Bengali style Nimki aka Kucho Nimki is a diamond shaped deep fried popular snack from Bengal. There are different shapes of nimki including elo jhelo nimki, tinkona nimki, kucho nimki to name a few. In Bengali, Nimki is referred to salted snack and Kucho means small size, hence the smaller size diamond cut deep fried salty snack is called kucho nimki.



Nimki is the perfect accompaniment with your evening tea or coffee. Nowadays nimkis are available in the market easily and throughout the year. However, earlier it was not the case. Nimkis were synonymous to Durga Puja more specifically to Vijaya Dashami. “Vijaya Dashami” is the last day of Durga Puja (or Dusshera). On this day, idol of Goddess Durga is immersed in water (Visarjan) and it is believed that Goddess Durga returns back to Kailash with her family. After giving farewell to Devi Durga younger seek blessing from elders and elders share love and affection. Homemade sweets (especially narkel naru) and namkeens (varieties of nimki) are distributed. Basically, combination of narkel naru and kucho nimki is a tradition after Vijaya Dashami which is being carried forward for so many years and hopefully, the future generation will also carry forward this legacy.

Though in today’s date nimki is easily available in the market with colourful packaging but my taste buds refuse to approve them. I prefer homemade kucho nimki and every time I crave for nimki I refer to the no fail nimki recipe shared by my mother. Nimki is also a travel friendly snack which you can enjoy in your long distance travel by train or bus. Although nimki is a deep fried snack but I prefer it any day over store bought dry snacks and chips. In future I have planned to bake them and if I succeed I will share it here how to bake the nimkis.  Here is my crispy and crunchy nimki recipe for you all.



What are the ingredients used to prepare Nimki?

Maida or all purpose flour is the primary ingredient of nimki. Other ingredients include ghee, salt, kalonji/nigella seeds, cooking soda and refined oil or vegetable oil for frying. Bengalis have sweet tooth so many people do add a teaspoon of sugar while kneading the dough which gives a sweet and salt taste to the nimki. However, I have skipped sugar here. Also, black salt is optional but if you sprinkle it on top it gives a tongue tickling taste to the nimki.

Is nimki same as namak pare?

Nimki and namak pare is not exactly the same. There is subtle difference between the two (as per my knowledge). Nimki has kalonji (nigella seeds) in it which gives a nice nutty flavour to it. On the other hand, namak pare has either ajwain or crushed black pepper or cumin seeds in it. However, these days many people add ajwain and other spices to the nimki. So somewhere the subtle line of difference is merging over the time period. One more interesting fact is the shape of kucho nimki is diamond (haven’t seen any other shape than diamond shape) however, in case of namak pare it is either rectangular or diamond. Nimki is mainly prepared using maida or all purpose flour. However, namak pare is prepared using all purpose flour as well as whole wheat flour or sometimes using the mix of both flours.

Can I replace all purpose flour with whole wheat flour in Nimki recipe?

Yes you can replace all purpose flour and use wheat flour instead. However, taste will not remain same. All purpose flour or maida is light in texture hence gives a crunchy crispy light snack as outcome.
Also, there are other flours including ragi, oats, bajra can be used as alternative flour to prepare nimki. In future I will share different varieties of nimki.

How can I serve Nimki?

Traditionally, nimki was served along with narkel naru or sweets during the occasion of Vijaya Dashami. You can serve it with hot beverages like tea or coffee. You can also serve it in an assorted dry snack platter along with mathri, mixture and other stuff.



Can I store Nimki?

 Yes you can store nimki upto two weeks. After frying allow them to cool and once they are cool store them into a dry airtight container for two weeks. If you want to store them for longer duration, use less salt in the dough. As we all know salt absorbs moisture and it might make the stored nimkis soft. Also avoid sprinkling black salt on top if you are storing for longer period.


Cooking soda and baking soda both are same. It is sodium bicarbonate. It is used as leaving agent and gives lighter crumbs in biscuits, cookies and cakes.

