Pineapple Basundi/Single Serve Exotic Basundi

Basundi, this word itself makes me drool, i just love milk based sweets very much. Yes my sweet tooth craves always for some milk sweets. Though we have few Indian sweet shops in Paris, i love to prepare myself those easily available sweets at home. However i love to experiment in my kitchen rather than grabbing some from shops. Coming to my today's single serve desserts, yes my theme for this week's blogging marathon is single serve desserts, i opted for a fruit loaded basundi. Basundi is prepared by reducing milk to half of the quantity.Its quite a fantabulous sweet, one can enjoy this dessert along with some deep fried pooris, actually basundi makes an excellent pair with pooris. However people enjoy basundi chilled as much as like rabdi, an another milk dessert prepared almost like basundi.

Kandi Sunnundalu/Toor Dal Laddoos

Once again am sharing Hari Chandana's dish which i seriously want to give a try. Yes my today's post is Toordal Laddoos, i know many of you might wonder how laddoos can be prepared with toor dal. Even i was as much as like you guys. But after dishing out this laddoos my vision was completely a different one. If you love moongdal laddoos, then you will definitely enjoy this laddoos. The secret behind making a prefect aromatic laddoos is to dry roast the toor dals with much care and patience. Nicely dry roasted toor dal gives a fabulous flavor and i enjoyed it while roasting.

Miriyam Pulihora/Pepper Tamarind Rice

I couldnt stop myself to grab a Ugadi friendly recipe from Hari Chandana's Space,as she shares some lovely collections of Traditional and creative special dishes for Ugadi. Am running this week's blogging marathon with Festivals of the month as theme. Hence i have prepared my posts specially for Ugadi though its not quite late to prepare this dish. Ugadi calls for many delightful dishes with ressembles very much the mixture feelings of life. Obviously Ugadi special foods calls for tanginess, sweetness, spiciness, sourness. When i looked for a different rice dish for this special day, i got hooked to this different but yet a tangy rice dish aka Pepper tamarind rice. The name itself tempted me a lot, obviously i couldnt stop myself to prepare them at home.

Gluten Free Gramflour Halwa/Besan Ka Halwa

Besan Ka halwa is an ultimate sweet dish which is cooked simply with gram flour, sugar, ghee and milk. A gluten free dessert which makes a super rich dessert to enjoy without any guilt if you love sweets after your meal. Its quite a simple, easy sweet to prepare at anytime of the day if you feel like having something sweet. If you love mysorepak, trust me this besan ka halwa will definitely please your tastebuds. Yes we simply loved this fantastic, quick, easy breezy halwa as our dessert after a heavy sunday lunch.

Carrot, Rock Candy Halwa/Carrot Kalkandu Halwa

Rock Candy/Sugar Candy is known as Kalkandu in Tamil. Usually used in many traditional Tamil sweet, these sugar candy have their important place in most of the South Indian's pantries. One of the traditional dish prepared with rice and sugar candy is Kalkandu Pongal. When i picked 'No Bake desserts' as theme for this week's blogging marathon, initially i want to go with no bake cheesecakes. Since am in summer cleaning process, i want to finish few ingredients sitting in my pantry for a while. Obviously i used sugar candies for making a delicious carrot halwa to stick with the theme.

Vegan Coconut Cashew Burfi/Thenga Munthiri Burfi

Coconut burfi, this is my all time favourite sweets and nothing can beat the taste of this simple sweets. Whenever my sweet tooth crave for some sweets, i dont hesitate a second to dish this incredible burfi. If you check my blog, you may notice that i have already tried couple of versions of Coconut burfis. My love for this sweets pulled me to dish out some impossible versions of coconut burfis and my today's post is one among those unimaginable version. Actually my today's recipe is completely vegan and gluten free. Trust me this incredible sweet will definitely please anyone's tastebuds as this sweet is completely quick and easy to dish out.

Mango,Semolina & Coconut Halwa /Mango Suji Sheera with Coconut

Mango, the King of fruit is our family favourite fruit and whenever i get this fruit, i dont hesitate a second to prepare some fantastic dish out of this fruit. Kesari aka Suji halwa which is well known as Semolina pudding is one among the most traditional Indian sweets which is quite often prepared for any occasion quickly as this dish asks for some easy preparation. This lipsmacking semolina pudding is one of our family favourite and my better half love this kesari aka halwa to the core. Since i want to prepare a different version of this pudding, this time i prepared mine with fresh mango puree, dessicated coconut flakes with roasted semolina. Initially i was bit skeptical to try this coconut and semolina combination, but trust me the final result was definitely a droolworthy pudding.

Ricotta Cheese Gulab Jamun/Gulab Jamoon with Ricotta Cheese

Gulab jamun/Gulab Jamoon with ricotta cheese, yes you read it rite. Am so happy to try my hand with this ricotta cheese gulab jamuns. Actually i can get easily ricotta cheese than gulab jamun readymade mix, yes i have to take a train to go Indian stores and have to travel for half an hour, by the way to get ricotta cheese, i have to walk just for 5 minutes to get a box of this ultimate cheese. Obviously when i crossed this recipe from Savitha's kitchen, i was super excited to give a try. Trust me this jamun came out extremely delicious and the dough gets ready very much easily too.

