Besan Ke Laddoo

Makes 40 - 45 delicious Laddoos

Ingredients:
Gram Flour - 3 cups heaped or tightly filled
Wheat Flour - 1 cup heaped or tightly filled
Powdered Sugar - 2 cups heaped or tightly packed
Green Cardammom - Pealed and pounded
Pure Ghee - 300gms
Almomds - 200gms

Tools you will need:
Big Kadhai or deep colander, Pounder, Grinder, Tongs

The Burpy To-do
Grind the Almonds to a powder and then roast this in the collander and keep aside to cool in an open plate (you could also choose not to roast them and just leave them raw).
Strain the flours to remove any lumps/balls.
Wipe the kadhai and put the ghee into it to heat.
Add the pounded cardammom to the ghee and let it simmer for a few seconds.
Minimise the flame/heat and while holding the kadhai firmly with the tongs add the flours in to the hot ghee slowly stiring them in. It is obvious that the flours will gather up in to rough lumps ... ignore this and keep the stiring so that the flours dont burn at the bottom. As you proceed with the stiring (which continues using the low heat) the lumps will ease out and you will have a thick paste that will fall in a thick slow stream when you lift it off the pan. If the thick paste consistency does not happen you could add another Tbsp of ghee.
This thick paste needs to be stirred every few seconds so that it does not burn at the bottom. As you stir please be careful to take in all the portions of the paste on the sides of the kadhai/collander ... basically it should all be part of the paste and have turns at being at the centre of the collander.
Soon the paste will give out a beautiful aroma of roasted gram flour. You continue the stirring until the gram paste is almost the color of milk chocolate -- this should take up to 25 30 mins of stirring on a low flame. By this stage the flour is very delicate and could burn if neglected for even a few seconds ... so be alert with your stirring.
Once the right colour is achieved, pour out the paste into a large metal dish which is clean and dry (the indian PARAAT is ideal for this). The objective is that the preparations cools without burning at the bottom.
Let the preparation cool for about 40mins to an hour ... basically you should be able to knead your hands thru the mixture without any problem.
Once you are comfortable with the temperature add the sugar and almomds into the paste and slowly knead them into the paste until theay are all well blended in. This will lead into a coarse textured mix. Taste this raw mix for its sweetness. If you feel that the sugar is adequate as per your family' taste you can proceed. However, if you find it too sweet you can add a handful of ground almonds to the preparation.
Take appropriate partions into your fist and make round balls as per your preferred size.
Store the laddoos in a dry clean box separating each layer of laddoos with either butter paper or aluminium foil and store in the refridgerator.
ENJOY them as they are prepared fresh, or heated for 10secs in the Microwave or just cold out of the refridgerator.

ULTIMATE Chicken Biryani - Hozef Darukhanawala

To serve 6 adults you need: 

INGREDIENTS: 

Chicken - 1kg 

Cooking oil - 10 Tbsp 

Green chillies - 3 

Ginger Garlic Green Chilly paste - 3 Tbsp 

Basmati Rice - 6 cups 

Curd - 400gms 

Milk - 250gms 

Salt to taste 

Fresh Coriander and Mint Leaves - 1/2 chopped fine 

Onions - 10 finely chopped 

Tomatoes - 8 grated to a paste 

Potatoes - 6 

Garam Masalas: Tej Patta (Bay leaf) - 2 leaves Black Pepper - 10 seeds Dalchinni (Cinnamon)- 1-inch piece Jaiphal (Nutmeg) - fingernail-sized piece crushed Javitri (Mace) - 4 to 5 strands Laung (Clove) - 5 to 6 Jeera powder - 2 Tbsp Dhaniya powder - Tbsp Red Chilly powder - 1 Tbsp 

Tools you will need: Large Cooker or Deep Vessel/Colander (Aluminum is ideal) 

The Burpy To-do: PART 1

1. Marinate the chicken in the ginger-garlic-chilly paste (Grind the ginger and garlic in equal proportions of garlic and ginger with a little water) for at least 2-3 hours. 
2. Add oil in the colander and when hot add the chopped onions and fry till brown (this is called barista). Take out the onions from the oil and keep aside. 
3. Peel and cut the potatoes into quarter pieces and fry till lightly brown in the balance oil in the colander. Take out the potatoes and leave them aside. 
4. In the same oil add the dry garam masala pieces and after a minute add the powders too. Saute for a few minutes till the flavor emerges. To this add the tomatoes and curd with 2 pinches of salt and saute well till the oil leaves the sides. 
5. Now take 3/4th of the browned onions to this preparation while keeping the balance aside. Now add the marinated chicken into the colander along with the requisite amount of salt to taste. Stir till the oil leaves the sides. 
6. Add in the potatoes as well and stir till the preparation leaves oil. The chicken is not to be cooked yet so don't cover it. Divide the preparation into two parts by taking out some of it into another dish. 

