Macaroni snack, tangy macaroni, Easy breakfast for children

For working parents those who do not have much time to cook this is an easy breakfast recipe. If we had a tiresome work on a particular and unable to get up early in the morning for the next day, this dish will help us out as it does not take much time for preparation. It can be served as a snack too in the evening when children are back to home. When some guests come in an odd time which is neither lunch nor dinner time you can serve this hot and fast to them.

Macaroni, Noodles, Maggie all are children's favorite dishes. It does not take much time to cook. For children who do not eat completely from their lunch boxes---if we prepare such dishes, their boxes will be clean bold and they lick it tooo. My children just love it.

Ingredients: To serve 2 people

Macaroni : 4 fists full
Onion: 1 large chopped finely
Tomatoes: 2 medium sized
Ginger garlic paste: half a spoon
Pepper powder: one pinch
China salt {ajninimoto}: one pinch
Turmeric: one pinch
Red chilly powder: As per need
Oil: 2 table spoons


Preparation time: 20 min

Take a big bowl full of water to boil and drain the macaroni. Macaroni will become double the size when cooked and it should have enough space to boil well, so take a bigger bowl and boil the water. Add some salt and a spoon of oil in this boiling water and then add the macaroni so that they will get some salt taste in them and wont get sticky also. It will take approximately some 8 to 10 min for the macaroni to cook. Take one in the spoon and check if its cooked and now strain it in a strainer. Macaroni has gum added in it to retain its shape and texture. So always boil well strain and then only use it. Now the macaroni is ready to cook.

***After straining if you need some time to put it on the stove then please don't leave it in the strainer, mix it well with your and put it in a wide plate and spread them in it so that they don't stick to each other.

[***otherwise it will become like a ball and is hard to separate them all again***]

Chop the onions and tomatoes as shown below into small pieces.

Now take a pan, put  2 spoons of oil and add jeera to it. when the jeera is fried add onion and ginger garlic paste to it. Let it cook for a while and then add the tomatoes. when the tomatoes are cooked add little salt only for the tomatoes, turmeric and red chilly powder and mix well. Now add the cooked macaroni, salt and mix thoroughly. Add a pinch of china salt and pepper powder for good flavor and mix again

Simmer the stove till the macaroni gets heated. Top it with coriander and your macaroni is ready.

Do try this dish and do write about it in the comment box below............

Dassera and Diwali south Indian special sweet dish Kajji kayalu in Andhra, Garjelu in Telangana; amma chethi vonta; traditional sweet dish

  Since ages our fathers and forefathers also have been enjoying this South Indian traditional dish named Kajji kayalu or Garjelu. Especially for Dassera and for marriages we prefer this sweet. It is prepared with different types of fillings. Today I will show you how to prepare with khoya filling.

Ingredients;

Maida - 1/4 kg
khoya -  1/4 kg
sugar  -  1/4 kg
ghee -    1 spoon
oil     -    enough for deep fry
elaichi [cardamom] - 3
kaju small pieces - fistful
sare palukulu [chironji ] -fistful

Preparation time; 45 min

Take maida and Knead it with sufficient amount of water and make a dough just as we do for chapathis. Apply some oil over it and cover it with a lid. Keep it aside for 1.5 to 2 hours.

Take khoya and put it in the kadai [fry pan] on a medium flame and keep stirring it. it slowly melts and gets softer. keep stirring till it changes colour to light golden brown and leaves out good smell. Switch off the stove and spread it wide in the same fry pan and allow it to cool down completely.

Mean while take the sugar and grind it to fine powder along with elaichi or cardamom. Now take a small pan put a spoon of ghee and add the kaju and fry them to golden brown, then add the other dry fruits and take it off and put it over the fried khoya.

The khoya will take round about 2 to 3 hours for cooling down completely.

**If we add sugar before the khoya cools completely, it becomes sticky as the sugar melts and we wont be able to continue with the sweet**

Now the khoya gets dry, mix well using your hands. You can feel it powdery. Now add the sugar powder and mix well.

** If we want less sweet, we can add little less sugar powder**

 This mixture is now ready for the stuffing.

  Take maida, mix it properly once again and divide it into pieces for making small puris with the roller. Prepare about 6 puris and stop. Now take the 'Kajji kaya maker', apply oil on its sides and put the puri over it as shown in the below video. Now put a spoonful of the stuffing and close it. Press the sides nicely top to bottom, remove the excess puri and slowly open it. The Kajji kaya is ready to fry. Similarly do it with the remaining puris.

