Maggi bonda

My husband was bragging about this snack he used to get in the IIT canteen when he was doing his masters in Mumbai. I became curious and decided to try it out sometime ..hmm..my husband should be very lucky to have a wife like me who cooks whatever he desires or even imagines..that's quite a self-appreciation there..OK here's the story how i did the Maggi bonda finally..
On a summer weekend surprisingly we both woke up early (maybe because my daughter would have got up and must have been jumping in the bed..nothing other than that could have kicked us out of bed so early..)
Since we had a lot of time I decided to prepare a neat breakfast to kick start the day. My husband would have read my mind. With a lot of expectations in his eyes, he proposed the Maggi bonda idea (he was proposing the idea for a long time, but I somehow felt it will take a lot of time and was disposing it).
There was still time to prepare an alternate breakfast if the Maggi bonda turns out to be a disaster, so with an agreement that he had to feed breakfast to my daughter,  I began searching for the recipe in the web, but couldn't find a recipe for Maggi bonda. So with my husband's help I came up with my own version of the recipe.

Things you'll need:
Maggi noodles - 1 pack (the spicy flavors would be perfect)
besan flour - 3/4 cup
salt - as needed
chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
coriander leaves - 2 sprigs finely chopped
Oil - for deep frying

Serves 2-3 people

Method:

Step1:
Cook the Maggi noodles as per instructions and let it cool. You can reduce 1/4 cup of water from the required amount to make the noodles dry. It shouldn't be soupy or else the noodles would be difficult to shape them into balls,.

Step 2:
Prepare the bonda batter by mixing the besan flour with salt, chilli powder and coriander leaves. Then add water little by little until a thick batter is formed and no lumps are found.

Step 3:
Press the Maggi noodles into lemon sized balls and dip the balls into the besan batter and deep fry in medium hot oil. Since the noodles are already cooked, the bondas need not be in the oil for long. Strain them and serve with ketchup or mint chutney as evening snack or appetizer. (its strange that we had this for breakfast..)

tip: Since the noodles has its own seasoning, the bonda can be seasoned in your own way using your imagination.

Pasta Pradhaman

Curious?? Believe me it tastes awesome!! I think i have the copyright of this recipe since i haven't found any similar recipe on net till now..If anyone had already tried this recipe please let me know your experience..

Its weird that it struck me one night 'Why there's no payasam or kheer  recipe with pasta?' I asked my husband who was next to me..he just smiled and said "welcome to the family" (coz my mother-in-law is a pro in experimenting different ingredients for known recipes e.g. sakkarai pongal with wheat rava). 

We decided to try out a kheer recipe with pasta. Ada pradhaman was one of the recipes that was in my to-try-out list, but i was postponing it since it seemed complicated preparing ada with banana leaves. So I thought this would be a good experiment to try out ada pradhaman (of course pasta in the place of ada).

It really came out well than we expected..but its a rich dessert, so calorie-conscious foodies beware.

Things you need:

Pasta - cooked couple of minutes above al dente - 1 cup (I used macaroni since it is bite-sized. If using other pasta its a good idea to roughly chop them after cooking) 

Thick coconut milk - 1 cup

Thin coconut milk - 2 cups

Jaggery - 1 cup
Ghee - 3 tbsp

Cashews and raisins - for garnishing

Serves 3-4 people

Method:

Step 1:
Prepare syrup by melting the jaggery in half cup of water and bringing it to a boil. Once the jaggery is melted, turn off the stove and strain the jaggery for removing impurities if any.

Step 2:
Pour two tbsp of ghee in a heavy pan. when the ghee heats up, add the cooked pasta and fry for a minute and
then pour the jaggery syrup. Cook the pasta in the syrup for 5-7 minutes.

Step 3:
Add the thin coconut milk to the mixture and simmer it till the mixture thickens. Meanwhile heat 1 tbsp of ghee in a frying pan and fry the cashews and raisins.

Step 4:
When the mixture gets thick, add the thick coconut milk, and stir for a couple of minutes. There's no need to cook it for a long time. Before switching off the stove, stir in the cashews and raisins with the remaining ghee.
It tastes heaven when served in room temperature or chilled.

It takes a very little time since pasta cooks in 10-15 mins and the pradhaman takes another 15-20 mins.

Have a bite (or a bowl maybe)!!!