How to Make Pori Urundai Step By Step Recipe | Karthigai Deepam Recipes

Happy Karthigai Deepam to all my Readers!

Ok I have already posted the Pori Urundai Recipe last year. When I told Hubby dear that I am going to click pictures of the Pori Urundai that Amma was going to make, he said Amma makes it every year and I click every year!. I begged to differ saying I hadn't had a chance to record it in the right way, meaning there were no Step by Step recipe.

And trust me, I have not mixed this myself till now. I only do it along with Amma, which I know is very different. You end up getting all the doubts when you attempt it yourself. Also was eager to take the pictures in step by step. Amma was calling me to help her in making the entire batch, while I was under the impression that I called to take the pictures. Well in the end I got both the things done.

This was the lot I ended up making. Amma had some more and I knew Konda will love helping her. so that is reserved for tomorrow.

 

Amma's Deepam Decoration

Pori Urundai Recipe is same as what I have already posted. This is just going to be tutorial with only pictures!

 Break the jaggary and melt it by adding water.

 Strain it to remove the impurities.

Put it back again and continue boiling till you get the right consistency

Within 5 minutes you will it bubbling like in the picture.

Keep a small cup with water to test the consistency. It should form a ball when you put it into water and when you throw it down, you should hear a thud.

 Continue boiling, see how bright and tempting it looks.

Ok this is when the thud happened. Amma took a small bit to drop into the cup, immediately took it out and dropped it down. We distinctly heard the thud. Well rather Amma heard it as I was busy clicking away!

 See the shape, it formed a ball.

Two types of Puffed Rice are used. One very Crisp as below while one variety is soft and puffed as above.

With the soft one, we made just little. Took the rice on a kadai, poured the syrup over it.

 Immediately mix it quickly to make sure the rice is well coated with syrup.

Ok you get the draft right! Pictures are hazy as the movement makes it tough to capture.

Then we followed with the other variety. In this, Amma added the pori to the kadai and started mixing it.

Ok here goes the mixing part.

 Depending on how well coated the rice is, you continue adding the rice.

Dust your hands with Rice flour and immediately take a handful and catch into balls tightly.

The mix is not that hot and you will be able to manage the heat, especially as you dust your palm with flour.

Continue with the rest of the mix till you are done.

Enjoy the week ahead!

Chicken Fried Rice Indian Style | How to make Chicken Fried Rice Step By Step Recipe

The mention of Chinese Fried Rice takes me down the memory lane. It was the early 90's that the Indian Culinary world was introduced to those tempting fusion dishes from the Chinese Cuisine. Take away packs of Chinese Fried Rice with Chop Sticks was a fad. That was also when most felt that eating out was fashion. Weekend night was dedicated to eating out Chinese.

I think the invasion was through Egg Fried Rice, Chicken Fried Rice, before the Vegetable Fried Rice came into picture. There was really not much of a difference with the basic recipe being the same and you can just spice up the main ingredient and add them. With years passing, this become such an integral part of our restaurant menu that Chinese got dropped and Fried Rice became a standard item. As Cauliflower Manchurian is. Flip through any Restaurant and you will find Fried Rice, Chicken Fried Rice, Egg Fried Rice, Cauliflower Manchurian without fail.

At our home these were regulars at least once a month. Needless to say Amma makes all these so very well. Somehow after my marriage these dishes took a back seat. Nevertheless they appear on table once in a while. Especially when we are entertaining guests. These dishes are also special for me, as these are few of the dishes that I end up making exclusively when cooking together with Amma. And this recipe is very much a chinese fried rice restaurant style with the smoky effect.

Today's recipe was cooked many months ago, when parents had guests for dinner. I was called for making this Chicken Fried Rice and naturally I won't miss the opportunity of clicking away the pictures. But can you believe, I actually forget to take a final picture. So you got to do with seeing how it looked at the final stage on the Kadai. When I realized this, Amma said we can naturally cook it again and take a picture. I said that can wait but the post can't. Will surely update a final picture when I get around making it again.
 

Get all the vegetables ready by chopping them into fine pieces.

Heat a wok or a kadai with oil. Saute onions, cumin seeds. Once done, add the capsicum, saute till half done.

 Tilt the kadai to a side so that the oil along with vegetables reach the flame. This will make sure it gets the smoky effects.

See how the vegetables catch flame and it lets out a good smoky smell. But ensure you are very careful with all vegetables not catching fire.

Then add rest of the vegetables and continue with the smoky effect if required
.

Next goes the cabbage, beans.

 Add the soya sauce to the vegetables, salt and ajinomoto.

 Then add the cooked rice to the kadai. Mix well

Finally add the pepper and spring onion greens.

Meanwhile pressure cook the chicken as mentioned below and remove the bones from the chicken.

Heat a pan with oil, saute the green chili sauce, then followed by the chicken pieces and pepper. 

Finally add the chicken pieces to the rice or remove the portion you want to add to the chicken and mix together.

