Popsicle wall Hanging with Flowers

This wall hanging is made with Popsicle and decorated with silver color leaves,  red and violet form paper flowers, blue, pink  and white punched paper  flowers, blue nylon ribbon, punched pink foil paper  butterfly and red and golden color glitter gels.
Work in progress:

Door hanging

Orange and Rose Fuzzy stick Flowers arranged in a paper vase which is decorated with Pink foil paper.

Sweet Boli & Semiya payasam

Wheat flour Sweet Boli with Vermacelli ( Semiya) Payasam

Wheat flour Sweet Boli

INGREDIENTS:

Chana dal/Bengal gram (Kadalaparippu) – 1 cup

Sugar – 1  cup 

Wheat flour – 1  cup

Cardamom powder – 1/4 tsp

Ghee - 1/4 cup

Rice flour – 1/2 cup ( to make the rolls, so it won’t stick

Turmeric Powder or  Golden Yellow Food color – A pinch (optional)

Gingelly Oil(Nallenna) – 1/4 cup

Water - As required to form a soft dough

Nutmeg(Jathikka) powder – 1/4 tsp

METHOD:

Cook the chana dal(Kadalaparippu) in a pressure cooker until soft or till 1 whistle in low flame,  you can switch off the heat when the pressure is almost filled so that the dal can be cooked in that pressure (dont overcook it,  should be just soft) . Drain it very well.

Preparing dough:

Mix the wheat flour and food color or turmeric powder  together .

Add enough water and make it into a soft dough (than chappathi dough).

Pour gingelly oil (Nallenna) into it and knead it well until the dough become very soft.After making the dough, you can also  pour 1  tsp of  gingelly oil (Nallenna) on top of the dough.

Keep it aside for 1 hour to make it more soft.

Make filling:

Grind the cooked dal in a mixer when it is hot till you get a paste. If  dal  becomes cold,the mixture can harden and makes grinding difficult.

Heat ground paste in a  heavy bottomed pan  in medium flame.

Add the sugar and ghee to this. Mix well and cook until the mix starts separating from the pan (should be soft) means stir continuously until the mixture becomes semi solid.Be careful,it should not become too hard.

Now add in cardamom powder and nutmeg powder into it and stir well.

Rolling Boli:

Now make equal number of lemon sized balls with both Bengal gram (Kadalaparippu)mixture and with the wheat flour dough.(The wheat flour balls must be smaller than the dal balls).

Take one wheat  flour ball in your left hand and spread it with your right hand.

Keep the gram ball in center of the rolled dough.

• Cover the gram completely with the dough.
• Press the layered balls between your hands and keep it on the rice flour. ( Spread rice flour in a large plate).
• Repeat the same for all the other balls.
• Finally make very thin round boli from the balls like chappathi. Use the rice flour to make the boli so that it won’t stick.

Cooking Boli:

• Heat a griddle/tawa  and cook the bolis  just like we do for chapattis.Take care not to burn it or else it will have burnt spots.

• Turn and fry the other side. It will take only a few seconds. If you need , apply little ghee on both sides.
• Keep it in an air tight container and keep it in the refrigerator when it is cooled.Thus, it can be stored for a week.
• Its best combination is with payasam.Tips:
• Can cook and make the chana paste a day before.
• Make all the balls at a strech.
• While rolling with gram mixture it will be sticky. So use lots of flour for rolling and clean the tava with paper towel after making each boli.
• Normally all purpose flour  used to prepare boli .

Next time I like to make Boli with maida/all purpose flour. Boli and semiya/Vermacelli payasam or paal payasam is one of my favorite.
You can see Semiya Payasam recipe here:  http://ourharsha.blogspot.com/2012/06/vermacellisemiya-payasam.html
 

Vermacelli(Semiya) Payasam

INGREDIETS:

Milk – 5 cups (2%  Milk)

Vermicelli ( Semiya) – 1 cup

Sago/ sabhudana/Chauwari – 1 tbsp

Sugar – 1/2 cup (or as required)

Cashew nuts Halves – 15 nos

Raisins – 10 nos

Cardamom Powder – 1/2 tsp

Ghee ( clarified butter)  - 1  tbsp

METHOD:

• Cook the Sabudhana/chauwari in a heavy bottomed vessel by adding 3 glasses of water.
• When it done, it will appear to be transparent and soft.
• Drain it and keep aside.
• Sago/chauwari is optional.You can make Vermicelli/semiya   Payasam(Kheer) without Sago/Sabudhana/Chawari.
• Heat 1 tbsp Ghee in a heavy bottomed pan.
• Fry raisins until they are plump. Keep it aside.
• Then fry cashews halves in the same pan till they become light golden brown. Keep aside.
• In the same pan, add the vermicelli (if it is not roasted vermicelli) and roast it for 5 minutes till a nice aroma emanates in  kitchen and it turns a light brown shade.
• Keep stirring it to prevent it from getting burnt.

• Now add 2 cups of milk to the pan and bring it to boil.
• Add cardamom powder for flavor to this and mix well.
• Add sugar to this and mix well.
• Now add remaining milk and stirring continuously. Allow it to boil on low - medium heat.
• Cook till Vermacelli/Semiya becomes soft. Simmer for 10-12 minutes till the semiya is cooked and the payasam begins to thicken.
• Now add cooked Sago/Sabudhana/Chawari to the Semiya Payasam.
• Remove Semiya/Vermacelli Payasam from flame and garnish with fried raisins and cashews.

• You can serve it either warm or cold. I love refrigerated Semiya Payasam.

Notes:

I used 2% Fat Milk for making Paysam. If you are using Whole Milk, you can take 4 cups milk and 1 cup water.

Vellayappam and Black chickpeas Curry

Vellayappam and Kerala style Black chickpeas/channa/kadala Curry