Preparation time: 5 mins
Cooking time: 1 hr
Servings: 4

Kucho Nimki Recipe or Salted Diamond Cuts Recipe

Ingredients

Maida (all purpose flour) - 2 cups
Ghee - 2 teaspoon
Salt to taste
Kalonji (Nigella seeds/ Kalojeere) - 1 teaspoon
Cooking Soda- 1/4 teaspoon
Refined oil for deep frying
Black Salt (optional) – ½ teaspoon for sprinkling on top

Procedure

1. Take maida in a bowl and mix salt, kalonji and cooking soda into it.
2. Then add ghee and make a tight dough by adding water.
3. Now cover the dough with a wet cloth for 30 minutes.
4. Make equal size balls from the dough. Roll each ball like a chapatti.
5. Take a knife and cut the roti horizontally and vertically such a way that it makes diamond shaped small pieces.
6. Repeat the same procedure for other balls which are made from the dough.
7. Now heat oil in a wok and fry the diamond shaped nimki under low to medium flame.
8. When they turn golden brown take out them from oil in a tissue paper to soak the extra oil.
9. You can store them in an air tight container and serve your guest.




i. Always knead tight dough instead of a soft one. The dough should be similar like luchi (maida puri) dough.
ii. Fry the nimki under low to medium heat. Avoid frying them on high heat as they might burn.
iii. After cutting the diamond shapes spread them in a big plate otherwise they might get stuck to each other and frying won't be proper. Some of the parts might remain uncooked.

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The basic everyday pancake is prepared with a batter of egg, flour, milk and baking powder. The outcome of this easy pancake recipe is fluffy pancakes which you will love to have for your morning breakfast.



While digging the history of pancake I came to know the pancake has come a long way, probably from the era of stone age! There are numerous explanations which talk about why it is named as pancake. However, I like the one which says as it is a cake (ingredients are similar or you can say almost same) cooked in a pan so it is called pancake.

Being born in an Indian family, we never grew up eating pancakes. In those days making cake at home used to be a big deal in a suburban town. And my mom  prepares the best Vanilla cake in pressure cooker. As I grew up and started reading more books and watched cookery shows (we did not have easy access to internets at that point of time) I came to know about this beautiful dish. However, I never experimented it in my kitchen. I think I prepared it first only when my toddler daughter requested it after watching famous Peppa Pig Show (where the Daddy Pig's pancake gets stuck on the ceiling). The making of pancake is really easy but I did not succeed on the first attempt. But after going through various recipes and few trial & error methods helped me to get this no-fail recipe of pancake.

I regularly post our daughter's snack box and lunch box stories in my blog's FB handle and Instagram.  Recently when I packed pancake (I did it earlier too), my friends and readers asked the recipe of the same. It is then I realized blog does not have the recipe of pancake. Here I am sharing how to prepare easy pancake from scratch. In future, I will also share varieties of pancake recipes including chocolate pancake, blueberry pancakes, oats pancakes and more.


Pancake Ingredients

Flour: Normally, all purpose flour is used to prepare classic pancakes. However, in recent days people also use whole wheat flour or sometimes all purpose flour and wheat flour both are used in 1:1 ratio. Gluten free flours especially buckwheat flour also replaces the all purpose flour.

Sugar: Granulated white sugar is used in the pancake mixture. You can adjust the sweetness according to your taste buds.

Egg: Egg is also helpful in making the pancake soft and fluffy. Most importantly it adds structure to the pancake.

Baking Powder: Baking powder gives you light and fluffy pancakes.

Salt: Little amount of salt helps to balance the sweetness of the pancake and give a nice flavour to it.

Milk: You can use either low fat milk or whole milk or skimmed milk. Milk is a most important ingredient which helps to prepare the batter.

Melted Butter: You can use either salted or unsalted butter while preparing pancake. In case you are using salted butter, reduce the amount of salt (mentioned in the ingredients) to balance it.

Vanilla Extract: Vanilla extract adds a sweet aroma and taste to the pancake. You can use flavour of your choice.


