Makhani Sauce (Butter based Tomato sauce)

If you are the familiar with the popular dishes that 9 out of 10 Indian restaurants never fail to offer, Dal Makhani has to be one of them. Makhani' is a Hindustani word meaning "with butter". It is used in the names of several dishes from Punjabi cuisine. . This delicate tasting buttery tomato sauce is part of quite a few dishes, Dal Makhani, mixed vegetables Makhani, Spinach machani and Paneer Makhani (Paneer Butter Masala).

 Traditionally fresh butter and cream were used to cook this basic sauce. But in my recipe I used very less butter and no cream at all. Instead of butter I replaced smart balance oil in my recipe.

This sauce keeps very well for 3 days refrigerated, for 6 months frozen. It is better to freeze it into two different containers. BUT if you want to freeze it, DO NOT add the cream and the milk. Add the cream and the milk when you want to use it to prepare the final dish.

Ingredients

Organic Tomato sauce                   -    6 cups

Ginger paste                                   – 3 tbsp.

Finely chopped green chilies                – 2 tsp.

Kashmiri chili powder                     –     1 tsp

Honey                                               – 2 tsp.

Kasuthuri Methti (Dry fenugreek leaves)   1 tbsp.

Butter                                              1tbsp

Cooking oil  (Smart balance)             – 3 tbsp.

Salt                                              – to taste

Masalas:

Cinnamon sticks                  – 2 ( broken into small pieces)

Black cardamom                      – 2 no

Green cardamom                    – 4 no

Cloves                                   – 4 no(crush)

Method:

• Dry fry the masalas and coarsely grind them.
• In a pan, heat oil & butter. Add the coarsely round masalas, green chilies, ginger paste and red chili powder. Lower the stove heat, Fry till the oil separates.
• Now add the tomato sauce, Kasuthuri methi powder, salt. Cover the pan and let it cook in a lower heat.
• Cook till reduces the tomato sauce. (Spice masala leaves the sides of the pan and the oil separates) 
• Add honey and mix it well.  Cook for two more minutes.
• Use immediately or pour sauce into a bowl; cover bowl and refrigerate or freeze sauce. 

Note:

• After the sauce is done, proceed to cook whatever dish you have decided. Just you need to shallow fry the vegetables, add few amount of sauce, and add heavy cream and milk. Boil/simmer for about 10 minutes. Your Makhani is ready.
• If you like the sauce more creamy and mild you may want to increase the amount of fresh cream added to the sauce. You may also adjust the quantity of sugar/honey in the sauce according to your taste.

Badam Burfi/ Almond Burfi

Sweets are very important  part of any Indian festival and function.  .Baadam or Almond Burfi is a sweet dish and you can munch it any time of the day.

Ingredients:

Whole almonds                      3 cups

Sugar                                    4 cups

Water                                    1 cup

cardamom Powder                 1 tbsp

 Ghee                                    3 tbsp

Method:

• Soak Badam in hot water for five hours. Peel the skin. Clean the Badam in a paper towel.   Grind it to fine meal.

Almond Meal

•  Take sugar in a pan, add water and place over low heat. Stir until sugar dissolves completely.
• Let it cook till one string consistency.(Take a water in a small  bowl, add a drop of sugar syrup in it . When the syrup holds it shape and does not dissolve in the water).
• Now add the Badam meal and cardamom powder.  Lower the stove heat.
• Keep stirring until it leaves the sides of the pan add the ghee and switch off the stove.
• Immediately pour the mixture on a flat, ghee applied tray. Level it evenly with a spatula, and cut into squares. Let cool.

 Separate the squares and store them in an airtight container.

•  

Eggless Banana and Nuts Cake

Nothing like a slice of freshly baked cake with a cup of tea in the chilly weather.  Banana cake is definitely one of the best and most delicious cake. Bananas really want to be flecked with brown and have a golden hue just as the old jingle says. And when they have gone beyond that stage just a tad -- they are perfect for cake! Yes, this is a really tasty way to deal with all those overly ripe bananas that are begging for use in your kitchen!

Ingredients:

All Purpose Flour                1 ¼ cup

Wheat flour                       ¾ cup

Baking soda                       1 ¼ tsp.

Baking powder                   ¼ tsp.

Plain sugar                         1 ½ cup

Mashed Banana                  1 cup

Cooking oil                         ¾ cup

Lime juice                          2 tbsp.

salt                                    A pinch 

Soy milk (OR)Milk             ¾ cup (no added sugar soy milk)

Vanilla essence                  1 tsp.

