My aayi keeps reminding me about nutritional values of almonds and suggests me to add it to my diet. Every time she told me about it, I would go and buy one pack of almond. Last week, I found I had a huge pack of almonds at home. So I thought of making cookies with them. I tried the first recipe that I found from here . I changed it a bit to suit our taste and also make them eggless. The cookies turned out to be awesome. I am going to make some more again now.
Ingredients: 1/2 cup butter 1/2 cup all purpose flour 1 cup(150gms) almonds 1/2 tea spn baking powder 3/4 cup sugar 1 tea spn vanilla extract 1/4 tea spn salt Few chocolate morsels(optional)
Method: Grind almonds into powder – it need not become very fine. Keep aside. Preheat the oven at 375F for about 10mins. Mix butter and sugar till they form a uniform mixture. Now add almond powder, baking powder, vanilla extract, salt, all purpose flour and mix. Make small balls from the mixture and keep them on a greased cookie sheet. Leave enough space between two balls as the cookies expand after baking. Keep one chocolate morsel on the cookie (optional). Bake at 375F for about 12-15mins. When they are cooled to room temperature, they become very crispy.
Makes about 2 dozen cookies
This winter has turned out to be a bit extreme. This week it was manageable, but last week we had very low temperatures. It was one such Sunday when the temperature was 2F (-16C) and we were getting really bored of sitting at home. To bring the spirit back, I made these koftas and naan , and it turned out great.
I missed my parents a lot in the process. I wish I could make these for my pappa and aayi, they love to eat at North Indian restaurants occasionally. At our native, we have one restaurant which serves these and we love it. I don’t know if there are any other North Indian restaurants, but we normally go to this restaurant called “Panduranga” which is very good. Though aayi cooks mainly Konkani food at home, they enjoy eating at this restaurant on special occasions. So whenever I cook these, I miss them terribly. I wish they were here.
Kofta : 1/2 cup (1 big) boiled and mashed potatoes 1/2 cup fresh/frozen green peas 1 tbl spn cashews 1 tbl spn raisins 1/2 tea spn garam masala 1/2 tea spn chilli powder 1 tbl spn corn starch 1 slice bread (optional) Oil Salt
Method: Dip the bread in water and squeeze off all the water. Add all other ingredients(except oil) and mix well. Make small balls.
Deep fry in oil (I shallow fried them on medium heat). Take them out on a clean kitchen towel.
Gravy: 1/2 cup very finely chopped or grated onion 2 tomatoes (blanch in hot water and make puree) 2 tbl spn cashews (blanch in hot water and make a paste) 1/2 cup cream ( malai ) 1/2 tea spn cumin seeds 2-3 strands coriander leaves Oil Salt Spice paste – 3 cloves 1 green cardamom 1 bay leaf 1″ cinnamon 4 pepper A small piece of nutmeg 1/2 tea spn cumin seeds 1/2 tea spn coriander seeds 1/2 tea spn chilli powder 1 tea spn chopped ginger 1 tea spn chopped garlic
Method: Grind all the spice paste ingredients and keep aside. Heat oil and add onion. When they turn brownish, add spice paste and fry for few minutes. Now add tomato puree, salt, cook for a min. Add cashew paste, cream (or whole milk) and cook till it forms a thick gravy. Add the koftas and cook for another 2-3 min. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot.
Serves : 2-3 Preparation time : 30mins
