Singhare Ka Halwa, also known as Sheera, is an Indian sweet dish made with water chestnut flour. This is a quick 20-minute snack time dessert. It's very easy to cook and tastes wonderful.
Grate the potatoes and squeeze out excess moisture.
Place the grated potatoes in a bowl and add in all ingredients, except oil.
Mix well.
Shape this dough into some flat patty shapes on the palm of your hand.
Shallow fry in a wide pan until golden brown on both sides.
Serve the patties hot with ketchup.
Happy cooking!
January 2021
Saffron Rice Kheer (Indian Rice Pudding)
This year what you need is a perfect sweet dish to celebrate the new year with your friends and family. The beauty of Kheer is that it can be made in various ways and every region in India has a different name for it. In north India, it’s popularly known as Kheer, in eastern region it goes by the name of Payesh, while in the south it’s called Payasam.
Course: Sweet, Dessert Cuisine: Indian Prep Time: 5 minutes Cook Time: 30 minutes Total Times: 35 minutes Servings: 5 servings
Ingredients:
2.5 teaspoon ghee
45 grams pre soaked and drained short grain or basmati rice
5 cups/ 1 litre warm milk
6.25 tablespoons sugar
Pinch of salt
3 cardamom pods, crushed
Generous pinch of saffron strands
0.31 cup chopped / sliced assorted nuts
2.5 teaspoon rose water (optional)
1.25 tablespoon dried rose petals (optional)
Instructions:
Soak saffron in 1 tablespoon of warm milk and keep it aside.
Heat up a heavy bottom non-stick pan. Add in ghee.
Now put the rice in the pan and stir for 1 minute on medium heat.
Now slowly add in the warm milk. Do not add the saffroned milk yet.
Let it come to a boil. Stir occasionally.
Once it starts to boil, lower the heat and keep stirring often to avoid rice or milk sticking to the bottom and the sides.
The milk will start thickening and reducing within 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes, just check the rice, it should be tender enough.
Now add in the sugar, salt, cardamom and the saffron milk.
Cook it for another 10 minutes. The milk should have considerably reduced.
It might look thin, but remember after cooling and chilling it will considerably thicken it up.
Stir in the chopped nuts.
Switch off the flame.
Serve warm or chilled.
Add rose water and rose petals just before serving. (optional)
Hope you like this recipe, and please do give it a try. I would love to hear from you.
Happy New Year!
January 2021
The Journey of Tea
Welcome back to Tangy Tastes! Today, I've got something interesting to share with you. Have you ever wondered where tea, which is now part of everyone's lives, originated? Who found tea? Let's find out!
The story of tea is different from all others. The Chinese legend says that tea was found in 2700 BC, around 4700 years before now, when the Emperor Shen Nong, a skilled ruler and scientist, discovered tea. And you know the fun part? Its discovery was by accident!
The Emperor drank boiled water everyday, as it was good for health. One day, when the Emperor's servants were boiling water in the garden for him, some leaves of a wild unknown tree fell into the pot. The servants didn't realize this when they presented the water to their ruler. Emperor Shen Nong was delighted to have this wonderful drink and asked the servants what new ingredient they had added to his boiled water. The servants then noticed the leaves on the bottom of the glass the king was drinking and said, "Your Highness, forgive us, the leaves of a wild tree fell into the pot when we were boiling water for you." The Emperor loved the drink and asked the farmers to plant more of these wild trees. Now he drank boiled water with the leaves of that tree in it. This tree is now known as the tea tree. And that's how tea was found.
Now, as China was the only country that knew about tea, the Emperor refused to tell any other country about it. Tea was cultivated, drunk as a normal refreshment, and served to guests in China. But no one from any other part of the globe knew about it until the 9th century.
The secret of tea was uncovered by a Buddhist saint, who traveled from China to Japan and told the Japanese about tea. From then on, the Japanese also included drinking tea in their day-to-day lives. From Japan, tea was exported to Europe around the 16th century. In September 1658, an advertisement for tea from China was printed in a the newspaper Mercurius Politicus in London! So, tea was first found in China, then reached Japan, and then London. But the story isn't over yet! Tea was still not as famous as it is now.
In 1815, an American noticed that people of the Assam state of India drank something like tea, which was made by a local growing plant. And indeed it was tea! Then, in 1823, Major Robert Bruce, who worked in the East India Company, met the King Maniram Datta Barua of the Singpho tribe of Arunachal Pradesh in India. When Robert Bruce was ill, the King of the tribe offered him tea as a medicine. Major Robert Bruce was very happy and proud to find a new source of tea and sent some samples of it to the Botanical Garden of the East India Company, which was in Calcutta (Kolkata). But for some reason, the botanists there didn't recognize it as tea. They thought it was just a normal green leaf!
In 1831, Major Robert Bruce sent some samples of Arunachal Pradesh's tea leaves to the Agricultural and Horticulture Society in Calcutta. But still, they refused to believe it was tea. Robert Bruce still didn't lose his hope. In 1834, when Robert's brother Charles Alexander Bruce sent the samples of the tea to the East India Botanical Garden around Christmas, it was finally recognized as tea!