Kashmiri Phirni/Kong Phirin/Kashmiri Semolina Pudding

Phirni is a delectable dessert prepared with rice as the main ingredient. Traditionally phirni is prepared on special occasions like Diwali, Holi, Karwa chauth and Ramazan etc. Coming to this fantastic Kashmiri Phirni, this pudding calls for semolina though many Kashmiri phirni calls for rice.This dessert has a super thick creamy texture and tastes absolutely delicious when served chilled. Kong means saffron and Phirin means sweet pudding. This semolina pudding calls for milk and khoya, which turned out this ultimate pudding more delicious and highly irresistible. Whoever loves Milk based sweets, will definitely fell in love with this beautiful pudding.

Elachi Malai Ladoo/Paneer Laddoo

Malai Laddoo aka paneer laddoo is a fabulous Indian sweet prepared easily with condensed milk and grated paneer. Trust me this ladoos are seriously very easy than the traditional boondi laddoos. Malai laddoos have their own place in most of the sweet platter. Since this delicious sweet balls are easy to dish out, you can prepare these laddoos anytime. If you are supposed to dish out something sweet to serve your loved ones or to share a sweet with your friends for any occasions/for any festivals, then check this laddoos. Just with three ingredients, these delicious laddoos gets ready very much easily than you can imagine.

Minapa Sunnundalu/Urad Dal Laddoo

Sunnundalu, this sweet is quite a popular one in Andhra, with just three ingredients you can make this healthy sweet in a jiffy. Sunnundalu or minapasunni is quite a healthy sweet, urad dal are in rich in iron and its quite advise to feed young gals with this laddoo. One small ball every morning will definitely keep you away from the lower back pain problem. This laddoo helps a lot in increasing haemoglobin levels in blood and makes the bone strong. Though my today's post goes for urad dal laddoo with sugar, some makes this cute balls with jaggery. Laddoo made with jaggery are more healthier than the sugar, however this laddoos are dangerously delicious coz of the use of ghee.

Basundi - How to make Basundi

Basundi is a one among the popular milk based dessert you can easily find in most of the marriage menu. This rich and delicious dessert is made simply with full fat milk, yes milk boiled in low heat with sugar until the milk gets reduced to half of the quantity makes this extremely delicious Basundi. Its quite a fantabulous sweet, one can enjoy along with some deep fried pooris, actually basundi makes an excellent pair with pooris. However people enjoy basundi chilled as much as like rabdi, an another milk dessert prepared almost like basundi. Basundi prepared with whole fat milk tastes absolutely divine and this dessert will definitely please everyone's tastebuds especially if you have sweet tastebuds.

Spicy Wheat Diamond Cuts/Sesame Seeds and Wheat Diamond Cuts

Am an ardent fan of deep fried snacks but now am keeping myself away from it. But kids just love crispy fritters, obviously we cant say no to them though they have rarely deep fried snacks. When my lil one asked for a spicy snacks, i couldnt say no to him, and prepared this wheat flour based diamond cuts with loads of sesame seeds and kasuri methi. Usually we make diamond cuts with maida or all purpose flour, my today's post of this diamond cuts calls for whole wheat flour, yes i deduced the quantity of maida and went for whole wheat flour, semolina to make them more healthy and crunchy. Sesame seeds and kasuri methi added to the dough makes this diamond cuts very flavourful and absolutely nutty.

Mixed Vegetables Channa Sundal

Evening snacks is the best part of the day, after an hectic day everyone at home love to have something filling for their snacks. With loads of proteins, sundal makes a healthy and definitely a filling evening snacks.Today's post goes for a catchy vegetable rich sundal, actually adding vegetables to usual sundal makes this already protein packed sundal more interesting and definitely super healthy.Sundal can be prepared with any beans or legumes but however most of us makes sundal with chickpeas aka channa. Chickpeas, this nutritious legumes are my favourite, tempered or not i can have a bowl of chickpeas sundal anytime. However everyone at home love this chickpeas sundal when tempered with spices and grated coconut.

Gajar Ka Halwa/Carrot Halwa with Khoya

One of the easiest and the delicious halwa is always this carrot halwa. Carrot halwa makes me nostalgic and this  is the first sweet dish i have dished out when i started cooking. Whenever mom goes to grandma's native, i wont forget to make this halwa to serve my father who fond always for my carrot halwa. Its been a while i prepared carrot halwa at home, more than a year may be. Dunno why i didnt prepared them at home eventhough my fridge will always have carrots.This time i prepared my favourite carrot halwa with sugarless khoya to give a fabulous taste. I had some leftover khoya which was sitting in my fridge, i finished them by adding in this halwa. We simply loved this halwa and couldnt stop having them.

