The Insider

I have been to a party where I had some yummy gulab jamuns. Its been a while that I made them, so thought I will make them this time for my husband’s birthday party. It was nice, quick and easy method. But I dint use any of those instant mixes that you get in the market like MTR or Bambino. I wanted to do it from the scratch! SO here goes the yummy recipe!

Ingredients:

Full Cream Milk Powder - 1.5 cups

Self Raising Flour - 0.5 cup

Thickened cream - As required

Oil for fryiing

Sugar - 4 cups

Water - 7 cups

A bit of elaichi (cardamom) powder for its flavour

Some grated nuts like Pista, Cashew and Almonds for garnishing.

Procedure:

Firstly, mix both sugar and water in a dish and boil it for 10-15 minutes to form sugar syrup. Now switch off the stove and put cardamom (elaichi) powder in it and let it cool.

Make a dough with Milk powder and Self raising flour by adding just enough cream to it. Make small balls out of the dough. The milk powder in the Gulab Jamuns gives them a kind of “Kova” taste.
In a pan heat the oil and fry the the small dough balls in it till they reach nice brown colour. Take them out of the oil and let them cool

Now soak the jamuns (the fried balls) into the sugar syrup for atleast 20 minutes. Garnish them with the pista, cashew or badam flakes.

And Voila! Some yummy Gulab Jamuns are ready for serving.

After a busy day’s work at the office and getting back home you want to eat something nice tasty and at the same time healthy. I made gongura pulusu the other day and felt that it suits all those requirements.

It was quite hard to find gongura (Sorrel leaves) here in Sydney. But thanks to Flemmington markets, where we can get most of the Indian vegetables, I found gongura over there. I have done a bit of research online for the recipes but all of the current online ones I found were not quick and easy recipes. So I thought I would make one of my own. And hence follows…

Ingredients:

• Gongura
• Chana Dal
• Menthulu
• Mustard seeds
• Onions
• Garlic
• Green Chillies
• Besan
• A pinch of turmeric

Pluck and chop Gongura leaves to medium size. Boil it with chana dal in a pressure cooker. After 3 whistles stop the cooker and set aside for cooling off. Once cold, open the cooker and drain the water off. Slice onions into thin and long slices. Also chop chillies and garlic.

Heat a pan and put a couple of spoons of oil in it. I usually use Extra virgin olive oil for cooking to provide that extra care for my heart Refined sunflower oil can also be used for the same. Put mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds (menthulu) in the oil and when the mustard seeds splatter put chopped chilli and garlic. Once garlic is fried and turns brownish put chopped onion and fry till golden brown. Add a pinch of turmeric and fry it for 30 seconds. Now put the boiled chana dal and gongura leaves in it. Add some salt chilli powder according to taste and cover it to cook. Keep an eye on it so that it does not get burnt at the bottom. Let it cook for 8 min and then add some water to it. Now let it boil and cook well. In a separate bowl mix a little bit of Besan in water to make a thick paste. When cooked well i.e.. the leaves are soft add the besan paste to the mixture and let it cook again for 5 min. The besan mixture makes the soup a bit thicker. Now turn off the stove and garnish with chopped coriander.

If you think that sorrel leaves are not sour enough then you can also add a little bit of tamarind paste for that sour touch.

Yahoo!! Yummy Gongura pulusu is now ready for serving.