Malpua

Ingredients :-
Maida (plain flour) - 1 cup
Suji (semolina) - 1tsp
Curd- 2 tsp
Milk - 1/2 cup
Ghee - to fry
Sugar- 1 cup
Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp
Kesar (saffron) - 2-4 strings
Dry fruits - thin slices of almonds and pistachio

Cooking Process :-
Sieve maida and suji in a mixing bowl. Add curd and milk and make soft batter. If you want to make thick pancake like malpuas then keep the batter little thick like you make for pancakes, If you want thinner malpua then add little more milk and make the batter like you make for dosas. Keep this batter in a warm place overnight for fermentation process. After 7-8 hrs of resting batter is ready to make malpuas.
For sugar syrup , add 1 cup of water in one cup of sugar and let it cook on medium to slow flame for 10 mins, you need 1 thread consistency of the syrup. Now add saffron and cardamom powder in the syrup. syrup is ready.
Use non stick pan to make malpuas, spread the batter on the pan with help of spectula and add 1 tsp of ghee on both the sides. cook it till it gets golden brown colour. Use ghee liberally, cause ideally malpuas should be fried in ghee but to avoid extra fat we are shallow frying malpuas. when your malpuas are properly cooked , dip them in warm sugar syrup and take it out immediately. malpuas are ready to serve. Garnish it with thin sliced dry fruits of your choice.

Besan Laddu

Ingredients :-
Besan (gram flour) - 2 cup
Powder sugar - 1 + 1/2 cup
Ghee- 1 cup (add 1-2 tsp more if needed)
Cardamom powder - 1 tsp
Dry fruits - cashew nuts and almonds roughly chopped - 1/4 cup

Cooking Process:-
Put ghee in pan and let it melt on slow flame. keep 1/3 cup besan aside and put rest of the besan in ghee. now cook besan and ghee on slow to med flame till besan gets a little golden brown colour. in a pan dry roast 1/3 cup of besan that we have kept aside earlier. now put this dry roasted besan, dry fruits, powdered sugar and cardamom powder in ghee and besan mix. mix all the ingredients well, swith off the flame and let it cool for atleast 15-20 mins. Now make laddus from this and let it set properly before storing it.

Tips :-
If you think laddus are little soft and losing its shape after setting , you can softly shape it again and put it to set again for a while. dont press too much or for a longer time, it'll make the ghee melt and your laddus will be soft again.

Methi Laddu / Cubes

Ingredients:-
Whole wheat flour - 2 cups
Gum resin ( Gond )- 2 tbsp
Dry ginger powder - 1 tsp
Dry fenugreek seed - make powder of the seeds in a mixer, aprx 1/4 cup of powder
Jaggery ( gud) - 1 and 1/2 cup (crushed or sliced)
Ghee- aprx 1 and a 1/2 cup
Dry fruits of your choice - aprx 1/2 cup (chopped almond and raisin recommended)
Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp
Black pepper - roughly crushed (aprx 3-4 pcs of each seed) 3 tsp

Cooking Process :-

In a kadai or non stick pan add ghee and wheat flour. Cook it on a slow to medium flame till the flour changes its colour and turns golden brown. simultaneously in another pan heat aprox 2-3 tbsp ghee and fry crushed gum resin pieces on slow flame. it should get golden brown colour after frying. take it out and add it to atta and ghee mix. now add fenugreek powder, dry ginger powder, black pepper and dry fruits in atta mix. Now use the pan we used before for frying gum resin, make sure it has atleast 1 tbsp of ghee , add jaggery peices into this pan and cook till jaggery melts properly on slow flame. jaggery will turn into thick liquid form now add this jaggery to atta mix. make sure you switch off flame of atta kadhai as well after pouring jaggery mix into it. now quickly mix atta and jaggery and spread this ready mix on to a greased plate or quickly make laddus from this mix. Make sure you set it in laddu form or in a tray when the mix is still hot. if you have spread it in a trya then cut it immediately , it will be difficult to cut in even pieces once it is set. Let it cool on the counter for atleast 2-3 hrs. and then store it in an airtight container.

Tips:- You can add dry coconut powder too but it will reduce its shelf life. Make sure you shape it when the mixture is still hot, you can use silicon gloves to make laddus if you think you can not handle this mixture. Consume this everyday in the winters with cup of hot milk. You might take some time to get used to its taste but during winters or after delivery these laddus are very good for health.

