Witch-Hat Cookies

Happy Halloween! We’re having a nice time handing out candies to incredibly cute kids in our neighborhood. The week before, we had a really fun Halloween party complete with traditional American-Halloween games such as Bobbing for Apples - which involves dunking your head in a tub full water to retrieve floating apples with your teeth! Anyway, I was looking around for spooky treats to prepare for the party, and decided to take a slightly easier route by trying out Giada’s yummy looking chocolate-hazelnut smooches that came out looking like adorable witch-hats - the good witch kinds ;).

Another reason why I really wanted to try this cookie was to somehow find an excuse to (buy) and use Nutella! If you haven’t tried Nutella yet, it’s a “sin”! ;). Really. How I wish my childhood had Nutella in it! That’s my only regret.

Anyway, so I followed the recipe as such. It’s a simple chocolate cookie, except the rich cream of Nutella goes into it, and the balls of cookie-dough are rolled in orange sprinkles and baked for 7-8 minutes at 375 F, following which Hershey’s chocolate kisses are placed at the center of the cookie and baked for another 3 minutes.  And you get delicious witch hats waiting to be devoured. Next time, I would probably bake smaller sized cookie balls so that the Hershey's kisses are proportional to the diameter of the cookie, making them look like realistic mini-hats.

I know, this was such a benign Halloween treat! Next year, I shall up the ante and venture into more gory-looking, spookier treats!

To make up for the lack of spookiness of the treat, here is Anand lurking as a werewolf!

Somasi

No, it’s not a spelling mistake. I did mean “Somasi” and not “Samosa”. It’s surprising how many people get confused. But it’s understandable. While Somasa is a widely popular savory pastry, Somasi is a lesser-known sweet that resembles a Samosa in shape. It is yet another South-Indian sweet which didn’t catch up to much fame, although I’m not sure why. It’s quite easy to prepare and tastes really good. Plus, it’s deep fried! The outer shell is made from either wheat dough (chapathi/poori dough) or from a mixture of semolina and all-purpose flour, and the inner stuffing is a sweet powder. My in-laws sent us a whole lot of this stuffing, making life extremely easy for me to prepare some Somasis! So, here is the recipe for both the stuffing and the entire Somasi, thanks to my mother-in-law.

Ingredients 
For the Stuffing

1. Pottu Kadalai (roasted split chickpeas) - 2 cups
2. Dessicated coconut (grated) - About 2 - 3 tablespoons (approximately worth 1 coconut)
3. Poppy seeds - 2.5 tablespoons
4. Cardamom powder -  1 - 1.5 teaspoons
5. Sugar or brown sugar or powdered jaggery - 2 ¼ cups

The above stuffing can be stored for a few months in an air tight bag/container placed in the refrigerator or freezer.

For the Shell

1. 2 cups of wheat flour (Aata flour) OR equal quantities of semolina flour (rava) and all-purpose flour (maida). The latter makes the shell more crispier, but I tried it with wheat flour.
2. ½ teaspoon of salt
3. 1 cup of water or as needed to knead the dough

Preparation

    For the Stuffing
Separately roast the pottu kadalai, coconut, and poppy seeds as below:

1. Slightly roast the pottu kadalai till it becomes warm to the touch. Remove from heat, and let it cool. Once cool, powder it in a coffee grinder or a mixer until fine. Don’t over grind for the bean may start to release some oil. Sift the ground flour and keep aside.
2. Roast the dessicated coconut (or regular shredded coconut) till all the moisture is removed, and the gratings are dry and slightly brown. Do not burn, so roast over low-medium heat. We roast in order to dehydrate the ingredients, thus lengthening the shelf-life of the stuffing. Grind the roasted (and dried) coconut for a couple of whirls in the grinder/mixer. Again, do not over-grind for the coconut will start releasing oil.
3. Roast the poppy seeds till they are warm to touch. Cool, then grind a bit. Do not over-grind.

Mix all the roasted powders along with the sugar/brown sugar/powdered jaggery, and the cardamom powder. The stuffing is ready. 

