Dear Friends,

Desserts
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Cashew Dates from Indira of Mahanandi

Dates Halwa from Ashwini of Food For Thought

Dates Obattu from Sia of Monsoon Spice

Date Halwa from Saju of Chachi’s Kitchen

Pumpkin Dates Walnut Halwa from Richa of As Dear As Salt

Dates Kheer from Ramya of Mane Adige

Dates Almond Payasam from Suma of Veggie Platter

Milk Date Peda from Red Chilli of Red Chillies

Dry Fruits Adai from Meenakshi of SuthiRecipe
Dates Milk Kheer from Meenakshi of SuthiRecipe

Stuffed Dates from Sagari of Indian Cooking

Dates Biscuit Pudding from Nags of For The Cook In Me

Qatayefs from Sra of When My Soup Came Alive

Date Tamarind Nut Treats from Bee & Jai of Jugalbandi

Date Candy from KayKat of Cooking From A To Z

Yogurt Date Parfait from Sandeepa of Bong Mom’s Cookbook

Baked Goodies
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Dates Biscuits from Dhivya of Culinary Bazaar

Date Cinnamon Sugarfree Cookies from Bindiya of In Love With Food

Dates Cookies from Anu of ChandraBhaga

Eggless Date Muffins from Seema of Recipe Junction

Rolled Dates Cookies from Dorit of Pretty Baking in Israel

Vegan Date Cake from Kumudha of Vegan Fare

Date Ricotta And Polenta Cake from Happy Cook of My Kitchen Treasures

Date Pecan Bundt Cake from Sunita of Sunita’s World

Dates And Persimmon Cake from Kalva of Curry In Kadai

Date And Walnut Date Cake from Deeba of Passionate About Baking

Eggless Date And Nut Cake from Shwetha of Fresh Flavors

Beverages
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Dates Apple Smoothie from Remya of Spices N Flavours

Dates Milkshake from Srivalli of Cooking 4 All Seasons

Dates Milkshake from Kribha of En Samayal Pakkam

Date Banana Milkshake from Chandrika of AkshayaPatra

Savory Treats
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Dates Raitha from Shankari of Stream Of Consciousness

Cranberry Date Chutney from Nupur of One Hot Stove

Toor Dal Chutney with Dates from Linda of Out Of The Garden

Coconut Date Chutney from Zlamushka of Zlamushka’s Spicy Kitchen

Date Fig Ravioli from Arundati of Escapades

Gretchen’s Moraccan Chicken from Gretchen of Canela & Comino

Date Cilantro Dressing from Valli of Valli’s Kitchen

Dates Pickle from Lissie of Salt and Spice

Breakfast & Snack Choices
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Oatmeal With Dates and Pistachios from Suganya of Tasty Palettes

Dates Parfait from Pooja of Masala Box

Date Walnut Tangerine Flavored Granola from Rajitha of Hunger Pangs

Date Bars from Raaga of Chef At Work

Dates Oats Bars from Asha of Aroma

Date Filled Bars from Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen

Date Bars from RP of My Workshop

Fig Date Bars from Mansi of Fun And Food

Date Cinnamon Porridge from Valli of Valli’s Kitchen

OK..without any further ado, let me get to the recipe quickly..I am already late for JFI-Toor Dal event hosted by Linda of Out Of the Garden and started by our beloved Indira..

My heart sank when Linda said no more entries after Dec 7th midnight, but the next line in her post provided a breath of air saying that it was better to be late than never..Thank you Linda..Hope you will accept my very late entry and am so sorry for pushing it on you at the last moment…

To my family, Toor Dal is as essential as rice. Be it pappu pulusu, pappu chaaru, paruppu rasam, tomato dal, mango dal..The list is endless.. So, for JFI, I wanted to try out something different. And it is as follows:

Adapted from Mallika Bhadrinath’s Tiffin recipes:

Toor Upma:

Toor Dal – 1/3 Cup
Raw Rice – 1/2 Cup

Green Chillies – 5
Grated Coconut (Fresh or Dry) – 1 Tbsp
Turmeric – A pinch
Asofoetida /Hing – A pinch
Water – 2.5 cups
Chopped Coriander – 4 Tbsps

For Seasoning:
Mustard Seeds- 1/4 Tsp
Urad Dal – 1/2 Tsp
Channa Dal – 1 Tsp
Curry Leaves – 6 to 7
Dry Red Chillies – 2 – Broken

Roast the dal and rice seperately till the dal is very light brown and the rice becomes opaque without turning brown.

