'Baklava' is a Turkish delicacy, which was introduced to me few months back. I had heard of this sweet dish before, but never got a chance to taste it. One of my friends had brought Baklava while visiting us sometime back. We liked its unique taste and crispy texture.
After tasting this heavenly sweet, I just googled for Baklava recipe. The recipe called for walnut as one of the main ingredient. I didn't had walnuts in my pantry and hence, I have replaced it with almonds. Baklava tasted perfect just the same as the store bought ones.
I have adopted this recipe from allrecipes.com with slight modifications. Try this recipe and let me know your feedback..

Preparation time: 35 minutes
Baking time: 50 - 55 minutes
Yield: 40 pieces (depending on the size)
Difficulty level: Difficult

Ingredients:

• Filo pastry sheets - 375 gm
• Butter - 250 gm
• Sugar - 1 cup (1 cup = 200 gm)
• Almonds - 2 cups (see tips)
• Sugar powder - 4 tbsp
• Water - 1 cup
• Peel of half lime
• Cloves - 2
• Honey - 6 tbsp
• Cinnamon powder - 1 tsp

Method:

• Thaw the filo pastry sheets according to the instructions on the pack.
• Chop the almonds finely and toast them on low flame till aromatic or till it turns golden brown. Add sugar powder, cinnamon powder once its cool and keep aside.
• Grease the baking tray with butter. I have used a 33*23 cm baking pan here.
• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
• Take out two sheets of filo pastry carefully from the pack and arrange them on the greased tray. Brush the top with melted butter and place two more sheets upon it and brush it with butter. Continue this process till half of the sheets are done.
• Once you finished arranging half of the sheets, fold in the almond mixture and spread it evenly. 
• Start placing filo pastry sheets 2 at a time, brush with butter and continue this process till you are done with all the sheets. 
• Brush the top layer with butter and cut the sheets into diamond or any desired shapes of equal size.
• Place the baking tray inside the pre-heated oven and bake them for 50 - 55 minutes or till they turn golden brown.
• Prepare sugar syrup while Baklava is baking. Combine sugar and water in a vessel and bring to boil. Once the sugar has diluted, add cloves, honey and lemon peel. Allow it to boil on low flame for 15 - 20 minutes and turn off the flame. Take out the cloves and lemon peel and discard it. 
• Once the Baklava is cooked, take it out of oven and pour the sugar syrup evenly. Allow it to set for atleast two hours before serving.

Tips:

• The original recipe calls for walnuts. I have used almonds here since i didn't had walnuts. 

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Being born and brought up in a village environment, we rarely used to eat the bakery food. All we knew was only Bread those days! We didn't had an oven, so there was no chance to eat any baked food at home. When I started going to college, I came to know about more varieties of bakery food and got addicted to them.

Veg Puffs are one of my favourite bakery food. Making the pastry sheets at home is bit tedious task. These days, puff pastry sheets are available in super markets, so making the Puffs at home is not that difficult. Here is my version of Veg Puffs!

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Baking time: 25 minutes

Difficulty level: Medium

Yield: 6 Veg Puffs

Ingredients:

• Eggplant - 1 (small sized)
• Potato - 1 (medium sized)
• Capsicum - 1 halve
• Beans - 4 to 5
• Green peas - 1/2 cup (*see Tips)
• Onion - 1 large
• Salt - to taste
• Amchur powder - 1/2 tsp or to taste
• Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp or according to taste
• Garam masala powder - 1/4 tsp
• Oil - 3 tbsp (plus more for brushing)
• Puff pastry sheet - 1 1/2 (can make 4 puffs from 1 sheet)

Method:

• Cut the potato into two halves, cover with enough water and pressure cook upto 2 whistles. Once they are cool, peel off the skin and chop them into medium sized cubes.
• Chop eggplant, capsicum, beans and onion into small chunks and keep separately.
• Heat oil in a heavy bottom pan. Add chopped beans and eggplant. Cook them covered on low flame. Add up to 2 tbsp of water if needed.
• Once these veggies are almost cooked, add green peas and chopped capsicum.
• Add chopped onion after a minute and mix well. Cook it on medium flame for 4 - 5 minutes.
• Add the potato pieces followed by salt, amchur powder, red chilli powder and garam masala powder. Mix everything well and turn off the flame.
• Pre-heat the oven to 200°C.
• Thaw the puff pastry sheets according to the instructions on the package.
• Take one whole pastry sheet and cut it into 4 equal squares. Take one piece and put it on a flat surface. Pour 2 tbsp or little more of stuffing mixture on the middle of the pastry piece. Apply little water to the sides of pastry piece and fold it keeping the stuffing mixture inside. Press the edges and make sure that stuffing won't comes out. Do the same with all the pastry pieces.
• Line the baking tray with aluminium foil or baking sheet and place the veg puffs on it. Keep some space for them to expand.
• Brush the puffs with oil or butter and cook them for around 25 minutes or till they turn golden brown.
• Serve them hot with Tomato ketchup and a cup of hot tea!