Apply oil on the sides as shown below

Put the puri over the mould as shown below

Now put a spoonful of stuffing on the puri, touch the ends of puri with wet fingers [so that it sticks properly and does not open ] and then close the mould and press it properly.

Press the mould from all sides thouroughly

Remove the excess puri slowly and press again.

slowly open the mould and the kajji kaya is ready to fry.

Now deep fry these kajji kayas in oil till rawness goes and little brown spots appear.

**The sides should be pressed well in the mould with great care. We can apply little [very little] water with fingers on the edges where we press so that it does not open. Do not fry if it opens as it spreads in the oil and becomes black and we wont be able to fry further. So checking the sides is very very important.

Make only 6 to 8 puris at a time and stuff them and deep fry them and then continue with the puris again so that they wont get dry. Deep fry these stuffed puris till spots appear on it. It wont get brown since we are using maida. So dont wait for the brown colour, just spot are enough. After frying place them on a tissue for a minute or so to absorb the extra oil and the traditional Kajji Kaya is ready...

Please do post your opinion on this dish or if u like it do click on like. thankyou.

Deewali and dushhera special dishes # what to serve guests on festival occasion # simple vegetable biryani # vegetable biryani with goodness of coconut

On festival occasions we meet our relatives and have guests coming in and some times we dont understand what to serve....and at times like this we get some food from outside....but instead you can try this dish which takes really less time to be prepared and also tastes just like a hotel chef made biryani

Below quantity Would serve 5 people 

Ingredients : 

Rice - 1\2 kg 
Coconut milk - as per the container or bowl in which you are measuring the rice [1 glass rice = 1.5 glass coconut milk ]
Pudina - 4 fists full 
Coriander - 3 fists full 
Green chillies - for one kg rice 10-12 medium size 
Tomatoes' - 7-9 medium size tomatoes for one kg rice 
Ginger garlic paste - 2 tbsp 
Chopped vegetables - carrot, aloo, beans, green peas 
Paneer - 12-18 cubes 
Ghee - 2 tbsp 
Oil - 5-7 tbsp 
For masala - biryani leaf, cloves, elaichi, sajeera, jeera, cinnamon sticks

Preparation time 45 min  

• Soak the washed rice in water for minimum of 90 minutes or 2 hours. 
• keep mint and coriander leaves plucked and washed  
• cut the tomato into 4-6 pieces  
• cut the coconut into small pieces grind it into fine paste by adding water as and when required. Strain this using a strainer. Dont mix too much of water. 

** TIP - you can add warm water while grinding which will help to squeeze the coconut milk more easily and leaves no juice in pulp** 

*** BASMATI RICE WOULD ADD MUCH FLAVOR AND SMELL TO THE BIRYANI***

Step 1: Take green chillies , mint leaves , coriander leaves , salt and grind them into fine paste (you can add little water (about 30 ml) just for smoothening of this paste) Then add diced tomato pieces and grind it till it becomes a smooth mixture

This green paste in the photo is  step 1

Step 2 : Take a pan add 3-5 tb spoons of oil and let it get heated Then Add zeera - 1 tbsp Sajeera - 1 tbsp Ginger garlic paste - 2 tbsp Cardamom - 3 Cinnamon - 4-5 sticks Biryani leaves - 5-8

Let them fry till 2 minutes

Add vegetables and let them get cooked up to 30% (no need to close them with a lid)

After these vegetable get cooked 30% add the grinded paste to this and let these vegetables boil in that mixture for minimum of ten minutes.

This helps the vegetables absorb the flavor of our masalas and also removes the wet smell of mint and tomatoes'. Make sure this whole mixture looks like a curry with gravy in it...not too thick nor too liquid...just medium...

Step 3 : Take a cooker in which you can fit in one kg of rice.We will be cooking the rice directly in the cooker without use of any bowl. Add 2 tbsp of ghee in the cooker and let it get heated. Add 1 tbsp of sajeera and let it fry and then add washed rice. See that rice is drained off water properly using a strainer.

** If the water is left out too much in rice it will disturb our water measurement so be careful with it** 

** one important tip is that don't strain the rice first only and keep it. This will cause rice grains to break **

Let the rice get fried in this ghee for 4-7minutes. Keep the flame low and don't mix too often as this will break the grains,

Then add coconut milk by the measurement of 1: 1 1\2

We generally take water measurement as 1:2 ( one glass of rice and two glasses of water). But here, firstly our curry contains little amount of gravy and hence it would need less amount of water and secondly as we are cooking the rice directly in the cooker it consumes less amount of water

Then let this come to a boiling point and se that rice is cooked up to 40% and then Slow down the flame and spread the curry gravy on the rice evenly.

