Rava Ladoo

 Diwali is the festival of lights. Diwali is one of the festivals that is celebrated in almost every corner of the world. With the onset of this festival, people start shopping, clean and decorate their homes and prepare flavorsome sweets, snacks and other delicacies. In fact, any Indian festival is incomplete without sweets. One of the most important sweets which is prepared in Diwali is Rava ladoo.

Rava ladoo is a traditional and delicious sweet dish which exists since several decades. It is one of the cuisines made on the festive day. It is also a typical food that is made as an item to pack for long distance travel.

For this Rava ladoo to be perfect, the consistency of sugar syrup has to be perfect. This dish is quick and easy to make. Rava ladoo can be served as a holy offering to God and is enjoyed by many on the occasion of Diwali. It is mainly prepared from semolina(Rava), ghee, coconut, sugar, dry fruits and cardamom.

Lets checkout the Ingredients:

INGREDIENTS:

1. 1 cup Rava / Semolina / Suji (make sure take fine rava)
2. 1/4th cup of Ghee (Clarified Butter)
3. 1/4th cup of Desiccated Coconut (Na riyal Ka Buranda)
4. 1 cup of Sugar
5. 1/4th cup of Water
6. 1/4 tsp of Cardamom Powder (Elaichi Powder)
7. 3 tbsp of Dry fruits (Kismis (Rasins), Almonds, Cashews (kaju) chopped.
8. 2 tbsp of milk if required

METHOD:

1. In a large pan add 1/4th cup of Ghee. In that add 1 cup Rava and roast on a low flame.
2. Make sure that colour of Rava(Semolina) should not burn. Roast until it turns aromatic.
3. Next in that add 1/4th cup of desiccated coconut and roast it for 2-3 minutes.
4. Turn off the flame and allow the mixture to cool down to room temperature.
5. Meanwhile, take a Kadai/Vessel and prepare sugar syrup by adding 1 cup of sugar and 1/4th cup of water.
6. Next boil this syrup for 5 to 7 minutes till you get one string consistency. Don't boil further.
7. Turn off the flame and add roasted rava and desiccated coconut mixture into sugar syrup.
8. Also add 3 tbsp of dry fruits and 1/4 tsp of Cardamom powder.
9. Stir continuously to avoid any lumps .
10. Cover the ladoo mixture for about 1 to 1/2 hour.
11. After a hour and half open the lid and roll the ladoo.
12. Rava ladoo is ready to serve.

TIP:

1. To check the consistency, take syrup in a bowl let it cool down and then taking syrup in 2 fingers.
2. The syrup should have a single thread consistency and it should be nice and thick
3. Use homemade ghee if possible, so that it taste great.
4. After adding sugar syrup to the rava mixture, allow the mixture to cool down. First it will be soft but then it will firm up after few hours.
5. If the mixture looks too dry and you can't roll the ladoo, then sprinkle 2 to 3 tbsp of milk. Mix well and roll it to round balls (Ladoo).

 
 

Schezwan sauce/ Szechuan sauce

 The Schezwan cuisine originates from the sichuan province of china. It is known for its bold, pungent, hot flavors and extravagant usage of red chillies. The schezwan sauce is a fundamental to the schezwan cuisine and goes in most Chinese dishes with its spicy, tangy, slightly sweet and vinegary taste. 

The basic ingredients for this sauces are red chillies, ginger, garlic and spices. It is one of the easiest sauce you could make at home. Culinary uses of schezwan sauce is used in Chinese starters. One of the first things which comes to my mind is, it goes well with veg spring rolls, momos. fried wantons, steamed wantons, fried rice and noodles. This can be used as an accompaniment or dipping sauce for variety of different dishes from nachos, chips and potato wedges.

Schezwan sauce is one of the most popular sauce recipes from the Indo-Chinese cuisine. This sauce has literally gone places travelling around the globe and is used in hundreds of dishes world wide. It is all purpose sauce and must have in all households.

Now let us see the ingredients:

INGREDIENTS:

1. 1/4th cup of oil.
2. 1/4th cup of finely chopped Garlic (Lahsun)
3. 3 tbsp of finely chopped Ginger (Adrak)
4. 2 cups of Dried red chillies (Kashmiri red chillies de-seeded)
5. 1/2 tsp of Crushed Pepper corns
6. 2 tbsp of Vinegar(Cirka)
7. 2 tbsp of Sugar
8. Salt to taste
9. 1/4 cup of Water.
10. 2 tbsp of Tomato sauce.(Use tomato ketchup)
11. 1 Star anise (Chakriphul)
12. 1 tbsp of Coriander stems (Finely chopped)

METHOD:

1. Soak 2 cups of Dried red chillies in a hot water for about a hour.
2. Once the chillies have softened in water then drain the excess water and blend them into a smooth paste.
3. Add little water if required for blending.
4. Next heat 1/4th cup of oil in a pan or kadai. Add finely chopped Garlic, Ginger and saute for 2-3 minutes. Do not burn it. Add 1 Star anise fry it for a minute.
5. Now add blended red chilli paste and combined well. Let it cook on a medium flame till the pungent smell of chillies mellows down.
6. Now add 1/4th cup of water  to give the mixture a sauce like texture. Cover the lid and cook it about 10-12 minutes until the oil separates from the pan or kadai.
7. After 12 minutes open the lid and stir for a minute.
8. Further add 2 tbsp of Vinegar, 2 tbsp of Sugar, 1/2 tsp of crushed Pepper corns, 2 tbsp of Tomato ketchup, 1 tbsp of Soya sauce and salt as per taste.
9. Give a good mix and let it cook for about 2-3 minutes and you are done.
10. Cool it off and store it an air tight container in a refrigerator.

TIP:

1. Vinegar, Salt and Spices acts as a preserving agent.
2. This sauce should be slowly cooked .
3. This sauce can be stored in refrigerator for 15 days or 1 month. 
4. Use dried kashmiri red chillies since these are less spicy and have great colour
5. Here I have used regular pepper corns, but the original recipes used sichuan peppercorns.