Traditional Balushahi

BALUSHAHI - my childhood favourite!!

I tried 2 recipes :

--- Traditional Recipe - in this post

--- My invention - Air Fried - in my next post. Do follow my blog 🤗

Well to my surprise both of them turned equally good in taste. I would still suggest that you should try both of them atleast once 😊

Ingredients:

1. All purpose flour / Maida - 1 1/2 coffee mug ( mine measures 300 ml)

2. Baking Powder - 1/2 tspn

3. Curd - 1/3 cup

4. Ghee for dough - 3/4 cup

5. Ghee for frying

6. Sugar - 2 cups

7. Water - 1 cup

8. Black Pepper - 2

9. Green Cardamom - 2

Process -

--- Traditional Recipe

1. Take Maida in a bowl. Add ghee for dough and mix.

2. Add curd and baking powder. Make a dough. We are not adding water. Ghee and curd would be enough for binding. It would be a smooth textured dough. And if you try to devide it then would look like the below picture.

3. Next is to make small balls of the size of a lemon and press in centre, to make them flatter.

4. Now would be the patience test 😂. Take ghee for frying in a pan, just enough ghee so that the flatten dough balls can be soaked and we have to keep the heat on low low flame. Yes I wrote Low twice 😁 because we have to slowly cook the balushahi. 

5. When one side of balushahi turns brown, flip them and cook the other side too with the same patience, then take them out on a kitchen tissue and let them rest for 5 mins.

6. Meanwhile take another pan, this time a deep pan instead of a flat one. We will be making sugar syrup. Put sugar, water, cardamom and black pepper.

7. Let it boil till the sugar crystals completely gets mixed with water. To check the consistency of syrup, take a drop out with a spoon be careful it will be hot. Let it cool down for few seconds, then place it on your thumb and squeeze it with your index finger for just  fraction of second. Now try to take your finger 1 cm away from thumb. We need 1 strand of sugar to be seen between finger and thumb. Just 1 strand. That's the consistency we need. Once the consistency of syrup is achieved, switch off the flame. 

8. Add the fried balls in sugar syrup and let them dipped for 5 mins.

BALUSHAHI IS READY !!!

-----Important ----- do not put all the dough balls in one go for frying, they should not overlap infact should have gaps in them  as they will increase in size while the baking soda is working on them. Try to use a flat pan to accommodate more at a time.

We want our balushahi to be crisp from outside and airy and deeply cooked from inside.

My next post will be for Air Fried Recipe. Do follow my blog for more tried and tested recipes. 😊🙏🏻

Lazy Pulao

My lazy dinner recipe 😋

When I am not in a mood to cook, this recipe is a life saver 🙅🏼‍♀️

Ingredients:

1. Rice - 1 glass

2. Peas - 1 cup

3. Onion- 1

4. Potato - 2

5. Tomato - 4

6. Dry Red Chilli - 2

7. Black Cardamom - 2

8. Black Pepper - 4

 9. Cloves - 4

10. Bay Leaf - 2

11. Jeera / cumin seeds - 1/2 tspn

12. Water - 1 1/4 glass

13. Ghee - 1 Tbsn

14. Red chilli powder - 1/2 tspn

15. Garam Masala - 1/2 tspn

16. Salt- to taste

Procedure : 

1. Soak rice for 15 mins in water.

2. Add ghee to pressure cooker. Add dry Red Chilli, jeera, cloves, bay leaf, cardamom, black pepper

3. Add sliced onion. When brown, add diced potato, peas and tomato.

4. Add red chilli powder, garam masala and salt.

5. Add rice with water.

6. Close the cooker.lid and put it on high flame. After one cooker whistle, switch off the gas burner.

7. Let the steam release on its own. Then open the cooker lid.

8.Mix the rice and they are ready to be served.

