Loula Puri [Inippu Vadai]

Day before yesterday was a Friday! Friday evenings usually begin with a snack. This Friday I prepared our favourite sweet, the Sourashtrian Loula Puri! Loula, pronounced as 'low-lay' means thin. But the apt word would  be sweet. Because this is a vada type of thing that is sweet. This sweet is made usually on Varalakhsmi vrath.

Ingredients:

1. Maida - 1 cup

2. Sugar - 1/4 cup  (I make it mild sweet always :) )

3. Rava - 2 tbsp

4. Cashews (broken) - 15 to 20

5. Oil

Recipe:

1. In a bowl, mix the maida, sugar and rava with water. The mix should be like dosa batter.

2. Keep the mix aside for 4-5 hours.

3. In a kadai, fry cashews till golden brown.

4. Transfer the cashews to the mix in the bowl.

5. Heat oil in kadai.

6. Take the batter in a deep spoon and pour it in the oil. Make sure the spoon is deep enough to make a decent size puri.

7. Fry till light golden brown and then dry it in tissue covered bowl.

Agasthir Ounty [Vendakkai Kuzhambu] {South Indian Okra Stew}

My MIL is here with us. Such a joy to have her here. She is a very good cook. She has lived in many cities of TamilNadu. Also a few years in North India. Her cooking has so much variety. I will introduce the basic sourashtrian 'ounty' with Ladies Finger flavor prepared by her.

Ingredients:

1. Tomato - 1 big

2. Okra - 15 to 20

3. Mustard - 1 teaspoon

4. Ounty powder - 1 tablespoon

5. Tamarind - A ping pong ball size

6. Toor Dal - 1 teaspoon

7. Gingelly oil - 1 ounce

8. Salt

Recipe:

1. Heat the oil in a cooker and pop the mustard seeds.

2. Add Toor Dal and bring it to a golden brown.

3. Add the chopped tomatoes and fry till they get smashed.

4. Add the cut okra. The cut size should be about an inch. Fry for a couple of minutes.

5. Add Ounty powder, salt and extracted tamarind water.

6. Add a cup of water and mix well.

7. Put the lid on and bring it to a whistle under medium flame.

8. Switch the flame off and wait till the steam is out.

9.  Open the lid and boil the ounty for 5-10 minutes on a medium flame.

10. The ounty would have sufficiently thickened by now.

11. Serve it hot with white rice.

Quick Rotti Halwa

In 2009 I tried Rotti Halwa with tea rusk.The taste was ok-ok. Last year I tried it with white bread. Arun used to tell me how my cousin in Kendall Park made this once. I created a short cut version of it based on my mom's idea ;-)

Ingredients:
1. White bread  - 3 slices
2. Sugar - 1.5 cup
3. Cold water - 2.5 cups
4. Ghee - 3/4 cup
5. Cashew nut - 10 nos.
6. Cardamom - 6 nos.

Recipe:
1. Medium toast the bread slices.

2. Grind the bread to crumbs in a blender. This should be about a cup.

3. In a cooker, take two spoons of ghee and add the bread crumbs. Fry for 2 minutes.

3. Add cold water and keep boiling till the bread crumbs become soft.

4. Add sugar and mix it well.
5. Add half a cup of ghee and close the cooker with its lid. Keep on medium flame.

6. Wait for 8 whistles and switch the flame off and remove the lid after the steam is out.
7. The mix will be watery now. So keep stirring it for 30-45 minutes on medium flame. The mix will be semi solid now.
7. In a kadai, add two spoons of ghee and fry the cashew nuts.
8. After cashews become golden brown, put it in the cooker along with some cardamom.

You must be wondering how this is quick?? This has taken more than 1.5 hours!! Well, the traditional way of making this halwa does not involve pressure cooker. This will easily add 4-5 hours of stirring!! Now you do the math... Ain't it quick?? :)