Nankhatai - Traditional Indian Cookies

Nankhatai are traditional Indian cookies similar to shortbread cookies but not as dense and flakier. I tried few recipes and finally found one that works. I followed this recipe but made quite a few changes based on the other recipes I had tried before. It turned out pretty good but like with any baked snack it can take a few times to get it right.

Ingredients

Unsalted Butter 1/2 cup (1 stick)

Sugar  1/2 cup

Cardamom Powder  1/4 tsp

Maida  1 cup

Baking Powder  1/4 tsp

Salt  1/8 tsp

Cornflour 2 tsp

Sooji/Rava 1/4 cup

Besan/Gramflour 2 tbsp

Yogurt   2 tbsp (optional)

Pistachios 8/9 chopped

Beat butter and sugar until well blended and light and creamy. Add the cardamom powder and cornflour. Sift maida, sooji and besan along with baking powder and salt. Add the flour mixture to the butter/sugar mixture and make sure they are well blended. If needed add the yogurt and form a dough. Put the dough in the fridge for 15/20 minutes to firm up. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Cut the dough into equal size portions based o the desired size and form rounds preferably with no cracks and form in the shape of a peda. Arrange the pistachios on top. Place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for about 21/23 minutes and let them cool for about 10 minutes on a cooling rack.

Jwari chi ukkad -Jowar flour meal

Jowar flour known as sorghum flour is very popular in certain states of India especially Maharashtra and Gujrat. Bhakri made out of Jowar is a staple food for lot. It has very high content of protein and iron make it energy boosting food. It is also gluten free and hence easily digestable. Given all the above, I thought of introducing this to my toddler who loves food. The art of making perfect bhakri is not that simple and I for one am not very good at it. So, I had to be creative and think of some other way of adding it to our diet. Ukkad a popular maharashtrian dish is typicallly made of rice flour and i read a recipe called as 'ukkad pendi' where wheat flour was used as the main ingredient. So, all i did was substitued the flour with jowar flour and used soy yogurt as my son is allergic to cow's milk. A very simple recipe and is very filling and satisfying meal as breakfast or snack. I am not sure if such a dish exists or if it's made with similar ingredients and different name, but I had never come across it lso thought of naming it the way I did.

Ingredients

1 cup Jowar flour
4 tbsp yogurt ( I used soy)
1tsp Jeera
1/2tsp Haldi
1/2tsp hing
Few leaves of
1 green chilli slit vertically
Salt to taste
1tsp sugar
2 cups water
Ghee/oil

First roast the Jowar flour in good amount of ghee for 2/3 minutes. Keep aside and heat some oil or ghee in a pan and the spices as n our regular tadka. Mix yogurt and water and add to the pan and bring to a slight boil. Onc it starts boiling add the flour, salt and sugar. Now keep stirring to avoid any lumps. It shouldn't take very long to cook as the flour is roasted. Withing 2 or 3 minutes the flour will absorb all the water and ukkadJowar will be ready. Serve with a dallop of ghee on top and enjoy!
ghee can be substituted with oil in case you are watching calories but if making it for kids then any amount of ghee is good for them:)
Will post a picture soon.

Palak Raita

Since the beginning of this year I have been trying to have a well balanced full meal at home at least for dinner time which is usually Chapati with some subji or daal along with a side of salad or raita. But most of the days I find myself fighting for time and end up combining two of them in one and doing a daal with a veg like palak or methi. Palak puree is one thing I always have in the fridge these days as its a go to vegetable for my son and easy enough to mix in anything. I even freeze small cubes of spinach puree if I have extra. Coming back to the point my son loves yogurt and on days when he isn't wanting to eat anything else yogurt comes in handy and at least fills up the need of protein and fat. So, the other day when I was getting the yogurt out from the fridge for him I saw the spinach puree by its side and decided to mix it up and add some salt, a pinch of sugar, some jeera powder and I had in front of me a toddler enjoying his yogurt :) Well since I had some left, I did the same for us and we enjoyed it too as spinach raita! I love how it tasted and such an easy and tasty way of including spinach in the diet ..hope you will like it too!

Ingredients

1 cup yogurt

1/2 cup of puree spinach -bunch of fresh spinach blanched and pureed

1 tsp jeera powder

1 tsp sugar

salt to taste

a pinch of red chilli powder (optional)

Well the method is very simple and as you probably already guessed it. Just mix all the ingredients in a bowl and enjoy the raita. Sprinkle some jeera powder or red chilli powder on top to add to the color.

A quick variation to this would be to add some peanut powder to it and add red chilli powder and leave out the jeera powder for a Maharashtrian version of 'Palakachi dhyatli koshimbir' !