Kesari without lumps

Now that only me and N are here, there has been lot of 'ME' time. I have finally been able to read through blogs and bookmark recipes. Of course, the bookmarked list is overflowing but then why leave a chance of me forgetting that recipe.

Kesari, it is such a simple sweet. But anything that I do with Rava / Sooji always turns out to be a disaster. Maybe I have been jinxed!!! Till now I have tried Kesari exactly twice. Both times it came out perfect. 

Thanks to Jayashree and Viki. I love Viki's version because it ensures that there are no lump. 

Here is how I adapted Viki's original recipe:

Ingredients

Rava / Sooji - 1 cup

Water - 3 cups

Sugar - 1 cup

Ghee - 2 tbsp

Garnish - cashews, raisins, almond flakes (optional)

Preparation

1. Heat a thick bottomed vessel which has a tight lid. (I used non-stick pan.) 
2. Dry roast rava till it starts turning slight red / brown and has a nice aroma to it. 
3. Transfer it to a plate and keep aside. 
4. In case you are garnishing with cashews and raisins: add ghee to the pan. Once it is hot, add cashews and roast tor 15 seconds. Remove and keep aside.  Add raisins and roast them for 5-10 second. Remove and keep aside.
5. Add water to the pan. 
6. Add a tablespoon of ghee to it. (Can be skipped if you are doing Step 4)
7. Allow the water to come to a full boil.
8. Reduce the flame to the lowest possible. 
9. Add rava slowly in a wide spread manner. Do not stir.
10. Close the pan with the lid. (Steps 7,8,9 are very important to ensure that there are no lumps)
11. Check often to see if the water has been absorbed. (Took 2-3 minutes for mine)
12. When there is no water, add sugar and stir well. 
13. When sugar is dissolved, add remaining ghee and stir until the kesari starts leaving the sides. The kesari will be little bit sticky.

Kesari is done and yummy!!!

~ Ramya

Pal Adai Pradhaman

The last couple of weeks have been going pretty crazy. I had to coordinate with several packers and movers for getting quotations. Yes...I am shifting from Pune to US soon.  I was keen on emptying my kitchen when I noticed that I had a packet of Rice Ada. I had never tried to make it before due to my laziness. But when I actually made it, I noticed that making Pal Adai Pradhaman was very easy to make (atleast when you used ready made ada's). So now I have been making this atleast twice a week. Here we go with the recipe:

Ingredients

Rice Ada - 0.5 cup (equivalent to 2 handful)

Sugar - 1 cup (increase / decrease based on taste)

Milk - 1 litre

Cardamom - 1/2 tsp

Milkmaid or condensed milk - 1/4 cup

Cashews / Raisins / Almonds - For Garnish

Ghee - For frying the garnish items 

Preparation

Over heat in a pressure cooker, add rice ada, sugar and milk. As soon as the slightest bit of steam appears put the weight.  Turn down the heat to the sim (or lowest possible). Switch off the gas after 30 minutes. Once the pressure releases add milkmaid and boil for a 2-3 minutes. Meanwhile fry cashews / raisins / almonds with ghee.  Garnish the pal adai pradhaman with the fried items.

Tips

1. Ensure that you put the weight as soon as the slightest steam appears. Otherwise milk will tend to come out. 
2. The heat should be reduced to as low as possible otherwise milk will tend to come out when the cooker whistles.
3. You can replace milkmaid with Creamers / Dairy Whiteners but ensure that you add it along with the milk itself.

Pal Adai Pradhaman is ready and yummy!!!