That tea was named 'Assam Tea' and its scientific name is Camellia sinensis. Coincidentally, in 1834, when the partnership of the East India Company broke up with China, they approached India for business profit. They made a Tea Committee to look for fertile land to grow more tea. Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, and Calcutta were chosen for this.
In 1835, Charles Alexander Bruce was made the Superintendent Of Tea Forests. The two Bruce brothers had a big business of producing and exporting tea. In 1838, tea was exported from India to London in large quantities and it was auctioned there. The auction made profits, so a company was formed in London, known as The Assam Company Lmt. The company made such huge profits that around 1855, they exported tea of five thousand hundreds (lakhs) from India. In 1858, the Assam Company totally took over the tea business of the East India Company. And thus began the Golden Age of Tea business. The British found both items they needed for this business in India: fertile land and workers. And another important thing: free places like Assam hills and Nilgiri hills were soon converted into tea gardens. More than 10,000 workers worked here.
The Assam Company also made a Fugitive Slave Law, in which, if any worker leaves the job, then they could be captured or be given a death sentence. Due to this, the workers worked more and soon, India's tea production and exportation increased and went higher than that of China's. One third of the business Britishers did in India was of tea. Tea gardens then started to modernize. Big lands were used to plant tea and a lot of factories near them to pack and export it. This way, both the production and exportation of tea from India began to touch the skies. Tea was now very common in India and people stopped drinking China's tea.
Tea is used worldwide in large amounts. From tea gardens to your tea cup – that's the journey of tea!
October 2020
Welcome everyone to Tangy Tastes! Today's special is Khaman Dhokla!
PREP TIME : 5 minutes COOK TIME : 10 minutes TOTAL TIME : 20 minutes CUISINE : Gujarati, Indian COURSE : Breakfast, Snacks SERVINGS : 5 to 6
INGREDIENTS
For Batter:
1.5 cups gram flour (besan)
1 tablespoon rava (or semolina) - optional
3 teaspoon ginger-green chilies paste (1 inch ginger + 1 or 2 green chilies crushed in a mortar-pestle)
2 to 3 pinches turmeric powder
1-2 pinch asafoetida (hing)
2 teaspoon eno or fruit salt ½ to ¾ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt or as required
1 teaspoon lime juice
1 cup water or add as required- the amount of water required depends on the quality of gram flour. So, add as required to make a thick, yet flowing batter.
Take 1.5 cups of gram flour (besan) in a mixing bowl or pan.
Add 2 to 3 pinches of turmeric powder, a generous pinch of asafoetida, 1 tsp lime juice and 3 tsp ginger-green chilies paste and salt.
Add 1 cup water or as required to make it thick yet flowing. The amount of water required depends on the quality of flour, so add as required.
Stir and then add 1 tbsp semolina.
Stir to a smooth thick batter without any lumps.
The batter should be thick yet flowing. A quick tip is that if the batter becomes thin, then add 1 to 2 tbsp more semolina or gram flour.
Also bring to a boil 2 to 3 cups of water in a steamer pan or electric cooker or pressure cooker.
The amount of water to be added depends on the size of the steamer or pressure cooker.
Then add 2 tsp eno or fruit salt.
Stir briskly and quickly. The fruit salt should be mixed evenly with the batter or else you get uneven texture in the dhokla.
The batter would froth and become bubbly, so you have to be quick.
Pour the batter in the greased pan.
Steaming Method
Place the pan in a steamer or electric rice cooker or pressure cooker. The water should already be boiling or hot when you place the pan with the dhokla batter. When using the pressure cooker, remove the vent weight/whistle from the lid and cover the cooker tightly with its lid.
Steam for 15 to 20 minutes in an electric cooker. If using a pan or pressure cooker, steam for 12 to 15 minutes on a medium to high flame. Here the khaman is ready after 17 minutes.
To check the doneness, insert a toothpick and if it comes out clean, the dhokla is done. If the toothpick has the batter on it, then you need to steam for some more time.
When the khaman becomes warm, gently slide a knife along the edges. Keep a plate or tray on top of the pan.
Invert the pan. If greased well, the khaman will easily get inverted on the plate. Slice and keep aside.
Microwave Method
Grease a microwave safe bowl or pan with oil.
Cover and microwave the batter for 2 minutes on high.
Check the doneness by inserting a toothpick in the dhokla. If not done, then microwave again on high for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Still, if not done, then microwave again for some more seconds
Remove the dhokla from the pan once warm or cooled.
Tempering for Khaman Dhokla
In a small pan, heat 2 tbsp oil.
Add 1 tsp mustard seeds and allow them to crackle.
When the mustard seeds are crackling, add the 1 tsp cumin seeds (optional), 8 to 10 curry leaves and 1/2 to 1 tsp chopped green chili (optional).
Stir and then add 2 tsp sesame seeds.
Fry till the sesame seeds change color. Don't make them brown them.
Then add 1/3 cup water. Be careful while adding water as the mixture sizzles.
Add 2 tsp sugar. Stir and allow the tempering mixture to come to a boil.
Then pour this tempering mixture evenly on the khaman dhokla.
Serving
Garnish with 2 tbsp chopped coriander seeds and 2 tbsp grated coconut.
Serve khaman dhokla straight away or you can store them in an airtight container and then serve later.
If serving khaman dhokla later, then don't add the coconut. You can also refrigerate them.