Garlic Sev Recipe & Happy Diwali!

Its time for Diwali, one of the most cherished and fondly celebrated Indian festival, something that signifies Happiness and Light! Its a time to forgive and forget, to light the lamps of education, awareness, and faith. For us Hindus, it also signifies the dawn of a New Year, so its extra special! I take this opportunity to wish each and every one of you a Warm and Happy Diwali, one that reigns in loads of joy, prosperity, good health and fortune for you and your family. May you be blessed with peace and success in all your endeavors! It is traditional to feed people with Sweets and Snacks on Diwali, so here's some homemade Lehsuni (Garlic) Ganthiya to awaken your taste-buds!

Ingredients
100gm gram flour (besan)
1 tspn ground black pepper
1/4 tspn turmeric powder
1 tbsp soda-bi-carb
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp oil
2 tbsp red-chili & garlic paste
Salt to taste
Oil for frying

Special Equipment
Sev no Sancho (as shown in the photo below)(img source)
This can be bought from any Indian store where they sell Indian vessels. It is generally made of copper or brass, and is quite heavy. But it comes with several moulds so you can use it to make think or thick Sev, and also Jalebi, Ganthiya, Chakri and other Gujarati goodies!



Method
Mix besan flour with black-pepper powder and lemon juice, soda-bi-carb, oil, and salt. Add the red-chili and garlic paste, and add enough water and knead into a smooth dough. Shape the dough into a thick cylinder.

Now place this dough in the Sev machine; use a thick-holed mould as the base. Close the lid tightly from the top.

Heat oil in a frying pan and wait till it gets sufficiently hot. Drop a tiny piese of dough in it - if it rises immediately, means the oil is hot enough.

Now holding the machine over the hot oil, rotate the lid and force the mixer through the holes by turning the handle, spreading it out evenly in circular movement in the oil.

Fry the Sev for about 2-3 minutes on medium flame till it is lightly golden-brown in color. Remove and drain on a tissue paper, and repeat with the remaining dough.

This savoury Diwali snack is on it's way to Srivalli's JFI-Festival Treats, originally started by Indira. This Lehsuni(Garlic) Sev tastes great with tea! It can be stored in an air-tight container for upto 2 weeks.

Here's wishing all of you a Happy and Prosperous Diwali!

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The Art of Making Swiss Chocolates

There's a reason why people love Swiss Chocolates - because they are absolutely superb, have great innovative flavors, and literally melt in your mouth! The high content of superb cocoa butter, which gives the chocolate its smooth, creamy texture and the high standards of manufacturing make them an attractive indulgence around the world. Made with fresh milk that is produced by healthy and Swiss Cows (more happy than those that come from California!), here's what we learned on our recent Europe trip about what makes Swiss Chocolates the best in the world!

Swiss chocolates are world renowned for their high quality, mainly for the fact that, besides using only the best ingredients for making chocolate, it is the milk which makes all the difference! It is procured from Swiss cows that are raised on an organic diet of fresh meadow grass and remain healthy and happy in the evergreen Swiss countryside.

The Making of Chocolate
The art of chocolate making involves manipulating the crystal structure of the cocoa, fat, and sugar to provide a smooth melt-in-the-mouth feeling. Here's what we found about the chocolate-making process, and I thought it'd be interesting to share this with you all.

1. Refining
The first step is Refining, where fat, cocoa, and sugar are milled to a very fine particle size.

2. Conching
The mixture is then subjected to a process called conching, which is the most critical step in chocolate-making. Conching involves kneading the chocolate mixture with additional cocoa butter for 24 to 96 hours at over 150 deg F to give it its final smoothness and creaminess and remove any residual moisture.

3. Tempering
The final step in the manufacture of chocolate is tempering. As liquid chocolate cools and solidifies, the cocoa butter forms crystals. To temper chocolate, it is heated and cooled under controlled conditions so that a fine, even-grained texture is developed. Typically, chocolate at this stage is not heated above 115 deg F. Lecithin, a natural emulsifier derived from soybeans, is added to chocolate at this stage to prevent Blooming (the process of a white haze forming over chocolate when it is cooled)

Challenges in Chocolate Making
One of the challenges in chocolate-making is that water interferes with the crystallization of the cocoa butter, which can then make the chocolate hard and brittle. So, in 1875 a Swiss manufacturer named Daniel Peters discovered the key to a successful milk chocolate process. Instead of using milk, which is almost 80-90% water, he used milk powder instead! By doing this, he was able to produce a coarse, dry milk chocolate bar. By 1897, however, Mr. Peters had perfected a process using condensed milk to produce an intermediate product called milk crumb. Milk crumb is produced by cooking chocolate liquor with sweetened condensed milk, dry ing this mixture into a powder, and subsequently blending it with cocoa butter to produce chocolate.

