Alepak (ginger candy)

Ginger Candy in Marathi
Time: 25 to 30 minutes
Yield: 15 medium pieces


Ingredients:
100 gram ginger roots
1.5 cup sugar (tip 5)
1/2 cup Khova or milk powder
1 tsp ghee

Method:
1) Wash and peel the ginger root. Cut into small pieces. (It will be around 1 cup)
2) Add ginger pieces, sugar and khova into a blender. Blend well and make a fine puree.
3) Keep a steel plate ready. Grease it with some ghee.
4) Heat ghee into a deep saucepan. Add ginger-sugar mixture. Cook over medium-high heat. Keep stirring and do not let the mixture settle at the bottom.
5) Mixture will thicken within 10 minutes. You will notice whitish froth around bubbles. Now within couple of minutes the mixture will be ready to spread. The mixture will gather in the center.
6) Immidiately spread the mixture on greased plate and spread with spatula or greased flat based bowl. Cut into 1 inch squares.
Let it cool down. Separate these vadis, and keep in airtight container.

Tips:
1) Peeling and cutting ginger root into small pieces is important. Ginger is fibrous. Hence, won't get ground well if big chunks are used.
2) Instead of Khava or milk powder, 1/2 cup malai alongwith little whole milk can be used. Incase of using malai, cook the mixture few minutes more as it has more moisture content than Khava/milk pdr to evaporate.
3) During winter time (or in cold regions) spread the mixture on plate once it becomes frothy. During winter, mixture thickens faster. If you cook longer (even for 2 minutes) vadya will become very hard or mixture turns crumbly.
4) Milk, Khava, or milk powder are used to reduce the intense hotness of ginger. Incase, you don't want to add any of these ingredient, still ginger vadi will taste good.
5) Use 1.5 cups of granulated sugar for 1 cup ginger pieces. If using Indian style sugar which has little larger granules, then use 2 cups of sugar for 1 cup of ginger.

Dates Laddu

Dates Laddus in Marathi

Time: 15 minutes
Yield: 10 to 12 small laddus

Ingredients:
25 Dates, Pitted (1 cup after grinding)
1/2 cup Almonds, coarsely ground
1/2 cup grated dry coconut, lightly roasted
1 tbsp ghee
1 tsp Poppy seeds

Method:
1) Heat ghee into a pan. Add poppy seeds and roast for few seconds. Then add ground almonds, lightly toasted dry coconut and ground dates. Saute over low flame for 3 to 4 minutes.
2) Mix well. Transfer this mixture into a plate. Grease palms with little ghee. Take a small portion, press tightly and make round shaped laddu. Make laddus while mixture is still warm.
Do not make big laddus. One laddu should be the same size of a lemon.

Tips:
1) Black dates can be used instead of regular dates.
2) I had only used almonds. However, 1/2 cup mixture of pistachio, cashews and almonds can be used. If you want to add more dry-fruits, increase the amount of dates accordingly.
3) More ghee can be added to your taste.
4) I had used ready-made sliced almonds. Try not to use them because it becomes very difficult to shape laddus (they fall apart).
5) Use moist dates to make soft laddus.

Dalia Idli

Daliya idli in Marathi

Time: Prep time-20 minutes (excludes soaking time)| Cooking time- 35 to 40 minutes
Serves: 13 to 15 medium idlis.

Ingredients:
1 cup Daliya
2 cups hot water
For Tempering: 1 tbsp Oil, 2 pinches mustard seeds, 2 pinches Hing,
2 green chilies and 4 to 5 curry leaves, finely chopped
1/2 tsp Urad dal, 1/2 tsp Chana dal
1 tsp Ginger, grated
1/2 cup plain Yogurt, (preferably sour tasted)
Salt to taste
1 tsp Eno fruit Salt
Idli stand
Idil Cooker or normal pressure cooker

Method:
1) Soak daliya in hot water for about 4 hours. After 4 hours, drain and save the excessive water (Tip 1). No need to squeeze out the water. Grind soaked dailya to a semi-fine paste.
2) Heat oil in a small pan. Add chana dal and urad dal. Saute until color changes to pink. Then add mustard seeds, hing, chopped green chilies and curry leaves. Pour this Tadka to ground daliya.
3) Add yogurt, ginger and salt to taste. Mix well. The consistency should be same like Rice Idli batter. If the batter is too thick, add little saved water to adjust the consistency.
4) Add water in cooker upto 2 and 1/2 inches from the bottom. Put the pressure cooker on high flame. Grease the Idli stand with little oil
5) Divide the batter into 2 equal portions (tip 6). Add 1/2 tsp Eno fruit salt in one portion. Mix with a spoon and start filling Idli molds with batter.
6) Once water in pressure cooker starts boiling, put the Idli stand inside. Close with the lid. Remove the weight, if using normal pressure cooker.
7) Steam cook for 12 to 15 minutes. Turn off the heat and let it rest for 7 to 8 minutes.
8) Then remove the Idlis with sharp edged spoon (Tip 2). Again add water in the pressure cooker and make second batch of Idli as per the above method.