  
    Making the Somasis (yields 24 somasis)

1. Mix two cups of wheat flour (or 1 cup each of all-purpose flour and semolina flour) and some salt in a bowl. Keep adding a bit of water and start kneading the dough until it comes together as an even, non-sticky, soft mass.
2. Take a small marble-sized dough, roll it out into a thin circle, and place a teaspoon or so of the stuffing (powder) in the center. While rolling the dough, dust some flour on the board to avoid the dough from sticking.
3. Line the outer rim of the dough with some water, and close the dough as a semi-circle. Firmly seal the corners by crimping the sides (as you would a pie crust). You can fold the excess corners on top of each other and using a fork crimp the edges. It’s important to firmly seal the edges to avoid any spilling of the stuffing.
4. Heat 4-5 cups of vegetable oil. When the oil is hot, gently drop the somasis and fry till golden brown (like a poori). Drain on paper towels. Adjust the heat between medium to medium-high. 

   

And that’s all there is to it. Store the somasis in an air-tight container (preferably wrapped in paper towels) so that they remain relatively crisp. But they are best eaten when they are hot and crunchy!

Maida Biscuit

Maida biscuit is one of the most easiest snacks to prepare. It tastes good (of course, anything that is deep fried, ought to!) and it requires very minimal ingredients and time. These biscuits come in two versions - sweet and savory. You add sugar to the former, and salt to the latter. That’s it. I thought I would try this simple snack by taking a slightly “healthier” route - baking instead of deep frying.

Ingredients

1. 2 cups of all purpose flour (maida)
2. 1 - 1.5 teaspoons of salt (according to your preference)
3. 1 teaspoon of chilli powder
4. ¼ - ½ stick of unsalted butter (I used 1/2 stick; the more the better, of course :))
5. 1 teaspoon slightly crushed cumin seeds (jeera)
6. ¼ teaspoon of Hing
7. 1/2 teaspoon baking soda (optional)

Preparation

1. Sift the all-purpose flour. To the sifted flour, add salt, chilli powder, crushed cumin seeds, and hing. Mix together. If you prefer, you can add some baking soda at this point. Since we’re not deep frying, the baking soda helps the biscuits to puff a bit while baking. But it’s optional.
2. Add room temperature softened butter (cut into pieces) to the dry mixture and start kneading the dough by sprinkling some water (a total of about 3/4 cup). You could use an electric beater too. The dough needs to come together into a soft mass - very similar to the consistency of chapathi dough. The dough should be soft and cushion-y to touch.
3. Roll out the entire dough (or a batch of it) using a rolling pin. Powder the rolling surface and the dough with some flour so that it doesn’t stick to the surface. Spread the dough into a pseudo-rectangle to about 1/4-1/8  inch in thickness.
4. Using a pizza cutter/roller (or a very sharp knife) cut the dough into small rectangular/diamond pieces.
5. Pre-heat the oven to 350 F. Line a baking sheet/cookie tray with parchment paper (wax paper). Arrange the cut biscuits on the tray and bake them for 10-12 minutes on one side. Flip all the pieces onto the other side, and bake for 5-8 minutes. The biscuits should turn slightly golden brown in the oven. Remember, when you take them out, they continue baking in the remaining heat and they turn a shade darker. So don’t wait for the biscuits to turn brown in the oven.

I was pleasantly surprised that they were quite crunchy, and when stored in an air-tight container, they remained fresh and crunchy for more than a month without a trace of staleness! If you want to deep fry, just add the cut pieces to hot oil and fry till they turn golden brown.

Thattai

Thattai is a crunchy South-Indian snack. It is prepared during special celebratory occasions. It is difficult to come across someone who doesn’t like munching on thattais. My mother-in-law makes awesome thattai! So, this recipe comes from her.

Ingredients:

1. 2 cups of finely ground rice flour
2. ½ cup finely ground urad-dhal flour (ulutham maavu)
3. ¼ teaspoon of hing
4. 1 teaspoon of salt (or according to your taste)
5. 1 teaspoon of chilli powder
6. 1 tablespoon of grated coconut
7. ½ stick of unsalted room temperature butter (or ¼ stick)
8. 1 tablespoon of channa dhal
9. 2 teaspoons of sesame seeds (white or black)
10. Oil for deep frying (5-6 cups of vegetable oil)

Preparation:

