Carrot Almond Laddu–Diwali Sweets

Laddu - this word makes a lot of people drool... For my daughter it relates to strength and power.. All thanks to the Chhota Bheem cartoon she loves where laddu is a symbol for strength.. And traditionally laddu is made by frying gram flour and dipping them in sugar syrup.. Today we are going to see a laddu, a recipe I got from Priya’s space which requires no frying..

Javvarisi Payasam / Sago Kheer

A delicious payasam made from javvarisi. It is quite easy to make.. There are so many varieties of Payasam and kheer we make.. Each is so unique in taste, texture and appearance. This payasam looks so beautiful with the transparent tiny balls floating in it.. I remember my child hood days where we used to play with the balls when this payasam was served. We press with the finger and the balls with move slipping under your fingers and it will be so much fun!!! We make this payasam for a lot of festivals. This can be served both warm and chilled!!

Godumai Halwa–Tirunelvelli Halwa–Diwali Sweets

This very traditional halwa has been on my list for such a long time.. We make this halwa for Diwali and what a better time to try this one than now.... I fell in love with this halwa and it is so addictive!!! I would not classify this one as easy, but not too hard as I had imagined!! You can eat this as halwa or make it into pieces and enjoy!! Also food color here is optional... If no food color, then it will in rich honey color!!! Cooking time for this quantity was 30 – 40 minutes from the time sugar syrup is started..

Shikanji / Shikanjvi - Madhya Pradesh

Today we are visiting the state of Central India. Madhya means middle and pradesh is place and I believe that the story behind the name of the state - Madhya Pradesh. This is a very refreshing and delicious drink. It is scotching summer here and what a better way to beat the heat other than a refreshing juice.. So chilling!!! I got this recipe from here. Shikanji is also popular in the neighboring states of Maharashtra, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh also.. Since it is a simple post, I have shared some tricks of serving the juices in my post..

Gajar Ka Halwa – Delhi

Today we travel to the Capital of India – Delhi. Delhi is an Union Territory more closely resembling a state having its own High court to Chief Minister. The Delhi city is the second most populous city in the World. From wiki – “The NCT and its urban region have been given the special status of National Capital Region (NCR) under the Constitution of India's 69th amendment act of 1991. The NCR includes the neighbouring cities of Alwar, Baghpat, Gurgaon, Sonepat, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Noida, Greater Noida and other nearby towns, and has nearly 22.2 million residents”. Delhi was the site of the ancient Indraprastha, the capital of Pandavas during the Mahabharata. There are many historical sites in Delhi. Some to name are – Red Fort, Qutub Minar, Humayun’s TOmb, India Gate etc. Delhi cuisine is largely influenced by the Mughals and this is where the Mughlai cuisine in India originated. There is street in Delhi called the “Gali Paranthe Wali”. Gali means street and Paranthe is Indian bread. There is an entire street that is full of varieties of Paranthe.. Delhi is a great place for foodies.. From Wiki – “The Gali Paranthe Wali (the street of fried bread) is a street in Chandni Chowk particularly for food eateries since the 1870s. Almost the entire street is occupied by fast food stalls or street vendors. It has nearly become a tradition that almost every prime minister of India has visited the street to eat paratha at least once”. I have made carrot halwa before but that was a much easier one, but this one tastes more yummy and more authentic!!

Gulgula / Gulgule –Chhattisgarh Cuisine

Today we travel to Central India to the State of Chhattisgarh. Chhattisgarh is a newly formed Indian state and was born on November 1st, 2000. Chhattisgarh is known as the rice bowl of India and has a rich varieties of rice and rice based dishes. A lot of the traditional foods are prepared with rice, rice flour, curd and green leafy vegetables. When coming to sweets, Gulgula is one of the popular sweets from this state. I got this recipe from here. A delicious sweet from the state of Chhattisgarh. This is so quick to make and also very delicious…

Cocoa Cake / Chocolate Maida Cake–Indian Style

Yaay!!! My blog crossed 1000 Facebook likes!!! So excited and am so thankful to all who supported me.. Hope to receive the same love and support.. What can be a better way to celebrate the 1000 likes than with a sweet.. Sharing this simple and delicious sweet virtually!!Cocoa Cake is a quick and easy sweet. It is also called as Chocolate burfi.. This is one of the very popular burfi made in Indian homes during Festivals..  This does not require much preparation and can be made quite quickly.. I enjoyed this as a kid when my mom made these and my daughter also loves these… Surely a kid friendly sweet.. Make this for your family and you will be happy you did!!!!

Lavang Latika / Labongo Latika

Lavang Latika, known by several names like Lavanga Lata, Labongo Latika etc is a very delicious and flavorful sweet.. It is a small pocket filled with mawa, sugar and nuts, deep fried in oil and coated with sugar syrup. They look so cute from their tiny pocket appearance with the clove acting the beautiful and elegant accent to the bag... I have bookmarked this sweet from a cooking show sometime back, but never got to try it until now when Sanoli announced it as a challenge for this month’s Southern Team of SNC which was started by Divya and I am so happy that I finally made this…This makes 20 pieces.. The flavor of the clove, the delicious filling and a lightly crispy outer with a  sugar coated exterior makes this delicious sweet..

Vegetarian Jujubes Candy / Gelatin Free jujubes Candy

A delicious kid friendly (mom unfriendly) candy.. Reason I feel that this is mom un friendly is that all that this very attractive looking, very tempting candy has nothing but SUGAR.. But my daughter loves it!! She can eat all of it by herself (Shhh!!! only if I will allow).. One of the biggest drawbacks (advantage actually) of knowing to cook is the understanding of the ingredients.. When I was a kid and used to relish these jujubes, little did I know that it had only sugar and very little did I know that is not healthy!! Now that I know it, I have a big NO feeling to enjoy this!! But make this and your kids would be so excited and thrilled.. As I always say, if the kids want to enjoy jujubes, then home made is much more healthier than the store bought!!

