Sindhi Rasoi

Khas khas or poppy seeds are usually used in Indian cuisine in making gravies and because of its highly nutritive nature it is also used in breads, cakes, cookies, pastries, curries, sweets and confectionery.

Poppy seeds are like tiny hard grains. The Western type is slate blue; the Indian type, off-white. Both are kidney-shaped.  They are similar in flavour and texture and their uses are interchangeable. The seeds mature in a capsule left after the flower fades. They are widely available in a dried form.It gives out a mild sweetish aroma when roasted or baked
And its flavour is Mild until heated, then it becomes nutty, with sweet-spicy under-tones.Source(epicentre)

This Indian sweet/dessert/pudding called Khas khas jo seero is made by my Ma-in-law on every Rakshabandhan(An Indian festival ,when sisters tie a sacred thread on wrists of their brother/s as the symbol of bonding between the siblings)Generally the trend is that Mithai or anything sweet is made for brothers on that day.Hence Ma makes this every year and not only her brothers but all the kids in family and elders too,wait for this occasion just to relish this sweet made by her

The most awesome thing about this sweet is that it can be made without using any sugar  and still taste as sweet as sweets are supposed to be.Kidding???NAAAAAAH

Actually the milk and khaskhas when cooked together imparts natural sweet taste to the seera and moreover chuhara and raisins serve as perfect sweet bites .So you wont miss the presence of any artificial sugar(no need to add even sugar free tablets)Yes if you want it more sweet,you always have an option to add sugar

This is for you Asha Chand Ji ,in response to your sugar- free- sweets- suggestion

This recipe is of Ma  and the above pic is of seera made by her.Hope you all will drool and enjoy!

Khas khas jo seero:

Ingredients:

• Khas khas(poppy seeds) 50 gm (You can start by using 25 gms or less for your first attempt)
• Milk 500 -650 ml (less or more will just affect the final richness of the sweet so go ahead and experiment)
• Vegetable oil 3-4 tablespoons
• Green cardamon(choti elaichi) 4-5
• Dry fruits like Chuhara(dreid dates),almonds,khishmish(raisins) and unsalted pistachios,all chopped into thick slices(except khishmish) Use as much quantity as you want,but at least, one bowl full
• Sugar (optional) as much preferred

Method:

• Soak khas khas in water for 5-6 hours
• Later rinse it few times(you can use tea strainer) and let all the water drain out completely,through  the strainer
• Now grind this khas khas with some vegetable oil.Water or milk if added while grinding,could create lots of spluttering,while cooking.so its better to use oil
• Grind it till a coarse mixture is obtained
• Now in a heavy  bottom pan or kadai,add 2-3 tablespoons of oil.Let it heat properly,then carefully add the grinded paste .Beware of spluttering(you can immediately close the pan with a lid).Add elaichi now.
• Now roast the mixture on high flame ,stirring continuously till a nice aroma of khas khas fills your kitchen.The paste should look pinkish in colour and the raw smell of khas khas should be gone.Don’t over roast it,as that would give a bitter taste to the final product
• Then carefully add  about a cup of boiled milk,bit by bit and mix carefully.Add all the dry fruits now
• Lower the flame ,keep on adding some milk(about half cup) in intervals ,and let it be absorbed by the khaskhas,till khaskhas is cooked.You might need about 500 ml to 650 ml of milk to achieve this target
• The final seera could be of semisolid consistency ,or as shown in picture— a dry form,which could be obtained by cooking seera till oil separates out
• Garnish with some cashews /almonds/pistachios and serve with love

Easycrafts honored me with  Wylde Woman Award.

The purpose of this award is  to send love and acknowledgment to men and women, who brighten your day, teach you new things and live their lives fully with generosity and joy,and as per rule i am linking it back to Tammy

Thanks Ec for your gesture,i truly appreciate it! Let me hold this award for some time,i will surely pass it on to deserving bloggers  ASAP

Till then Enjoy cooking !

The week that went  by,was surely a crazy one,with lots of unusual ,unexpected,ugly stuff coming in my way of sanity,thereby making me feel irritable(huh ..whats new in that?),frustrated and of course ranting and rambling.Agreed ,that some good things did happen,like a Teejri fast (An Indian festival) which i enjoyed this year,and getting cleaned my home(that was pending from hell lot of time),the rest of things kept my stress levels high and Blood pressure levels really low .Moreover hubby dear sulked for many days feeling cheated by much hyped awaited launch of Iphone in India,that too with less features and more moolah than expected.

Its high time India comes above the level of being dumping ground for poor quality/rejected/over priced stuff.But people waiting for hours outside the malls to catch the glimpse of Apple’s latest gizmo,will make it hard for India to take a firm stand against all the hype created for Eemported stuff .For now,Thank you Mr Steve Jobs for ditching us ….

