Khajoor Pak #SugarFree

In this series of  #HealthBhiTasteBhi, I am going to show an amazing quick cooking recipe which perfectly balances taste and health. This recipe is full of healthy ingredients and serves as a perfect snack to grab and eat for the ones with sweet tooth. 

This recipe is full with nutrients of Khajoor (dates), dry fruits (nuts) and seeds. And our favorite, ghee(unsalted butter). This is definitely Glutenfree. In order to make it vegan, you can easily replace ghee with oil or any vegan unsalted butter and milk with vegan milk.

Let's see how to make it.

Ingredients:

Khajoor (dates) deseeded and blended- 2 cups

Badam (almonds)- chopped - 1/2 cup

Kaju (cashews)- chopped - 1/2 cup (optional)

Kishmish (Raisins)- 1/2 cup

Ghee ( or unsalted butter)- 3 tbsp

Til (sesame seeds) - 2 tbsp

coconut desiccated - 2 tbsp

melon seeds - 2tbsp (optional) 

Khoya -3/4 cup (optional), can take 1 cup of milk instead

Ilaychi powder- 1 pinch 

Khuskhus - 1tbsp

Makes around 24 pieces.

Procedure:

Chop almonds, cashews. Blend Khajoor in a mixer with no or little milk. Keep the mixture slightly coarse. It gives the pak the bite and a slight binding. Now, heat a pan and add ghee to it.

Roast all the nuts in it.

Then add sesame seeds and coconut to it. Add melon seeds. Roast for a couple of minutes till the color changes or it becomes fragrant. 

 Next, add blended khajoor. Cook till it becomes tender. Make sure it does not stick to the pan. Else it would give a burnt flavor.

 Now, you can add either milk or mava(khoya) to it. I had home made khoya ready with me, hence I added it. I you do not have it ready, add milk. Adding milk will increase the time of cooking (till the time it reduces completely). Or if you have condensed milk readily available, you can add it instead of milk. This will make it rich in taste and significantly reduce the cooking time.

  

Once it is nicely combined, take it a plate. Let it cool slightly, just to enable us to work with it. Now, take the mixture in parchment paper or baking paper or in aluminum foil. Roll it nice and tight. Freeze it for 10-15 minutes. This will make it firm and enable us to cut it.

Now, roll the rolls in Khuskhus to give it a bazaar like texture. Your Khajoor pak is ready. Cut it and serve it :) 

This is a beautiful recipe to satiate your sweet tooth and yet maintain your health. #SugarFree!

Samosa Cigars

We all love samosas :) How about getting them in a different look and making it easy to shape?
The video above gives you a recipe of how to make tasty samosa cigars at home..

Corn Cheese Balls

All we are looking for the quick recipes to make for our party and what else be as good as the corn cheese balls made with love at home! Let's have a look at the quick recipe for corn cheese balls

Make these at home and enjoy the bliss for your taste buds..

Ingredients:

• Boiled and mashed potato- 1 cup
• maida- 1/2 cup
• rava- 1/4 cup
• salt- for taste
• green chili paste- 1 tsp

For stuffing:

• Boiled sweet corn- 1/4 cup
• Boiled green peas- 1/4 cup
• mozzarella cheese- 1/4 cup
• salt-to taste
• oil- to saute
• red chili powder- 1/2 tsp
• chat masala powder- 1/2 tsp
• rock salt- to taste
• cheese cubes- 1/4 inch cubes

For coating-

water+cornflour slurry

crushed papad for the coating

Procedure:

Take the boiled and mashed potatoes. Add maida, salt and green chili paste to it and mix well. Keep aside.

2. To make the stuffing, saute boiled corn and green peas in a little oil. Take off the flame. Add mozzarella cheese, chat masala, red chili powder, salt, and rock salt. Mix well.

3. Take small amount of potato mixture. Flatten it. Add the stuffing to it. Place the cheese cube in it. Fold to make the ball out of it.

4. Coat in slurry and coat with crushed papad. Deep fry these corn cheese balls on medium fast flame.

5. Serve hot with mint chutney or the chutney of your choice :) I hope you enjoy this starter :)

Coconut Modak

This is a traditional recipe from Maharashtrian Cuisine, especially made during the Ganesha Festival. This modak recipe is simple, yet amazing..Try this at home today!

Ingredients:

ghee- 1 tbsp

chopped almonds- 15-20

chopped raisins- 12-15

desiccated coconut- 1/2 cup

jaggery- 1/4 cup (adjust jaggery to taste)

roasted til-  1 tbsp

elaichi powder- 1 generous pinch

tough dough made by mixing equal quantities of plain flour and wheat flour and half quantity of rava [example: 1/2 cup plain flour+ 1/2 cup wheat flour + 1/4 cup rava/semolina + 1 tbsp oil]

Procedure:

1. Heat ghee in a kadhai.

2. Fry chopped almonds and raisins one by one in ghee.

3. Remove excess ghee from pan after frying. Add coconut into the pan on slow flame.

4. Add jaggery to it. Mix well till jaggery melts.

5. Add elaichi powder and fried nuts to it. Add toasted til to it.

6. Take a small ball of the dough and roll into a puri.

7. Add the prepared mixture in the center.

8. Make modaks out of it after folding the corners inwards. Fry on medium heat in oil.

9. Serve hot. I am sure, Ganesh ji is going to love these modaks. :)