Grind together the rice and the dal using a spice grinder/coffee grinder or a blender to a fine rawa consistency.

Using a pressure pan/cooker to make the upma is a fast way. But you can use a normal saucepan too.

Heat oil in a saucepan/ pressure cooker and when it is hot, add the items listed under seasoning. Next add the green chillies and hing and fry for a couple of secs. Next add water, coconut, turmeric and salt. When the water comes to a boil, reduce heat and stir in the rice and dal rawa. Keep stirring to avoid lumps. If using a pressure cooker, cover and let it cook for 2 whistles. If using a saucepan, cover and cook on a low flame till the water is absorbed and the dal is cooked through.

Stir in chopped coriander and remove from heat.

Serve hot with peanut or coconut chutney.

I am not a fan of Diwali, thanks to the fire crackers. To be honest, I don’t remember enjoying fire crackers even as a kid. My mom, dad and sister fall into the same category too. Before you think we are some sort of outcasts in the world of festivals, let me clarify that we love the spirit of Diwali and celebrate it with light, like all others. Except that we light lamps, rather than the noisy and dangerous fire crackers.

As a kid, walking down the streets of Vellore to my school a couple of furlongs away, was a nightmare during Diwali. Kids and grownups alike start bursting crackers in the narrow streets thronging with people, blissfully aware and conscious of the dangers the passerbys face. This menace starts a week before Diwali and continues for a week after and has been the same for the past 20 years. One of my school friends got hurt by a ‘Lakshmi bomb’ during one of those walks. Even now, I pray for my mom and dad’s safety during the Diwali season even though travelling in a four wheeler provides shelter to some extent.

I know you might think that I am being paranoid, but imagine the consequences when these potent bombs are placed in the hands of innocent kids, who are not supervised by elders. Even the colorful rockets and the seemingly harmless sparklers are deadly. We have heard enough horror stories of burns and blisters and in some cases even worse.

I am not against fire crackers, but I believe that their use must be regulated. Fire crackers are beautiful, amusing inventions when they are set off in an open space, away from public harm.

Ok, let me stop my sermon. No one can deny that Diwali is fun. Our day starts early with a hot oil bath using shikakai, followed by crisp new clothes. Next comes the pooja session and the scrumptious food. The evening sees the flickers of small clay lamps, dancing to the light breeze. Ah, how so peaceful… That is if we stuff our ears with cotton. 🙂

To my DH, Diwali means ‘ Godhuma Halwa’ made by his grandma. I never got the recipe from her, but I made it my way and it turned out exactly the way she makes it. That was my DH’s verdict, though. 🙂

Wheat halwa is traditionally made by soaking wheat grains for 24 hours and grinding them to extract the wheat milk. The reason behind it is to use only the starch and not the gluten.

I found a shortcut using wheat flour instead of the whole grains. Read on to find out….

Wheat Halwa:

Recipe:

Wheat Flour / Atta / Godhumai Maavu – 1 Cup

Sugar (Domino Brand) – 3/4 Cup + 1 Tbsp

Ghee – 16 Tbsps

Water – 1/4 Cup

Lemon Juice – 2 Tbsps

Cardamom Seeds from 4 pods – Finely ground

A fistful of broken cashewnuts or pistachios

Using a little water, make a firm dough with the wheat flour. Place the dough in a deep vessel and add water so that the dough is just immersed. Keep it aside for 30 mins.

After 30 mins, start kneading the dough, taking care to keep it immersed in water. White, milky, starchy extract will start to ooze out from the dough and the insoluble gluten can be felt as thin strands. Discard the gluten. Knead the dough till all the gluten has been removed and filter the milky extract. Any left out gluten will settle in the filter.