Eggless Bienenstich Kuchen (German Bee Sting Cake)

For this month's We Knead to Bake, Aparna chose this German Bread (actually a German Cake).. It is an interesting cake with yeast used as the rising agent.. This has 3 texture, the top layer is little hard from the caramel, the cake is soft and the custard filling is smooth and silky.. This made 8 big pieces. The frosting was left over. So next time, I would do half the below frosting for this recipe..

Eggless Sugar Cookies / Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies

Some goodies are so sinfully delicious!!! Yes this is one of them!! So butter, so much sugar, but so irresistible!! Love this crunchy and delicious sugar cookies which are so easy to make and also looks so beautiful… It was my choice from the cookies that Priya gave us for this month’s HBC. The original recipe had eggs and I replaced it with Flax seed

Paal Ravai Halwa ( பால் ரவை ஹல்வா)

How many ever sweets we make for celebrations, it is always fun to do more and more.. Sweets bring celebrations and festivity!! Some sweets are quick, while some are elaborate.. Paal ravai halwa is a quick and easy sweet with 3 main ingredients – Paal (milk), Ravai (Sooji) and Sugar. This resembles like rava kesari, but tastes more richer and more delicious!!!

Eggless Chiffon Cake / Orange Chiffon Cake

My Facebook likes have crossed 500!!!! Thanks to all who have supported me… Celebrating it with a delicious cake!!! Some recipes have a very tempting name and you want to try them, but cannot due to some reason.. That is my issue with the very light Chiffon cake as it is largely dependent on Egg whites and I was so skeptical to try it when Swathi announced it for this month’s Baking Partners which was suggested by Sara. Chiffon cakes are very light and its texture primarily comes from eggs and oil. It also has a longer shelf life compared to the regular sponge cakes as it does not use any butter. I want to thank Gayathri who shared her recipe with me for this delicious cake and it was very yummy!!!. I would do this one again but next will reduce the sugar by a table spoon.

Channa Jalebi / Paneer Jalebi

For this month's SNC Chandrani of the North team challenged us South Team with a delicious Bengali Sweet. West Bengal is very famous for its milk sweets. This jalebi was literally mouth melting.. Little different than the regular jalebi and you can play with the shapes.. I made the standard round shape.. It was delicious and we all enjoyed it. Thanks to Divya and Chandrani for this delicious challenge. I am also sharing this for BM with Sweets from Bengal (Course wise meal from any state).

Eggless Mini Eclairs / Eggless Choux Pastry

Eclairs - from the name of the recipe when I heard from Swathi for this month’s Baking partners challenge, I thought we were going to do an eclairs toffee.. silly me.. I did not know about this very delicate French pastry. Now that I learned it, let me tell you... it is very delicate, little too sweet for me and was actually not very hard to do.. I was very skeptical initially..

Eggless Donuts–Deep Fried

Many foods make us drool and only a few recipes are drool worthy while they are being made. Visiting donut factory where you can see the donuts  being shaped, proofed, coming in line to get deep fried and turn beautifully golden and then jump into the silky sugar syrup is a treat to watch. And the best part of you getting to choose from the fresh hot ones – awwww that is so out of the world.. Warm and delicious donuts in hand.. So how much tastier will it be when you can do this factory at home… The answer is – even more exciting and even more delicious.. For this month’s Eggless baking group, Gayathri  has chosen Donuts suggested by Jayanthi and here is a sinfully delicious delicacy This recipe will give around 12 donuts.

Kalakand / Kalakandh

Kalakand is a Bengali sweet made with milk and paneer. I love milk sweet for their mild sweeter taste and the flavor of milk. This one has a very different texture compared to other milk sweets. I got this recipe from here and we loved it. This takes a lot of time to make, but is a serialized and simple process. For paneer, please try to use home made paneer as it has better taste and is more moist and soft.

Apple Jam

Jam is a great spread for breads. It is pretty easy to do and can be stored in a glass container for couple of weeks without the preservatives. If preservative is added (Sodium Benzoate) is added, then it can be stored for months. Use powdered pectin for jam. It will thicken a little when cooled and give the perfect jam consistency.

Vegan Mango Muffins w Hudson Oil

I try a lot of products to keep giving my family healthy and tasty foods.. Some products are well designed and make life so much easier. I got an email from Hudson to try out their Canola oil and was very happy to accept it. They sent me a liter of their oil in a very well packed case. I wanted to make a cake or a muffin and use this oil. When I first opened the main lid, I really liked the next spill proof lid that came along (see image below) and then when we pour the oil out, it is so much easier to not have to worry about spilling around the sides. Very efficient lid as regards to spill proof. I used this oil and made the Vegan Mango muffins and it was a very big hit among my family members. Delicious muffins and the house is filled with mango flavor and aroma. These muffins have very less fat and a lot of healthy stuff like whole wheat pastry flour, flax seed. However this does have quite a bit of sugar. You can reduce the sugar to 1/2 cup if desired. This sweetness was perfect for us. I got this recipe from here and I absolutely love it.

Chickpea Halwa / Channa Dal Halwa

The word halwa can make some people drool.. It is smooth, silky and is sinfully delicious with loads of ghee and sugar.. This halwa is no exception. This is the first time I making it and it tasted so awesome. It can be called the cousin of badam halwa for its consistency and taste. Thanks to Kirti for choosing this delicious recipe for the SNC Challenge which is the brain child of Divya. This recipe is from kirti’s mom.