Butter                               1 tsp

 Nuts

Finely ground almonds      ¾ cup

Chopped walnut                ½ cup

Tutti Fruitty                       ¼ cup  (optional)

 Method;

• Sieve the flours, baking soda and salt into a large bowl.
• In a big bowl, mix the wet ingredients - mashed banana, Oil, vanilla extract, soy milk. And lemon juice. Whisk very nicely to mix all the ingredients very well.
•  Mix the sugar, nuts and make a well in the center. Place the mashed banana mixture in the well. And combine all mixture very well.
• Prepare the Bundt cake pan, by applying butter on the bottom and to the sides.
•  Pour the cake batter. Spread evenly.
• Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 50 minutes or cake is cooked when tested with a skewer.
• Cool for 5 minutes before turning out on a wire rack to cool completely.
• A moist, tender, nutty delicious egg less banana nut cake is ready.
• This cake really likes a Lemon or Caramel frosting. 

Note:

• The riper the bananas the better the results will be.

Happy New Year 2012

Dear Readers

I Wish in 2012

God gives You...

12 Month of Happiness,

52 Weeks of Fun,

365 Days Success,

8760 Hours Good Health,

52600 Minutes Good Luck,

3153600 Seconds of Joy...and that's all!

Madappalli turns one - 200th post

My Virtual Kitchen turns one today! What a great year it has been. The first post here on the Madappalli was exactly one year ago, December 31^st 2010.  When I started this blog, I had little idea of what I wanted it to be. I didn’t have much experience in professional blogging. The wonderful comments that kept coming by were my biggest inspiration of all!! Now, I’m really happy to have a small community of people who encourage me by commenting regularly and sharing my posts.

Looking after the blog over the year has been a great experience, and after writing about 200 posts and 35,484 page views, I learnt a lot. I hope you’ve enjoyed it, but remember that I always welcome your feedback.

Let me say a BIG THANKS to all my readers who visited, read my posts, commented, sent me emails, joined my network and subscribed to my posts. I want to   say special thanks to my lovely husband Paddy, Anudinam.org and SNDG (Seattle Nalayeera Divya Prabhatha Ghosti), It has been an exciting journey and without your support it won’t be possible. Thank you very much to all for supporting my blog.


I pray that the Lord Krishna will continue to bless this blog!

Aval / Poha / Flattened Rice Vadai

This is simple and delicious snack.

Ingredients:
Aval(Beaten rice/Poha) -               1 cup
Gram flour                                  1 tbsp.

Rice flour                                    1 tbsp.

Corn flour –                                 1 tsp

Grated coconut                            1 tbsp.

Salt                                           to taste

 Finely chopped Green chili            4 no

Hing -                                         a pinch
 finely chopped Coriander leaves    -1 tbsp.
 finely chopped Curry leaves           - a few
Grated Ginger-                              1 tsp.

Oil                                           – For deep frying

Method:

• Wash Aval  and rinse well. Set aside for 10 minutes till it turns soft.
• Add all above ingredients (expect oil) and form a dough.
• Make dough without using water, as Aval is already enough wet. Make soft dough. 
• Divide the dough into 10 parts and make small Vedas with hand of each part.
• Heat the oil in a pan and deep fry vadas, until golden brown and crispy.
• Serve hot with mint chutney or ketchup.

Ribbon Pokada

Ribbon Pakoda is a very popular South Indian tea time snack made from gram flour and rice flour. Ribbon Pakoda are an inclusion to all festivals and occasions. My husband loves it a lot, and I am sure you would too… Even though many of us know the recipe, this is my version.

Ingredients:-

Rice flour                                   - 1 cup

Besan flour                                – 3 cup

Urdh dhal powder                       – 3 tbsp.

Unsalted Butter                           – 3 tbsp.

Red chili powder                        – 1 tsp. (according to taste)

Asafetida powder                       – ¼ tsp.

Turmeric Powder                            – ¼ tsp.

Crushed Black pepper                  – ½ tsp.

Salt                                           to taste

Water                                       1 cup

Cooking oil                               for deep frying

Tools:

Sev Press

Slotted Spoon

Paper Towel

Kadai

Method:

• Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan. The stove heat should be in medium flame.
• Combing all above ingredients expect water and oil. Gradually add water to make it a stiff dough, adding extra water if required.
• Grease the Sev Press with oil. Fill in the dough into the press.
• Press out thin strips of the dough into the hot oil. Only press in enough to cover the oil.
• Fry it till becomes golden brown, strain the excess oil in a paper towel, let it cool.
• Press the remaining batches of the dough in the similar manner.
• Cool the entire ribbon Pakoda and store in an  air tight containers.
• Serve with Tea or coffee.