Aloo - Poori - Raita

Let's make Aloo - Poori - Raita

For Aloo Sabzi -

Ingredients :

1. Diced Tomatoes - 4

2. Boiled Potatoes - 4

3. Green Chilly whole - 2 

4. Red chilli powder - 1 tspn

5. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tspn

6. Garam Masala - 1/2 tspn

7. Asafoetida / Hing - 1 pinch

8. Cumin Seeds / Jeera - 1/2 tspn

9. Ghee - 1 Tbsn

10. Water - 1 1/2 glass

Procedure :

1. Heat a pan and add ghee, hing and jeera. 

2. When jeera starts to splutter add tomatoes. Then add red chilli powder, turmeric, salt and mix.

3. Do not over cook tomatoes, we have to keep them juicy.

4. Add mashed potatoes.

5. Add water and close the lid and cook till oil separates and add garam masala.

For Poori- 

Ingredients :

1. Wheat flour - 3 cups

2. Ajwain/Carom seeds - 1/2 tspn

3. Turmeric - 1/4 tspn

4. Salt - 1/2 tspn

5. Oil - 1 Tbsn

6. Water - to prepare tight dough

Procedure :

1. Take flour in a flat pan and add salt, ajwain, turmeric powder, oil. 

2. Add water gradually and keep mixing to make tight dough. Rub a little oil on top and let the dough set.

3. Keep it in refrigerator for 15 mins. This will help dough to set.

4. Heat oil in a pan to fry poori.

5. Make small dough balls and roll them into poori using a rolling pin.

6. Deep fry flipping the sides.

For Raita-

1. Curd - 2 1/2 cups

2. Water - 1/2 cup

3. Tomato - 1

4. Onion - 1

5. Garam Masala - 1/4 tspn

6. Red chilli powder - 1/4 tspn

7. Salt - to taste

8. Jeera powder - 1/4 tspn

Procedure :

1. Take curd in a bowl and beat for 1 min. Add water and again beat.

2. Add diced tomatoes and onions.

3. Add garam masala, red chilli powder, salt, jeera powder and mix.

Grilled Fish Tikka

Ingredients :

Surmai / King Fish - 500 gms

 (Cut in 2x2 inch pieces)

Ginger Garlic Paste - 1 1/2 tspn

Turmeric - 1/2 tspn

Red chilli powder - 1/2 tspn

Deghi Mirch - 1/2 tspn

Garam Masala - 1/4 tspn

Coriander powder - 1 tspn

Green chilly chopped - 1 tspn

Lemon juice - 2 tspn

Salt - to taste

Oil - 1 Tbsn

* *You can use 1 tspn of deghi mirch instead of red chilli in case you like less spicy. Deghi Mirch will only give color and is less bitter than red chilli powder..

Procedure :

1. Wash and clean the fish thoroughly.

2. Take a glass bowl and add ginger garlic paste, red chilli powder, deghi Mirch, lemon juice, turmeric powder, garam masala, lemon juice, salt, oil, coriander powder, green chilli and mix.

3. Now add fish and rub the masala mixture on all sides of fish.

4. Cover the bowl with cling sheet and keep it in refrigerator for 30 minutes to marinate.

5. Grill the fish on grill tawa for 4 mins then flip the side (fish is always very delicate, please flip it carefully) and cook for 4 more minutes. Once more flip it and cook for sometime. 

Fish takes only 10-12 mins to cook. Do not over cook fish or it will become hard. Best way to check if it is completely done or not is, pick up any one piece and slice it in centre and see. Cooked fish would turn totally translucent and white, which was transparent earlier.

Serve it with Dahi Mint Chutney. 

Sponge Rasgulla

Ingredients :

Full Cream Milk / Cow Milk - 1 ltr

Sugar - 1 cup

Green Cardamom - 4

Lemon - 2

Water - 6 cups

Procedure:

1. Put milk in a pan and bring it to boil.

2. Squeeze out lemon in a small bowl and add 2 Tbsn water to it.

3. Start adding lemon and water mixture slowly to the milk. Keep stirring the milk slowly.

4. Milk will start coagulating. Once the milk solids get separated strain it using a big seive and let it stand in seive for some time.

5. In the meantime, take another pan add sugar and water. Bring it to boil for 5 mins. Sugar syrup will start forming.

6. Take cardamom in mortar & pestle and crush them. Remove the skin and add the crushings to the sugar syrup.

7. Take the milk solids in a plate and press it with your palm. Basically we need to kneed it for 2-3 minutes.

8. Make small balls(rasgulla) of this kneeded milk solid. Around 8- 10 balls can be made.

9. Put these rasgullas slowly in the sugar syrup and let them boil for 8 mins on medium flame with covered lid.

10. Open the lid and let them boil for 4 more minutes. 

11. Let them cool at room temperature.

12. Chill them in refrigerator for 15-20 mins.