Hayagreeva (Chana Daal Jaggery Dessert)

My plan for Ganesh Chaturthi/Chavthi pooja was to prepare the usual kadabu as a sweet offering to the Lord. Kadabu in Kannada also called as “Ukadiche modak” in Marathi is prepared by first stuffing sweet coconut mixture in a rice flour covering and then steamed to create a unique tasting decadent dish. This requires lots of fresh shredded coconut but is considered to be Ganapathi’s favorite dish. So we got coconuts from the Grocery, some for the pooja and one to prepare the dish. But much to our dismay discovered that the coconut had gone bad. We usually pride ourselves…

Instant Mango Shrikhand

I have always steered clear from making Shrikhand from scratch mostly because of the notion that it is laborious, time intensive and also it is loaded with calories. Now these statements are true and not a pre-conceived one. My mother and grand-mother would make Shrikhand on special occasions the traditional way, by first preparing home made yogurt from full fat milk, then tie the yogurt in cheesecloth overnight and remove the whey from the yogurt. Next day they would add sugar, saffron, cardamom to the yogurt and churn out the most delicious and decadent Shrikhand. Eat that with Chapathi or…

Arusuvai: Broken Wheat, Coconut Ladoo (Dalia Coconut Laddoo)

The “Arusuvai Friendship Chain” was started by Latha and Lakshmi at The Yum Blog along with Bharathy of Spicy Chilly and Bhags of Crazy Curry. Latha from “Masala Magic” continued the Arusuvai friendship chain in USA. Thanks to you all for this wonderful idea.  The Arusuvai Friendship Chain is all about sending a surprise food ingredient to friends so that they can prepare something tasty with it, share the recipe and pass on the surprise ingredient to other people.  Thanks Seema for thinking about me and sending me this “Surprise Ingredient”.  Seema had sent this to me promptly almost a…