Easy Pancake Recipe

Ingredients

All purpose flour (Maida) - 11/2 cup
Sugar - 1 or 2 tablespoon
Egg - 1 large
Butter - 3 tablespoon, melted
Baking Powder - 21/2 to 3 teaspoon
Salt - 1/2 teaspoon
Vanilla Extract - 1 teaspoon
Milk -11/4 cup


Procedure
1. Take flour, salt, sugar and baking powder in a bowl and mix them well.
2. Now beat egg in a separated bowl and next slowly add the milk, 1 tablespoon of melted butter and vanilla extract into the mixture. Mix well.
3. Combine dry and wet ingredients to make a smooth batter. Batter there should not have any lump.
4. When the smooth batter is ready, grease a non-stick pan with melted butter and add a ladle full of batter and cook until the bubble appears on the top and edges are bit dry and the bottom is golden brown. At this point flip the pancake and cook the other side.
5. Similarly, make pancakes using remaining batter and drizzle honey or maple syrup on top and serve.



Tips for making fluffy Pancakes from scratch

1. The first and most important tip is avoid overmixing the batter. Overmixing does not result a light and fluffy pancakes. Take all the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix them well. Take the wet ingredients in another bowl and mix well. However when you add both of them together you should lightly mix them and there could be small lumps present in the batter.

2. I have seen most people are in curry to flip the pancake. Wait until the bubbles appear on the top and edges are bit dry. At this time you can flip and cook the other side.

3. Do not flip the pancakes repeatedly. You have to flip the pancake only one time once the other side is cooked well.
4. Normally, in many recipes you would see they refer to add the butter in the batter. However, I prefer to add only a tablespoon in the batter and remaining I use to grease the skillet which gives a nice colour to my pancake.

How do I serve pancake?


You can serve your pancake with desired toppings. Here I am sharing some suggestions to serve pancake:

• Mostly people prefer pancakes topped with syrup. Maple syrup is the popular one. Instead of using syrup, you can also add honey.
•  Add some freshly chopped fruits like banana, berries on your pancake.
•  If you have fruit compotes in your pantry, do top your pancake with fruit compotes.
•  You can also top your pancake with chocolate shavings, chocochips or chocolate syrup. 
•  Nuts are another option to top your pancakes.
•  Also, if nothing works for you, you can dust some icing sugar on top however, not a healthy option though.

Can I make eggless pancake?

Yes. You can make eggless pancake. I will share the recipe soon, keep following my page.


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Till then signing off!! Have a great year ahead...

•  Light
•  Portable
•  Nutrient rich with energy dense ingredients

•  You are not aware of the sources of  each ingredients.
•  Most of the store bought trail mix contains sugar coated  nuts which are not good for health.
•  Ingredients are roasted in hydrogenated oils in most of the cases.
•  They use salt to make it salty in taste and you are not aware of the quality of salt used here.
•  Moreover, store-bought trail mix packs are heavy for your pocket and mostly available in bulk amount.

Granola is a type of breakfast cereal which contains grains, nuts, seeds and dried fruits. An easy and quick granola recipe made on stovetop is handy for your busy and lazy days. In this blogpost I will share how to prepare granola on stovetop at your home. I will also share the detailed tips and tricks and answer many questions commonly asked while making granola.



When you get up late in the morning and totally puzzled what to have for breakfast, at that moment of time, the box of granola kept on your kitchen counter top saves your day. Granola has become morning companion in almost every household especially if  you are a working professional (who works in the morning shift! most of us) or if you are mother of a school going kid or if you stay in a hostel!

While talking about hostel I remember my hostel days in Kolkata and Chennai. In Chennai we had  food service along with boarding so never worried about food. But in Kolkata it was a private paying guest which provided only accommodation and we had our kitchen. We used to really busy with our study, college and tuition so hardly we used to get time make our own meals. We used to order lunch and dinner from a 'dabbawalla', but breakfast was a problem.  Back then breakfast cereals have just entered Indian market and gaining popularity. So that was an easy option for us but there was no variety at that point of time so I was bored with the same thing everyday. Wish muesli or granola would have been there at that point of time. Only few years ago I came to know about muesli and granola and not only me even my husband (who hates age old breakfast cereals like cornflakes) both liked the taste and it was very handy for our busy days. But many of you may not the difference between granola and muesli.



What's the difference between granola and muesli?

Muesli and Granola both are great breakfast options and can be either served with milk or yogurt. Muesli is an uncooked breakfast cereal which contains different types of grains (oats and mostly in the form of flakes like corn flakes, wheat flakes, rice flakes etc), nuts, seeds and dried fruits. On the other hand, granola is a cooked (baked) cereal which consists of grains, nuts, seeds, dried fruits with added sweeteners and oils for binding them together. As granola has binding agents, here oats stick together in clusters whereas muesli is a loose type of mixture.