**After this do not mix the rice and curry should remain like a layer **

Close the lid of the cooker and put it on a medium flame and put the cooker on sim for 5-7 minutes as soon as 3 whistles come.

Off the cooker after this and wait till the whistle becomes free. 

And here is your yummy biryani ready with a creamy texture of coconut and spicy flavors of tomato and masalas...!! Serve it hot....!! 

**while serving the rice, do not mix it, just cut vertically with a spacula and serve so that every body gets the rice and masala equally**

Raita can be served along with it..

Here is the recipe for raita..

. 

Ingredients :  

Chopped onions : 3-4 medium sized

Chopped green chillies : 3-4

Chopped tomato : One medium sized 

Chopped cucumber : Half of a medium sized 

Chopped mint and corriander leaves : A fist full of each of them 

Curd - 150 ml

Preparation :  

Take a bowl add all the chopped vegetables mentioned in the ingredients above. Add salt to taste . Add curd to It. Mix them thoroughly and your raita is ready. We can add coconut powder if we want thick consistency in the raitha...Season it for a good presentation.

Let it be your friends, family, parents, inlaws or anybody just try this, and make them fall in love with your biryani

Dussehra special Recipes # special Sweets for Dussehra # Home made Chocolates # small Return gifts for small Events #

Home made chocolates

Chocolates are the favorite dish of not only children but for almost everybody. Since doctors say not to eat too many chocolates which might spoil our teeth, we all tend to eat less but cant avoid. Festive season if we can make chocolates at home itself, we can have them as sweet and we can even give them to those who come to our home.

Things you Need:

·         Chocolate Bars

·         Chocolate Moulds

·         Kaju and Badam

·         Packing Wrapper

Preparation time : 20 min

We get ready chocolate bars in the market in the essence shops of general bazaar or begum bazaar or in any other essence shops. It is available in different types such as dark chocolate, light chocolate and milk chocolate. You can get these bars in different quantities such as Kilo and Half Kilo. The dark chocolate bar is a bit bitter than the normal chocolate, for those who prefer sweeter taste they can take the light one or mix with the dark chocolate as per your wish. Milk chocolate is a white bar, which is milky in taste. With this milky bar you make 2 layers of chocolate leaving a layer of normal or dark chocolate and the other as milk chocolate. You can pump in wafers’ or rice crisps or corn flakes or chocolate chips or any such item you are fond of with combination of chocolate

Preparation:

Step1:

Cut the bar in to pieces using a knife as below, so that the chocolates easily melt.

I have chosen to mix dark and Light in equal Quantities. The chocolate bar comes with 3 piece division in it so I have used one of each of them

Step2:

Yesss…!! Its time to Melt them up

Take two Bowls one wide in nature and the other tall in nature. When you place the tall bowl in broad one it should be able to stand straight. Take water upto half in the broad bowl and bring it to boiling point. Take the cut pieces of chocolate into the tall bowl and place it in the boiling water.

Make sure the chocolate in the bowl does not touch the water at all… other wise the chocolate cannot be stored for long time. You can refer to the below…!

tall bowl

Wide bowl with water filled upto half

chocolate in the tall bowl without touching water directly

The chocolate slowly melts down in few minutes. It becomes a thick fine paste. Keep stirring this mixture carefully so that the water in the below bowl does not fall into the inside bowl. See that all the lumps are melted.

Step3:

Moulds are used to give these chocolates a shape. There are different sizes and shapes available in the market. I have few of them below

 We can put the badam or kaju pieces in the moulds first and then pour this hot melted chocolate into the moulds using a spoon….

You can roast the slit badam on a pan with out using oil or ghee…just roast them on a slow flame

 You can taste this hot chocolate which is just amazing and I love that..you might like that too..!!

 ***after filling in the moulds make sure that you shake and hit the tray on the floor so that the air bubbles and the gaps get adjusted and the mixture settles down***

Step4 :

These moulds are to be placed in deep freeze for minimum of 5-8 Minutes and then take the moulds out and hit them in an opposite direction and there comes your chocolate in perfect shape…

Annnnnddd the chocolatesss are readyyyy…..

You can pack them up in a Wrapping paper or put them into a box and store them in a freezer….

You can use them in any small get togethers on a festival occasion or on birthday parties or for gifting and return gifting too as goodies....

Here are some pictures of other shapes and sizes of chocolates and wrapping styles…

Hope you enjoyed this Post….keep looking for more special and easy lovable recipies and do not forget to share it with you loved ones :)

don't forget to let us know how it turns up on your trail. please post your questions in the comment box below :)

Yours

Sheetals Kitchen