Top: The consistency of the dough; Bottom: The flattened dough ready to be fried

1. Soak the chana dhal in water for 5-6 hours.
2. Dry roast the rice flour for a few minutes (5-6 minutes) and immediately remove from heat. Be careful to remove the rice flour before it turns pink or brown due to heat. This implies that you instantly transfer the roasted flour to a separate bowl.
3. Sift together the rice flour and urad-dhal flour to make sure there are no fine lumps.
4. To the sifted flour, add salt, hing, chilli powder, and sesame seeds and mix well.
5. Add room-temperature butter and start kneading it with the dry ingredients. Sprinkle water as needed (a total of about 1/2 cup) till the dough starts coming together. Tip: If you own an electric beater, it comes in handy to knead the dough - at least for the most part! It saves your arm muscles a bit of effort.
6. At this stage, add the grated coconut and the soaked channa dhal (without the water) and continue to knead the dough vigorously (with a few sprinkles of water as needed) till it forms a uniform stiff dough with a few cracks. The consistency and texture of the dough should be harder/firmer than chapathi dough. To test: roll out a small ball and press it down on your palm. The pressed dough should crack a bit at the sides. If not, there is a bit more water. You can fix the dough by sprinkling some rice flour and kneading it till it reaches the right state. Note: if the dough cracks a lot and crumbles, then there is very little water, and it’s not the right consistency either.
7. Heat the oil. Test if the oil is hot by dropping a bit of the dough. If it starts sizzling and frying, the oil is hot. Vary the temperature of the oil between medium to medium-high depending on how fast, or how brown the thattai turns (or rather burns).
8. Remove a little bit of dough, roll it between your palms to make a small round ball (the size of a glass marble or slightly smaller), press it between your palms to thin it out nicely. Thin it out as much as you can without tearing the dough. (Trivia: The act of pressing the dough with your fingers and palms is the reason why thattai got its name... for in tamil “thattai” means flat, or pressed)
9. Gently transfer the thattai to the hot oil, turn it around till both sides evenly crisp to a nice golden brown.  Make sure the oil is not too hot - it may result in the dough not cooking properly. Remove from oil and drain on paper towels.

Thattais are great by themselves and don’t require any dip or sauce.

Mysore Pak - A Shortcut

Another Depavali just whizzed by. The festival of lights, pomp, and treats is sorely missed by us. But despite being mocked and taunted by our friends in India, we still try yo keep up the spirit of Deepavali by preparing a few sweets and savories and spending time with friends.  But this year, we were more than tied up  with work to participate in any active celebration. However, we received  a generous bounty of sweets, snacks, and new clothes from India, so we gratefully wore the lovely attires and gorged on the home-made delicacies!

I was more enthusiastic last year, and meticulously spent a whole week preparing some Deepavali sweets and munchies. One of the sweets I made was the hugely popular Mysore Pak. If made right, they taste so heavenly and literally melt in your mouth. But then, you need to be totally in the dark regarding its preparation, and remain ignorant of what ingredients (and how much of it) goes into this sweet to truly enjoy it without any shred of guilt or worry! The first time I witnessed the preparation, I was speechlessly horrified at the amounts of ghee and sugar that were literally poured! It’s almost as if the besan (channa dhal flour) is just the minor binding ingredient to give a base for all the sugar and ghee :). When I had made up my mind that I would never ever have the courage to prepare this sweet, one of my good friends shared a lower-calorific, microwave version of it from this blog : http://shakaharisapadu.wordpress.com/2006/10/16/mysore-pak-in-a-jiffy/

I tried it immediately and was pretty impressed at the output! Of course, nothing beats the taste of mysore pak that is made in the traditional manner, but this came pretty close, especially considering how fast it is to prepare! However, I made a few changes to the quantities to further reduce the ghee and sugar. I also adjusted the heating times a bit.

The changes to the ingredients are:
1. I don’t add any maida (or all purpose flour)
2. I add only ½ cup of ghee
3. I add only 1 ¼ - 1 ½ cups of sugar (2 cups of sugar was quite a bit for us)
4. I also generously sprinkle cardamom powder at the end (right before pouring the hot mixture onto a greased plate).

I follow almost the same heating procedure as suggested in the blog, except  for one change. After the addition of milk and sugar, I heat the mixture till it begins to rise and froth vigorously. Sometimes, it might take a little more than 3 minutes. My friend was the one who offered this tip to me, so thanks to her, the mysore pak always solidifies to the right consistency! Another valuable tip, heat the mixture in a tall and wide microwavable container (glass container is ideal). Since the mixture rises and bubbles, there may be some unfortunate spilling if your container is small.

The more there is ghee, the better the sweet will be! But if you can compromise on ¼ cup of ghee, then this version will satisfy you quite well :). Else go ahead, add the extra ghee and enjoy to your heart’s content!

 Sorry about the splatter of cardamom powder across the pieces. I had forgotten to add it prior to transferring the bubbling hot mixture onto the greased plate.