Horlicks Mysorepak

On the 1st day of the year I always have a policy to donate blood. As a result I got a kilo of Horlicks. Horlicks is one drink that I really hate. As the ad says, I love eating it just like that.  But how could I finish 1 kilo just like that? Thats when I had an idea to make Horlicks Mysorepak. I had seen them at Ananda Bhavan at Chennai. Here is my version:

Ingredients

Besan - 1.5 cup

Horlicks - 0.5 cup

Sugar - 2 cup (increase / decrease depending on the taste)

Ghee - 0.5 cup

Water - 1 cup

Preparation

Over medium heat, in a thick bottomed vessel, add sugar and water. As soon as the sugar melts (I dont wait for one thread consistency), add besan and horlicks (Tip: Mix horlicks with warm water to form a  pourable paste. Otherwise it has a tendency to form into lumps easily). Keep stirring to ensure that there are no lumps. Add ghee and keep stirring. The mixture will start frothing up. As soon as the mixture starts leaving the sides transfer to a ghee smeared plate. Sprinkle sugar over the mixture. The mixture will start to solidify after the few minutes. When firm cut into the desired shape.

Horlicks Mysorepak is ready and yummy!!!

Taking inspiration from Jayasree, I decided to take picture of my kolam. Compared to hers, mine are small and simple ones. Here we go:

Pathishapta Pitha

Pathishapta is a Bengali sweet dish. I got to know this from a Bengali aunty staying in our flat. She is a great cook and manages to make this every week. She has now gone back to Calcutta. So I decided to find out how to actually make this dish in the internet. But the only problem was I did not know what it was called. I did a search for 'Bengali Sweet - Coconut Filling' and I had a look at some of the recipes. I finally found out that I was eating Pathishapta all this while.

Pitha is usually prepared during Poush Parbon. Makar Sankranthi marks the end of the Bengali month Poush. The original recipe is here. Here we go with my version:


Ingredients

For the Batter

All purpose flour or Maida - 2 cups
Rice flour - 2 tbsp
Baking Powder - 1/2 tsp
Milk - 1 cup

For the Filling

Grated coconut - 2 cups
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Cream - 2 tbsp
Cardamom - 1/4 tbsp
Raisins - 10
Ghee - 1 tbsp

Preparation

Mix all the batter ingredients and let it stand for 30 minutes. Make sure that the batter is smooth without any lumps. The batter should be free flowing.

Heat a frying pan. Add ghee and fry the raisins. Add coconut, sugar, cream and cardamom. Keep stirring it constantly and you will notice that the mixture would have loosened. as the sugar starts to melt. Keep stirring for 1-2 minutes to ensure that the mixture comes together. (Note: The mixture will tend to harden after you remove from the stove. So if the mixture is watery it is ok).

Make small dosas / pancakes / crepes out of the batter in a tava. Keep the filling lengthwise and fold it from both sides. The crepes are done when it is light brown.

Pathishapta is ready and yummy!!!

Carrot Halwa

It had been a long time since I tried Carrot Halwa. The last time I tried was the recipe given in Mallika Badrinath's microwave cooking. It did not turn out to be as authentic as I wanted it to be. So when I saw the Carrot Halwa post of Jayashree, Kailas Kitchen fame, I was bent upon trying it immediately. The season for carrots has started in Pune and I thought what a timely post by Jayashree.


The difference between mine and Jayashree's is:

1. I grated the carrots in the food processor using the fine grating blade
2. I did not use cardamom powder
3. I reduced the quantity of sugar to 1/2 cup for 3 cups of carrot.

and I cooked the entire halwa on stove top.

Happy Cooking!!!

~ Ramya

Walnut Burfi in Microwave

I am back from US to Pune. It is always a luxury when you return back to India even if you are gone for a week. The heat, people, dirtiness, the ability to break rules....mmm..I love it. After coming back, as usual had loads of work that other than the traditional cooking, I just did not have time to experiment anything. But then I was feeling guilty that I was not updating my blog. So yesterday I made some Walnut Burfi (source: Tarla Dalal) but my version. It did not come out like a traditional burfi. It was chewy (like Rice Krispies).

