ICC September : Murukku

Murukku is one of our favorite snacks and it's so addictive. I was so glad when it was chosen for Indian Cooking Challenge this month, a great excuse to make some. This was a great recipe, very similar to what I usually make.

I'm a day late in posting this, totally skipped my mind. So sorry for that...do try this recipe....

Ingredients:

4 cups raw rice

1 cup urad dal

approx 1/2 cup water or more

For the seasoning:

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp sesame seeds

1/2 tsp asafoetida/ hing

salt to taste

75 gms butter

Method:

Wash and drain the rice. Dry for 1/4 hour. Dry roast the urad dal till golden and allow to cool.

Grind the rice to a fine powder. Then grind the urad dal to a fine powder.

Mix together both the flours, salt, sesame seeds, cumin seeds and hing.

Add the butter and rub it in till it forms into a crumbled mixture.

Add water and form into a firm dough.

Heat oil to deep fry. Shape the murukku using the murukku maker on pieces of paper and deep fry on medium heat till light brown, turning a couple of times to ensure even browning on both sides.

Drain on paper towels and store in air tight containers for upto a week.

Chocolate Butter Cookies and Eggless Cumin Cookies

I made these cookies for one of my friends daughters birthday. As their name suggests these have lots of butter and just melt in your mouth. The cinnamon, nuts and chocolate give these a wonderful flavor and texture.

The recipe is from the book, Chocolate by Williams-Sonoma. It yields about 4 dozen cookies, perfect for parties.

Chocolate Butter Cookies

Ingredients:

1 tbs cocoa powder

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 1/2 cups/ 180 gms plain flour

1 cup/ 250 gms unsalted butter, at room temperature

5 tbs/ 90 gms granulated sugar

1 1/2 tsps vanilla extract

3/4 cup/ 90 gms chopped nuts

2/3 cup/ 100 gms semi-sweet or bitter-sweet chocolate chips

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 350 F/180C. Line ungreased cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Sieve together the cocoa, cinnamon and flour. Set aside.

Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes.

Stir in the vanilla, nuts and chocolate chips. Gradually stir in the flour mixture, combining thoroughly.

Drop rounded teaspoons of the dough in the shape of large marbles about 1 1/2 inches apart on the cookie sheet.

Bake for about 12 mins till done. Let cool in the pan for 2 mins. Dust with some confectioners sugar and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Eggless Cumin Cookies for Tried and Tasted

I made these cumin cookies from Madhurams blog, Eggless Cooking. They were ready so quick and took no effort at all. They were crisp, had a wonderful savory taste from the cumin and is a perfect tea-time snack. I'm going to be making this so often. Check out the recipe here.

**********************************************************

The chocolate cookies are going to 'CFK : Chocolate', hosted by Hema of Salt to Taste, event bySharmi of Neivedyam.

Cumin cookies are my entry to 'T and T : Madhurams Eggless Cooking' hosted right here by me.

Homemade Gulab Jamuns for Taste n Create

For this months Taste n Create I was paired with Parita of Parita's World. Parita has a beautiful blog and there were so many delectable dishes to choose from. In the end I decided to try these awesome Gulab Jamuns. It's my favorite sweet and I could have any number of them at a time. I make these often, but they are always from packaged mixes, so it was great making them from scratch. This is a wonderful recipe and the Jamuns were just perfect.
I made these in the afternoon, so they would be ready by the time Manoj got home but we also had some friends come over that same evening, so I had to literally hide some Jamuns so I could take a picture of them. The jamuns were gone in minutes and everyone was so surprised that I actually made them at home. Thanks Parita for this wonderful recipe.

Eggless Banana and Chocolate Chip Muffins

This was the first time I tried eggless baking and I'm really impressed. The muffins were really easy to prepare. The bananas, walnuts and the chocolate chips go so well together and the muffins were delicious. The recipe is from Madhuram's blog and my entry to Zlamushka's Tried and Tasted being hosted by me.

Check the recipe out here....