Kaju Katli

Kaju Katli, is basically a North Indian sweet, but now popular throughout India. There is no sweet shop in India which does not keep Kaju Katli.  Kaju Katli is like a sort of burfi made using Kajus i.e. Cashewnuts.  My children luv them a lot whenever I used to buy it for some guests I used to get one for them also a small box, otherwise they will not allow me to gift it.  But again Kaju Katli is one of the most expensive sweets in the shop, so I wanted to find out a way to make it at home so that it is not so expensive and at the same time more good than the store bought ones. 

So then I found out a recipe at last which gives the same texture and taste like the store bought ones. My children loved them, I never got a chance to photograph it, though I have been making them for years now.  This recipe I got from Raks Kitchen.  So I thought of posting it now, since this month its Raks Kitchen who is being "Tried and Tasted". It is a sure shot recipe and a never let down recipe. So go ahead and try it.

Making Kaju Katli is very simple, infact the simplest of most of the sweets. And gets ready in very less time and does not involve laborious work.  So ahead and make these Kaju Katlis in your kitchen itself, rather than buying it from the shop. The total cooking time is just about 10 to 15 minutes, depending upon the quantity of the Cashews. The ingredients are very very minimal just Cashews and Sugar, thats it nothing else.

Ingredients

Kaju (Cashews) powered - 3 cups
Sugar - 1 & 1/2 cup
Ghee - for greasing your hands

Method

Powder the Cashews in a dry mixer.  Grind it to a smooth powder at a stretch and not at intervals. Do not keep it coarse.  If during the process of fine grinding, the cashew powder sticks to the wall of the mixer it is ok.

In a non-stick pan put in the sugar and add just enough water, so that the sugar gets immersed in it. Boil it.  The sugar gets dissolved and then starts forming a thick syrup.  Keep a small bowl of water nearby to check for the consistency of the sugar syrup.





The sugar syrup should be 1 string consistency or when you pour a little sugar syrup in the bowl of water it should stay in the water and should not get dissolved.



At this stage add the cashew powder and keep stirring. Slowly the mixture starts boiling and thickening.  Switch of the flame. To test whether it is ready for the Katlis, wet your fingers with water, pinch a small piece of the dough and try to roll it between yours fingers. If you are able to roll a ball without getting your fingers sticky, then it is done. If you feel its not done then put on the stove again and start stirring.




When it is done, put off the stove and still keep stirring in the same pan itself, till the mixture forms like a dough.  Then when it is still warm transfer it to a working board and clean working platform and start kneading the dough.




At this stage the dough will have a grainy texture. Smear your hands with ghee and keep on kneading till you get a smooth dough.

Roll the dough into a thin layer and cut it diagonally.  First just draw the lines ligthly on the dough with the knife and then cut it. This helps you in getting even size pieces.

I used about 3 cups of the powder and it gave me about 40 to 45 whole pieces.  So I said making Kaju Katlis at home is very easy and light on our pockets too.

Note :
Try to choose good quality Cashews. It creates a lot of difference in the taste and texture.

Never use the cashews directly from the fridge or freezer. Bring it to room temperature and then grind it.

The consistency of the sugar is very important, if it doesn't reach the right consistency then the dough will remain sticky.

If the consistency of the sugar has more farther than the one string consistency then add some water let it reach again the required consistency.

After transferring to the counter keep on kneading and kneading till you reach smooth textured dough.

Sending this Kaju Katlis to Sowmya of Nivedhanams who is hosting Tried and Tasted this month.  Dear Friends, I am also looking for future hosts for Tried and Tasted Event. Interested Bloggers please contact me at venkateshlakshmi7(at)gmail(dot)com. For further details about the event and host list on Tried and Tasted, see here.

Manasi of A Cook @ Heart is holding a event called "I Must Make That" and she also has a giveaway. And after seeing her announcement I realized that the CupoNationIndia is catching up faster. And so sending this entry to her.

Sending this to Sumee's culinary Bites where she is hosting Bon Vivant - Quixotic Fixes.

and to the Sweet Luv - CJ#4 hosted by Cooks Joy

Rajasthani Ghevar with Kesar Rabdi

It was Divya of You too Can Cook Indian Food who is the hosting the South North Challenge (SNC).  And in SNC this month the South Team was challenged to prepare the Rajasthani Ghevar with Rabdi.  I think I am the last in the group to post it.

The recipe for Rajasthani Mini Ghevar is from Desi Fiesta.  She has given a detailed instruction on how to cook the Ghevars.  There is also a nice video by Nisha Madhulika on how to cook Ghevars which will be helpful.