How to use granola?

 This is a common question people often ask that how to eat granola or how do I use granola. Here I am sharing various ways to eat granola:

1. Breakfast: Granola is a great breakfast option. You can add yogurt or milk to it and top it with fresh fruits like banana, apple, kiwi, etc and have it for breakfast which is the most popular way to eat granola.



2. Granola Bars: Have you heard of granola bars? These are really great to have as snacks. It gives instant energy and perfect for kids when they come home after playing.

3. Smoothies: If you love smoothies, you can top your smoothies with a fistful of granola and this will make your smoothies more tasty and filling.

4. Salads: You can also add granola to your salad bowls and it will give you an extra crunch!

5. Desserts:  Summers are for popsicles! Isn't it? You can add granola to your popsicles too. Apart from that, you can add it your breakfast muffins or to your truffles or add an extra layer in your parfait!

Basically, granola is pretty flexible! You can add granola to anything and everything and enjoy your meal. If you do not like any of the options, you can simply munch them (the way I do it sometimes😁)




Why should you prepare granola at home?

You might say granola is readily available in any super market or departmental store so why should I prepare Granola at home. My answer to this question is the homemade tastes the best! Also you can customize the ingredients as per your choice which will not be possible for the store bought granola. You can also adjust the sweetener when you are making at your own kitchen. Do you agree with me now ?


What is special in Stovetop Granola Recipe?

Most of the granola recipes available in the internet calls for baking. However, many of the Indian household does not have oven till date as Indian recipes mostly done on stovetop. So they should not deprived from the taste of homemade granola.

Now let's learn how to make stovetop granola at home. I am sharing the easiest stovetop granola recipe which you can prepare at your home without an oven.

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20 mins

Easy Stovetop Granola Recipe

Ingredients
Rolled Oats - 2 cups
Sunflower seeds - 2 tablespoon
Dry Fruit Mix - 2/3 cup (golden & black raisins, cranberries)
Almonds - 10 to 15
Honey - 1/4 cup
Butter - 3 tablespoon

Procedure
1. Dry roast the almonds and finely slice them.
2. Now melt butter and add the melted butter with honey in a bowl.
3. Also dry roast rolled oats and sunflower seeds until the colour changes slightly.
4. Next add honey-butter mixture into it and coat the oats mixture nicely.
5. Cook the mixture for 2 to 3 minutes under low flame. The colour of the mixture will turn into golden brown.
6. Switch off the gas and allow the mixture to cool.
7. Now the granola mixture becomes chunky so break the chunks using your fingers.
8. Next add the chopped almond and dry fruits in the granola mixture and store it in a air tight container. Easy homemade stovetop granola mixture is ready.

Stovetop Granola

If you like this recipe and prepared at your home, do share the picture with me (email: jhumu.here@gmail.com). You can also tag me in your social media and share this post as much as possible.

Misti goja is a popular sweet from Bengal. Goja is made of flour, deep fried and soaked in sugar syrup. Festival of lights (Deepavali) has already kick started with today's Dhanteras.


I believe you have cleaned your home, decked all the corners of your home with your favourite decors, completed shopping gifts and decided your dress and accessories to match them. Enjoy the festival to the fullest whatever you prefer them by keeping all your grief aside. Diwali or Deepavali is all about good things, celebrates good over evil. The festival of light is incomplete without good food. It's a tradition to prepare snacks and sweets to celebrate the occasion. Different types of savoury snacks including Nimki, Triangular Nimki, Methi Mathri, Elo Jhelo, Sukhi Kachori  are prepared during this festival.

In olden days, women of the house used to start the preparations a week or 10 days ahead of the festival and used make all the sweets and snacks in bulk and stored into containers. As I told last year too, during Diwali we Bengalis celebrate Kali Puja. Now I am out of Bengal for more than a decade and observed the significance of the festival of lights and it's rituals. I observed during Diwali the sweet items are either made of nuts and dry fruits or khoya or deep fried.



