Khara Biscuits (Masala Biscuits)

Ingredients

• All purpose flour/maida - 2 cups
• Butter/Margarine - 4 tsp (room temperature)
• Salt - 3/4 to 1 tsp
• Powdered sugar - 1/4 tsp
• Curry leaves (cut into small pieces) - 1 tsp
• Coriander leaves (cut into small pieces) - 1 tsp
• Mint Leaves (cut into small pieces) - 1 tsp 
• Green Chillies - 1 tsp (cut finely)
• Omam/Ajwain seeds - 2 tsp
• Baking soda - a pinch (optional)
• Milk - 3 to 4 tsp 

Method

• Mix the flour and ghee.
• Then add all the other ingredients except milk and mix well.
• Now add milk little by little till you get a smooth dough consistency.
• Now roll the dough as you do for a chappathi to a 1/4 inch thickness.
• Cut the dough to desired shapes and arrange it in a baking tray.
• Place the dough to the preheated oven to 180 deg C.
• Bake it for 15 min and check whether the sides have becomes slight brown. If so, then remove from oven, cool down.
• The crispy khara/masala biscuits are ready and have it immediately or store in an air tight container.

This goes to my event: Dish Name starts with K

Note:

• I used salted butter and reduced the salt. You can use unsalted butter too and adjust salt according to taste)
• Quantity of milk can be adjusted so as to make a dough consistency.

Kaasi Halwa (White Pumpkin Halwa)

I wanted to try this for a long time and now only I had find time for it to try. First time trying and it really came very good. I took the recipe from kamala's corner, with very little changes. Original recipe goes with milk, sugar and pachchai karpooram, but i didnt use the pachchai karpooram and used condensed milk.

Ingredients
White Pumpkin - 1/2 kg
Sweetened condensed milk - 1 can
Ghee - 1/2 cup
Cashew nuts, raisins, pista - 1 tsp each
Cardamom powder - a pinch
Saffron - a pinch (optional)
Any colour - i used green to make it different.

Method
Peel off the skin of pumpkin and Grate it.
Filter/squeeze out the water as much as you can.
Now in a big pan, add 1 tsp ghee and fry the nuts and keep aside.
In the same pan, add the grated pumpkin and start cooking it with its own water.
When its water is fully dry, add condensed milk and keep on stirring in medium flame.
Little by little add ghee to it.
Add the green colour.
Keep stirring well until the ghee, start coming out from halwa.
Now add in the nuts and raisins, mix well and switch off the stove.
Serve hot or cold (i like both)

This goes to my event Dish Name Starts with K

Karuveppilai Podi (Curry Leaves Powder)

Ingredients

• Karuveppilai/Curry Leaves - 2 cups
• Pepper - 1 tsp
• Jeera - 1 tsp
• Thuvar paruppu/Toor dhal - 2 tsp
• Ulutham paruppu/Urud dhal - 2 tsp
• Kadalai paruppu/Bengal Gram dhal - 2tsp
• Dry Red chillies - 3 
• Garlic - 2 (cloves)
• Salt - as per taste
• Asafoetida - 2 pinches

Method

• Dry fry all the ingredients separately.
• Take care that you do not burn the curry leaves.
• In a mixer jar, grind them all together to make a fine powder.
• Store it in an air tight container to retain its freshness.
• Have it with white rice and ghee and you can never say no to that taste.

This goes to my event: Dish Name Starts with K

Kaarasev

Kaara Sev is a traditional South Indian recipe, which can be easily prepared at home. Its a crispy snack and can be kept for more than 15 days when put in air tight jars. This recipe, actually needs a murukku maker or a karasev laddle to go with. But I dont have both. So I went with just, Jalli karandi (the laddle with holes) and made these snacks. As I am the one taking the photos too, i cant able to take the picture while I press the sev in to the laddle.

Ingredients

• Gram flour (Kadalai Maavu) - 1.5 cups
• Rice flour - 1/2 cup
• Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
• Salt - as per taste
• Baking soda - a pinch
• Black Pepper - 1 tsp (coarsely crushed)
• Cumin Seeds/Jeera seeds - 1 tsp
• Oil - 1 tsp
• Asafoetida - a pinch
• Warm Water - as required to make a dough

Method

• Mix all the ingredients together except the water.
• Add the water little by little to make a dough slightly softer than chappathi dough.
• (It should not be watery).
• In a kadai, heat the oil in medium flame.
• In the Murukku maker or Kaarasev maker, put the dough inside and press the handle. ( I took a lemon sized dough and kept on the laddle and pressed with my thumb ).
• When the sev becomes golden brown, remove and filter the oil with a kitchen tissue.
• Store in a air tight container. 

Note:

• Oil can be replaced with ghee, but i prefer oil.
• Chilli powder can be adjusted according to taste as we need to add the pepper also.

This goes to my event: Dish Name Starts with K