Tips:

• If using dried green peas, you nee to soak it for 4 - 5 hours and pressure cook along with potatoes. I have used fresh ones here hence, no need to cook before using.
• For the stuffing, use any vegetable which has less water content. Veggies like carrot, beetroot, sweet corn, cabbage also go well for the stuffing. Or if if there is any leftover stir fry, you can use it too!

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Dosa is one of the most common breakfast item in South India. South Indian people are good at making varieties of dosas. In rural places like my native, they prepare dosas using different vegetables which are available locally. Colocasia Stems Dosa or Kesuvina Dantina Dose is one such dosas which will be prepared mainly after the rainy season has started when plenty of colocasia plants are grown in the backyard. Colocasia Dosa is the main dish for Gangashtami festival, which will be celebrated at my native place.

Here in Australia, sometimes we will get colocasia plants in the farmers markets. When we buy them, I would love to prepare my native style dishes using them. One of them is Colocasia Stems Dosa or Kesuvina Dantina Dose. Do try this sweet dosa and enjoy eating them with butter!

Time required: 15 minutes

Soaking/fermentation time: 4 - 5 hours

Difficulty level: Medium

Yield: 10 - 11 dosas

Ingredients:

• Rice - 3 cups (1 cup = 110 gm)
• Colocasia Stems chopped into medium size pieces - 7 to 8 cups
• Jaggery - 1/2 cup or for sweetness
• Salt to taste

Method:

• Wash the rice and soak it in water for 2 - 3 hours.
• Transfer the chopped Colocasia Stems into a vessel. Add salt and jaggery for taste and cook it covered on low flame till soft. Don't add any water, the water content in the Colocasia Stems will be sufficient to cook them.
• Once the cooked mixture cools down, mix it with drained rice and grind them into fine paste. No need to add any water while making the batter coz the cooked mixture will be watery which helps to make a smooth batter.
• Allow the batter to set for 1 - 2 hours before making dosas.
• Heat the dosa pan. Pour a ladle full of batter and gently spread it into a semi-thick circle. Pour few drops of oil and cook it on both the sides.
• Enjoy them hot with some butter on the top!  

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Besan Ladoo is one among those famous sweets which are prepared during special occasions in India. In my home, we three are huge fans of these delicious sweet balls. Being made of besan flour along with generous amount of ghee, sugar, dry fruit and nuts, its good for health too.
Below is the recipe of Besan Ladoo, try them and enjoy with your loved ones!

Preparation time: 40 minutes
Yield: 8 Ladoos
Difficulty level: Medium

Ingredients:

• Besan flour / Gram flour - 2 cups (1 cup= 125 gm)
• Sugar - 1 cup
• Ghee / clarified butter - 3/4 cup minus 1 tbsp
• Cardamom / Elachi powder - 1 tsp (See Tips)
• Raisins - 15
• Broken cashews - 2 tbsp

Method:

• Combine besan flour and ghee in a heavy bottom pan and keep stirring it on low flame till nice aroma comes.
• When the flour is toasted half - way, add raisins and broken cashews and continue toasting. Otherwise, you can toast them separately with few drops of ghee and mix with the flour after its toasted.
• Take the sugar and make a fine powder out of it.
• Allow the toasted flour to cool down for a while till it becomes lukewarm. Add powdered sugar and cardamom powder. Mix it well. 
• Make equal sized balls from the mixture. Store them in an air tight container.

Tips:

• If you add more ghee to this recipe, mixture will become very soft and the ladoos won't hold the shape. In such cases, you can refrigerate the ladoos for around 15 - 20 minutes immediately after preparing them.
• If cardamom powder is not there, mix the cardamom seeds along with sugar while powdering it.

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Its the summer season in India now. We were on a vacation to India last month. Since the mango season has started, we enjoyed eating varieties of mangoes there. In my home, everyday we were having one or the other dish prepared from mango for the lunch. 

Ripened mangoes are also good for preparing few types of curries like Neer Gojju, Sasive, etc. We get a wild mango variety called 'Sasive Maavu' at our place which has a sweet and sour taste. It is good for preparing curries like Saasive and Neer Gojju. I am sharing the recipe of Mango Neergojju with you all today. Try this simple and tasty curry before the mango season ends!

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Serves - 4

Difficulty level: Medium

Ingredients:

• Saasive mango / wild mangoes - 5 to 6
• Liquid jaggery (Joni bella) - 7 tbsp or to taste
• Salt - 1 1/4 tsp or to taste
• Water - 2 cups

For tempering: Oil - 3 tsp, Dry red chilli- 1, Urid dal - 1 tsp, Mustard seeds - 1 1/4 tsp, Asafoetida / Hing - a pinch, Green chilli - 1, Curry leaves - 4 or 5

Method:

• Wash the mangoes cleanly. Peel off the green skin and put them in a mixing bowl.
• Add salt and jaggery to the mangoes and squeeze the mangoes nicely. Add water and leave it for ten minutes. Check and adjust the taste.
• Heat oil in a small wok. Add red chilli pieces, urid dal, mustard seeds and asafoetida. Once the mustard seeds start crackling, add curry leaves and slit green chilli. Saute it for a minute and switch off the flame. 
• Add the seasoning to the mango mixture and mix it nicely.
• Serve this sweet - sour curry along with rice!

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