Sago Payasam – Diwali Special

With gleam of Diyas

And the Echo of the Chants
May Happiness and Contentment Fill Your life

Wishing all my readers, friends, bloggers a very happy and prosperous Diwali!!

To celebrate this diwali occasion prepared this sweet – Sago Payasam.

This is one of the simple and easy sweet which can be prepared very easily and takes very less time. When we were kids my mom used to prepare this Sweet quiet regularly and I used to love it a lot.

Dry Nuts Ladoo – Diwali Special

Days before the Diwali festival my mom used to start preparing traditional delicious sweets and savories and we as kids used to enjoy them. Diwali is a festival which has a custom of exchanging   sweets and savories that are especially made at home.

This weekend I made Dry Nuts Ladoo which is very easy to make as well as tastes delicious. These ladoo’s are not only delicious but also highly nutritious. When I was kid my mom used to prepare them quiet regularly.

Spooky Witch Finger Cookies – Halloween Threat

Hey everyone!! Boooo!!!! Happy Halloween!!!!!!!

For this Halloween I made these Spooky Witch Finger Cookies.  Well this is one of those spooky desserts that I have always seen, but never actually made until for this Halloween.

A little creepy and scary, but really fun to make, these finger cookies are actually very delicious and great spooky decoration and sure a smash hit for Halloween party!!! The ingredients in the cookies are basic ingredients like almonds, flour, sugar and vanilla extract. Almonds act as fingernails for these spooky finger-shaped cookies that kids and grown-ups like and will enjoy!! As the finger cookies expand so make them as thin.

Mango Rice/ Maamidikaya Pulihora

Mango rice is a traditional rice dish of Andhra that is nourished during Ugadi/ Telugu New Year. This is also a usual summer dish when we find plenty of mangoes during summer season.

This Rice is prepared using ripe mangoes and rice which has unique tangy taste and with aromatic tempering of peanuts, green chillies, red chillies, curry leaves. I love this Rice

I learnt this recipe from my friend Tulasi. Simple and very easy to make which is usually prepared during festival season.

Kobbari Mamidikaya Pachadi | Coconut Mango Chutney

Kobbari Mamidikaya Pachadi is an Andhra special Pachadi made by blending sweet coconut and sour mango collectively which gives a very unique and scrumptious taste. The spiciness to this chutney is added from chillies and seasoning adds an extra layer of flavor.

Kobbari Mamidikaya Pachadi is one of my most favorite among Chutney’s. My mom used to prepare this chutney surly at the time of ugadi. This is quite simple and easy to prepare. I learnt this recipe from my mom.

Rava Ladoo - Shivaratri Special

Wishing All My friends,Readers,blogger friends and Dear Ones A Very Happy Shivaratri !!

For this  Shivaratri I made this Rava Ladoo which is simple and wonderful sweet and can be prepared easily on special occasions and whenever you want to have some sweet.My mom used to make them very frequently when we were kids.
Love them !!

Velvet Cake with Fondant Pink Roses – Valentine Special

Happy Valentine’s Day to All My Friends, Bloggers & Readers.

Valentine Day is full of love, roses, chocolates…

For this Valentine I taught to make the most admired red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting but unfortunately I got so much project work to complete in this weekend…. Ahh !! However yesterday evening took a break from my work and taught to bake something special to my darling hubby.

And I made these cute heart shapes velvet cakes and one more beautiful thing for this cake guess what !! Yes those pretty pink roses.

I love pink and I & my hubby loved those sweet roses. 

Vermicelli Sesame Jaggery Ladoo

This weekend I tried these unique ladoo which is simple and wonderful sweet and can be prepared easily on special occasions or whenever you desire to have some sweet.


Sesame and vermicelli are my favorite and thought to try this combo, along with jaggery which tasted very yummy.

These are prepared by simple ingredients like Sesame, Vermicelli and Jaggery. This ladoo tastes very crunchy due to vermicelli and very yummy flavor with sesame and jaggery

Chana & Moong Payasam - Pongal Special

Bhogi Bhoga bhagyalato
Sankranti siri sampadalato
Kanumu kalasi melasi Kanuvinduga
Sankranti sambaranni
Jarupu kovalani Korukontu
HAPPY SANKRATHI !!!!