So here we go with the recipe:

Ingredients

Walnuts - 1 cup
Sugar - 3 tbsp
Milk Powder - 3 tbsp
Milk - 3 tbsp
Ground Nutmeg - a pinch
Ghee - 1 tsp

Preparation

In a microwave safe bowl, mix together the walnuts and ghee and microwave on High for 2 minutes, stirring once after 1 minute. In a bowl mix sugar, milk powder, milk and nutmeg. Add this to the ghee & walnuts. Mix well and microwave on High for 2 minutes. Remove and spread in a round plate and allow it to set for 20-30 minutes. Cut into squares and serve.

Walnut Burfi is ready and yummy!!!

Note: The number of minutes may vary by a minute or 2 depending upon the power of the microwave.

Ramya

Aval Payasam in Microwave

I use microwave more for cooking rather than for re-heating. I had never tried making Payasam before and this was going to be my first time. I did not have a clue about the cooking time but then my friend gave me an idea in terms of the number of minutes. I decided to do it based on my gut feeling. It did turn out to be good. But then I was sitting near the microwave and watching it so that my milk would not overflow. My milk did not overflow at all :-) So here we go with the recipe:

Ingredients

Aval or Poha (thin variety) - 1/4 cup (grind into a coarse powder)
Milk - 2 cups
Sugar - 1/2 cup (depending upon the sweetness)
Elachi Powder - 1/2 tsp
Cashewnuts, Raisins - For Garnish
Ghee - For roasting the nuts

Preparation

In a deep microwave bowl add ghee and microwave for 1 minute. Add cashewnuts and raisins and microwave for 2 minutes. Keep the nuts separately.

In the same bowl, mix milk, aval powder and elachi powder. Boil at 100% power for 8 minutes. Stir once in between. Microwave again at 50% power for 7 minutes. Add sugar and microwave at 50% power for 8 minutes. Allow to stand for 5 minutes.

Garnish with the roasted nuts.

Aval Payasam is ready and Yummy!!!

Note: The number of minutes might vary by 1-2 minutes depending upon your microwave's power outage.

This is going to EFM - Microwave Recipes



and also to MEC Puddings Srivallis MEC Announcement

Wheat Halwa - No Soaking

Nirmal loves wheat halwa. He is very critical about the food that I cook. So everything that I cook has to be perfect otherwise he does not eat it. Last week he suddenly had a craving for wheat halwa. I started searching for the recipe in the internet. But all recipes wanted me to soak wheat overnight for which I did not have time. So I decided to try making the halwa without soaking it. The halwa turned out to be good and Nirmal was appreciative too :-)

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

Wheat flour- 1 cup
Sugar – 3tbs
Cardamom powder- ¼ tsp
Milk- 3/4 cup
Ghee - 1 tbsp
Cashewnut, Almond, Raisin - For garnishing

Preparation

Roast the wheat flour in low flame till the aroma fills the air. Keep it aside. Add ghee (or butter) and sugar. Allow the sugar to melt. Once it has melted add milk and allow it to start boiling. Once it starts boiling add the roasted wheat flour. Keep stirring it to make sure that lumps are not formed. When this mixture leaves the sides of the pan and starts forming bigger lump, turn off the gas. Garnish with fried cashew, raisins and almonds.

Wheat Halwa is ready and Yummy!!!

Badam Halwa

I have tried this recipe many times and it has always come out well. I use very little ghee but still it tastes yummy.

Ingredients

Blanched Almonds - 1cup
Milk - 3/4 cup
Yellow Color - a pinch
Saffron - a pinch

Sugar - 1 1/4 cup
Ghee - 2 tbsp


Preparation

Grind blanched almonds (Tip: Add water to the almonds and microwave for 30 seconds. The almond skin can be easily peeled off) Add sugar and grind well. Microwave on High for 14 minutes. (This can vary by 1 or 2 minutes depending on the moisture content in the paste) Stir at least 3 times in between. Add ghee and microwave for 2 minutes. Allow it to cool for 5 minutes.

Badam Halwa is ready and Yummy!!!

Maaladu

One of the simplest sweet dish is Maaladu.

