Announcing Veggie/ Fruit A Month Event- Bottle Gourd

HAPPY NEW YEAR

I take utmost pleasure in announcing that in this New Year the very popular Veggie/ Fruit A Month Event created by Priya of Mharo Rajasthan is being hosted at Vegetarian Tastebuds . I have chosen 'Bottle Gourd' as the star vegetable for this month.

Bottle gourd is known by various names like Opo Squash, Long Melon or Calabash in English and as Lauki, Ghiya, Doodhi in hindi and as Suraikkaii in Tamil. Bottle gourd is a treasure chest of goodness. Let me list some health benefits of bottle gourd-

• Bottle gourd comprises of 96% of water so it is very good for kids and people with digestive disorders as it is very light on stomach and relieves constipation.
• It has got only 12 calories per 100 grams so it is ideal for weight watchers.
• It is very high in sodium and potassium and is helpful for people with hypertension.

Now coming back to the event there are some rules for this event-

1. "Bottle Gourd" has to be the star ingredient in the dish.
2. Prepare a vegetarian recipe (eggs are allowed).
3. The recipe can be for breakfast, lunch, dinner, starters, entrées, side dishes, snacks, desserts and beverages. 
4. Recipe has to be NEW. Archived entries are NOT allowed. I know you all are very creative so put on your thinking caps.
5. Use of the logo is mandatory to help spread the word about the event.
6. Link your post to this announcement and to Priya's event page.
7. Non bloggers are also welcome just send me your name, recipe and a picture and I will include it in the round up.
8. Please send me your entries between Jan'01 to Jan'31 at vegetariantastebuds@gmail.com with 'bottle gourd' as the subject. Your details must include-

• Your Name
• Name of the blog
• Recipe Name
• Recipe URL
• Photograph of your dish. Please ensure the picture is not large.

Round up will be posted in first week of February. Thanks to dear Priya for letting me host this event. Blogger buddies do send me your creative dishes. This is my first event and please help me make it a success. 

Currently the Veggie/ Fruit Event- Cucumber is being hosted at Ambrosia till Jan'15th, so send in your cucumber entries as well to Ambrosia.

Thekua ~ Indian Cookies For Indian Cooking Challenge

This month for the Indian Cooking Challenge, Srivalli challenged us to prepare traditional Indian cookies from the state of Bihar and these are called as Thekua or Khajur. These are crispy biscuits which are deep fried in oil and makes perfect tea time snack.

I had been too busy this month and am very late to post this but still happy that I am able to join in the gang at ICC.

Ingredients:

All Purpose Flour- 2 Cups
Semolina- 4 Tablespoons
Powdered Sugar- 8 Tablespoons
Grated Dry Coconut- 4 Teaspoons
Cardamom Powder- 1/8 Teaspoon
Oil/ Ghee- 8 Teaspoons + More for deep frying
Water- To make a dough

Procedure:

Mix flour, sugar, coconut, semolina and cardamom together and add in 8 teaspoons of oil. Using water bring everything together to form a crumbly dough. Meanwhile keep the oil to heat in a deep frying pan at medium heat.

 Roll out the dough to about 3-4 mm thickness, then using a cookie cutter cut out the shapes. Gather the trimmed edges and again repeat the rolling and cutting procedure till all the dough is used up.

Prick the cookies with a fork to prevent them from puffing. Deep fry these cookies in hot oil on medium heat till they turn golden brown in colour. Remove the cookies from oil and place them on kitchen paper to remove excess oil.

Once cool store these cookies in an airtight container, these stay good for about 2 weeks.

Thinner cookies are more crisper than the thick ones and next time I would increase the sugar little bit more as my family has got sweet tooth.

Eggless Rosette Cookies

Christmas is around the corner and these Rosette cookies or Achappam as they call in Kerala ( Southern Indian State) are traditionally made around this festive time. To know more about their origin I took help of Wikipedia and it seems that these cookies originated in the Scandinavia.  

These cookies are made using special mould which is made of iron and has intricate design with wooden handle. The mould is dipped in hot oil and then immersed in the batter which is then fried to get these delicious treats.

I made these rossette for the first time and almost all the recipes call for eggs but since we don't take eggs I was little sceptical as how these would turn out, but these turned out super good and were a real treat.

Ingredients:

Fine Rice Flour- 3/4 Cup ( Make sure to use non roasted flour)

All Purpose Flour- 1/2 Cup

Sugar- 1/2 Cup

Banana Purée- 1 tbsp

Thick Coconut Milk- 1/2 Cup

Cardamom Powder- 1/2 Tsp

Black Sesame Seeds- 1 Tbsp

Water- To make the batter

Salt- A Pinch

Oil - To Deep Fry

Procedure:

• Heat oil in a frying pan and keep the rosette mould immersed in hot oil.
• Prepare the batter by mixing rice flour, all purpose flour, sugar, banana purée, coconut milk, cardamom powder, black sesame seeds, salt together and add water to make a smooth, lump free batter of neither too thin nor too thick but of flowing consistency.
• When the oil is hot enough take out the mould from it and immediately immerse the mould upto 3/4th in the prepared batter. Take care not to fully immerse the mould in the batter else the cookies will not come out of the mould.
• Take out the mould from the batter and immediately immerse it in the hot oil. 
• Let the batter fry for 20-30 seconds in medium heat along with the mould.
• Now gently tap the mould to release the cookie in the oil. If the cookie doesn't come out on it own then use a skewer to remove the cookie. However with practise these cookies come out perfectly.
• Fry on both sides till the cookies turn slight golden. 
• Make sure to fry only a couple of these at a time, since these turn dark very quickly.
• Also the mould has to be hot each time before being dipped into the batter. If the mould is not hot then the batter won't come off in hot oil.

Linking these to #cookielove blog hop co hosted by me along with other wonderful bloggers. Do check them here.

Vegetarian Tastebuds in thekitchn

I am delighted to see my Cornmeal Dumplings Stir Fry post feature as delicious link in "thekitchn.com".

Delicious links for 12.05.2011

Pumpkin butter made in the slow cooker, and a rich and hearty Italian soup, plus fried cornmeal dumplings, Indian-style.

Today's Delicious Links

• Italian Chicken, Bean, & Tomato Soup - Erin's Food Files.

• Quince muffins - In Erika's Kitchen.

• Crock Pot Pumpkin Butter - Taste for Adventure

• Cornmeal Dumplings Stir Fry - Vegetarian Tastebuds.