Wishing All My friends,Readers,blogger friends and Dear Ones A Very Happy Pongal !!

For this Pongal I made this Payasam as naivedyam for god.

This is simple, wonderful sweet which can be prepared easily on special occasions and whenever you want to have some sweet.

My mom used to make this payasam quiet regularly for us. Channa & moong dal Payasam is prepared with channa and moong dal paste added to milk and jaggery syrup. Adding Coconut and milk gave a yummy flavor. It can be enjoyed either hot or cold.

Moong Dal Murukku - SanKranthi Pindi Vantalu Special

Wish You All A Happy Bhogi !!


Hope You All Having a Wonderful Pongal !!

Festive's are without sweets and savories. So for this bhogi I prepared these Moong Dal Murukku. Murukku is a crispy munchy and pretty famous snack of South Indian during festivals. 


I used Moong Dal and Rice Flour to make these awesome Murukku.

Srav’s Culinary Concepts Turns One!! With Coconut Cake

Srav’s Culinary Concepts turns one today.  Woohoo !!!! 

It’s amazing it has been one year since I started my blog. 365 days of pleasant memories because of all of you, my dear readers, food blog friends and family.

Many things have been changed since my first post. I never expected I would gain so much from writing a blog. I learnt so many varieties, writing about 110 recipes, conducting events.

Chocolate Fudge Cake -- Merry Christmas

Jingle Bells Jingle Bells Jingle All the Way !!!

Wishing all my Friends, Bloggers, Readers and Family A Merry Christmas !!

Hope everyone are having wonderful Christmas celebrations Eve and great holidays with your loved ones,laughter,joy,cookies & cakes .


We did put our Christmas tree up yesterday and did all the decoration. I love the twinkling lights and ornaments that brighten the tree.


On the baking front prepared this Chocolate Fudge Cake with Chocolate Frosting. This is my first fudge cake and it came out so wonderful !! Loved it !! used butterscotch chips for decorating the cake.


Ingredients:


All purpose Flour - 1 1/2 cups
Dark Brown Sugar - 3/4 cup
Semi Sweet chocolate chips - 2 oz

Baking Powder - 1 tbsp
Butter - 3/4 cup
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
Milk - 1 tbsp
Eggs - 3 no
Butterscotch chips (optional)


Frosting


Semi sweet chocolate chips - 3 1/2 oz
Milk - 1 tbsp
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
Butter - 1/4 cup

Preparation

• In a saucepan set over low heat, or in a microwave, melt together the chocolate and milk, stirring till smooth. 
• Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then add the flour, brown sugar, vanilla extract, baking powder and mix well till smooth and fluffy.
• Fold them into the chocolate mixture.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
• Pour the mixture into the greased round cake pan
• Bake for 50-55 minutes or until the toothpick is inserted in the center comes out clean.
• Cool for 10 mins before removing from cake pan

• For chocolate frosting in a microwave safe bowl add chocolate chips, butter, milk and vanilla extract and heat for 2 mins.
• Stir well until smooth.
• Take a spoon of the frosting into a big heap on the top of the cake.
• Spread the frosting towards the edges of the cake.
• Place the  butterscotch chips on top of the frosting. 

Halloween Sugar Cookies with Eggless Royal Icing

No tricks, just treats!!!!! Happy Halloween

Halloween is an annual feast usually celebrated on October 31 which includes activities like trick-or-treats, costume parties, carving pumpkins, playing and telling scary & horror stories.

To treat this Halloween holiday I made these Sugar Cookies. These cookies are full of flavor, fun to decorate and make a spooktacular display at Halloween parties!!! For this Halloween themed cookies I decorated them as pumpkins, ghosts, black cats.

