Cantaloupe Juice, a delicious and refreshing juice made from the fresh cantaloupe/kirni pazham. It's one of my favourite juices to make when cantaloupe/kirni pazham is in season. 

To be honest, i wouldn't call this a recipe because there is no recipe to learn here :-) All you need to do is put the cantaloupe in the mixer and along with some water and sweetener, your juice would be ready. 

Cantaloupe 

Make sure to use the well-ripen cantaloupe for this season. The flavor and the sweetness are high in the well-ripen cantaloupe so it automatically makes the juice more flavorful and also it reduces the amount of additional sweetness.

Honey 

I like to use honey in this juice especially because cantaloupe and honey goes really well. But you can use sugar, maple syrup or any sweetener you like.

Tips for beginners 

• I personally avoid ice cubes in the juice so i have used the chilled cantaloupe and water for this juice. But if you like  ice cubes in the juice, make sure to add extra sweetness in the juice while making because ice cubes would dilute the juice and reduce the sweetness.
• For more flavor, you can add an inch of ginger and 1/2 tsp of lemon juice while making the juice. 

Now let's see how to make this refreshing cantaloupe juice.

Cantaloupe Juice | Kirni Pazham Juice

Preparation Time : 5 mins | Cooking Time : 0 mins | Serves : 2 
Recipe Category: Juice | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Cantaloupe Juice, Kirni Juice Cantaloupe Juice, a delicious and refreshing juice made from the fresh cantaloupe.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients

Chilled Cantaloupe - 1 cup(cut pieces)

Honey - 2 tsp(as needed)

Cold Water - 1/2 cup(as needed)

Procedure

Cut the cantaloupe into half, remove the seeds and skin. Cut the cantaloupe into small pieces and refrigerate it for 2-3 hrs or until it's cold. Put the chilled cantaloupe into a mixer jar along with water.

Finally add the honey and blend it smooth. 

That's it. Delicious and refreshing Cantaloupe Juice is ready. 

Related: How to make Cucumber Juice

Notes:

• Depends on the sweetness of the cantaloupe, add more or less of honey as per your preference.
  
• Added a few mint leaves on top for garnishing.
• Strain the juice if you want the clear juice. 
  
  
  
  

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Karachi Biscuits, a melt in your mouth cookie made with Tutti Frutti(candied raw papaya). It's one of the famous Indian tea time cookies and tastes absolutely great with a cup of hot chai. 

Adding  tutti frutti to the cookies enhances the taste and also the colorful tutti frutti makes the cookies more vibrant and appetizing.  

Most recipes for these cookies call for custard powder. As i'm not the one who buys the custard powder regularly at home, i thought of working around and make these cookies. 

So for the first trial, i tried the combination of all purpose flour and corn flour in these cookies and it turned out way more delicious than i had expected.  Ever since i have been following the same recipe and it yields perfect cookies every time.

This recipe was in the drafts for a very long time and i thought of posting it around this New year. But with all the travelling and spending time with the family, the blogging took a back seat. Finally now that i'm able to edit the post and post it before the end of January :-) 

Hope you all had a great New Year and wishing you all a wonderful year filled with all your dreams fulfilled. 

Now let's check out the recipe for these delicious Tutti Frutti Cookies.

Karachi Biscuits | Tutti Frutti Cookies

Preparation Time : 10 mins | Cooking Time : 15 mins | Serves : 6 
Recipe Category: Cookies | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Karachi Biscuits, Tutti Frutti Cookies, Indian Cookies Karachi Biscuits, a melt in your mouth cookie made with Tutti Frutti(candied raw papaya).

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients

Butter - 5 tbsp

Flour - 3/4 cup

Corn flour - 2 tbsp

Sugar - 1/4 cup(heaped)

Rose essence - 2 drops

Tutti Frutti - 2 tbsp

Milk - 1 to 2 tbsp

Procedure

First take the butter in a bowl, whisk it for 2-3 mins with electric/ hand whisk. then add the sugar.

Beat the mixture again for 2 mins until all the sugar mixed well with the butter. Next add the flours and the rose essence. 

Finally add the tutti frutti and mix it all well with your hand and then add the the milk (i have use 1 tbsp only) and make a stiff dough. 

Roll the cookie dough into rectangular log and wrap it with parchment paper. Keep the cookie dough in the refrigerator for 1 hr.

Preheat the oven @350 F.  Take the cookie dough out from the refrigerator and cut it into 1/4 inch pieces. Arrange it on the parchment lined baking tray and bake it  for 12- 15 mins.

Let it cool completely and store it in airtight container. Delicious Tutti Frutti / Karachi biscuits is ready to serve. 

Related:How to make Eggless Coconut Cookies

Notes:

• It stays well for up to a week at room temperature.

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KulKuls | Kalkal | Goan Christmas Snack

KulKuls / Kal kal , a traditional snack from the Goan cuisine and it's mainly made during Christmas time of the year. It's so delicious, crunchy and has an amazing coconut flavor. It's hard to stop eating these once you start to munch on them, such an addictive snack!