RICE: 

1. Meanwhile, you should on another burner simultaneously add the rice to a pot of boiling water along with requisite salt and a tablespoon of oil. 
2. Let the rice be par-cooked i.e. when you put a few grains in your mouth it should feel slightly undone. 
3. Drain away the water and let the rice be in a strainer till the chicken preparation gets done to the stage I have mentioned above. 

The Burpy To-do: PART 2

1. Add half the rice as a layer on to the chicken and then distribute the balance chicken preparation onto the rice and then finally top it up with the balance rice. 
2. Once this is done, pour the milk across the preparation so that it seeps into all the sides of the preparation.  
3. Sprinkle the balance brown onions on top of the preparation and cover the vessel with aluminum foil and then the vessels cover. 
4. Your Chicken Biryani is ready to be kept on DUM ... place the colander on a flat pan (tava) so that it does not get direct heat. Let the flame be high for the first few minutes so that the pan gets heated well and then make the fire slow. 
5. Let the biryani cook for at least 25-30 mins. Open the vessel only when you are ready to eat ... 
6. Just before you eat the biryani garnish the vessel with the coriander and mint leaves 
7. ENJOY your biryani with freshly made Kachumber!!! 

KACHUMBER: 

1. Cut 3 tomatoes, 3 onions, 3 cucumbers, and coriander and mint leaves finely. 
2. To them add 500 gms of blended curd and salt to taste.

Aloo Tikkis - The favourite Punjabi snack

To serve 4 adults you need:

Ingredients:
Potatoes (fist-sized) - 4

Onions - 1
Green chilies - 2
Cooking oil - 2 Tbsp
Jeera powder - 1/2 Tsp
Chilly powder - 1/2 Tsp
Fresh Coriander Leaves - 4 strands chopped fine
Slices of bread - 4
Lime - 1
Salt to taste

Tools you will need:
Non-stick pan, cooker

The Burpy To-do:

1. Boil the potatoes till well done, peel the skin once cool and grate to avoid lumps.
2. Dip the slices of bread in water and squeeze the water out and add them to the potatoes.
3. Add finely chopped onion, green chilies and coriander leaves, jeera powder, salt to taste, and lime juice to the potatoes and knead into a soft dough.
4. Make flat circular cutlets of 2" diameter of 1 centimeter of thickness.
5. Shallow fry these cutlets/tikkis on the non-stick pan on a low flame using the cooking oil so that they become crispy brown on both sides.

Serving options are as follows:

Once done on both sides serve the tikkis hot...

• With green coriander chutney or tomato ketchup. 
• As a filler in buttered slices of bread with finely chopped onions
• With ragda and chutneys

Add-on Recipe: Green coriander chutney

1. Grind a large bunch of coriander leaves along with 3 green chilies, 1 lime's juice and 3 pieces of garlic along with 6 tbsp of water
2. Add salt to taste once grinding is complete

Add-on Recipe: Tamarind chutney

1. Take a fist full of peeled tamarind and soak it in water for about 30 minutes
2. Squeeze the pulp of the tamarind into the water and strain water to get a smooth paste
3. Add a fist full of grated jaggery to the paste. Also add to it a 1 tsp of ginger powder (Sonthh) pinch of black pepper, 6-8 raisins, and 4-5 dates.
4. Bring the mixture to a boil and make the flame low to cook for 10 mins. The paste will thicken and your chutney is ready
5. You could coose to strain te mixture or eat it as is 

Add-on Recipe: Ragda

1. Soak the ragda chana for 2-3 hours
2. Cook with 2 times the quantity of water, 1 chopped onion, 1 tomato, crushed ginger garlic paste, and salt to taste in a cooker
3. Serve hot with Tamarind Chutney and the Coriander Chutney shared above

Sabudana Khichdi: My favorite snack time recipe

To serve 4 adults you need:

Ingredients:

Sabudana - 1 cup
Potatoes - 2
Green chillies - 2
Curry Leaves - 5
Cooking oil - 2 Tbsp
Jeera - 1/2 Tsp
Peanuts - 1/2 cup
Coriander Leaves - 5 strands

Tools you will need:
Kadhai, Non-stick pan, hand crusher

The Burpy To-do:

1. Wash the Sabudana and drain until the water runs clear. Pour a cup of water into it and cover the same and leave it to fluff up overnight.
2. Next morning the white Sabudana grains would have grown and separated from each other. Drain any excess water that would be left and test the grains to see that they press easily.
3. Dice the potatoes to 1 cm sized cubes
4. Roast the peanuts on a non-stick pan and coarsely crush them being careful not to make them into a powder and also not leave them whole
5. Chop green chillies and coriander fine
6. Heat the oil in a kadhai and add the jeera, and to it add the potatoes.
7. Once they get done, add the curry leaves and green chillies to it 
8. Add the peanuts and stir fry for 5 minutes
9. Now add the soaked Sabudana to the same and stir fry for not more than 5 minutes 
10. Add salt to taste and garnish with freshly chopped coriander
11. Serve hot with lime if you prefer a tangy taste or serve with sweetened curd

PLEASE NOTE: DO NOT ADD ANY WATER OR COVER THE PREPARATION as it will ruin the dish by making it too sticky to eat