What is special about Swiss Chocolates is their quality. They are hard and well-formed with clean edges. The smell of a fine chocolate is full and rounded, but never obtrusive. Good chocolate melts like butter, does not stick to the roof of the mouth or feel gritty, and hardly leaves any aftertaste. The best part about these chocolates is the variety of flavors they come in. From Ameretto and Orange to Almonds and some really exotic flavored liqueuers, the Swiss have some really unique chocolates that you couldn't find anywhere else.

We enjoyed every bit of our chocolate-tasting venture and it was a privilege seeing how its made. So, the secret of Good Chocolates are Happy Cows, and Happy Cows come from Switzerland!

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Motichoor Boondi Laddu - For Diwali

Diwali is just one week away, and I'm sure preparations are on in full swing in many Indian households! As one fo the most widely celebrated Indian Festival, Diwali is a time for homemade sweets and snacks, and these Motichoor(Boondi) Laddoos are an apt creation! This Indian sweet gets its name from the Hindi word "Boond", meaning droplets, or "Moti", meaining Pearls!! Motichoor laddus made from fine gram-flour droplets which are fried and then immersed in a thick & delicious saffron flavored sugar syrup, and finally rolled into the shape of Laddoos. It looks like a lot of work, but when you put one in your mouth, you'll know its totally worth it!

An important part of any festival is the fact that you get to do things together, with your friends and family. Being is US, I miss the charm of some Indian festivals, but in my brief India trip, we tried to capture the essence as much as possible! The credit of this recipe goes to Saroj Ben, the lady who helps us make delicious delicacies during festival time, and of course to my Mom! Its great how inspiring and spiritually healing cooking can be.

My mom and my mother-in-law, both wanted to pack as many Diwali delicacies for us as the airlines would allow us to, so I have tonnes of goodies to share with you. For now, enjoy these lovely Motichoor Ladoos!

Ingredients
(Makes about 25 Laddoos)

For Boondi
2 1/2 cups of Gram Flour (Besan)
500 ml of Whole Milk
3 cups of Clarified Butter (Ghee) - for deep frying
1/4 cup dry-fruits - finely chopped (optional)

For Sugar Syrup
2 1/2 cups of Sugar
2 tbsp of Whole Milk
1/2 tsp of Cardamom Powder
A few drops of Saffron essence (for deep frying)
3 and 1/2 cups of Water

Special Equipement
A strainer, colander or fine sieve with droplet-sized or smaller pores

Method

Making the Sugar Syrup
In a large deep vessel, put the sugar and water and bring to a boil. Once the sugar dissolves, add in the milk. Boil for 5 minutes or until scum forms on top. Strain with the strainer spoon and return to stove. Add in the saffron color and boil until it is sticky but no thread has formed. Add in the cardamom powder and mix well. Then set aside.

Making the Boondi
Mix the flour and milk together to form a smooth batter. Heat the clarified butter in a heavy frying pan. Hold the boondi-strainer over the frying pan with one hand. With the other hand, pour some batter all over the holes. Tap gently until all of the batter has fallen into the hot clarified butter. Be careful to stay away from the stove as the ghee might sputter a little. Stir with another strainer and remove once it is light golden in color. Set aside on a paper towel, and repeat the process for the remaining batter.

Making the Laddoos
Partly crush/smash 1/4th of the fried boondi with hand; immerse all the fried boondi in the syrup. Drain any excess syrup and spread in a large plate. Add the chopped dry fruits to this mixture. Sprinkle about 2 tsp of hot water over it. Cover and set aside for 5-10 minutes so the boondi soaks up the syrup and it becomes soft.

Once it gets sticky, and cool enough to handle, take a small portion of the boondi mixture and shape into small round balls with moist palms. Do the same for all laddoos.

Arrange on a plate and keep open to dry so the laddoos solidify. One they are hard enough, you can store in an air-tight container and keep in the regrigerator for upto 2 weeks.

Enjoy these delicious Motichoor (Boondi) Laddus and share them with your friends and guest as you celebrate Diwali!

Need more Diwali Sweets? Try the Kesar Almond Burfi, Coconut Laddoos, Kesar Rasmalai or Bengalli Rasgullas and make your Diwali a memorable one!

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