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.

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

The Ultimate Chicken Korma!!

To serve 4 adults you need: 

Ingredients:
Chicken - 1 kg
Onions - 250 gms or 3-4
Curd - 300 gms
Pure Ghee - 250 gms
Ginger Garlic paste (made by grinding equal portions and a little water) - 3 tbsp
Dhaniya Powder - 1 tbsp
Red Chilly Powder - 1-2 tbsp (depending on how spicy you want it to be :)

Dry Garam Masala (pieces):
Cumin (Jeera) Powder - 1 tsp
Bay Leaf (Tej Patta) - 1
Small Cardamom (Chotti Elaichi) - 3
Clove (Laung) - 6
Pepper (Kali Mirch) - 6 balls
Cinnamon - 1-inch piece

For the Baghar or Tadka:
Nutmeg (Jaiphal) - 5 mm
Mace (Javitri) - 3 strands
Small Cardamom (Chotti Elaichi) - 5

Tools:
Large Kadhai, Ladel, Grinder

The Burpy TODO:

1. Put ghee into the kadhai and let it heat.
2. Finely cut the onions either long or small and fry to a golden brown / or till crisp - Once done remove from the oil into a strainer to drain away excess oil.
3. Grind the ginger and garlic into a paste. Add the dry Garam Masalas and 3 tbsp of the ginger-garlic paste into the hot ghee.
4. Add the Dhaniya powder and red chillies to half the portion of curd and add this mix to the ghee and then you do the BHUNO routine (DESI TIP: Bhuno simply means intermittently stirring the dish carefully at high and low fire so that it does not burn at the bottom) till the oil leaves the sides.
5. Now add the chicken pieces and do the BHUNO routine again for another several minutes till the oil leaves the sides!
6. Now crush the browned onions with your hand and add it to the balance curd with some 1/2 tsp of garam masala and add this mixture to the chicken. Bhuno routine once again for about 5-10 mins 
7. Add water and salt to taste and then cook till the chicken is well done. 
8. Once the chicken is done give it a baghar (DESI TIP: Baghar or Tadka simply means adding spices to hot oil and letting it splutter before adding it to the dish being cooked) by throwing in 5 small elaichis, crushed jaiphal and javitri into hot ghee in a pan. Once it splutters add it to the curry and cover for a while to retain the flavor.
9. Serve the chicken Korma with hot rice, Naan, or Fresh Bread

ENJOY :))