I enjoyed and had so much fun decorating these Halloween cookies. Isn’t there are scary and cute :)

Ingredients

Sugar Cookies - Nearly 2 dozens cookies

All purpose flour – 2 ½ cups

Unsalted Butter – 1 cup

Superfine Sugar – 1 cup

Egg – 1 no

Egg yolk – 1 no

Vanilla extract – 2 tsps

Salt a pinch

Preparation

• In a large mixing bowl take butter,sugar,salt and mix well until light and fluffy.
• Add the egg yolk and beat until fully integrated.
• Mix in the whole egg, vanilla extract. Mix well.
• Add the flour and mix until combined.
• Divide the dough into three parts and wrap in plastic wrap.
• Store in fridge at least 2 hours and upto 2 days until firm.
• Preheat oven to 350 F. On the floured surface, roll the dough to ¼ inch thick, sprinkling with additional flour or powdered sugar as needed to prevent sticking.
• Use cookies cutters to cut into shapes and place on parchment paper.

• Bake until cookies appear light golden brown on the edges about 10-12 minutes.
• Cool them before decorating.

Eggless Royal Icing

Ingredients:

Icing Sugar – ½ cup

Cornstarch – 1 ½ tsp

Lemon juice – 1 tsp

Food coloring gels – very little

Milk – 2 tsps

Preparation

• In a mixing bowl, sift the sugar, cornstarch together.
• Add lemon juice and milk and mix well until thick paste.
• Divide the Icing into different bowls and add the colors accordingly.
• Keep for 10 minutes.

• We can adjust the icing accordingly based on our requirement. If thin icing is required add a bit of milk or for thick icing add more icing sugar.
• Keep the icing in piping bags or ziplock bags and use them for decorating cookies.

Sending these cookies to Halloween Fiesta hosted by Vardhini, Food Palette Series - Rainbow colors hosted by Akheela , Decorating Challenge - Royal Icing and to my event CC-Festive Food

Wheat Flour & Jaggery Bonda/Sweet Bonda – Diwali Special

Diwali festival is Full of lights, May your life be filled with colors and lights of happiness. 

Wishing All my Friends, Bloggers, Readers and Dear Ones A Very Cheerful and Sparkling Deepavali !!!

Hope you all had/having a great and safe Diwali :)

 @Home

For this Diwali I made this Sweet Bonda which is simple and wonderful dessert and can be prepared easily on special occasions and whenever you want to have some sweet with jaggery.

My mom used to make them very regularly when we were kids as evening snacks and we used to enjoy them after coming back from school.

These are prepared by simple ingredients like Wheat Flour and Jaggery. Adding coconut, rice flour and milk gave a yummy flavor. If we want we can omit them and use water instead of milk. 

If we want crispiness to bondas we can use rice flour, if not we can avoid it. To get better shapes of bonda we can use a deep curved ladle or an icecream scoop to pour the batter into oil.

Ingredients:

Wheat flour – 1 cup

Jaggery grated – ½ cup

Sugar (optional) – 1 tsp

Dry Coconut grated (optional) – 2 tsp

Elachi Powder – a pinch

Milk – 5-6tsps

Water

Salt a pinch

Oil for deep frying

Preparation

• In a wide bowl take wheat flour, add grated jaggery , milk , sugar, elachi powder, coconut, salt and mix well.
• Add little water if required and mix well till the consistency of batter will be like vada batter.
• Keep this mixture aside for 1-2 hrs.
• Heat oil in a pan; pour the batter into it with the help of ladle.
• Cook well on medium flame.
• Fry bonda’s well till golden color and drain them to kitchen towel.

Sending this to Dish it out - Wheat and Jaggery hosted by SouthIndianHome originally started by Vardhini, Serve It - Festival Potluck hosted by Krithi & Denny,  Diwali- Festival of LIGHTS hosted by Anu ,  My Diwali MyWay hosted by Khusi, Only Sweets and Desserts hosted by Gayathri originally started by Pari and to my event CC-Festive Food

Badhusha – My 100th post - Diwali Special

Hooray for my 100^th post!! Wow what a journey it has been. I am so excited about this little milestone!!

I really never thought I can make these many kinds of recipes, but over the last 6 months, I have exposed a love to baking, tried many new recipes first time, organized some foodie events, and met so many inspirational and lovely bloggers of whom some have already became friends!! I love reading all your comments and you all inspire me to carry on.

I wanted to say a heartfelt thankyou to all my friends, followers, bloggers and readers. And I am very grateful to my sweet hubby who supports and helps in my cooking.

To celebrate this small milestone, I prepared badhusha. I learnt this recipe from Raks kitchen. 