Blogging has given me the opportunity to know my country (India) very well. Earlier the knowledge was confined only to certain regions including vastly about where I have born and grown up and visited to the states for studies or work or where I am residing now. Rest of India prepares snack during Diwali whereas we (Bengalis) mostly prepare them during Durga Puja especially for Vijaya Dashami. West Bengal is a warehouse of sweets (I think everyone would agree to this) and they are freshly made in shops and not heavy on your pocket too. So mostly Bengali households completely depend on sweet shops for their regular or festive needs of sweets. This scene was different in 60's, 70's or even in 80's when our grandmas used to prepare most of the delicacies at home. Off late the scenario started changing when sweet shops ruled over the sweet buds of Bengali nuclear family. Let's go to the recipe details now.

All about Goja

There are different types of goja available. They are different shapes and sizes, hence the way of preparations are also different. However, one thing is common in all types of goja i.e. each of them has layers in it. Today I am sharing the recipe of Bengal special Misti Goja. Have you ever visited a fair in Bengal's village? If yes, then you know those fairs are incomplete with the presence of jalebi, omriti, Bonde or Sweet Boondi and Goja.



This is made using all purpose flour or maida. You need very few ingredients to prepare goja. Prepare a rough (not smooth like luchi or poori) dough using maida, ghee, baking soda and drizzles of water. Then create the layers of goja which is the actual trick of the recipe. The goja has several layers inside it just like the puff pastry sheets and making of goja is also same like puff pastry. Today we are exposed to global cuisine and amazed to see the layers in puff pastry and learned it. If we see our own Indian cuisine we find similar kind of techniques have been used here too. Similarly, the use of ghee in goja reminds me the use of butter in every layer of puff pastry sheets. I am not aware about the origin of goja (I mean when the people of Bengal started making it) just to understand whether it was the impact of European colonialism. More you make layers in goja, it becomes flaky and crisp while you fry and ensures the proper absorption of sugar syrup.


After making the layers the dough is spread in rectangular manner with a half or quarter inch of thickness. Later it was cut using knife to make pieces and deep fried in oil. Frying of goja is also tricky. Avoid heating the oil too much before you add the goja in them. When your oil start bubbling at the bottom, add the gojas and maintain low heat while you fry. Slow heat will allow to open up the layers you had created in the dough, so have patience. Avoid overcrowding your wok and slowly fry all the sides till they are golden in colour. Take out one batch and allow them to cool before adding them into sugar syrup. In the meanwhile add another batch for frying. One more important point to remember when you are adding the gojas into sugar syrup it should not be hot instead it should be warm or room temperature. Allow them to soak for 15 to 20 minutes and later take them out from syrup and serve.

The shelf life of Goja is more than any sweet prepared using chena (cottage cheese) or milk. Deep frying for longer time and soaking in sugar syrup (not thin syrup) reduce the chance of getting spoiled.

Here is the step by step recipe along with pictures  of misti goja.

Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 1 hr 15 mins
Yields: 10 to 12 (depending on the size and thickness)


Bengali Misti Goja or মিষ্টি গজা

Ingredients

Maida/All Purpose Flour - 1 cup
Baking Soda - 1/4 teaspoon
Ghee - 1/4 cup
Refined Oil - 3 cups, deep frying
Water as required

For Sugar syrup

Sugar - 1 cup
Water - 1 cup water

Procedure

Sugar Syrup

Take one cup sugar and one cup water in a pan and boil it until dissolves. The sugar syrup should not be too thin or thick so boil it for few minutes. Once done, switch off the gas and keep it aside.

Steps of making Bengali Misti Goja

1. Take 1 cup of flour in a bowl and add pinch of baking soda and mix well.

2. Next add ghee into the mixture and mix it well with your palm until the mixture appears crumb like texture.

3. Now add water using a teaspoon little by little as the dough has to be hard in texture and it will have cracks unlike the smooth dough of Poori.

4. Next take the dough on a flat kitchen platform and spread it in circle shape by tapping with your fingers.
5. Now take a knife and cut the circle into half circle and further make halves of the half circles.