To the milky extract, add about 1.5 cups of water and keep aside for 20 mins. Next, discard the top most 1/2 cup of the clear liquid, without disturbing the settled milk.

Take a thick bottomed sauce pan and add the sugar. To it, add 1/4 cup of the remaining clear liquid and heat on a low flame till a one string consistency syrup is formed. Switch off the heat at this point for a couple of minutes and slowly pour the milky extract into the syrup along with the lemon juice, stirring all the while.

Switch on the heat again on a mid flame and keep stirring till the mixture thickens. Start adding the ghee two tablespoons at a time, whenever the mixture sticks to the pan. Halwa is done when the ghee seperates out and the mixture comes together as a semi solid mass. Add the cardamom powder and the broken cashewnuts to the halwa and stir till well blended.

Serve as such or mold to the desired shape.

When using sugar, check the sweetness. I have found that different brands of sugar have different sweetness levels. Holly brand of sugar found in Costco is sweeter than the Domino brand.

This yummy halwa goes to JFI – Jihva Special Editon : The Festive Series hosted by gracious Vee of Past, Present and Me. and to Monthly Mingle – Traditional Feasts hosted by lovely Meeta of What’s For Lunch Honey?.

Thank you for accepting my late entry, Vee.

WISH YOU AND YOUR FAMILIES A VERY HAPPY DIWALI! Hope you have a wonderful, fun filled time!

Though fresh date fruits are available in the markets seasonally, the dried version is more common. Fresh dates ferment very quickly, while dried dates have a longer shelf life.

So, roll up your sleeves and create wonders with dates!

The rules and guidelines are as follows:

1. Prepare a dish using fresh or dried Dates in any form.

2. Post the recipe in your blog from now till December 1st, 2007 and provide a link to this post. Non-bloggers can directly send me an email with the recipe and picture.

3. Send me an email (chandrika@inbox.com) with your blog name, blog link, perma link of your post and the picture of the recipe. Please use ‘AFAM-Dates’ as the subject in your email.

Do not bother about resizing your pictures. Send them to me as is.

I am eagerly looking forward to all of your wonderful entries to make my first blog event a success!

It has been quite a long time since I posted something new. It had been a very busy month, dotted with bouts of sickness. The cold weather which is slowly sneeking into this part of the world along with the flu virus, did give me quite a number of headaches. So, my expriments in the kitchen swayed from wild and wacky to bland and pure, in accordance to what my tastebuds craved. Wow, what a month it was! I feasted on plain steamed Basmati rice with steamed vegetables and loved the taste of it. The same could be said of pureed rice with buttermilk, and rice rawa porridge. Certainly bouts of sickness make me appreciate the taste and texture of food better.

Last week, on our grocery shopping I was shocked at the increase in rice prices. The rice variety in question being Sona Masoori. A little search threw me the news of ban on non-basmati rice varieties and also the news of the partial lift of the ban. News here: http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage_c_online.php?leftnm=11&bKeyFlag=IN&autono=29218 Back to long grained rice in a short while, should I say?

On a sunny note, I found a particular brand of yogurt which gave me good homemade yogurt. I found Horizons Organic yogurt in Wegmans and I loved the texture and flavor of the yogurt I was able to make using it. Try it..You are sure to like it! 🙂

On a side note, Padma of Padma’s Kitchen sent me the Amish Friendship bread starter and I made a batch of bread. It turned out delicious. However I could not send the starter packages on time and hence have started the second batch. I will post on the Amish bread pretty soon.

Ok..enough of notes.. 🙂 Last week, for the first time, I made Aatukkal paaya which roughly translates to ‘Goat Leg Soup’. Back home, my dad gets smoked goat legs from our local ‘Baai’ and mom pressure cooks them in water laced with turmeric and salt and keeps them in the fridge overnight. Here, I made the Paaya the same day.

Onto the recipe now:

Aatu Kaal Soup – Paaya: