Nan-Khatai (Eggless) : The Indian Cookie

Nan-Khatai are typical Indian cookies, tiny little delights, crispy and crumbly. They can be considered to be the Indian cousin of shortbread. Nan-Khatai come in so many varieties (almond, pistachio, plain, chocolate etc.) and shapes (cute little flowers, round etc.).

As a child I used eat so many of them...My mummy used to bring plentiful of them regularly, each time a different one..And until recently I didn't know they were so easy to make - at least the plain ones are!!! 

The other day, we were in the Indian grocery store and saw rack full of Nan-Khatais and I was tempted to make them at home (rather than just buying them of the shelve). As far as the ingredients went, plain Nan-Khatai are pretty obvious about what has been used to make them. I readily had those (flour, butter etc.) so the plan was to 

GET (back home)

SET (the dough & oven)

and

GO (bake Nan-Khatai)

What to use:

(Yields about 18-24 pieces, depending on the size)

• Unsalted butter - 1/2 cup (1 stick)

• Sugar - 1/2 cup

• All purpose flour - 1 cup

• Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp

• Baking powder - 1/4 tsp

• Salt - 1 pinch

For decoration (optional) :

• Pistachio - few

How to make it:

• Keep the butter outside the fridge and let it get it to room temperature. It will become very soft - that's how we need it. We don't need melted / oily butter.

• Take that soft butter in a bowl along with the sugar and and beat it nicely with a spatula.

• Mix the butter and the sugar nicely till the mixture is creamy and blended well. We are not trying to dissolve the sugar in butter, we just need to mix them well.

• To this mixture, add the baking powder and cardamom powder. Add a pinch of salt. Mix it well so that all of these dry ingredients mix well together.

• Make sure this dry mixture (flour + cardamom powder + salt) mixes well with the creamy butter sugar mix. Use the same spatula to do so.

• Once its mixed well, use your hands and knead it properly into a soft dough. It will take about 5 minutes.

• When the dough is soft and ready, cover it and keep it aside for about 15-20 minutes. This will let  the flavours settle in well.

• Pre-heat the oven to 300 F. It generally takes about 10 minutes.

• Lightly grease the cookie tray with butter.

• Give a nice last knead to the dough.

• Use the dough to make very small, 2-3 cm sized balls. Make them uniform without any cracks.

• Put the balls on the tray, as a safe distance from each other, making sure not to clutter them on the tray. They will expand while they bake, so we need to leave space for that.

• Chop the pistachio. 

• Take a few each time and put on each ball and press very softly so that they stay put on top of each.

• Put the tray inside the oven and let it bake for about 20-25 minutes.

• The aromas will start filling in, the Nan-Khatais would have expanded and flattened a bit. The bottom of each would have turned into a slightly golden brown colour with the top being a lovely off-white.

• Let it just cool on the tray for 2-5 minutes.

• You can now pick them from the tray and place on a wire rack or on a plate directly. When you place them on a wire rack, air passes equally from each side and cools them easily and uniformly.

Savoury little Nan-Khatai are ready for you and you can take a bite any time you ready!!

Note -

• If the sugar has huge granules, you may want to grind it little bit before using. Coarsely grinded sugar is fine.

• It's ok to use salted butter (it is generally handy at most homes), in that case just remember not to add that pinch of salt.

• Any kind of nuts (other than pistachio) like almonds can also be used for topping each Nan-Khatai. You can have them without any topping as well.

• The size of the balls that you make out of the dough is entirely upon you. Just keep it in mind that they should bite sized ones, as Nan-Khatai is generally never too huge.

• Spacing between the balls on the cookie tray before you place it to bake inside the oven - expansion will be to almost double the size of the original. So keeping that in mind place them with leaving ample space around each of them.

• After 20 minutes of baking, do take out the tray and check. Lightly press one and check if it is done or not. Accordingly bake it for another 5 minutes more.

• The ratio of sugar : butter : flour is 1 : 1 : 2. This is helpful if you want to make larger quantities. So for each measure of sugar, take same amount of butter and double the amount of flour.

Prawn Curry (Oriya Style)

Abhishek's friend Jorge was dropping in for lunch today. I got to know of this at 12 noon. I had only 1 hour to quickly cook something. He being from Goa - loves and eats sea-food very regularly, so I decided Prawns would be good. I had cooked and ready prawns (frozen) in my freezer so it was going to be no hassle. For a change to him, I thought of making the Oriya style Prawn curry. Some time back, I had eaten this prawn curry (for the first time), at an aunty's place (Kulu Mausi @ Columbia, MO) and I had really liked it. I had been waiting since then to make it. Finally it happened today!!!

Since I made it in such a hurry I haven't taken any pics of the steps. But then, its a pretty straight forward and easy curry, so you won't miss the pics :):)

P.S - May be next time I make this curry, I will take more pics and add in the missing bits.

What to use:

(Serves 4)

• Prawns – 1/2 kg (peeled / de-veined / de-tailed)

• Potato - 1 (large)

• Carrots - 1/2 cup

• Peas - 1 cup

• Onion - 1 (large)

• Tomato - 1 (large)

• Ginger-Garlic paste - 2-3 tsp

• Coriander powder - 1 tsp

• Cumin powder - 1 tsp

• Turmeric powder - 1 tsp

• Curry powder - 1 tsp

• Garam masala powder - 1 tsp

• Green chillies - 2

• Mustard oil - 2 Tbsp

• Salt – To taste

How to make it:

• Chop that 1 large onion into small pieces.

• Take a kadhai (wok / pan) and put it on high heat till it warms up completely. Add the oil.

• Once the oil is warm, add the onions. Sauté them on medium heat till they are golden brown (semi cooked).

• Chop that large tomato into small chunks. Add them to the kadhai.

• Sauté the tomato along with the onion for about 5 minutes on medium heat. Keep it covered.

• Make a fresh paste out of 1/2 inch of ginger and 4-5 garlic pods. It should yield about 2-3 tbs of ginger-garlic paste.

• Add the ginger-garlic paste to the kadhai. Keep it covered and cook on medium heat for about another 5 minutes.

• In about 5 minutes, when the strong smell of the ginger-garlic paste is gone, add all the powders - coriander, cumin, turmeric, garam masala powder, curry. Mix well and set it sauté uncovered for about 2 minutes.

• Peel and chop the potato into small chunks (The size is all dependent on you, but mostly it should be complimentary to the size of the prawns you using. Just remember that smaller pieces will cook faster).

• Sprinkle a little water into the kadhai.Now add the potato. Mix well.

• Peel and chop the carrot into small sized pieces. Add to the kadhai. Mix well again.

• Add the peas to the kadhai now. Mix well and cover the kadhai. Cook for about 10 minutes. Keep mixing in between and all this while the heat is on medium.

• If you using cooked prawns then we can add them in a while. If you using raw prawns, sauté them on medium heat in a separate wok with 1-2 tsp oil. This is to be done before we add them to the kadhai of masala and vegetables.

• After we give 10 minutes to the Alu (potato) + Mutter (green peas) + Gajar (carrots) to cook with the masala / gravy, now is the turn to add the prawns (semi-cooked ones / slightly sautéed ones).

• Add salt according to your taste. Mix well and cover it. Give it another 5-7 minutes. (Since the prawns are already cooked / semi-cooked, we just need it to blend in well with the gravy / spices).

• You should be getting getting the lovely aromas by now and the curry should be looking nice reddish brown in colour with the burst of orange from carrot pieces and greens from the peas.

• Add 1/2 to 1 cup of water. Turn the heat to high and boil it uncovered for about 5 minutes.

• Switch off. Cover it and let it settle. It is all ready to be eaten in another 5-7 minutes.

It will go well with rice and dal. It makes a great combo with plain roti also.

Note - 

• I always use mustard oil while cooking prawns - the taste comes out definitely better, but you could use your normal cooking oil also.

• Nothing like fresh ginger-garlic paste. Canned/Bottled paste is also usable though.

• You need not weigh, about 20-30 pieces of prawns will do too. I used cooked frozen prawns. If you using fresh prawns fry them in a separate pan on medium heat (uncovered) for about 5-10 minutes. If you want you can keep the tails on - it's up to you.

• I used frozen peas, fresh green peas is all the more better.

• I took a few baby carrots (that's what I had) and used them after chopping them, 1 large carrot is all the same for use.

• Any brand of curry powder is good to use, just the normal curry powder (not like chole masala, chicken masala etc.).

• Any time you think the curry / masala is sticking to the bottom of the pan, just sprinkle little water and mix well.