6. At present, you have four pieces of dough and stack them on each other so again it formed dough ball.

See the layers it has formed already

7. Now repeat step 4 to 6 for 4 to 5 times. This will create the layers inside goja.
8. After repeating those steps now spread the dough ball in a square shape with a 1/2 or quarter inch thickness and cut it into square or rectangular pieces.

9. Heat oil in a wok and add few rectangular pieces in the oil and slowly fry them till they are golden from all sides.

10. Now take them out from the oil and allow to cool for sometime before adding them to the sugar syrup.

11. Allow to soak them in sugar syrup for 15 to 20 minutes and take them out and serve.


If you have tried any recipe from my blog, do share pictures and tag me in social media Motions and Emotions Facebook, Instagram of Motions and Emotions or you can also send the pictures via email to jhumu.here@gmail.com

Wishing all my readers and well-wishers a very Happy and Prosperous Deepavali!

Wish you all Happy Deepavali / Diwali! May God fulfill all your wishes and keep you healthy & Prosperous..

Image Courtesy: Shutterstock.com

When we are talking about Diwali how can we forget about sweets? So today I am sharing a recipe of ladoo which is different from normal sweets. I am sharing the recipe of Dry Fruit Ladoo  on this auspicious occasion. You can call it Dates & Nuts Ladoo.  They are also known as Energy Balls as the ingredients present in this ball gives you instant energy. As you are going through the post and each line gives you a different name of a same dish. This is also known as no-cook dates and dry fruit truffles.


 Here we are not going to use any sweetener like sugar or jaggery or any other artificial sweetener. The ingredients of the ladoo itself will contribute their own sweetness to this ladoo. So you can say the dry fruit ladoo has natural sweetness. This is also known as energy balls because it has lots of dry fruits and nuts which can give you instant energy when you are feeling low or when you need some calorie. I have used dates, dried figs, prunes, raisins, cashews, walnuts and almonds. If you want you can add pistachios, black raisins or apricots etc. Not only in festive occasions, you can just make them over weekends and enjoy throughout your busy weekdays. Working women can carry them to office and instead of eating fried food or cream biscuits you can have a ladoo (just like our cartoon character Chota Bheem :P) to get energy.

What are the ingredients I can use in Dry Fruit and Nuts Ladoo?

There is no restriction what you can add or what you can't in your dry fruit ladoos. Add your preferred choice of nuts and dry fruits. However, dates is a must have ingredient for this ladoo as it will help in binding and plays a role of sweetener. You can add dried figs, apricot, raisins, prunes, dried berries, etc as dry fruits. Earlier availability of certain dry fruits were rare and difficult. Now you can easily procure any of your favourite dry fruits and nuts via e-commerce websites sitting at your home. Similarly, you can use your preferred nuts including cashews, pistachio, walnut, almond, pecan, etc in your energy balls.

Apart from dry fruits and nuts, what are the other ingredients I can use in Dates and Nuts Ladoo?

 There are plenty of ingredients you can add in your dates and nuts ladoo other than dry fruits and nuts. You may add sunflower seeds, melon seeds, sesame seeds, and dry coconuts. Also, you can give a nice coat of poppy seeds to your ladoo.

What is the shelf life of Dates and Nuts Ladoo?

You can store the energy balls in a dry container for 5 to 6 days in room temperature. If you keep it in the refrigerator for longer days.

Preparation time: 15 mins
Cooking time: 20 mins
Yields: 6 to 8

Dry Fruit Ladoo / Dates & Nuts Ladoo / Energy Balls

Ingredients

Dates - 1/2 cup, Deseeded & Chopped
Dry Figs - 5 to 6 nos, chopped
Prunes - 5 to 6 nos, chopped
Raisins - 2 tablespoon
Cashew Nuts - 12 to 15 nos
Walnuts - 8 to 10 nos
Almonds - 12 to 15 nos

Procedure

1. Dry roast all the nuts together and make coarse powder in a dry grinder.
2. Take chopped dates, figs, prunes and raisins in a grinder for one or two pulse. Take out the mixture in a bowl.


3. Now add that coarse nuts powder into this mixture and mix well evenly.
4. Next step is to shape them like round ladoos using your palm. If you want you can roll these balls into dry roasted poppy seeds or desiccated coconut. I kept them as it is. Store them in dry container for 5 to 6 days.