My first gel wax candle

Have got some tips from my teacher to avoid those bubbles.. until next time.

Panneer Stuffed Snake Gourd recipe

Well, I did not want to make the same usual stuff with the snake gourd that I'd got at hand and so decided to try and stuff it. I do remember seeing related recipes a very long time back but when I did google for "stuffed snake gourd" I was shocked to see that most of them were stuffed with meat or aloo. I decided to do it with panneer as I had in mind while returning from work.

I acted smart and made panneer burji. I made that in excess so that I could stuff the snake gourd with the same. It was scrumptuous.

Ingredients :

1. Medium snake gourd - peeled and deseeded
2. Enough panneer burji to stuff in
3. Salt to rub onto the snake gourd
4. 2 tbsp oil

How I made it :

1. Rub salt onto the snake gourd and cook on high in microwave for 5 minutes or until 3/4th cooked.
2. Fill it with panner burji
3. Heat oil in a wide pan.
4. Shallow fry the stuffed snake gourd pieces

Serve hot with rotis. Best had hot. As it cools, you may not like the taste of the oil - remember that shallow frying causes food to actually absorb/retain more oil.

Glazed Tofu with Stir fried BokChoy and Veggies

I had bought BokChoy recently and I had also picked up Tofu. Google showed me this very interesting recipe which I just had to try. I also added some more veggies to the stir fry and here's what it looked it.

Thengai Poli/Ubittu

Whilst in Chennai, our company used to sponsor snacks, which used to be my dinner, for those staying back beyond 7pm at work. This was a real motivation for many to stay back until 7pm. One of my favorites was poli. Warm and sweet, these melt in the mouth stuffed rotis were never something that I stayed away from. I saw this recipe on Nag's blog and it reminded me of poli. I had some coconut on hand and so decided to make the poli with the coconut stuffing rather than the dal. This would also make Pras very happy as he is a keralite who loves his coconuts (wicked smile ;))

When I gave Pras the first one, he went "It tastes just like it does in the store brought ones." Well, what more would I want to hear :)

Ingredients (makes 5 polis): 

1. 1 cup of maida - you could use whole wheat if you like
2. 1/2 cup jaggery
3. 1/2 cup coconut grated
4. 2 pods of green cardomom crushed
5. Salt a pinch
6. 1 tbsp oil
7. 2 tbsp ghee
8. Water - 1/4 cup + enough to make a smooth dough

How I made it :

1. Add the pinch of salt to the flour and make a smooth dough. Ply the dough for about 2 minutes before letting it rest for about 1 hour.
2. In the meantime, use as little water as possible to melt the jaggery in. This can be done on the stove top with regular mixing. Cutting the jaggery into smaller pieces help this get done sooner. 
3. Sieve this melted jaggery syrup to remove any impurities.
4. Add the coconut to this and cook on the stove until the mixture becomes sticky and almost dry.
5. To this add the crushed cardamom powder.
6. Now rub some oil onto a plastic sheet. 
7. Take a ball of dough and flatten it out in your palm, making a well in the center.
8. Fill this with the coconut jaggery mixture. Try to put as much as possible. Don't be scared of it coming out as this will be a sticky mixture and wont ooze out or cause too much trouble when rolling out. 
9. Pull the ends of the dough so as to enclose the coconut jaggery mixture and roll this into a thin stuffed roti. You could alternately make it like making stuffed aloo paratha.
10. Cook on a hot tava until both sides brown. Apply ghee generously and take off the heat.