Gems & choco chip cookies

   My daughter travels by school van, and everytime I come down to help her get into the van, all I can see is ten other kindergarden kids with cute and innocent looks, smiling and waving hands at her! Everytime I look at them, I wished that I could get them some sort of snacks, chocolates or cookies prepared by me.  And finally prepared these awesome Gems n Choco Chip Cookies.

                             


   Out of the oven, these cookies were soo soft textured that I myself could hardly resist having them.  Since I prepared them for kids, I had gone too buttery which was responsible for the soft, crumbly texture.


                               

Khus khuswali khumb/ Mushroom flavoured with spicy poppyseeds base

   I love to try gravy with different base, here is one, poppy seeds flavoured mushroom gravy.  Poppy seeds are highly nutritious, rich source of protein, dietery fibre and also an base for preparing anti-cancer drugs.  I have previously prepared Harira, where poppy seeds are pressed to yield milk which is had with poori/chapathi.  Alternatively, poppy seeds are known to create false positive result in drug tests :(  So, it is advised better not to carry them when you travel to other countries, especially to Saudi Arabia where it is regarded as an severe punishable offence.

Ingredients required

For the masala paste (The following ingredients are dry roasted and ground into a fine paste)

• 3-4 tbspn khus khus/poppy seeds
• 3-4 dry red chilly
• 1 tsp whole dhanya
• 1 -inch cinnamon stick
• 1 black cardamon
• Pinch of ajwain
• 2-3 cloves
• 1 tsp of putane ki dal 
• 3-4 garlic pods
• 1/2 tsp dry ginger powder
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder