mix well. Adjust salt.
• Let it sit for 10 minutes, in a simmer flame. Garnish with coriander leaves and Serve hot with Roti's.

Gujrati Kadi
Ingredients
1 Cup Yogurt/Curd
1 tbsp Besan/gram flour
1 Green Chilli
one small piece of jaggery or spoonful of sugar
Curry leaves a few
Turmeric powder- a pinch
Salt to taste


For tempering:
1/2 tbsp Oil
1/2 tsp Mustard
1/2 tsp Cumin seeds
2 Red chillies
Asafoetida/hing, a pinch
Coriander leaves to garnish

Method

• Beat together curd,besan with 2 cups water.Add turmeric powder, green chilli, sugar and salt.Mix well.
• Heat a pan with this mixture and bring it a boil, simmer flame and let the liquid thicken.
• Meanwhile, heat a small pan with oil and put in the ingredients for tempering.
• When it splutters,pour this over the simmering kadhi and let it simmer for another couple of minutes
• Remove from heat and serve garnished with coriander leaves.

Chocolate Pancake - Gluten Free

I had this gluten free scones in one of our friends house as she is cannot eat the regular/wheat flour. I bought one of the packs from her and she said they make very nice pancakes too. Behind the package there were so many recipes to make like scones, cake, pancake, waffles etc., This flour is not only gluten free but has almond powder too. So I thought why not try to make some pancakes. As always Anush loves chocolate, so I thought I will make these as chocolate pancakes. He always asks for sausage whenever I make pancakes, but didn't have it, so combined it with some turkey bacon and maple syrup.

Ingredients:
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1 cup Pamela's Pancake Mix - Gluten free (or you can substitute with regular pancake mix)
1 Egg
3/4 Chocolate Milk (you can use either regular milk or water instead)
1 tbsp Oil

Method:
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1. In a large mixing bowl, add all the ingredients and mix it with a wooden spoon, just to make it like a pancake batter, make sure that you do not over mix it.
2. Heat a skillet, preferably non-stick.

3. Heat the pan, spray a little bit of non-stick cooking spray, then pour a ladle of batter and just let it spread it by itself and allow it to cook on medium flame for about a min.

4. Flip it to other side and cook another min.

5. Remove it to a serving platter and top it with a good quality maple syrup.

6. I served it with bit little salty from the turkey bacon and sweet from the maple syrup. You can choose any kinda topping from chocolate syrup, whipping cream or fresh fruits etc.,

7. Making turkey bacon: I choose turkey bacon, as it's better lean meat, and it has very less amount of fat when compared to the regular bacon and it's more tastier and healthier. I just cut the bacon into strips and dry saute it on a pan with no oil on medium flame until they are browned and crispy.

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