These kulkuls/ kal kal reminds me of the seepu seedai from the Chettinad cuisine. Both have such a unique shape and are made with coconut milk. If you have never heard about the seepu seedai before, do check it out here.

Coconut milk 

This recipe requires coconut milk to make the dough. Though you can use water to make dough, i would highly recommend using the coconut milk. Because i tried these with both the water and coconut milk and i liked these more when made with coconut milk.

You can use the homemade coconut milk or the canned ones. I have used canned coconut milk for this recipe. If you prefer to use the homemade coconut milk, use the first squeezed coconut milk for the great flavor.

Shaping the Kulkuls / Kal Kal 

Shaping the kulkuls needs a lot of time and patience. So if you're making it in bulk, i highly recommend using a helping hand. Otherwise you end up questioning  your choice of making this at home :-)

If you're making this snack all by yourself then start off with 1 cup of flour. That's very doable ! Also if you find it really hard to shape them then simple roll the dough intoa  thick disc and cut into squares and fry (just like how we make shakarpara)! Still it tastes amazing ! 

Tips to make perfect Kulkuls /Kal Kal

• While shaping the kulkuls, there may be a few cracks in it. That's totally ok. 
• If you want a smooth looking kulkuls, then replace the rava with the additional flour, that would make it easy to roll and also give smooth finishing. 
•  I personally like to add rava in this recipe, because once it's fried, the little peek of the rava on the top makes it so gorgeous ! 
• If you don't have powdered sugar, then grind 1/3 cup of regular sugar in a mixie until it's smooth and use it.
• I haven't used any flavoring agent because of using coconut milk but if you want you can use cardamom powder 

Now let's check out how to make this delicious kulkuls/ kal kal

KulKuls | Kalkal

Preparation Time : 30 mins | Cooking Time : 15 mins | Serves : 6 
Recipe Category: Snacks | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
KulKuls, KalKal,Goan Christmas Snack,Indian Christmas Snack >KulKuls / Kal kal , a traditional snack from the Goan cuisine and it's mainly made during Christmas time of the year.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients

All purpose flour - 1 cup

Rava /Semolina - 1/4 tbsp

Powdered Sugar - 1/3 cup

Salt - 1/4 tsp 

Ghee - 2 tbsp

Coconut Milk - 1/3 cup(approx)

Procedure

In a bowl, add flour, rava, sugar and salt. Mix it all together well and then add the ghee.

Mix the ghee with the flour using your fingers. Then add the coconut milk little by little and make a stiff dough. 

Let the dough rest for 10 mins and then make a small balls(like how you roll for paal kozhukattai). Next take a fork and place a piece of dough on it and flatten the dough like in the third pic in the college below.

Then roll the dough from one end of it to the other end. It forms a nice shell shape. 

Do the same for all the dough. Heat the oil for deep frying. Add the rolled dough in batches and cook it on medium-low flame.

Once the kulkuls are brown in color, drain from the oil and place it on tissue paper. 

Cool it completely and store it in air-tight container. Delicious and crunchy KulKuls is ready to serve !

Related: How to make Shankarpali

Notes:

• Make sure to cook it in medium-low flame so that the inside cooks well when the outside turns brown in color.
• It remains crunchy for days if stored in air-tight container.

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Ellu mittai /Sesame Seeds Chikki, a delicious and crunchy candy made from sesame seeds and jaggery. It makes a great after meal snack to satisfy your sugar cravings. 

Here in this recipe, i have used white sesame seeds.However, this chikki can be made with both black and white sesame seeds. 

The key to make any candy successfully is the sugar syrup consistency. For this mittai/chikki, the sugar consistency should be hard ball stage. Once you get the sugar syrup consistency perfectly, everything else is such a breeze.

Sesame Seeds 

As i said earlier, you can use either black or white sesame seeds or even a mix of both sesame seeds in this mittai. Make sure that the sesame seeds are well roasted so that the mittai don't have the raw smell of the sesame seeds. 

Jaggery 

For this recipe, i have used "achu vellam"/ cone shaped jaggery available in the market. But round jaggery/ powder jaggery also works fine for this recipe. The color of this mittai  purely depends on the color of the jaggery. So if you want dark colored chikki use the dark color jaggery.

Tips to make the perfect chikki /mittai

• Once the sugar syrup reaches the hard ball stage, keep the flame in the lowest possible temperature and do the remaining task as quickly as possible. 
• Make sure to cut deep enough in the chikki while it's hot. Otherwise it would be hard to make neat pieces. I didn't make deep cuts in my chikki so it was difficult to make neat edges. I had to break it, which you can see it in the pictures :-) 
• Butter paper helps to roll the chikki smoothly without sticking. If you don't have butter paper then grease your rolling pin generously with ghee and then roll.

Now let's check out how to make these delicious ellu mittai/ sesame seeds chikki.

