Kajjikayalu

Ingredients:

500 gms Maida
8 tsp ghee
water to knead the Maida
Salt to taste
4 cups Oil for deep frying

For the filling:

¼ dry coconuts finely grated
1 cup sooji/semolina
1 cup sugar
1 tsp cardamom powder
Pinch of karpur
4 tsp cashew nuts chopped

Direction:

Mix the Maida with salt, 4 tsp heated ghee and enough water to make pliable dough, not too soft. Divide the dough and shape into small balls. Keep aside covered for half an hour.

Heat a pan, with 2 tsp of ghee and add the grated coconut and roast over medium flame for a few minutes. Remove and keep aside. If using fresh coconut, roast the coconut till golden brown. Ensure that it’s well roasted, it takes longer time to roast than dry coconut.

In the same pan, add 1 tsp ghee and add the sooji and roast over medium flame till it turns light pink. Remove, cool and keep aside.

Powder the sugar and mix with the roasted sooji, grated coconut, karpur, cardamom powder and cashew nuts. The filling is ready. Keep aside.

Now, roll each ball with the rolling pin into a thin puree. Spread a tablespoon of the filling on one half of the rolled out dough.

Wet your finger and run it along the edges of the spread out dough with water and fold over to the opposite end, enclosing the stuffing to form a semi-circle shaped kajjikaya.

Press the ends firmly so that the filling doesn’t come out during the deep frying process and twist the edges around the kajjikaya.

Heat enough oil in a wide vessel to deep fry the stuffed kajjikayalu. Drop 4-5 kajjikayalu into the oil slowly and deep fry them till golden brown, turning them carefully to the other side so that it cooks on all sides. Deep fry, on medium heat. And not piping hot oil. Cool and store in air tight containers. Kajjikayalu remain fresh for at least a week and can be stored for 3 weeks.

Note : ( you can use putnala pappu/roasted chick peas or khus-khus/poppy seeds in place of sooji)

Boorelu

Ingredients:

½ cup urad dal
1 cup rice
1 cup chana dal
1 cup grated jaggery
¼ cup fresh grated coconut
1 tsp cardamom powder
Salt to taste
Oil for deep frying

Direction:

Drain water from the urad dal and rice and grind into fine paste with adding very little water. It should be like a thick dosa batter. Add a pinch of salt and mix well. And keep aside.

Boil Chana dal with just enough water to cover the dal. The dal should be just cooked and hold shape. Drain any left over water from the dal after it’s cooked. Add jaggery to the dal and use a masher to mash them together till it blends well.

Take a heavy bottomed vessel and add the chana dal paste and cook till it appears like a thick paste, stirring continuously as the dal tends to stick to the vessel. Turn off heat and cool. Add grated coconut, cardamom powder and mix well. Shape small balls.

Heat enough oil in a wide heavy bottomed vessel for deep frying the balls. Dip each ball in the batter and let it coat evenly and place in the oil and deep fry till golden brown and crunchy. You can deep fry a batch of four to five balls depending on the size of the vessel.

Besan laddu

Ingredients:

500 gm Besan
500 gm ground sugar
3 tsp cashew nuts
3 tsp Raisins
200 gm ghee
1 tsp green cardamom powdered

Direction:

Heat the ghee until it smokes, then lower the heat. Add the besan and fry on a medium heat until it is a golden color. Take it off the fire for two or three minutes and add the sugar. When it is cooled to a comfortable temperature, grease your palms with ghee and form the mixture into balls. Set aside to cool and harden. Store in, air-tight containers.

Moong Dal Payas

Ingredients:

5 cups Milk
1 cup yellow moong dal
1 cup jaggery (adjust)
½ tsp cardamom powder
2 tsp cashew nuts
1 tsp raisins
1 tsp ghee
1½ cups water to pressure cook dal
1¼ cup water to prepare jaggery syrup

Direction:

Heat a pan, add a tsp of ghee and toast the cashew nuts and raisins till golden brown. Remove from pan, keep aside. In the same pan, add the moong dal and roast it for approx 4 minutes till a nice aroma emanates the kitchen and it turns a light brown shade. Remove from pan and pressure cook the dal till soft and mushy. Take a cooking vessel, add jaggery and water and boil till the jaggery melts (remove scum). Turn off heat. In a heavy bottomed vessel, boil the milk (1 ½ liters), stirring once in a while and once the milk is boiled (it should reduce to a little over one liter), add the cooked mushy dal and combine well. Next, add the jaggery syrup and go on stirring on low flame till well blended for at least 15 minutes. Add the cardamom powder and toasted cashews and raisins. Serve warm or refrigerate until chilled. It tastes good both warm and chilled.

Badam and Cashew Nut Balls

Ingredients:

1 cup Almonds
½ cup Cashew nuts

2 cups Sugar

2 tsp Milk

8 tsp Ghee

1 tsp Cardamom powder
3 tsp Vanilla essence

Direction:

In warm water, soak almonds and cashew nuts for 2 hrs. Now drain and Peel the skin of the almonds. And grind into fine paste, with adding 2 tsp of milk. Measure this almond paste. For 1 ½ cup of paste, add 2 cups of sugar (you can reduce the amount of sugar if you'd like a less sweet dish) Melt the sugar with the ½ cup of water in a saucepan. Let this sugar syrup come to a rolling boil. Add the ground almond and cashew paste and stir well to avoid any lumps. Keep stirring this mixture so that it does not stick to the bottom of the pan. Add a few drops of the ghee at regular intervals. The ghee will immediately get incorporated in the mixture. Keep stirring and cooking till the mixture gets slightly thick.
Add the food coloring. The mixture will become slightly translucent and shiny. Here you are looking for a, jam like consistency. The consistency is some what like thick pancake batter. Add the cardamom powder and vanilla essence. Switch of the heat and let the halva cool. Now keep in fridge for 15 minutes. And make small balls. It is good item.

Bobbattlu

Ingredients:

For Dough:

3 cups Maida
3 tsp wheat flour
3 tsp suji
¼ tsp Turmeric powder
Water
2 tsp of oil/ghee

For purnam:

½ cup jaggery powdered (gud)
1 tsp of poppy seeds
2 cups chana dal (boiled)
Oil for frying
Pinch Eating camphor (pacha karpooram)
Salt to taste
2 cardamoms powder

Direction:

Prepare soft, pliable dough with all purpose flour, wheat flour, sooji, turmeric powder, water and ghee. Boil chana dal in plenty of water until one whistle. Do not Overcook the dal. The cooked dal must be rigidly soft and not broken. Drain using a strainer. Leave it ½ hr. for dry.
In a bowl add paste of chana dal, powdered jaggery, pinch of camphor and cardamom powder. Do not add water. The purnam should come out as firm ball. In case if it is more on the liquid side or wet, cook it on stove top on medium-low heat for about 5 to 10 minutes, continuously stirring and let it cool. Divide the dough into 10 balls.
On a steel plate (traditionally banana leaf is used), apply ghee and roll out each ball into a small round using a rolling pin or with your hand. Keep lime sized Purnam, in the middle, and cover it by bringing the edges together. Dip your fingers in oil and using them, flatten the ball, starting at the edges, gradually pressing towards the center, into a thin, flat, circular shape. Put on the, warm (not hot) iron griddle. Fry or cook it on medium-low heat, applying little amount of ghee, till golden (14 carat gold), on both sides. Sprinkle some poppy seeds on each side, keep on the griddle for few more minutes and remove.