Grandmother's Kitchen

Ingredients

• 1 cup white sesame seeds
• 1 cup roasted peanuts, skins removed
• 1 cup dry coconut (copra), in small pieces
• 1 cup jaggery cubes
• ½ cup roasted gram (hurigadale)

Method

1. Dry-roast the sesame on low heat until it smells nutty, then cool.
2. Cut the copra and jaggery into small, even pieces.
3. Mix everything in a large bowl.
4. Pack into small bags with a sugar-candy figure (sakkare acchu) if you have one.

Ingredients

• ½ cup rice
• 2 tbsp moong dal
• 2½ cups water
• ¾ cup grated jaggery
• 3 tbsp ghee
• 10 cashews, a few raisins
• ¼ tsp cardamom powder, a pinch of edible camphor (optional)

Method

1. Lightly roast the moong dal, then pressure-cook rice and dal with water until very soft.
2. Melt the jaggery in ¼ cup water and strain.
3. Mash the rice and dal, add the jaggery syrup and cook for 5 minutes.
4. Fry cashews and raisins in ghee and pour over, with cardamom.

Ingredients

• 1 cup besan (gram flour)
• ⅓ cup ghee
• ½ cup powdered sugar
• ¼ tsp cardamom powder
• Chopped almonds or pistachios

Method

1. Roast the besan in ghee on low heat, stirring all the time, for 15 to 20 minutes until golden and fragrant.
2. Cool until warm.
3. Mix in sugar, cardamom and nuts.
4. Shape into balls while still warm.

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp almonds
• 1 tbsp each melon seeds, poppy seeds and fennel
• 8 black peppercorns, 6 cardamoms
• 1 litre cold milk
• 4 tbsp sugar
• A few saffron strands, rose petals

Method

1. Soak the nuts, seeds and spices for 2 hours.
2. Grind to a smooth paste with a little milk.
3. Stir into cold milk with sugar and saffron, and strain.
4. Chill and serve with rose petals.

Ingredients

• A few tender neem flowers
• 2 tbsp grated jaggery
• 1 tsp tamarind pulp
• A little raw mango, finely chopped
• A pinch of salt and pepper

Method

1. Mix everything together.
2. Offer it at the altar first.
3. Everyone eats a small spoon before breakfast.

Ingredients

• 1 cup chana dal
• 1 cup jaggery
• ¼ tsp cardamom
• 1 cup maida or fine wheat flour
• A pinch of turmeric, salt
• ½ cup oil, ghee to serve

Method

1. Make a soft dough with flour, turmeric, salt, water and plenty of oil. Rest for 2 hours.
2. Cook the dal until soft but not mushy, drain, and cook with jaggery until thick. Grind with cardamom.
3. Wrap a ball of filling in a little dough, flatten thin on oiled paper.
4. Cook on a hot tava on both sides and serve with ghee or milk.

Ingredients

• ½ cup moong dal, soaked 2 hours
• 1 cucumber, finely chopped
• 1 carrot, grated
• 2 tbsp fresh coconut
• Lemon juice, salt, coriander
• Tempering: oil, mustard seeds, green chilli, hing

Method

1. Drain the dal well.
2. Mix with cucumber, carrot, coconut and coriander.
3. Add salt and lemon just before serving.
4. Pour the hot tempering on top.

Ingredients

• 1 cup rice flour
• 1 cup water, 1 tsp ghee, pinch of salt
• 1 cup fresh grated coconut
• ¾ cup jaggery
• ¼ tsp cardamom

Method

1. Cook coconut and jaggery until thick, add cardamom, and cool.
2. Boil water with ghee and salt, stir in rice flour, cover and rest 5 minutes, then knead smooth.
3. Flatten a ball, pinch pleats around the edge, fill, and close at the top.
4. Steam for 12 minutes and serve with ghee.

Ingredients

• ½ cup thin vermicelli
• 1 litre milk
• ½ cup sugar
• 2 tbsp ghee
• Cashews, raisins, cardamom, saffron

Method

1. Fry cashews and raisins in ghee and set aside.
2. Roast the vermicelli in the same ghee until golden.
3. Add milk and simmer until soft, 10 minutes.
4. Add sugar, cardamom and saffron, then the nuts.

Ingredients

• 1 cup chickpeas or other beans, soaked overnight and boiled
• 2 tbsp grated coconut
• Oil, mustard seeds, urad dal, curry leaves, dried red chilli, hing
• Salt

Method

1. Heat oil and add mustard, urad dal, chilli, curry leaves and hing.
2. Add the boiled chickpeas and salt.
3. Toss in coconut and stir for a minute.

Ingredients

• ½ cup rice and ½ cup toor dal
• 2 cups mixed vegetables (beans, carrot, peas, shallots)
• Tamarind, lemon-sized ball, soaked
• 3 tbsp bisi bele bath powder
• Ghee, cashews, curry leaves, mustard

Method

1. Pressure-cook rice and dal together until very soft.
2. Cook vegetables with tamarind water, salt and the powder.
3. Mix in the rice and dal, adding hot water for a flowing consistency.
4. Finish with a ghee tempering of mustard, curry leaves and cashews.

Ingredients

• ½ cup fine semolina (rava)
• 1½ cups water
• ¾ cup sugar
• 4 tbsp ghee
• Saffron or a pinch of kesari colour, cardamom, cashews, raisins

Method

1. Fry cashews and raisins in ghee, then roast the rava until fragrant.
2. Add boiling water with saffron, stirring to avoid lumps.
3. When thick, add sugar; it will loosen, then thicken again.
4. Finish with ghee and cardamom.

Ingredients

• 1 cup sabudana (sago pearls)
• ½ cup roasted peanuts, coarsely crushed
• 1 potato, boiled and cubed
• 1 green chilli, cumin seeds, curry leaves
• Rock salt (sendha namak), a little sugar, lemon
• 2 tbsp ghee, coriander

Method

1. Rinse the sabudana until the water runs clear, then soak in just enough water to cover for 4 to 6 hours.
2. Mix the soaked pearls with crushed peanuts, rock salt and a pinch of sugar.
3. Heat ghee, add cumin, chilli and curry leaves, then the potato.
4. Add the sabudana and stir gently on low heat until the pearls turn clear. Finish with lemon and coriander.

Ingredients

• 3 cups mixed vegetables in finger-length pieces (carrot, beans, raw banana, drumstick, ash gourd)
• ¾ cup fresh grated coconut
• 2 green chillies, 1 tsp cumin
• ½ cup thick curd, lightly beaten
• 2 tbsp coconut oil, curry leaves
• Turmeric, salt

Method

1. Cook the vegetables with turmeric, salt and a little water until just tender.
2. Grind coconut, chillies and cumin to a coarse paste with very little water.
3. Stir the paste into the vegetables and cook for 3 minutes.
4. Turn off the heat, stir in the curd, and finish with raw coconut oil and curry leaves.