And so here is my Rajasthani Ghevar with Kesar Radi.  It was very tasty and delicious. I want to put down the recipe on my own but for now please refer to DesiFiesta for the recipe.

Also sending it to the Sweet Luv - CJ#4 hosted by Cooks Joy

Herb, Cheese and Veggie Pull Apart Bread

I am baking a bread today after a very long time.  Even though I like baking and making my own breads, somehow kept running away from baking breads for quite somewhile now.  So from this new year I have decided to bake as much as possible, atleast for this year. And to my luck Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen started Bread Baking event for this year. So I wanted to participate in it and sent a request to her yesterday. She was very grateful to let me participate. But since this month is already on going to end, so she wanted me to post it immediately.

And here I am baking this months Bread, that is, The Pull Apart Bread. I have followed the same recipe she gave us. Except that for the filling I added some veggies. Thats it.

I was so excited about baking a bread after a long time that I totally forgot I didn't have a Bread load tin or the normal rectangle high raised tin. So I looked and looked for sometime all my baking tins and then decided to bake it in this oven proof glass dish. And that is why my bread got flattened because it took spread and took the shape of the container during the second proofing.

For the Dough: 

1/2 cup warm milk

1 tsp sugar

2 tsp active dry yeast

2 3/4 to 3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp salt

25gm butter, soft at room temperature

3/4 to 1 tsp garlic paste (I used 1 t.sp Garlic Powder)

3/4 cup milk (+ a couple of tbsp to brush over the bread)

For the Filling:

15 to 20gm melted butter

2 tsp dried Italian mixed herbs

1 medium onion finely chopped

1 medium carrot grated

1/2 cup olives chopped

Crushed pepper/ red chilli flakes to taste

1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese

1/4 cup grated mozzarella cheese

Method:

1. As almost always, I used my food processor but you may knead the dough by hand.
2. In a small bowl, dissolve the sugar and the yeast in the 1/2 cup of warm milk. Keep aside for about 5 minutes till the yeast mixture bubbles up.
3. Put 2 3/4 cup of flour, salt, softened butter, and garlic paste in the food processor bowl (or a large bowl) and pulse a couple of times to mix. Then add the yeast mixture and the 3/4 cup of milk and knead till you have a soft, smooth and elastic/ pliable dough which is not sticky. Add a little extra flour if your dough is sticking,but only just as much as is necessary.
4. Shape the dough into a ball and place it in a well-oiled bowl, turning the dough to coat it completely with oil. Cover and let it rise for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until almost double in volume.
5. Dust your work surface lightly with flour. Deflate the dough, shape it into a square and roll the dough out into a larger square that is about 12’ by 12”. Brush the surface of the square with the melted butter.
6. Evenly sprinkle the herbs, pepper/ chilli flakes, the veggies and then the grated cheese. Use a rolling pin to very lightly press the topping into the dough to ensure the topping doesn’t fall off when you are stacking the strips.
7. Using a pizza cutter, slice the dough from top to bottom into 6 long and even strips – they do nothave to be perfect. Lay each strip on top of the next, with the topping facing upwards, until you have a stack of the strips.
8. You can put the 2 strips cut from the sides in the middle of the stack so it looks neater. Using a pastry scraper or a sharp knife, cut straight down through the stack dividing it into 6 equal pieces (6 square stacks).
9. Grease and lightly flour a 9” by 4” (or 5”) loaf tin. Butter and lightly flour a 9 x 5 loaf pan. Layer the square slices, cut sides down into the loaf tin. I didn't have a loaf pan and so baked it in a glass dish.
10. Cover the loaf tin dough with a towel and allow the dough to rise for an hour. 
11. Preheat the oven a 180C.
12. Lightly brush some milk over the top of the loaf.
13. Bake the dough at 180C (350F) for about 30 to 40 minutes until it is done and the top is goldenbrown. It took me 60 minutes to bake, maybe because of the glass dish.

Baking Partners: A new Baking Group

Baking Partners: A new Baking Group

A group of home bakers helping each other to achieve perfection.

Baking a home made Baking a homemade bread, cake or cookies will give the best outcome. However in order to achieve the best results, a perfect recipe and right techniques are required.

We are a small group of home baker friends, who love and want to learn more about the nook and corners of baking.  We are planning to try out recipes from books/magazines and cooking shows.  Every member gets a chance to present their choice of recipe and share important points with the rest of the group.