Badhusha is an Indian festive Sweet made easily with available ingredients of flour and sugar. First time I made these Badhusha’s and I enjoyed making those shapes. They came out so soft and I and my hubby enjoyed them a lot.

Initially I taught it is very difficult to make, but when I decided to prepare I felt it is very easy and infact I made it on weekday after coming from work within 1 hour, enjoyed making them :)

Source : Rak's Kitchen

Ingredients:

All purpose flour/Maida – 1 ½ cups

Butter – ¼ cup

Ghee – 8 tsps

Curd – 1 ½ tsp

Baking Soda – 2 pinches

Sugar – ½ tsp

Water – ¼ cup

Oil for deep Frying

For Syrup:

Sugar – ½ cup

Water – little

Elachi powder – ¼ tsp

Lemon juice – 1 tsp

Preparation

• Melt butter in microwave and keep aside.
• In a wide bowl, add ghee,sugar,baking soda,curd and whisk it to mix well.
• Later add flour and mix well without lumps.

• Add water slowly and mix well to make a smooth dough.
• Keep the dough aside and covered it with wet cloth for 15 mins.
• Boil water with sugar and elachi to make thick syrup. Remove from heat and keep aside.
• Divide the dough into small lemon sized balls.
• Take a ball, flatten slightly and twist the sides using fingertips decoratively and shape the edges.
• Prepare all the balls and keep aside by covering them.
• Heat oil in a frying pan.  Add some badhushas into oil. Remove from heat and let it cooked for 5 mins.
• Later the badushas float on top, again switch on the heat and cook on medium flame for another 5 mins or till they turn golden color.

• Drain them in paper towel and immediately put them into the sugar syrup for about 5 mins and serve in a plate.
• Sprinkle nuts or dry coconut and serve !!

Sending this to Serve It - Festival Potluck hosted by Krithi & Denny, Diwali Special - Sweets & Savories hosted by Radhika,  Diwali- Festival of LIGHTS hosted by Anu,My Diwali MyWay hosted by Khusi, Bookmarked Recipes hosted by Priya, and to my event CC-Festive Food, Only Sweets and Desserts hosted by Gayathri originally started by Pari

     

Chegodilu/Rice Flour Rings – Savory Snack - Diwali Special

Chegodi is a crispy munchy and pretty famous, traditional snack of Andhra during dussera and diwali festivals. I was very delighted and impressed with my first attempt. I enjoyed making rolls of the dough. This is all my favorite munchies and I love this snack a lot!!!

These are golden shade, ring shape speckled with spots of moong dal and cumin seeds which gives overwhelming taste. Rice flour is the main ingredient which gives crispyness to Chegodi.

Ingredients:

Rice Flour – 1 cup

Split Moong dal – 2 tsps

Cumin Seeds – 1 tsp

Chilli powder -1 ½ tsp

Ghee – 1 tsp

Salt As Required

Oil for deep frying

Preparation

• Soak Moong Dal in water for 1 hour.
• In a deep bottom pan, boil water, add salt, ghee and moong dal.
• After water starts boiling, On very low flame slowly add the rice flour. Using ladle, mix the flour with water by stirring it well.
• When the flour is completely mixed, turn off the heat.

• Keep aside for 10 to 15 mins by covering it with lid.
• Once the mixture gets cooled add chilli powder, cumin seeds and mix well. Knead the dough till smooth.
• Apply oil to your palm, take small size dough and roll into a think rope in 3 inches length and form a ring by pressing at the ends. Make sure the ends are firmly pressed.
• Heat oil in a wide vessel, once oil gets heated gently drop the rings in batches.

• Initially the flame needs to be high and when rings come up to the surface reduce the flame and cook till we get golden color on the chegodilu.
• When chegodilu turn golden, remove on a kitchen napkin and cool.
• Store it in a air-tight container.

Sending this to Serve It - Festival Potluck hosted by Krithi & Denny, Diwali Special - Sweets & Savories hosted by Radhika,  Diwali- Festival of LIGHTS hosted by Anu,My Diwali MyWay hosted by Khusi, CWS-Rice hosted by Reva originally started by Priya, Kid's Delight hosted by Srivalli