Paneer Kothmeeri

Ingredients :-
Paneer - 150 gms/  cut into 1"X1" cubes
Tomato- 1 , finely chopped
Onion - 1 , finely chopped
Garlic - 6 cloves - finely chopped
Whole Garam masala - Jeera/ cumin seeds 1 tsp,   2-3 black papper, 1 clove, 1 cardamom, 1/2 bay leaf
Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Haldi- 1/3 Tsp
Coriander seeds - 1 tsp / roughly crush it (aprx 2-3 pcs of 1 seed)
Fresh coriander leaves :- 1 tsp , finely chopped
Salt to taste - (aprx 1/2 tsp for this recipe)

Cooking Process:-
Heat 2 tsp ghee in a pan, add all the dry whole garam masalas into it , then add chopped garlic and onion . When onion turns golden brown add tomatoes. add red chilli powder and haldi powder to it and let it simmer till tomatoes are properly cooked. now add crushed coriander seeds and cook it for a minute. cook this gravy properly and you'll notice oil is separating from the gravy , at this point add paneer cubes and salt. let it cook for another minute ,add water and cook if required. Garnish it with fresh coriander leaves and serve hot with Kulcha or Naan :)

 Tip:- Don't crush coriander seeds too much , other wise it'll taste like coriander powder and will loose its aroma.

Murukku / Chakri

Ingredients :-
Rice flour - 1 cup
Gram Flour (Besan) - 1/4 cup
Wheat flour - 1/2 cup
Cumin seeds (Jeera) - 1 tsp
Sesame seeds (Til)  -  2 tsp
Turmeric powder (haldi) - 1/4 tsp
Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Garam Masal to add little chatpata taste ;P - 1/2 tsp
Dry mango Powder (amchur) - 1/4 tsp
Fruit salt (Eno)- 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste - (aprx 1 tsp for given quanity)
Lemon juice :- 1/2 tsp
Oil - 2 tbsp in dough and for frying
Cooking Process:-
Mix rice flour, besan and wheat flour in a microwavable bowl and microwave for 1 min. Remove and mix well and put in the microwave for another minute. Now add all the spices, fruit salt,lemon juice and 2 tbsp oil in the flour and knead dough by adding luke warm water. make paratha like dough . Now cover it properly and let it rest for 10 mins.now make small chakris with the help of chakri maker in a plate and then put it slowly in hot oil and let it fry till turns golden brown on medium flame.
Let it cool before tasting  ;P

Chocolate cookies

Ingredients:-
Maida (all purpose flour)- 1 cup
Corn flour - 1 tsp
Baking powder- 1 tsp
Coco powder - 3 tsp
Instant coffee powder- 1/2 tsp
Butter - 1/4 cup
Ghee- 1/4 cup ( melted , cool down at room temperature)
Icing sugar- 1/2 cup
Milk - 1 tsp
Vanilla essence - 1 tsp

Cooking Process:-
Mix all the dry ingredients well and then add butter, ghee, milk and essence. Knead till all the ingredients are mixed properly. Make small balls of the dough and flatten it a bit to give it cookie shape ( aprx 10-12 cookies from the given quantity). place these cookies at least 1 inch apart in the baking tray.  Bake at 180 degree Celsius for 15-18 mins in a pre heated oven.  Temperature and time may vary oven to oven. So adjust timings in your oven accordingly.

Tips :- milk gives cookies biscuit like texture, if you'll add more milk then it'll give you little crunchy result. Add some melted ghee if you think the dough is little dry. second batch of the cookies might take 1-2 mins less to bake.You can add chocolate chips or roasted nuts in the dough if you like.You can replace icing sugar with powdered sugar + 1/2 tsp of corn flour in this recipe.

CHOCOLATE CAKE

Ingredients :-
Maida (all purpose flour)- 1 cup
corn flour - 2 tsp
baking soda- 1/2 tsp
baking powder - 3/4 tsp
coco powder - 3 tbsp
condensed milk - 200 gms
butter- 3 tbsp
sweetened aerated soda - 100ml
vanilla essence - 1 tsp

Cooking Process :-
Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Sieve all the dry ingredients 2-3 times. Beat butter, condensed milk and vanilla essence together. add 2-3 spoon of dry ingredients in butter mix and add 2-3 spoon of soda and keep whisking until all the dry and wet ingredients are properly mixed. Now pour this mixture in a cake tin and bake in a preheated oven for 45 mins at 180 degree Celsius. keep checking your cake and do not open oven during this process. If you think your cake is getting brown then lower the temperature but let it bake for 45 mins.