Main purpose of this group is to learn the techniques, critic the procedure if there are ways to improve, and to eat a delicious food.

Rules are simple, we will choose one recipe and send it out to the group by 16th of every month and the reveal date will be 15th of the next month. On that day we will blog about it. A linky tool will be open during that time and each member can link their post.

First month we are going to do a recipe, 2nd and 3rd month will be a theme and the 4th month we will be back at a recipe. By doing in between recipes, we will able to learn more.

All enthusiastic bloggers interested in baking are welcome, please email Swathi  of Zesty South Indian Kitchen  at favoriterecipes12@gmail.com.

We will appreciate the use of logo or worded link that will help to spread the word.  A bunch of thanks to Tina for designing this beautiful logo

If you   want to make it a gluten or vegan free diet, you can do those modifications also.

Tried and Tasted Revamped

Dear Friends as I had already mentioned in my posts in my Facebook Page for the past few weeks I have been in an effort to revamp my long forgotten event "Tried and Tasted". What is it about? The event is all about bookmarked recipes. 

There are 1000s and 1000s food blogs and food websites. Each and every site is unique in its own kind. Many recipes are new, some of them old, some of them are presented in a tongue tickling style, some of them have drooling photographs of food, some traditional, some are dedicated to their loving mother, many national and international recipes. 

Many a times it happens that I start somewhere searching for a recipe or maybe going through someones new post. And from there keep continuing, jumping from one blog to another fully immersed in the recipes, beautiful photographs and so on. And after the end of about 1 hour, I would have bookmarked 100s of recipes. And not only are these recipes bookmarked but several times also "Tried and Tasted". 

And many a times it happens that we start liking recipes of some particular blog, for many reasons. Firstly because we Tried a recipe from this blog and the 1st time itself we would received a great round of applause from our family members. Sometimes because we like their way of instructions, sometimes because of their tongue tickling photos and so on. So then we start frequenting this blog, try out many recipes from this particular blog. And so this is the whole idea behind this event. 

The event "Tried & Tasted" (T&T) is all about appreciating our fellow blogger for their hard work. And how can we honour them for their work? Best way is to try their recipes and letting them know that their recipe had been of great success to us by showcasing their recipes in our blog. And by doing this we will not only appreciate them but also confirm that their recipes are worth it.

"Tried & Tasted" (T&T) is a monthly event started by Zlamushka of SpicyKitchen and was taken over by me. Every month recipes from one particular blog will be "Tried and Tasted". 

Tried and Tasted was going on successfully for quiet sometime but then because of lack of time I couldn't conduct it for sometime in between. And now since I am able to find some time for me and my blogs and the event "Tried and Tasted", I would like to get it back going again. So with all your support I started back the event again this month.

This month the event is hosted by the very famous Priya of Priya's Versatile Kitchen. And she has chosen another beautiful blog which needs no introduction to many of us. Its Sharmis Passion which has many beautiful photos, healthy recipes, many eggless recipes and step wise instructions. 

So go ahead folks, prepare as many dishes as you want from Sharmis Passion this month, post it in your blog and link it back to Priya's Versatile Kitchen. For more details about how to link back please refer to her post. Use of logo is appreciated since it helps to spread word about the event. So please I request you all to use the logo.

So here is the host line up for the event.

Dec'12 : Priya of Priya's Versatile Kitchen - Sharmis Passion

Round up

Jan'13 : Sowmya of Nivedhanams - RAKS KITCHEN
                     
Round up

Feb'13 : By Lakshmi Venkatesh(Me) at Classic Chettinad Kitchen - Chettinad Cuisine




Mar'13 : Sona of Spill The Spices

                         
Apr'13 : Madhuri of Satya's Cooking Experiments

May'13 : Rafeeda of A Big Sweet Tooth


Jun'13 :


Jul'13 :


Aug'13 :

Sep'13 :


Oct'13 :


Nov'13 :


Dec'13 :

I request all my friend bloggers who are interested in hosting the event in the future to leave me a message here as a comment or you can also send me an email with subject "T&T" to venkateshlakshmi7(at)gmail(dot)com. Otherwise you can also leave a message in my Kitchen Chronicles facebook page. 



January - 2013

This month it is Sowmya of Nivedhanams who is hosting the T&T event. And RAKS KITCHEN is the blog being Tried and Tasted. For more information on the event please visit Nivedhanams. Please send in your entries and make the event a success.

Veg Fried Rice

Veg Fried Rice is very common in our house. Simple and Fast. All you need to have in hands are some veggies like Carrot, Beans, Peas, Corn, Cabbage etc. And it is ready in a jiffy. Many a times I prepare this for my children's and hubby's lunch box.

