Gajar matar sabzi recipe, carrot peas sabji

Gajar matar sabzi is a classic combo vegetable sabzi made especially when the red carrots and fresh peas are in season.
Though I meant to post earlier before the winter is over, when the Delhi carrots and peas are available. But last season somehow could not post it. So saved this post as draft. Better late than never. I make sure to buy these red carrots when it is in season. Just for it's colour, I love it. Be it any dish, the cooked carrots look so attractive and also tastes great. This is a simple sabzi made with no onion or garlic adapted from here. Just the masala powders and this looks and taste great.

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Ulundogare recipe, ulandogare

Ulundogare, ulandogare is a rice variety made with urad dal (de-husked black gram). It really healthy, so simple to prepare, yet tasty and flavourful.
When I was browsing Instagram, saw this ulundhogare and attracted by the name. I also love rice varieties (carbs😁) so decided to try it out. I browsed youtube and found this simple video and followed it to prepare this delicious rice variety. This was similar to the way mom prepares thengai sadam, but the slight variations make it taste totally different.
First rice is cooked, cooled down and kept aside. Temper and mixed with rice. Then at the time of serving, roasted urad dal and kopra (I used dessicated coconut) is mixed for best tasting ulundogare. The crispy coarse powdered urad dal and pepper takes the rice to a whole new level.
I tasted both when it is mixed and the urad dal is crisp as well as later after sometime. But the freshly mixed crisp urad dal is really great in this dish. So do try that way 😋.

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Cornflakes mixture, cornflakes chivda recipe

Corn flakes mixture is an easy Diwali snack that can be made quickly with simple ingredients. I have given deep fried version, but can also be prepared low calorie by using oven.

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Rava burfi recipe, rava coconut burfi

Rava burfi, rava coconut burfi recipe an easy sweet for Diwali with just 4 main ingredients. Rava burfi without milk. Full video and step by step pictures.
I have seen my mom in law make coconut burfi each time with some variations. No matter what she does, the burfi turns out delicious and white everytime, which she feels very proud. I too have seen many dull coloured burfi where my mami's burfi is white as snow. One of the main reason, she scrapes coconut without scraping the brown part. Other thing I noticed is the flame is not high to caramelize the sugar and change the colour dull. So I too make sure to follow these two when I prepare burfi.

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Dry fruits laddu recipe, no sugar Diwali recipes

Dry fruits laddu recipe prepared with cashews, almonds, pistachios sweetened with raisins, figs and dates.You can roll them optionally in desiccated coconut or use ghee to make it non sticky.
Dry fruits laddu is like an energy balls you can prepare within 15 mins and healthier with natural sweeteners instead of sugar or jaggery. We use only dates, figs and raisins for sweetening this laddu. If your kids eat dry fruits laddu, then you can be really happy as it is really good for their health because of its benefits.

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Thengai paal murukku recipe, Coconut milk murukku

Coconut milk murukku prepared with rice flour, moong dal flour and coconut milk as main ingredients. Crispy and flavourful murukku, perfect for Deepavali snacks.

Thengai paal murukku is in my Diwali post list for many years now. As usual I kept postponing, as I somehow had the thought that coconut milk might give you hard murukku and take a long time to cook. Not just a thought, it is because I have experienced it when few times my magizhampoo murukku turned kadak mudak 😁(hard). Later only I learnt that it was not because of coconut milk, it was because of the sugar candy/ sugar we use in that particular recipe, the murukku turns hard. If we use excess sweetener, it turns hard. 

So I thought this year I should try this out as I have a long list of pending posts in my Diwali to do posts. And it came out so white and crisp too. I used my small pithalai murukku achu (brass murukku press) that my mami got me in Kumbakonam. I used the three star shaped murukku plate for this as I have not used it for any of my posts if I am not wrong 😄

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Apple halwa recipe, Without milk

Apple halwa with just 3 main ingredients. Apple halwa recipe without milk or khoya. Learn how to make apple halwa recipe with step by step pictures recipe.
I have already once tried apple halwa couple of times, once from a cookbook I have. It asked me to cook grated apple in milk. When I added apple to milk, the milk curdled and it made me so upset to see the apple and milk going waste. So was not ready to try the halwa again. Again tried by referring a video which asked for 1 & 1/2 cups sugar for 3 apples, I too added same and found it too sweet, turned out burfi. Realized it could a different measure of 1 cup. So this time I tried half the sugar and got it exactly how I wanted.
I love halwa with a slight tanginess, and this really matches my needs. I was really happy with the outcome. I had lots of apples from Navarathri guests. Though I understand halwa needs only 3 apples, somehow wanted to try it out now as I had apples in stock enormously as well as I am posting Deepavali recipes 🙂 Last week it was banana, this week it's apple. No more halwa posts, promise 😆 Apart from the fact it would be boring for you readers, the ghee and sugar already made me saturated. Not sure how I am going to proceed with more Diwali sweets posts.
Though I made banana halwa with jaggery, wanted to use sugar for apple halwa as I wanted more glossy effect.

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Poondu murukku, garlic murukku recipe, mini murukku

Poondu murukku, garlic murukku is a flavourful twist to the regular murukku you prepare. I have made this as tiny mini murukku. It turns out flavourful, super crispy.
Whenever my in-laws visit kumbakonam, they make sure to buy sweets and snacks apart from coffee powder and other stuffs. Though we too make a short stay at Kumbakonam every year when we make our yearly temple visit, somehow it will be hectic and my father in law alone goes and grabs few sweets and snacks last minute. My mom in law says they usually buy a garlic murukku that is so flavourful and it is sold only in a particular shop. Mama buys similar murukku, which is plain flavour and white in colour. I could clearly feel it is just rice flour murukku. But as mami and co-sis raves about the garlic murukku I get tempted a lot.
This time, when Vj went for an official trip to India, he visited Chennai and my mami passed the tiny plain murukku through him. I was telling my mami over phone that I wanted to prepare the same way as it is. Actually last year itself I did attempted to make tiny murukku but ended up in making regular ones😄. When I told her, she asked me to try again, which I already had decided.
I have seen my mom covering two star shaped holes in her murukku press plate using cotton cloth rolled and stuffed in the two holes to block it. So that we have control over the shape, while squeezing with single hole in the murukku press. I thought, should adapt that method and try again to make tiny murukku.

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