Little Badhusha - A testing time

Its nearing Deepavali, and I am being forced to prepare Badhusha for my dearest hubby. It is his favorite.

I know beforehand that its a mere sweet with maida, was not interested earlier. But for this time, I could not turn down his request. With tips from my aunty, I had the recipe in hand. With some time googling, I found out that most of the recipes was similar. To add a small twist, I made the size of Badusha tiny, to the size of a 10 Rupee coin. A one biter was the intend.

The ingredients are listed below: (Serves 3-4) (Coin sized 20 numbers)

• For Badhusha
• Maida (All purpose flour) - 1 1/4 Cup
• Ghee, Butter (in room temperature) and Oil - 1/4 Cup
• Baking powder - 1/4 tsp
• Cooking soda - small pinch (optional)
• Curd - 1 tbsp
• Powdered Sugar - 1 tsp
• Water - As required
• For Syrup
• Sugar - 1/2 Cup
• Water - To immerse the sugar
• Cardamom powder - if required

Preparation steps:

• Sieve Maida, Baking powder and Cooking soda.
• Add liquid Ghee, Butter, Oil, Curd and Sugar to the above.
• 
• If required add water and make it a smooth dough.
• Cover it for 30 minutes and knead the dough again for 5-6 minutes.
• Hand roll into small balls (size of gooseberry) and hand press to make like a coin.
• Make the Sugar syrup, till it becomes string consistent. Leave it in slim flame. Otherwise it crystallizes.
• 
• You may give the shape of a doughnut, for the pressed dough. Let your imagination fly here.
• Deep fry till it gets golden brown colour, keep it aside till oil is evaporated.
• 
• Add the all the roasted Badusha's in the sugar syrup and mix with the syrup. The Badhusha should get a fine coat of sugar syrup.
• Keep the sugar coated Bhadhusha in a different plate, without touching each other.
• Once cooled down, the white coating of sugar will be visible. Serve after this.
• Shelf life is about 2-3 days.

Little Badhusha, ready to serve

Rice Flour

To get a fresh quality rice flour, avoid buying a packaged one. It is very easy to prepare at home. You can also be assured of the quality.

Clean the raw rice well and soak it in water for 4 to 5 hours. Drain the water and spread the rice in a clean cotton towel to dry. Grind it well to a smooth powder  or give it to a nearby mill.

Sieve it nicely so that you get a very smooth powder.

Do not store it for a long time otherwise the freshness will be lost. If you want to store it, only do it after roasting. This is to avoid food poisoning due to fungus.

Vella Avil - Gud Poha - Beatened Rice in Jaggery

Vella Avil - Sweet Variety prepared on Sri Krishna Jayanthi

Ingredients: (Serves 2)

• Beaten Rice/Aval/Avil/Poha - 1 cup
• Jaggery Powder - 3/4 cup
• Water - 1/4 cup
• Cocunut - 1/4 cup
• Powdered Cardamom - 4
• Ghee - 2 to 3 tbsp 

Preparation Steps:

• Wash the Beaten Rice and keep it aside. It should become soft.
• Boil the Jaggery in water and strain the impurities from it.
• Make it into string consistency and add the grated coconut into it.
• Then add the beaten rice, and stir till the syrup evaporates.
• While stirring add ghee so that it does not get sticky.
• Add cardamom powder to it and serve.

Vella Avil, ready for serving

Vella Cheedai - Jaggery Cheedai

Vella Cheedai - Snack Variety prepared on Sri Krishna Jayanthi

Also Known as:

• Vella Seedai
• Vella Cheeda

A small story behind:
First time when I prepared this, it was not a perfect one. It broke into smaller pieces, while frying. I learned some good lessons from that. It was my mother-in-law who taught me the exact measures this time. I also fine tuned the preparations with my earlier experience to make it near perfect one.
Preparation Steps:

Ingredients: (Serves 3-4)

• Jaggery - 3/4 Cup 
• Water - 1/2 Cup
• Rice Flour - 1 Cup
• Grated Coconut - 1 tbsp
• Black Gram (Urad Daal) Powder - 1/2 tbsp
• Sesame (Till/Ellu) - 1/2 tbsp
• Cardamom Powder - Small pinch
• Oil - For Deep frying

Preparation Steps:

• Roast rice flour and Black Gram flour. Do not over roast.
• Boil Jaggery in water and filter the impurities out. Do not make a thick syrup of this. Leave it to cool.
• Mix Rice Flour, Black Gram powder, Grated Coconut, Sesame seeds, Cardamom powder. Add Jaggery syrup prepared in first step to this mix.
• Hand roll into gooseberry size balls.
• Deep fry this in oil till it turns to golden brown colour. Do not put too much Cheedai in oil at the same time while frying. Put about 4-5 Cheedai only at a time.

Note:

• Black Gram and Rice flour must be sieved thoroughly otherwise there are chances of bursting while frying Cheedai.
• If the Cheedai breaks apart while frying, Jaggery syrup could be more. This is where I failed the first time.

Vella Cheedai, ready for serving

Uppu Cheedai - Salt Cheedai

Uppu Cheeda - Snack Variety prepared on Sri Krishna Jayanthi

Also Known as:

• Uppu Seedai
• Uppu Cheeda

Ingredients: (Serves 3 to 4)

• Rice Flour - 1 cup
• Black Gram (Urad Daal) Powder - 1 1/2 tbsp
• Pepper - 1/2 tsp
• Roasted Cumin Seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Butter - 1/2 tbsp
• Salt - As required
• Oil - For Deep frying

Preparation Steps:

• Roast rice flour and Black Gram flour. Do not over roast.
• Grind Coconut, Cumin seeds and Pepper without adding water (do not make it smooth paste)
• Mix the above with other listed ingredients well and make a dough like Chapathi.
• Roll into small balls, about size of small gooseberries.
• Keep it aside for 10 minutes to remove moisture.
• Deep fry in oil (slim fire) till it gets a golden brown colour. Do not put too much Cheedai in oil at the same time while frying.

Note:

• 1cup is 200ml here.
• Black Gram and Rice flour must be sieved thoroughly otherwise there are chances of bursting while frying Cheedai.
• If the quantity of Black gram powder is less the colour of Cheedai may become light brown.

Uppu Cheedai, ready for serving

Curd Rice/Thayir Saadam

Ingredients

• Cooked Rice - 1 cup
• Curd - 1/2 cup 
• Salt - As required
• Coriander Leaves
• Milk (Optional)

For Tampering

• Sesame Oil - 2 tsp
• Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Cumin Seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Green Chilli Sliced - 1 or 2 
• Ginger - 1 tsp
• Curry Leaves 
• A pinch of Asafoetida

Combine the rice with curd and salt.

Heat the oil in a pan and add Mustard seeds. When it cracles add Cumin seeds, green chilli, chopped ginger, curry leaves and saute for 1 minute. After that add a pinch of asafoetida and switch off the flame. Add this to curd rice and mix well. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Note: If your curd is sour, you can add milk to it.