Ingredients

Rice - 1 cup
Onion - 1 medium size (chopped)

Veggies of your choice - 1/2 cup ( Grated Carrot, Finely choped beans, boiled peas and corn, shredded cabbage, small cauliflower florets etc)

Green Chillies - 2 to 3 (slit into half)

Salt to taste

White Pepper Powder - 1/2 t.sp (optional)

Spring Onion Greens - a handful

Oil

Method

Wash and cook the rice till it is 90 percent done. Add about 1 tb.sp of oil and some salt to the rice while cooking. Transfer it to another vessel and allow it to cool. Heat a fry pan, pour some oil in it. When the oil is hot toss in the onions and green chillies. When the onion becomes translucent add in the veggies and saute it till the veggies are almost done. Add salt while sauting. When the veggies are almost done add the white pepper powder and mix well. Then add the cooked rice and mix well. Cover and cook on low flame, stirring in between for about 2 to 3 minutes. In the end add the spring onion greens and mix well. Serve hot with Papad and  Raitas.





Here I have skipped green chillies and added Tobasco Sauce and hence the orange colour.

Godhumai Halwa / Wheat Halwa

Easy, traditional and tasty Godhumai Halwa / Wheat Halwa.

For  recipe please visit my other blog Classic Chettinad Kitchen - Wheat Halwa

Candied Fruit Cookies

This month Priya had chosen Sharmis Passion for the Tried and Tasted event.  So when I read Sharmis Passion, the first thing that came in mind was the "Tutti Frutti Cookies". They look so yum in her photos I wanted to try it. And since the time of the year was also so apt for trying out these cookies, I made them for these Christmas. I made three batches of biscuit and I just got the 3rd batch for the photographs, all others vanished in no time.

And so they were very tasty and were hassle free to be made. Took very less time for preparation work and the baking time is also very less. "These Tutti-Fruitty cookies are sure worth a try".

I just followed the same recipe as Sharmis, just used Candied fruits instead of Tutti Fruitty since they were not available here nearby.




Ingredients

Maida - 1 cup
Candied Fruits - 1/3 cup
Powdered Sugar - 1/2 cup
Butter - 6 tb.sp (room temperature)
Milk - 1 - 2 tb.sp (only if and as required)



Method

1. Cream the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl, till light and fluffy.
2. Use of a hand wisk is enough, no need of any machines for the mixing.
3. Mix together Maida and the Candied Fruits.
4. Add milk little by little to make a soft and little sticky dough.
5. Roll it in a wax paper and freeze it. You can dust the wax paper with maida if needed so that the dough will not stick to the paper.
6. Freeze the rolled dough along with the wax paper for about 15 to 20 minutes.
7. Pre-heat the oven to 150 degrees C.
8. Remove the dough cut into even slices and place them on a butter paper lined tray.
9. Bake it for 10 to 15 minutes.
10. Once the sides start browning a little, remove it and cool it on a wire rack.
11. Once it cools down it will become crisp.
12. Store it in a air-tight container.

Points to remember

• Use milk carefully since adding more milk will make it very sticky.
• Freezing is necessary. If you are not planning to bake it immediately then keep it in the fridge.
• Be careful of overbaking, since they tend to get burnt soon.

Sending it to Priya's Versatile Kitchen for the "Tried and Tasted" Event.

Sending it to also
Quick and Easy Recipe Event hosted by Ammaji Recipes
Favourite Recipes Event - Christmas Recipes Hosted by Zesty South Indian Kitchen
Lets Cook Edible Gifts For Christmas Hosted by Simply Food

Cookies and Cakes for Xmas Hosted by My Culinary Creations
Mission Bake With Fruits Hosted by Yashodha's Kitchen started by CookCookandCook and by Cook-Eat-Burp

Celebrate Christmas hosted by Divyas Culinary Journey started by Jagruti



Eggless Bakes and Treats Hosted by Nivedhanams

Friends, I am also in need of hosts for this Tried and Tasted event in the future. You can find the host line up here in this announcement page.

Mysorepak

Mysorepak is a traditional south indian sweet which has a porous and melt in the mouth texture. It is made using a generous amount of Ghee. It has just three ingredients and takes just about 20 to 30 minutes to prepare it. The traditional Mysorepak has three beautiful layers, the top and bottom layers are light brown in colour and the middle layer is little dark brown.