Well in this scenario i just dont feel like cooking,but if i do cook,,,it has to be some comfort food…and what’s better than Dal rice(Dal rice …again???).This time its not a routine one…but one of my favourite kaali masoor dal

Ingredients:

• Masoor daal kaali(sabut masoor daal or whole orange lentils) 100 gms (adjust the quantity as per  your need)
• Onion 1 medium sized
• Tomatoes 2
• Ginger
• Garlic 5-6 cloves
• Green chillies 2-3
• Salt as per taste
• Turmeric powder 1/4 tspn
• Coriander powder 1 tspn
• Oil 2-3 tspn

Method:

• Rinse and soak masoor daal  in water for few hours(if urgent ,it could be cooked without soaking)
• Take a pressure cooker and put daal along with salt and water(double the quantity of daal)
• Pressure cook it till 4 whistles if soaked and 6 if used without soaking
• In the meantime,take some oil in kadai or pan,add pounded/grinded ginger- garlic,and saute it,till the paste changes its colour to light brown
• Then add chopped onions,and saute it till light brown in colour
• Then add chopped or grated tomatoes ,chopped greenchillies ,turmeric powder and coriander powder and fry properly till oil separates out from mixture
• Now add this mixture into the semi-cooked daal,and either simmer it or close the lid and wait for two more whistles of cooker
• Adjust the consistency,and garnish it with coriander leaves
• Serve with plain white rice and enjoy !

This month Sia of Monsoonspice ,is hosting JFI soya.

Since i already had posted both the recipes with soybean on sindhirasoi,i m re posting them just for dear Sia .Hope this finds place in your event:-)

Soybean Tikki

This is yet another favorite of mine,and i love making these wonderful soya-potato tikkis again and again.Simple,easy to make,delicious and healthy too.

The recipe is here

And other one is Soybean in Gravy

This one is hot favorite of family,hubby dear likes to have this with Roti,while i love to binge upon it with  hot and spicyyyyyyyyy Bhugha chaawaran(browned onion rice).

It’s recipe is posted here

Other related posts:

Pattise,  Aloo Tikki

Other gravy based recipes:

  Butter paneer

  Kadhoo ja kofta

  Wadi patata

 Macroni peas patata

When Archana announced One D Salad,i thought i will come up with some good sort of salad,since i always have simple sliced cucumber,radish,beetroot etc as salad or at the most,the gujrati style cucumber-tomato-onion chopped salad.

I thought i will search some good salad recipes and post them.Meanwhile i boiled some moong to make moong parathas for my son.Now, to tell you the truth i just don’t like any parathas except aloo parathas.But i always eat whatever i cook for my son,just to  depict a good impression on him,that its not good to fuss about the food

But that day i just couldn’t convinced myself to bite on those parathas.I did not had time to make something else . I kept staring at  the boiled moong  ,still with the same question in my mind  “To eat or not to eat”?

Darn… i can’t let them go waste,nor was i ready to give in to those parathas.Thats when Archana’s one D salad hit my brain(ouchh…its still hurting !)

So i just threw in together,in a bowl ,everything i had in my refrigerator ,along with those boiled moong ,spiced it up to suit my palate and yo….i was ready with an entry for archana’s event which called for a protein rich salad

Moong beans also called Green gram is a pulse/legume. While pulses are generally high in protein, and the digestibility of that protein is also high,Moong beans also contain good amounts of calcium and Vitamin C.  Cooking does not affect the protein content of this pulse.(source asavadha.com).so i guess Archana ,this fits  the bill since 100 gms of moong are supposed to have 3 gms of proteins

Simple moong salad:

Ingredients

• Boiled Moong(better if sprouted) one cup
• Boiled potato 1 small
• Boiled beetroot 1small
• Carrot 1
• Lettuce or cabbage leaves  -few
• Lemon juice 1 spoon
• Red chilly powder
• Salt(white or rock salt…i prefer later)
• Coriander leaves
• Almonds(optional….i didn’t used any,but i have read, its good to add some)
• Chaat masala powder few pinches

Method:

• Wash and soak moong for few hours.Boil them with little water,salt,turmeric ginger,green chillies till just cooked(not mushy)
• You can use the moong sprouts(much healthier) that are available in food malls,or you can wash,soak and then keep the moong wrapped in moist napkin for a day or two till moong sprouts up
• Mix in salad bowl,the boiled moong, and chooped carrots,boiled beetroot,onion,boiled potato,cabbage(either or all of them)
• Sprinkle  salt,red chilly powder ,chaat masala powder,lemon juice ,fresh coriander leaves and enjoy

I would like to share with all my dear visitors a happy news…Roma of Roma’s space honored this humble blog of mine with a  BRILLANTE Award

Here’s what Juliana lair has to say about this award rules

The Above recipients of the Brillante Weblog are welcomed to put the Logo on their personal blogs and have the honor of passing this award to seven other bloggers.

So Roma i hope i can pass on this wonderful award to some of the blogs that i find awesome

Srivalli

Sia

Medhaa

Indrajeet

Sunshine mom

Hope you guys will be kind enough to pick this up from here

Ps: Some time back ,i had posted Special daal recipe which was  by Sk(my bro-in-law)

This budding cook had send me yet another breakfast made by him .Here’s what he has to say”  Its yogurt with kaala namak(rock salt), Jeerey ka tadka (tempered with cumin seeds), salt and garnished with coriander leaves. Made papad in oven and cooked Roti on frying pan”

A typical sindhi breakfast!

Wish him loads of lucks …..for his culinary experiments