Balushahi / North Indian Doughnuts/Tikari

Balushahi ressembles as much as like our South Indian popular Badushah aka sugar glazed maida flour doughnuts. Actually Balushahi is a traditional dessert/sweet in North Indian cuisine, Pakistani cuisine, Nepali and Bangladeshi cuisine. Balushahis are simply prepared with maida, clarified butter aka ghee with baking powder, baking soda. When deep fried and dipped in sugar syrup, these balushahis makes an excellent dessert or sweet to share or eaten with other savories or sweets.However i found that there were some differences between the Badushah and this balushahi, yes the dough for Balushahi goes for curd, baking soda,baking powder and ghee with maida while badushah is prepared mostly with dalda or ghee,maida with baking soda. However the shape and method is quite similar apart from the kneading part. Badushah goes for a smooth kneaded dough while balushahi's dough doesnt go for kneading. Baking powder and baking soda helps a lot to give a flaky texture to this Balushahis.

This Balushahis goes for  this month's Indian Cooking Challenge,a monthly event where we cook dishes from various regions of India.For this month's challenge, Srivalli suggested us this popular dangerously addictive Balushahis.I followed Manjula's recipe and prepared these gorgeous Indian doughnuts and enjoyed thoroughly,none cant just stop with one inspite of maida,ghee and sugar.

1cup All purpose flour/Maida
1/4tsp Baking powder
1/8tsp Baking soda
1/4cup Cold calrified ghee/Butter
1/4cup Yogurt (cold)
1cup Sugar
1/3cup Water
1/2tsp Cardamom powder
1tbsp Chopped pistachios
Oil for deepfrying

In a bowl, take the flour,baking soda,baking powder together, add the cold clarified ghee and mix until the mixture turns crumbly.

Slowly add the cold yogurt and mix everything to form a dough, dont knead the dough.

Cover the bowl and keep aside for half an hour.

Meanwhile take the sugar, water in a pan and heat in medium flame, bring it to boil.

Add in the cardamom powder, let it simmer until the syrup turns one thread constitency.

Take the dough knead for few minutes, and divide the dough into 10 equal balls.

Roll the balls and make a deep dent in the center of the balls.

Heat oil for deep frying in medium heat, once the oil is hot enough, drop balushahis one by one, dont overcrowd.

Cook on both sides until they turns golden brown (dont turn the balushahis more than three times).

Remove the fried balushahis and drain the oil with a paper towel.

Now drop the balushahi into the already sugar syrup, let them sit for few seconds, remove them and let it cool completely.

Garnish the balushahis with the pistachios.

Serve.

Corn Masala Vada/Cholam Masal Vadai

Sweet corns are still available in markets, eventhough its almost the end of corn season here. Since i had a bowl of fresh sweet corn kernels sitting in my fridge after making some fried rice, i want to finish them as soon as possible but while going through one of my cookbook which i bought during my India trip helped me to dish out these crispy beauties. This vada are simple to make, toordal and channadal are used in this crispy beauties, this recipe from the cookbook tempted me to give a try at home. Initially i was bit intrigued by the sweetness of the sweet corn kernels but trust me you will be surprised that the mild sweetness gives a fabulous taste to this crispy vadas. If you want to make a different masala vadas, just try to add some corn kernels and see the difference, personally i felt corn kernels merge very well with the dals and these vadas makes an excellent side dish for sambar or rasam rice.

Caramel Red Riceflakes Kheer/Caramel Aval Payasam

Kheer, this incredible Indian sweet pudding is one of my daughter's favourite. Obviously i love to make different kheers with many variations, this time i went for a delicious caramel flavored red riceflakes kheer for yesterday's Vinayagar chathurthi celebration.I crossed this very delicious kheer few days back while i was reading a Tamil magazine supplement. Actually the recipe i have crossed goes for white rice flakes, which i replaced simply with thick red rice flakes else i went as per the original recipe i have crossed.

Aval Kalkandu Payasam/Rice Flakes & Rock Candy Kheer

Who will say no if you get a new recipe to give a try, eventhough i love making new dishes  which pops up quite often in my small brain,but some new recipes will tempt you to give a try immediately. One among those temptation is this Payasam aka Kheer, i crossed this dish few days back while going through a tamil magazine supplement, the simplicity of this dish caught my eyes and for Janmashtami celebration i prepared this easy breezy kheer for pooja. They came out simply fabulous, rock candy took care of the sweetness in this kheer. You can make this kheer in less than 15minutes if you are using thin rice flakes. Even thick rice flakes works wonder too but it may take bit time to cook when compared to thin flakes. However this kheer is definitely one of the easiest kheer,one can prepared quickly even if you have sudden guests at home.

Little Millet Kheer/Samai Payasam

Little millet belongs to the famous millet family, as i told earlier millets can be used in everyday life and they are very versatile. You can make many dishes like upma, dosa,idli, vadas, murukkus, pongal,khichdi, biriyani etc. Little millet can be cooked as much as like rice, yes they can be steam cooked or pressure cooked. Actually little millet are also known as small millet and they are commonly cultivated in Southern parts of India,they will be small in size and gluten free. They contains nutrients like Zinc, magnesium, vitamins,potassium,folic acids, iron and calcium.I love cooking with millets, obviously millets have their important place in our weekly menu. Sometimes i replace rice completely with millets and now everyone at home dont complain to have millets atleast once or twice a week.Sending to Pari's Only - Gluten Free Cooking.