Chinese Fried Rice with Chicken

Serves 6

Ingredients Needed:

For the Rice

Basmati Rice - 3 cups
Spring Onions - 1 bunch
Capsicum - 1 medium
Beans, Carrot and Cabbage - 2 cups
Salt to taste
Ajinomoto - 1/4 tsp
Soya Sauce - 2 tbsp
Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp
Oil - 2 tbsp
Pepper powder - 1 tbsp

For Chicken

Boneless Chicken - 250 gms
Ginger Garlic paste - 1/4 tsp
Salt to taste
Pepper powder - 1/4 tsp
Garam Masala / Green Chili Sauce / Red Chili powder - 1/2 tsp
Oil - 1 tsp

Method to prepare:

To make the Rice:

Clean and soak rice for 15 mins. Cook the rice in a non stick pan with 4 & 1/2 cups of water. Since the rice has to be non sticky and separate, you can even reduce quarter cup of water. You can either pressure cook or cook directly on stove. Once its cooked, remove and spread it on a plate so that you have each grain separate.

Chop all vegetables finely. Onion bulbs can be chopped as circles. The stock is saved to be used for garnish at the final stage. Rest of the vegetables can be chopped finely.

Heat a wok or Kadai. Wok works out best as you an flip the vegetables to come directly in touch with flame, which brings out the characteristic smoky effect. Add 2 tbsp of Oil, to this add cumin seeds. When it splutters, add chopped spring onions. Fry well, then add all the chopped vegetables. Sauté well with the flame high. To get the smoky restaurant effect, tilt the kadai to a side and let the vegetables catch the flames. The moment the vegetable in oil gets burnt you can smell the charred or smoky smell. Tilt it back and keep sautéing till the vegetables are crisp and cooked. This dish requires the vegetables to be crisp and not over cooked.

Then add Ajinomoto, salt and Soya sauce. Sauté well. Slowly add the cooked rice and mix well. Add the pepper powder and adjust the salt. Sprinkle the spring onion stocks over the rice.

Every step in this needs to be cooked on high flame.

To make the Chicken

Pressure cook the chicken, along with salt to taste, turmeric powder and Ginger Garlic paste.

Once it is done, remove the bones and keep the boneless chicken pieces aside. We normally don't add water for pressure cooking as chicken will let out water. If you are not making any gravy, you can cook the chicken to make it dry.

Heat a pan with oil, add chili paste/ red chili powder, whichever you are going to use. Sauté in the chicken pieces, sprinkle pepper powder and garam masala if you are going to use that. Once it is dry, add the chicken pieces to the rice.

If you want to make sure vegetarian eat,  make sure you remove a portion and add the rest to the chicken pan.

Enjoy with Cauliflower Manchurian

 

Badusha Recipe | How to make Badhusha Step by Step Recipe

It feels good to be back at the desk typing out this post. Peddu is doing better now. School reopened yesterday and they were supposed to wear their Deepavali attire. We felt so bad that he was missing out the fun. Chinnu was saying he will go to school only if Peddu goes with him, finally agreed knowing he will get to wear a "colour dress". Konda's school never follows this custom, so it was a pleasant surprise hearing that the boys school at least follows. Reminded me so much of my childhood, when we used to wear our Deepavali dress to school. Somehow I always remember having a day off after the festival.

Maybe it is with me growing up, but I have been feeling that festivals these days seem to have lost the glam and clam and serene feeling that comes to you. These days it always seem to be so hurried, people seem to be interested in lot other things like what's special on TV rather than actually going out to meet friends and relatives. Since we don't have any relatives living in the same city, it is only friends that we visit or who visit us. Somehow the Diwali day seem very long, long because we used to get up as early as 3 or 4 in the morning and it just goes on and on.

Amma used to start the Deepavali Snacks preparation some ten days ahead. She used to prepare so much for distribution and for ourselves. It was always Athirasam, Kaja, Rava Laddoo, Gulab Jamun as special on the menu. Athirasams and Kajas get done ahead while she normally prepares her killer Rava Laddoo and Gulab Jamun the previous day. Savory snack were always Ribbon Pakoda, Muruku and Mixture. It used to be a full time eating parade! Apart from this list other items are added on ad hoc basis.

As a child, I don't remember any Deepavali being spent not having any of these items on the day. But as years passed, the list got shorten, so much so that Dad sometimes suggests we buy outside. Amma would never hear any of it. She continues to make these but in smaller quantities.

After marriage, especially after blogging, Amma makes sure she asks me what special to make on each festival day. And Athamma never fails to remind me that we will have to try a new dish for the blog. It was the same this year too, only we couldn't execute what was planned. I was happy that at least we got to make Badusha. This was one sweet which we never tried ourselves.