Tips:
1) Use this water to make sambar. It does not affect the taste.
2) These idlis are made of daliya (unpolished cracked wheat). Hence, they don't become very spongy and light like normal rice idlis. Remove the Idli stand 10 minutes after turning the gas off. Let it sit outside for few minutes. Then remove idlis with a spoon.
3) These idlis are little grainy. Therefore, make some sambar alongwith chutney.
4) Its a good breakfast alternative for diabetes patients who want to avoid Rice in there diet.
5) Add some vegetables like carrot, peas to the idli batter to make it more tasty and healthy.
6) My Idli stand has only 9 compartments. Therefore, I had to divide the batter into 2 equal portions. If your Idli stand has 12 or 16 compartments, then you can make the idlis in one batch.

Daliya Sheera

Lapsi Shira in Marathi

Lapsi rava Shira is a healthy breakfast recipe. Specially, for new moms (nursing moms) and people who requires high calorie food.

Time: 30 minutes
Servings: 3 to 4

Ingredients:
1 cup Lapsi Rava (cracked wheat/ Bulgur wheat/ Dalia)
3/4 cup grated Jaggery
2 tbsp Pure ghee
1/2 cup fresh grated coconut
3 cup Water
1/4 cup warm Milk
1/4 tsp cardamom powder
Pinch of salt
3 tbsp cashew, pistachio, almond slices
1 tbsp golden raisins



Method:
1) Heat 2 tbsp ghee into a pan. Roast rava nicely over medium heat. Also add cashew, pistachio and almond slices
2) While roasting rava, boil 3 cups of water on another stove-top. Add pinch of salt to the water.
3) When rava is roasted nicely, add hot water and warm milk. Mix nicely. Cover and cook for couple of minutes over medium heat. Add fresh coconut and mix.
4) When rava is almost cooked, add grated jaggery and stir with spatula, until jaggery melts. Add raisins.
5) Cover and cook for few more minutes over low heat. Add cardamom powder and mix well.
Serve hot.

Tips:
1) Lapsi Rava should be roasted nicely. Otherwise 'shira' won't come out well.
2) After adding water to the rava, Let it cook nicely. If you rush to add the jaggery, rava may remain little uncooked.
3) If you want it more sweet, add 1/4 cup of jaggery more.
4) When serving to new mothers (nursing mothers) add a teaspoon of ghee and sprinkle some fresh coconut to enhance the taste.

Fenugreek Laddu Methi Laddu

Fenugreek Laddu in Marathi

Time: approximately 2 hours
Yield: 25 medium laddus

Ingredients:
1 cup Wheat flour
2 cups Soybean flour
1 cup Cashew powder
1 cup Dry dates powder
1/2 cup Almond powder
1/2 cup Pistachio powder
2 cups Dry coconut, grated and roasted
50 gram Dink Powder (Edible Gum)
50 gram Fenugreek seeds
2 to 2 and 1/2 cup Jaggery, grated
Approximately 1/2 kg Ghee

Method:
1) Heat a pan nicely. Then turn off the gas. Roast the fenugreek seeds for few minutes. Ground the roasted fenugreek to fine powder.
2) In a deep bowl, take around 2 cups of warm ghee. Add fenugreek powder and Dink powder. Mix and beat the mixture for around 15 minutes. Do it alternate days for about 8 days. Beating fenugreek along with the ghee helps to reduce bitterness of the fenugreek.
3) Roast the powder of Cashew, Almonds, Pistachio, Dry dates separately by adding a tablespoon ghee for each roasting.
4) Roast the soybean flour and wheat flour. Add few tablespoon of ghee while roasting.
5) Mix all the ingredients. (Roasted powder of Cashew, Almonds, Pistachio, Dry dates, Roasted Coconut, beaten Dink and Fenugreek powder, Roasted flours)
6) Take the jaggery into a pan. Add 2 to 3 tbsp water. Heat the pan and melt the jaggery. Once jaggery is melted, turn off the heat. Add the above mixture immediately. Mix nicely and make the laddus while mixture is still hot.

Dink Ladu (Edible Gum Laddu)

Dinkache Ladu in Marathi

Yield: 25 to 28 medium Laddus
Time: approx 1 and 1/2 hour

Ingredients:
200 gram Dink (Edible Gum)
Ghee - Little less to 1/2 KG
1 cup Mung Flour
1 cup Soybean flour
3/4 cup coarsely ground Almonds
3/4 cup coarsely ground cashew nuts
3/4 cup coarsely ground Pistachio
1 cup dried dates powder
1/4 cup raisins
1 cup dry coconut, grated
1 nutmeg, finely grated
3/4 KG good quality Jaggery

Method:
1) Heat ghee into a wok. Deep fry dink. Keep the fried dink into a plate. Roast mung flour and soybean flour in the remaining ghee.
2) Roast ground almonds, cashew nuts, pistachio and dates powder separately. Use 1 to 2 tbsp ghee with each roasting.
3) Dry roast grated coconut. Grate the nutmeg and make fine powder.
4) Then mix all these ingredients (roasted flours, roasted dry fruits, nutmeg, fried dink, roasted coconut)
5) Add 1 cup of water to a pressure cooker. Put 1 container inside the pressure cooker. Add grated jaggery to it, keep the container open. Then pressure cook upto 2 whistles.
6) Immediately after pressure releases, take the jaggery container out from the pressure cooker. Transfer the jaggery to a big Thali (Plate). Add the prepared mixture to the jaggery. Mix and make Laddus while mixture is hot.

Tips:
1) If you don't have pressure cooker, put the grated jaggery in a nonstick pan. Add 2 to 3 tbsp water. Let the jaggery melt over medium heat. Once all the jaggery is melted, turn off the heat and add the mixture prepared in step 4.