Whole Wheat Ravioli

I am a big fan of Ravioli and am always intimidated about cooking it.
But this recipe is very easy to make and tastes amazing

For Pasta Dough
1 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1 Egg
Salt to taste
Water as required

For Filling
1 Sweet Potato
Salt & Pepper to taste

Mix whole wheat flour, egg and salt and knead it into a firm dough. Add water as required.

Filling can be anything; here I used mashed Sweet Potato and added salt and pepper to taste.

Split the pasta dough into 2 parts and roll each one and make squares. Fill the sweet potato mix and cover it with another square and seal it with some water
Put these raviolis in boiling water till they rise to the top.
Raviolis Done!

Saute the Ravioli with some Olive Oil
You can use a sauce with the Ravioli or serve them with a bed of greens.
Here I sauteed some greens with olive oil and garlic and served the Ravioli on top
This was an easy, quick and tasty recipe.

Ukadiche Modak - Sweet Dumplings

I love Modaks! They are rice dumplings with coconut filling specially prepared in Maharashtra during the Ganesh Festival. It is difficult to get them at any restaurant, in frozen packs or any other way in the US. So the only solution is to embark on the difficult journey of actually cooking them.
The difficult part of modak for me is the artistic design of the dumpling and to achieve that, it is necessary to get the rice flour mixture perfect.

For the cover
1 cup of rice flour
1 cup water
pinch of salt

Heat the water in a wok and then add the rice flour. Mix well, cover it for couple of minutes and done!

It is as simple as that, but somehow it is tricky. The finished dough needs to be soft yet cooked. You can adjust the water and rice flour proportions based on trial and error. But these proportions are a good start.

For the stuffing
1 cup shredded coconut
3/4 cup jaggery (sugar might work, but jaggery adds a special authentic touch)

Mix both the ingredients and stir it on low flame till jaggery melts and combines with the coconut. You can add cardamom and dry fruits to elevate the flavor.

Now comes the tricky part, make a dough ball, flaten it, fill it with the filling and close it. Fold the way based on the picture. It is difficult to describe the process in words, but even if you make balls, they will be delicious.

Once the modaks/balls are made, steam them for 10 min.
Done! Enjoy the hot, steaming modaks with ghee (Indian butter)

Smores Galore

I love S'mores. Summer = S'mores
Since I dont't have a fire handy to create S'mores whenever I like, I tried creating some pseudo S'more recipes using simple everyday ingredients

S'mores Puffs
Puff Pastry Sheets
Chocolate
Marshmallows



As shown in the picture fill out the pastry sheet with the chocolate and marshmallow and close it using a fork.
Bake it in a pre-heated oven at 450C for 15 min till the pastry sheets become nice golden color
They definitely taste yummy!!



S'mores Cookies
1 Ripe Banana
Some Chocolate chips
Marshmallows
Crushed Graham Crackers

Mash the ripe banana
Add the crushed Graham Crackers, Chocolate Chips and Marshmallows
Mix it, so that the consistency is malleable
Form small cookies and bake them in the oven at 350C for 15 min
Again taste yummy!!

Microwave S'mores
Graham Crackers
Marshmallows
Chocolate chips

Take a Graham Cracker and place few chocolate chips and run it in the microwave for 15 secs
After the chocolate is gooey, place some marshmallows and run it in microwave for 7 secs
Cover it with another Graham Cracker and eat!!