It was during my college days that we got to know a cook who was specialist in making Festival Sweets and Savories. Amma used to call her for making Kai Murukku, Laddoos, and Badushas. She used to come couple of days ahead and make it all at home and what fun it used to be! The way she used to twist her hand to make the Kai Murukku was simply such a great art. It was a Murukku that is completely shaped with fingers. And her Badushas were melt in the mouth, filled with sugary syrup that can make you crave for more. The sweets stay good for 10 days, of course only if you don't complete them all before that shelf life

Amma had this recipe with her for long time, every year planning to make it, somehow never doing it. So we were determined we should do it. With the discovery of Meenakshi ammal's book, she had double resource to cross check. Since it was a first time experiment, we tried out with only 4 cups, which yielded about 30 medium or small Badushas.

We planned to make it when Peddu was sleeping, so it was hurried job, I managed to get this through most of the steps. But before frying the entire batch, Peddu woke up, so had to give the camera to Konda to click the pictures. Yeah I have a budding photographer at home, who takes pretty pictures of the dish on hand, including many poses of herself in between. In between each shot there was one accompanying picture of Konda with varying expressions and she managed to click some of Amma too.

I made out plain Badushas and Corner Pleated ones. Out of the two, the pleated ones turned out more soft and sugary. If you want to know to the pleating is done, check out Raji's excellent tutorial on how to do it, so wonderful that she has a video of it now. She is a pro at making it.

The pictures were taken as we cooked and there are no pretty pictures to share. I never got around taking them. And ten days later is not exactly the time to click pretty pictures of the sweet, even if some managed to stay put.

Step By Step pictures of making Badusha.

 Measure out the flour

 Add the baking soda and shift well

 Add the butter to the flour

 Crumble well to get this texture..

 well more like this..

 Knead to a pliable dough.

 Pinch out small balls

 Flatten between your palms and make a dent in the middle like the above.

 Deep fry the badusha in batches on medium heat.

 To make the badusha with pleats or folds, flatten the ball like the above,

 Start folding from a point in and out like above.

 You will have something like this..

 Deep fry these again in hot oil over medium flame.

Meanwhile have the syrup cooking

 Dip the fried badhushas in the hot sugar syrups

Allow them to cool over a plate like above.

Makes : 25 mini Badurshas.

Ingredients Needed:

For the Badusha

Maida / All purpose Flour - 4 cups
Butter - 175 gms
Baking soda - 1/4 tsp
Water - 1 & 1/4 cups

For Sugar Syrup

Sugar - 1 & 1/2 cup
Cardamom  a pinch
Water - 1 & 1/2 cups
Milk - 1 tsp (opt)

Oil for frying (you can add 3 tsp of ghee if you so wish)

Method to prepare:

To make the Badusha

Shift the flour along with Baking soda.

Get the butter to room temperature if it was refrigerated. Crumble the flour with the butter well until you know the flour is completely mixed with the butter.

Slowly add the water and start kneading the flour into a dough. Keep kneading until you get a dough that is very soft but elastic in texture. When you punch it, it should punch back. It is very important to have the dough very pliable and soft.

We didn't rest the dough but you can allow it to rest for 10 mins, if you need.

Meanwhile heat the oil in a Kadai or Pan.

When you are set to fry the Badushas, pinch out small balls from the dough. Circle them between your hands to form a perfect balls. Then using your palm, press them down to form a circle. Then press your index finger in the middle to make a dent. It mostly punches back, but make sure you press the hole down.

Now I don't know the reason why this dent is made. But I am guessing it is basically to give a shape and look, plus the required shape to get cooked differently in all sides.

How to make the pleated Badushas.

To pleat the corners, after you have made the circles, start from one side, press out and press in. Continue doing this to join the start line. You will end up having a disc that looks like pleated on the outer edge with a bulge in the middle.

Once you have about 4 to 5, fry them in batches on medium flame. Ensure the heat is maintained at the same level so that it gets cooked in the inner well.

When it is cooked on both sides, drain them on to a kitchen towel.

How to make the Sugar Syrup:

Mix the sugar with water and melt it. I normally strain it to remove the impurities. But you can add 1 tsp of milk which will get the impurities to surface to the top, which can be easily removed.

Continue cooking till you get one thread consistency. This can be checked by touching the syrup between your index and thumb. You will see one thread formed when you move your fingers away from each other.

At this stage add the cardamom, let it cook for few more seconds and switch off the flame.

To make the sugary Badushas

Dip the cooked Badushas into the hot syrup, press down well using a ladle. Allow couple of minutes of standing time, remove out of the pan. It will absorb syrup when both are quite hot.

If the Syrup gets cold, you can heat it again on low flame. If required add little water to thin it.

Once all the Badushas are done, spread them on a plate, allowing it to cool down a bit.

These are normally supposed to stay good for 10 days when stored well. But you never know that exactly when it comes to sweets right!

I know this is pretty long post. If you have read through this to reach here, I am so glad..:)

Do share your Deepavali experience.

I wish to thank all my friends and readers who wrote back reading this post. I was overwhelmed with the wishes.