Ice Cream Falooda

I am a member of South Vs North Challenge, started by Divya of You Too Can Cook. Every month, a member from North team will challenge the South team with an authentic north Indian recipe, while a member of Southern team will challenge the North team with an authentic South Indian recipe. I try to participate every month, but once I skipped the challenge. It was on September and the challenge was hosted by Minnie. Falooda, being a rich north Indian dessert is a layered chilled dessert, the main ingredient being falooda noodle. The falooda noodles are readily available in market and it is easy breezy to make this dessert. But for me, it was tough as my fridge was giving so many problems and falooda noodles is not available at my place. I went through so many posts on making the noodles at home, but due to the lack of my fridge, I didn't attempt it. And one fine day, i.e my birthday, my hubby dear gifted me a fridge and the first thought which came to my mind was to try falooda. I didn't want to buy icecream and so made it at home. 

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Gujarathi Gathiya

For this month's Indian Cooking Challenge, Srivalli got the recipe for Gujarathi snack Gathiya from Vaishali who got it from her friend. Gathiya is a savoury snack which is almost like the south Indian kara sev. The only difference is it is mildly spiced whereas kara sev is extremely spicy. I made this two days back. Sruti is not a great fan of savoury snacks but hubby dear loved it. We are having a nice time during coffee. They pair up perfectly. The addition of baking soda to the dough is very quite interesting. We need to roast baking soda until brown and then add it to the flour. This makes sure that the gathiyas melt in the mouth. The addition of ajwain/ omam gives it a nice flavour.

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Malai Kofta Curry

For this month's South Vs North Challenge, started by Divya, Nupur of Northern team challenged the Southern team with a delicious and rich gravy. Malayi Kofta curry is a rich creamy gravy served along with soft paneer koftas. This is a restaurant style gravy which goes very well with tandoori roti, naan and other flat breads. The paneer koftas are actually deep fried, but it is completely your choice. You can either deep fry them or shallow fry or bake or cook them in paniyaram pans. However you cook the koftas, the final gravy turns out delicious. I recently purchased a grill plate for making rotis. To go with the gravy I made some rotis made on the grill plate. The combination was quite fantastic. 

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Litti Choka

Littli Choka is a famous snack from Bihar. Served along with dhal, it can also be served as breakfast, lunch or dinner. I have made a version of Litti and Aloo Choka, but they were not the authentic recipes. Litti is made with wheat flour. Wheat flour dough is stuffed with sattu filling known as the Pitthi and is roasted either in oven or tandoor or deep fried. The traditional method involves cooking them on Upla (dried cow dung) or hot sand but nowadays they are baked in oven. When litti choka was announced as the challenge for the southern group in the South Vs North challenge this month, I went through the recipe at Nupur's (host of this month's challenge) page thoroughly. It was completely different from what I made. She even gave the preparation of sattu flour which is used to stuff the littis. As sattu is not available here, I made sattu at home as per her directions and made litti and choka yesterday for our evening snacks. I served them along with green chutney and it was a perfect combination. I loved the texture of litti and the flavourful stuffuing with sattu. As sattu was home made it had a nice aroma and we just loved the combination. You need to try this to know about the taste. I even had it for breakfast today. 

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Labongo latika

You know that I am part of South Vs North Challenges started by Divya. For this month, Sanoli of Sanoli's Kitchen is the host for the Southern team. She challenged the southern team with a Bengali sweet Labongo Latika. It is a sweet pastry filled with mawa and nuts and finally coated with sugar syrup. It is a delicious sweet and I have prepared it before. So I was so confused whether to take part in the challenge or not. But then I didn't want to miss the challenge. So I tweaked the filling and made it once again. I used paneer instead of mawa and the sweet turned so tasty. The clove gives a nice flavour to the sweet. Labongo means clove in Bengali and thus the sweet is named so. 

Recipe Adapted From Sanoli

Makes 20 Labongo Latikas

Ingredients:

For The Filling:

Paneer-200 gm

Sugar - 4 tbs

Cashew nuts-2 tbs

Sliced Almonds-2 tbs

Raisins-2 tbs

Milk-1 tbs

Almond Essence-1/4 tsp

For The Dough:

Flour/ Maida- 2 cups

Ghee-3 tbs

Salt-a pinch

Powdered Sugar-2 tbs

Baking Powder-1/4 tsp

Saffron - a few strands

Oil- For Deep Frying

Cloves-20

For The Syrup:

Sugar-1 cup

Water-1/2 cup

Rose Essence-1/4 tsp

Procedure:

For The Dough:

1. In a bowl mix together flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, ghee and saffron.

2. Mix to form a crumbly dough.

3. Add enough water to make a soft dough.

4. Cover and keep it aside for 30 minutes.

For The Filling:

1. Grind paneer to a smooth paste adding milk.

2. In a heavy bottomed pan add together the ground paneer, sugar and essence.

3. Cook until the paneer starts leaving sides but still wet.

4. Remove from flame and add the nuts. Allow it to cool completely.

Preparing the Labongo Latikas:

1. Divide the dough into 20 equal pieces.

2. Roll them into balls.

3. Roll each ball into a 10 cm disc.

4. Place a tbs of filling and fold all the four sides to form a pocket.

5. Secure it in place using a clove.

6. Heat oil in a pan and deep fry all the pockets on medium flame until golden.

7. Transfer to a plate.

Sugar Syrup:

1. Mix together sugar and water and bring it to boil.

2. When it reaches 2 thread consistency, remove from heat and add the essence.

3. Dip the labongo latikas in batches. Once coated with the syrup, place on a wire rack and allow it to dry for at least 2 hours.

4. Store in airtight jar.

5. Serve as a snack.

Mix together ground paneer, sugar and essence.

Once cooked add the nuts.

Mix flour, sugar, saffron, ghee baking powder and salt.

Add enough water to make a soft dough.

Divide into 20 pieces.

Roll each piece into a 10 cm circle, place a tbs of filling in the centre.

Fold the two sides as shown.

Now fold the remaining two sides to form a pocket.

Secure it with a clove.

Finish all the 20 pieces.

Deep fry them in batches until golden brown.

Prepare a syrup of two string consistency.

Dip the labongo latikas in the syrup.

Let them dry on a wire rack.

Enjoy!!

And here is the previous version with Mawa Filling:

Gulab Jamun - With Milk Powder

Today is a very special day and I will talk about it later. This post is also very special as the South Vs North Challenge I participate every month has completed a year. This challenge was started by Divya of You Too Can Cook and it is very interesting. The whole group is divided into North and South Teams. Every month north team member challenges the south team with an authentic north Indian recipe whereas a south team member challenges the North team with an authentic South Indian recipe. For the completion of a year this month members were asked to do a challenge which they missed out and I had three or four in my list. I missed last month's challenge but the other three were there before I joined the group. I chose Gulab Jamunas I haven't got this version right before. Last time I tried making jamuns with milk powder and it was an utter flop. So I always stay away from milk powder jamun recipe. This time I neede to do it right and I went through the posts of all the bloggers who took part in that challenge. All of them have got good results. So with fingers crossed, I tried them yesterday. Though little on the harder side, they tasted absolutely delicious and my hubby after returning from work devoured them. He even asked me why I made them so tasty that he couldn't stop eating. The recipe is from Pallavi of Though Shalt Cook.

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