Kaju Makhana Masala/Cashew, Lotus Seeds Masala

Most of our dinner goes for salads,soups and chapathis or rotis, obviously whenever i make our Indian flat breads, the most challenging part is to find out a prefect side dish to have along with. My family can have rotis every day with one condition, yes they need variety of side dishes to have with their rotis. Obviously whenever i prepare rotis, the first thing i'll plan to make is the side dish to serve with, apart from our South Indian chutneys,everyone at home love paneer based side dishes to enjoy with rotis. However making a side dish often with paneer is not that much simple. If you live in abroad making paneer at home or getting a packet of paneer from store is not that much easy if you have other household stuffs to manage. So I'll try to play with different ingredients available in pantry when its comes to North Indian style of side dishes, one among my recent trial is this Kaju makhana masala. I googled a couple of makhana side dishes however i opted for this kaju makhana combination after going through many sites.

Green Peas, Potato & Puffed Lotus Seeds In Green Gravy/Aloo Matar Makhane Ki Subzi

A healthy dinner at home goes for soft chappathis and a fingerlicking side dish. Most of our dinner will be either rotis or soups and salads. Its been quite a routine at home if i make soups or salads for a monday dinner obviously the next day will be definitely rotis.I love to make different subzis to enjoy along with those rotis. My lil one love potato and peas combination in curries, and this time i prepared that usual aloo matar bit differently by adding makhana aka fox nuts.Makhana or Puffed lotus seeds are known also as foxnuts, these are the seeds of the lotus flower. Makhana or puffed lotus seeds are very versatile and you can make many dishes out of it either as sweet or savory. You can make many delicious, rich dishes with this foxnuts and they can be made with ease.

Gulkand & Makhana Kheer/Rose Petal Preserve and Puffed Lotus Seeds Kheer

Dunno about you all,being a South Indian my tastebuds always crave for North Indian foods,earlier mom use to prepare very rarely North Indian style foods and her special dish is channa masala, but i dont hesitate a second to make some at home since ever i started blogging. Yep if i crave for something i'll make them immediately, obviously my pantry is well stuffed with North Indian spices and spice powders. If you live in abroad and mostly in European countries like France, you will definitely miss chaat foods, obviously blogging teached me and my first ever chaat food i tried at home is Pani puri, still remember how they turned pretty much prefect and i was gobbing like a kid.

Gulkand and makhana, the famous rose petal preserve and puffed lotus seeds these two ingredients were completely unknown for me before few years, once again i have say big thanks to blogging and many more North Indian foodie bloggers. You all know very well that am running my first week of blogging marathon and today is my third and final day of this week's BM, my theme for this week is pick one and make three dishes and since two days am showcasing makhana/foxnuts aka puffed lotus seeds, here comes finally a dessert as today's post; i combined both gulkand and makhana and this kheer turned out simply mindblowing,my H was enjoying this kheer when they were still warm, i was surprised when he said he simply loved this kheer.Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#26.

2cups Puffed lotus seeds
2tbsp Gulkand/rose petal preserve
4cups Milk
3/4cup Sugar (decrease if you want)
1/2tsp Rose water
Few chopped nuts
1tbsp Ghee

Heat the ghee in a pan, now roast the puffed lotus seeds until they turns crispy.

Take almost a cup of the puffed lotus seeds in a mixer, grind it as bit coarse powder.

Meanwhile bring boil the milk with gulkand,sugar and cook until the sugar gets dissolves.

Now add the already prepared roasted puffed seeds and grounded lotus seeds to the hot milk,cook for few minutes.

Grounded lotus seeds will thicken the kheer, its optional,if you want to skip,you can do,but i'll advice to do.

Finally add the rose water and put off the stove.

Serve this kheer warm topped with chopped nuts.

Makhana/Puffed Lotus Seeds Pakodas

As like most of the food bloggers,my pantry is always filled with many spices,masala powders and many more stuffs which i usually cook with them. Honestly blogging taught me so many new ingredients even my sister was shocked whenever i'll call her to ask this and that from India, yep everyday you will learn so many things from this virtual world. After going through few posts at my fellow blogger's space, i was tempted and asked my sister to send me a packet of puffed lotus seeds aka makhana unfortunately i dont have any idea to cook with them as my family didnt like the laddoos i prepared with them finally i have to pull my limit to make some foods. One among those foods is this pakodas, as usual to feed my family i simply cooked with other ingredients and these pakodas are a big hit at home.

This week am running my first week of the famous 3days of blogging marathon and the theme for this week is pick an ingredient and make three dishes, Srivalli listed out few categories to cook for this three days and i chosed a starter,a gravy and a dessert.Since i want to finish those puffed lotus seeds, i chosed to cook with them. For the first day as i have to cook a starter i cooked this puffed seeds along with grated potatoes as pakodas, trust me even if your family dont like this seeds they will just keep on munching these pakodas, they are simply addictive.None will find out the addition of this puffed lotus seeds aka makhana in this pakodas until you reveal the secret ingredient, stay tuned to know wat i cooked for the next two days with this puffed lotus seeds.Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#26.

25nos Puffed lotus seeds/Foxnuts/Makhana
1/2cup Grated potato
1no Onion (big & chopped)
1/4cup Rice flour
1/2cup Besan/Gram flour
2tbsp Corn flour
1tsp Fennel seeds (crushed)
1tsp Red chilly powder
Few curry leaves
Salt
Oil for deep frying

Cut or chop the puffed lotus seeds as small pieces.

Take the grated potato,chopped onions,lotus seed pieces,rice flour,besan flour,cornflour,crushed fennel seeds,red chilly powder, curry leaves and salt.

Mix well, meanwhile heat the oil for deepfrying, once the oil is hot, take 2tablespoon of hot oil and add the already prepared flour mixture.

Springle generously the water and turn everything as thick batter.

Make small balls from the pakoda batter and drop gently to the hot oil.

Fry then until they turns golden brown,drain the excess of oil with a paper towel.

Serve hot with your favourite sauce.

Makhana Cornmeal Laddoos

For my second day of blogging marathon with diwali special as theme, i decided to make some laddoos with lotus seeds aka makhana. I grabbed a packet of this lotus seeds during my last trip to India, back home i stored them in air tight box and making out dishes with them very rarely,coz these lotus seeds are like treasure for me. We dont get this wonderful seeds here, so obviously i take more care while using these seeds as i dont want to waste them.

For diwali, i quickly prepared this delicious makhana laddoos with yellow cornmeal, this laddoos is definitely one of the easy breezy,quick and healthy balls.These laddoos stays prefect for a week in room temperature and instead of ghee i used milk for rolling this laddoos. Give a try friends, if you get lotus seeds easily this laddoos will definitely satisy your sweet tooth.Check out the marathoners running this 22nd edition of blogging marathon here.Sending to 60days of Christmas hosted by Priya and Divya.

1cup Cornmeal
20nos Lotus seeds/Makhana
1cup Sugar
1/2tsp Cardamom powder
2tbsp Ghee
Milk as per need
Few broken cashew nuts

Heat  a tablespoon of ghee and fry the broken cashews until they turns brown.

Take off the fried cashews and roast the cornmeal in the same pan for few minutes.

Transfer the cornmeal to a plate, heat the remaining ghee,fry the lotus seeds until they turns bit crisp.

Now take the roasted cornmeal,roasted lotus seeds,sugar in a mixer and grind everything as bit coarse powder.

Take the coarse powder,fried cashews in a plate,springle enough milk and make out small balls from the mixture.

You can also use ghee while making this laddoos.Store in air tight containers.