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.