Ingredients

Pottukadalai (Split Chick Peas or roasted gram) - 1 Cup
Sugar - 1 Cup
Cashews - broken into pieces and roasted
Cardamom Powder - 1 pinch
Ghee

Preparation

Powder Pottukadalai and Sugar together. Add cardamom powder and cashews. Melt the ghee. Add the warm ghee to the powder slowly till you can roll like a a ball with hand and press tightly.

Maaladu is ready and Yummy!!!

Pathir Peni

One of the sweets I made for Navarathiri was Pathir Peni. I thought it would be difficult but it definitely was not so though it took me some time to prepare.

Ingredients

Maida - 3/4 cup
Rava - 1/4 cup
Powdered Sugar - 1 cup
Baking soda - 1 pinch
Cardamom Powder - 1 pinch
Ghee
Oil for Frying

Preparation

Preparing the Dough

Powder Rava finely. Add Maida, powdered sugar, baking soda, cardamom powder to it. (The amount of Rava and Maida can be exchanged). Add water and make a dough out of it.

Preparing the Chappathi's / Poori's

Make small balls out of the dough. Roll the balls into flat thin round shapes using a chapatti roller. Spread ghee over the chapatti. (You can make a paste out of rice flour and ghee and then spread it). Place another chapatti over it. Then spread ghee on the top of second chapatti. Place a third chapatti on top of the
second to make a thick chapatti. Now roll this chapatti from the edge to form a
cylindrical shape. Cut this cylinder into bits and make chapatti once again from
these bits. Deep fry them in oil.

Last Few Steps

Sprinkle Powdered Sugar over the fried chapatti or poori (whatever you may want to call it).

Pathir Peni is ready and Yummy!!!

Rava Laddu

Ingredients

Rava - 1 Cup
Sugar - 1 1/4 Cup
Cardamom Powder
Cashew - 4-5 broken into small pieces
Ghee

Preparation

Stir the rava in pan till it is golden brown. Grind the golden brown rava and sugar to a fine powder. Fry the cashews with ghee. Add cardamom powder and fried cashews to the powder.

Heat ghee till it becomes hot. Add ghee little by little and make small balls out of the fine powder.

Rava laddu is ready and Yummy!!!

Vella Appam or Sweet Appam

Ingredients

Wheat Flour a.k.a Atta - 1 cup
Rice Flour - 1/4 cup
Jaggery - 1 1/4 cup or less depending upon how sweet you prefer
Cardamom Powder - 1 pinch
Banana - 1

Preparation

Keep a hard bottom vessel in the gas and add jaggery and 1/4 cup of water and melt it to form a watery mixture.

Mix wheat flour, rice flour, mashed banana and cardamom powder together. To this add melted jaggery and mix it till you get dosa batter consistency. (Tip: Grind it in mixer for making this batter. This is easy and fast).

Heat the kuzhi paniyaram set or appa kadai with oil. Pour the batter in each kuzhi (fill half kuzhi). Turn the appams till they become brown on all sides.

Appam is ready!!! Yummy!!!

Sharing the sweet tooth...Tharattipal

Today is the first day of Navratri. I have kept Golu (lots of effort of getting dolls..separate post later). I made 'Tharattipal' today. It was quite easy.



So here I go with sharing the recipe:

Ingredients

Milk - 1/2 Litre
Jaggery - 1 cup
Elachi Powder
Ghee - 1 teaspoon

Preparation

Take a heavy bottom vessel, to prevent the contents from burning. I used a pressure cooker. Boil the milk. Once the milk starts boiling reduce the gas to low and keep stirring it once in a while till the quantity of milk reduces by half. Add the jaggery and keep stirring it. Add ghee and keep stirring it to prevent it from sticking to the vessel. The milk and jaggery will start solidifying. When the ghee starts oozing out completely, keep stirring for another 5 minutes.

Tharattipal is ready!!! Yummy!!!