Ghee Mysorepak

Mysorepak is one of the traditional sweets prepared during Deepavali in most of the houses. I tried it few years back but not satisfied with its texture. I always wonder the melt in mouth texture of Krishna Sweets Mysorepak. It was a nightmare & I never thought I'll be able to make this melt in mouth magic just by following an extra step of mixing besan flour & ghee. I gave it a try again.Yes..finally I got it:) Mysorepak can be made easily with less ingredients & its also less time consuming. Enjoy this Deepavali with this melt in mouth Mysorepak!!

Ghee Mysorepak Recipe

Preparation Time : 10 mins | Cooking Time : 25 mins | Makes : 25 small pieces (approx)
Category : Sweet | Cuisine : South Indian

Ingredients

Besan Flour - 1 cup
Sugar - 1 cup
Water 1/4 cup
Ghee - 1.5 cup (1cup for mixing flour + 1/2 cup minus 2 tbsp for stirring)

Method

 1. In a pan add a tsp of  ghee and add a cup of besan flour to it & roast till a nice aroma comes, say for 5 mins. Then sieve the flour so that no lumps are there. Grease a plate with little ghee & keep aside.

2. In a bowl add 1 cup of ghee. Now add the sieved flour to it gradually stirring it without forming any lumps. Keep aside. Now add a cup of sugar in a non-sticky pan. Add 1/4 cup of water to it.

3.  Allow it to boil in medium flame till a single string consistency is reached. Reduce the flame to low. Now add the besan+ghee mixture to the sugar syrup and stir it continuously. Add the remaining 1/2 cup (minus 2 tbsp) ghee in intervals little by little while stirring.

4. Keep stirring till the mixture is not getting sticked to the pan. At a stage it will form a mass without sticking & bright yellow bubbles will appear. This is the right stage where you have to switch off & pour it in the greased plate. It will flow by itself beautifully as in the picture below. No need to flatten. Allow it to cool for sometime. When its warm cut it into squares or diamonds as you wish.

Store it in a clean container & enjoy your Mysorepaks.

Points to be noted:

* Besan flour should be roasted to avoid the raw smell. Don't skip it.

* There are 2 stages where you need to be very careful. One is checking the single string consistency of sugar syrup. The other one is to switch off & pour it when the correct consistency is reached. If not the Mysorepak will not be soft.

* Before adding the remaining 1/2 cup ghee while stirring remove 2 tbsp ghee if you dont want ghee oozing out. When I made Mysorepak first time I added 1/2 cup ghee fully. After pouring it in the plate some ghee oozed out though it didnt affect the taste or texture of Mysorepak. To avoid ghee oozing out this time I removed 2 tbsp from 1/2 cup.

* The whole stirring process should be in low flame. Use non-sticky pan for best results.

Ola / Ribbon Pakoda

As Diwali is round the corner everyone will be busy in shopping & the other important thing going in our mind will be to decide the Sweet & Savory we are going to prepare this Diwali. The best and easy option for Savory is Ola/Ribbon Pakoda. Its a good tea time snack too. Ola Pakoda can be made in two ways. We can soak the idly rice and grind it along with the other ingredients. The other method is using rice flour/Idiappam flour, grinding the ingredients separately and adding to it. Here I gave the easy method with rice flour. In this recipe we are not going to add besan flour. Instead I'm going to add roasted gram flour which makes the Pakoda more crispy. Lets get into the recipe..

Ola Pakoda Recipe

Preparation Time : 10 mins | Cooking Time : 25 mins | Makes : 4 cups
Recipe Category : Snack | Recipe Cuisine : South Indian

Ingredients

Rice flour/Idiappam flour - 1 cup
Roasted bengal gram(Pottukadali) flour -1/4 cup
Butter - 1 tbsp
Sesame seeds(White) - 3/4 tsp
Salt as needed
Hing/Asafoetida -1/4 tsp
Oil - for frying

For grinding:
Dry red chillies -2
Garlic - 1 or 2 pods
Curry leaves - few
Jeera - 1/2 tsp

Method

1. Grind the roasted gram dal into fine powder and sieve it.

2. In a bowl add rice flour, roasted gram dal flour, melted butter, Sesame seeds, Hing & salt. Keep aside.

 

3. Now grind the ingredients given under For Grinding into a fine paste adding little water. Add it to the above mixture & mix well so that it all gets blended.


4. Add water to it little by little till you get a smooth dough consistency.

5. Heat the oil. Fill the dough in the Murukku press. Use Ola pakoda plate.

6. Press the dough in a circular motion in the heated oil. When one side is cooked well, flip to the other side.(Ssh sound & the bubbles will reduce once it gets cooked). Continue the same with other batches till all your dough is over.

7. Drain it in tissue paper & allow it to cool completely. Store it in an airtight container.

Points to be noted

* You have to grind the red chilli paste finely so that the seeds will not get stuck in the hole while pressing. You can even replace red chillies with a tsp of red chilli powder. Once I used green chillies. It tasted good too.

* Oil should be in a perfect temperature. Don't over heat. It will turn brown. If not enough heated the dough will split. So be careful in heating. If you drop a pinch of dough in oil it should rise immediately. Its the correct temperature.

* If you add more butter the pakodas will get separated in oil.