Soft and Puffy Idlies

Ingredients
2 cups Rice
2 cups cooked rice
1 cup udad dal
1/4 tsp yeast
salt to taste

Procedure
1. Soak rice and udad dal for 4-6 hours.
2. Coarsely grind both along with cooked rice.
3. Dissolve yeast in Luke warm water.
4. Add the yeast and salt to the mixture and keep it in a warm place overnight.
Since I stay in NJ, because of the cold weather I let it stand for a whole day.
You can make out Idly mix is ready when the batter becomes double the volume.
5. Now, DO NOT MIX THE BATTER. Without mixing make the idlies in Idly cooker.

Fish Fry in oven

Fish(small pieces): 1 pound
Garlic: 4 cloves
Ginger: 1 inch
Coriander: 1/2 cup
Green Chillies: 2
Garam masala: 1/2 tsp
Dhania powder: 1/2 tsp
Red Chilli powder:  1/2 tsp
Butter: 1 tsp
Turmeric: 1/4 tsp
Salt: to taste

1. Wash the fish, add Turmeric and salt, keep for 2 hours.
2. Grind Garlic, Ginger, coriander, green chillies and a pinch of salt.
3. Add Butter, Garam masala, Dhania powder and red chilli powder to the ground paste.
4. Evenly apply the paste on all the fish pieces.
5. Pre heat the oven to 350 F.
6. Keep the fish in the oven for 15 minutes.
7. Take out the fish, turn around and then keep for 15 more minutes.

Note: Do not leave the fish in the oven after 30 minutes.

Doodh Kheer / Basundi

This is the simplest sweet you can ever think of

Ingredients:
2 Litres - Milk
1 cup - Sugar
1/2 tsp - Elaichi (Cardamom) Powder
2 pinch - Kesar (Optional)

Procedure:
Boil the milk in a vessel on low flame till milk thickens and becomes of the actual quantity.
Mix Kesar in few spoons of milk till it dissolves.
Add Sugar, Elaichi powder and Kesar (Dissolved in milk).
Cook for 5-10 minutes.
Switch off the flame and refrigerate.
Serve Chilled.
Also you can serve hot Basundi with Poori.

Variations:
Instead of Kesar, you can prepare the following mixture
Heat 2 spoons of ghee in a pan. Add 1 spoon of Maida (All Purpose flour). Mix well till it become brown in color. After it cools down, add few spoons of milk and mix well.
You can add this mixture instead of Kesar.

Tilgul Laddu

This is my first recipe on this blog and I am starting to share my recipes on Makar Sankranti. I prepared Tilgul today and I am posting the recipe for the same.

Ingredients:
1 cup Til (Sesame Seeds)
1 cup Jaggery (Gud)
1/2 spoon Cardamom (Elaichi) Powder
1 spoon Ghee

Method:
Roast Til over medium heat. When they turn golden brown, remove and keep it aside.
Heat Jaggery over medium heat. Add cardamom. Wait for couple of minutes and check for consistency of the syrup. Here is the trick. Take some syrup in a spoon and drop it into the vessel. If the syrup falls down after making 1 inch of line, syrup is ready. I have already prepared this laddu and I did not take pictures. I will add it next time.
Now add til to the syrup stirring continuously. Add Ghee. Switch off the flame after 2 minutes.
Let the mixture cool for some time (Just enough to hold the mixture in your hand). Dip your palm in cold water, take two spoons of the mixture and make laddus.
If you think making laddu is tedious, you can just pour the mixture over the greased plate and cut it as burfi.

Variations:
You can also add Shredded Coconut and Roasted Peanuts(Groundnuts) along with Til.