Ellu Mittai| Sesame Seeds Chikki

Preparation Time : 5 mins | Cooking Time : 20 mins | Yields : 12 
Recipe Category: Candy | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Ellu Mittai, White sesame seeds candy, Sesame Seeds Chikki,Indian Candy Ellu mittai /Sesame Seeds Chikki, a delicious and crunchy candy made from the sesame seed and jaggery.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients

White Sesame - 1 cup

Jaggery - 1/2 cup

Water - 2 tbsp

Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp

Procedure

First heat a pan , add the sesame seeds and roast till they are aromatic & transfer into a another plate.

In the same pan, add the jaggery and water. Let the jaggery melts completely.

Then boil the jaggery syrup in medium flame until it reaches the hard ball stages( if you add a little bit of jaggery syrup in a cold water, it should form hard ball . That's the correct stage of jaggery syrup). Then immediately switch off the flame and add the cardamom powder.

Next add the roasted sesame seeds to the jaggery syrup and mix it well quickly and transfer on to the parchment sheet.

Place an another parchment sheet on the sesame chikki mixture and roll it with a rolling pin. Then cut into a desired shapes. It sets instantly so make the marks with knifve immediately so that later you can break into pieces.

That's it, Delicious Sesame Chikki is ready. Store it in a airtight container once it's completely cooled.

Notes:

• It stays well for a month at room temperature.
• Store it in air tight container to keep it crunchy for longer time.

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Aval/ Mixture / Chivda, a delicious savoury snack made from the mix of flattened rice, nuts and flavored with some Indian spices. It's such an easy snack to make at home in no time !

If you love the traditional mixture recipe then i'm sure that you would love this aval mixture too. In contrast to traditional mixture, this aval mixture can be made in under 20 mins. So do give it a try when you're craving for something crunchy and delicious.

Aval / Poha / Flattened Rice 

In the market, you can find two types of aval/poha such as thick and thin. For this recipe, you need the thick variety of aval. While frying the aval/poha, the thick aval nicely puff up whereas the thin aval don't puff up well. 

In general , chivda is made from the white aval. But in my house we prefer red aval more than white aval because of its flavor. Hence i have used the same red rice aval in this recipe instead of buying white aval especially for this recipe and it tastes awesome. So you can use either white or red aval/poha for white aval/poha

Other Ingredients

For the nuts, I have used the skinless peanuts and cashews for this chivda. Skinned peanuts also work fine for this recipe. 

In addition to the nuts, i have used the raisins because i love the sweetness from the raisins while munching the mixture. You can use black or golden raisins in this recipe. But if you don't like the sweet in your mixture then skip it.

I have used only 1/4 tsp of chili powder for this recipe. It's very mild and you don't even notice it in the mixture. If you're a spice lover you can add 1/2 to 3/4 tsp of red chili powder for this recipe. 

Finally, you can add more or less of any nuts as per your liking. So keep this recipe as a guide and make the way you like your mixture. 

Now let's check out how to make this super delicious Aval mixture. 

Aval Mixture | Poha Chivda

Preparation Time : 5 mins | Cooking Time : 15 mins | Serves : 4 
Recipe Category: Curry | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Aval mixture, Chivda, Poha mixtur, Poha chivda Aval/ Mixture / Chivda, a delicious savoury snack made from the mix of flattened rice, nuts and flavored with some Indian spices.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients

To deep fry

Aval/Poha - 1 cup

Peanuts - 1/2 cup

Pottukadalai/ Roasted gram dal - 1/3 cup

Cashews - 1/4 cup

Raisins - 1/4 cup

For Tempering

Oil - 2 tsp

Sesame seed - 1 tbsp

Asafoetida powder - 1/8 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Red chili powder - 1/4 tsp

Salt - to taste

Procedure

First let's deep fry the ingredients listed under "To deep fry" one by one. Heat the oil in a deep saucepan, add the pottukadalai/roasted gram dal in a metal siever and dip the metal siever  in the hot oil. Roast till they are golden brown. Drain it from the oil and put it on a paper towel.

Next roast the peanuts in the same way. 

Next deep the cashews till golden brown and raisins till it's puff up.

Finally deep fry the Aval/poha. Fry the aval/poha in small quantities since it's puff up well and fill the siever the immediately. Place all the deep fried items on the paper towel to absorb excess oil.

Next in a pan, heat the 2 tsp of oil, add the sesame seeds, once the sesame seed starts to crackle, switch off the flame and then add the asafoetida powder, turmeric powder and red chili powder. 

Finally add all the deep fried items and salt. Toss it all well together.

Delicious and crunchy Aval Mixture/ Poha Chivda is ready. Let it cool completely and then store it in an airtight container.

Related: How to make Madras Mixture

Notes:

• It stays well for up to 10 days in room temperature.
• Use dry spoon every time to take it out so that it stays crispy till it lasts.
• Sesame seed is optional so if you don't like it, you can skip it.

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