The beauty of Mysorepak is that even after we have poured it in the greased plate its cooking process in not over. Because of the heat which gets trapped inside it the cooking process continues. Many a times people face lot of problems with the preparation of this traditional sweet. Its just that the art of making it has to be perfected.  Here I have tried to explain the procedure as far as possible.  For making a perfect Mysorepak first you will have to perfect the art of sugar syrup and its stages.  Thats it and life becomes easy as far as Mysorepak is concerned. And please try to use a non-stick pan as far as possible.

The tamil version for this recipe is here in my other blog Classic Chettinad Kitchen.

Ingredients

Gramflour (Besan) - 1 cup
Ghee - 1 + 1/4 cup
Sugar - 1 1/2 cup
Water - 1/4 cup
Milk - 1 tb.sp

Method

1. Sift the gramflour so that it becomes free of lumps.
2. Grease a tray and keep it ready.
3. Heat 1/4 cup ghee in a non-stick pan. Heat just till the ghee melts and the gramflour and roast till you get a nice aroma. Roast it on medium or low heat.
4. Add sugar in a non-stick pan and add water till it just covers the sugar. Maybe about 1/4 cup or little less should be enough here.
5. Heat it over medium heat till the sugar dissolves. 
6. Side by side heat ghee in another vessel in low heat.
7. Add the milk to the sugar syrup and allow the scum to surface up, remove it with a help of a ladle. Reduce the heat and make a sugar syrup of one string consistency. Here is a nice post on stages of sugar syrup written by Chitra of Ratatouille - Anyone can Cook, which will be very useful here.
8. At this stage add the roasted flour and keep stirring, do not stop stirring or distract your attention from the pan.
9. Once the flour gets incorporated well with the sugar syrup add 1 the ghee one ladle at a time.
10. Every time you add the hot ghee it will become frothy and go back to its normal stage again. 
11. In the whole process never stop stirring.
12. When you are finished with the last ladle of ghee. Keep stirring, it will become frothy and set back. Again after a few seconds it will froth again and move around in a single mass. It will also slightly start changing its colour. This is the right stage you have to pour it in the greased tray.
13. Smooth the surface without pressing it to hard, because this is the time when the air bubbles form in between to make it porous, so don't press it too hard. 
14. If you like sprinkle some sugar crystals on top and cut it into pieces.
15. Don't remove them from the tray at this stage, let it cool down and then remove it from the tray and serve. 

Points to remember

• Very important point to remember is that once you start with the process do not divert your attention till you are finished with it.
• As far as possible try to make it in a non-stick pan.
• The stage of the sugar syrup is very important. If  you are a first timer with making sugar syrups then maybe you can have a trial session of the stages of sugar syrup with about 1/4 cup of sugar before you begin with the process. It will be worth the effort and lot of knowledge will be gained.
• Keep all the things measured and ready and then start.
• Remove it as soon as it starts changing it colour otherwise the mysorepak will become very dark in colour and give a burnt taste.
• Last but not the least, follow each and every step to the wee bit.

Vanilla Cup Cake with Chocolate Frosting

Back to my passion of baking after a very long time. Have been baking for quiet sometime now but couldn't manage to get a click.  

This Vanilla cup cake is very simple and the delicious chocolate frosting will keep you licking. 

Ingredients for the Basic Vanilla Cupcake

200 gms Butter

8 oz Castor Sugar

8 oz Maida

1 tb.sp baking powder

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence

Milk about a tb.sp

1. Sieve the dry the ingredients and keep it aside. 
2. Line the cupcake pans with the cases.
3. All the ingredients should be at room temperature. 
4. Preheat the oven at 180° C.  
5. Beat the butter lightly and then add the castor sugar and beat well.
6. Incorporate the eggs one by one.  
7. Add the vanilla essence. Mix and add the dry ingredients.  And fold in.  
8. Add milk as required and only if required. 
9. The batter should be of dropping consistency and not pouring consistency.
10. Spoon the batter in the cupcake cases.
11. Bake for 15 to 20 min at 180° C.
12. Remove and cool on a wire rack when its done i.e. the skewer comes out clean.

Ingredients for the Chocolate Frosting :

2 tbsp cream
100 gm Chocolate
50 gm Butter
100 gm Icing Sugar

In a pan heat butter add the chocolate and cream, stir till combined. 
Remove from heat and add in icing sugar, stir till smooth.
Fill it in a piping bag attached with a star nozzle. And pipe it on the cooled cupcakes.

Sent the cupcakes to the event Merry Christmas Celebration hosted by Sheelu Agarwal at Ghar Ka Khana