Carrot Halwa ~~ sweet as home March 30, 2008

Halwa ~~ A dessert made from various kinds of fruits, vegetables, grains and lentils. The ingredients in Halwa are grated finely and fried in ghee and sugar. Nuts and milk may also be added. Halwas have the consistency of a very thick pudding.

This is the technical definition of halwa but the whole experience of eating this dish away from homeland is totally different. Although I ate this halwa in quite a number of restaurants but somehow I felt that they did not get the taste right. Frankly speaking, I did not know that by adding condensed milk, the taste will come out this amazing!!! I thought the ingredients would be only milk sugar and carrots..thats it. With condensed milk..the taste comes out real good.

Try this recipe and let me know how was it!!

Ingredients

4 cups grated carrot
1 cup condensed milk
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp cardamom powder
1/2 cup cashewnuts
1/4 cup badam
2 cloves
2 tbs ghee

Method

• Wash and peel carrots and then grate them finely.

• Take a deep skillet and add two tbs ghee. Add cloves,cashewnuts and badam. Add grated carrot. Keep stirring till it cooked properly. It will take at least 15 minutes to do this on medium heat. Do not cover the skillet with any lid.

• Add condensed milk and mix it well. Add the cardamom powder. Keep stirring for five minutes more.

• Add sugar slowly and keep mixing for 10 more minutes.Halwa is ready to eat. You can top it with dry coconut powder.

 

Puranpoli March 13, 2008

Ingredients

300gms. channa (yellowgram) dal
300 gms. jaggery (molasses)
1 tsp. cardamom powder
150 gms. plain flour
1 tbsp. ghee
warm water to knead dough
ghee to serve

Method

• Boil dal in plenty of water till soft but not broken.
• Drain in a colander for and keep it aside for 10-15 minutes.
• Grind using a grinder till all dal is grated.
• Mash jaggery till lumps break. Mix well into dal. Put mixture in a heavy saucepan and cook till a soft lump is formed
  Take care to stir continuously, so as not to charr. Keep aside.
• Mix ghee, flour, add enough water to make a soft pliable dough.
• Take a morsel sized ball of dough, roll into a 4″ round.  Place same sized ball of filling in centre, life all round and seal. Reroll carefully to a 6″ diameter round. Roast on warm griddle till golden brown.
• Repeat other side. Take on serving plate. Apply a tsp. of ghee all over top and serve hot.

Rava kesari January 25, 2008

 

This amazing and delicious sweet called Rava Kesari was made by my dear husband. Its all about a perfect blend of rava,sugar and ghee!! It was as sweet as my new born niece!!

Happy Sankranti January 16, 2008

Makar Sankranti is one of the most auspicious day for the Hindus, and is celebrated in almost all parts of the country in myriad cultural forms, with great devotion, fervor & gaiety. Lakhs of people take a dip in places like Ganga Sagar & Prayag and pray to Lord Sun. It is celebrated with pomp in southern parts of the country as Pongal, and in Punjab is celebrated as Lohri & Maghi. Gujarati’s not only look reverentially up to the sun, but also offer thousands of their colorful oblations in the form of beautiful kites all over the skyline.

Makar Sankranti is the day when the glorious Sun-God of Hindus begins its ascendancy and entry into the Northern Hemisphere. Sun for the Hindus stands for Pratyaksha-Brahman – the manifest God, who symbolizes, the one, non-dual, self-effulgent, glorious divinity blessing one & all tirelessly. Sun is the one who transcends time and also the one who rotates the proverbial Wheel of Time. The famous Gayatri Mantra, which is chanted everyday by every faithful Hindu, is directed to Sun God to bless them with intelligence & wisdom. Sun not only represents God but also stands for an embodiment of knowledge & wisdom.
In Andhra Pradesh, it is celebrated as a three-day harvest festival Pongal. It is a big event for the people of Andhra Pradesh. The Telugus like to call it ‘Pedda Panduga’ meaning big festival. The whole event lasts for four days, the first day Bhogi, the second day Sankranti, the third day Kanuma and the fourth day, Mukkanuma. And chakkara pongali is one of the sweets which is made on this day! So here goes the recipe.

                                                        

Chakkara pongali~~ 

Ingredients
 
1 cup rice
1/2 pesara pappu (Moong daal)
1/4 cup coconut
1/2 cup ghee
2 cups sugar
2 cups milk
2 cups water
1 tbls.cashews nut pieces
1 tbls.of raisins(kismis)
1/2 ts.cardamom powder 
 
Method

• Fry rice and pesara pappu without ghee/oil. Fry coconut pieces till brownish and keep aside. Fry cashews and kismis in 1 ts.ghee and keep aside.
• Cook rice and moong daal together in a pressure cooker pouring 2 cups milk and 2 cups water.Cook little more than the ordinary rice (4 whistles)
• After the rice is cooked properly, remove the pressue cooker lid and ddd fried coconut pieces,sugar and mix well. Start stirring otherwise it starts burning from the bottom. Keep adding ghee while stirring. 
• Add cardamom powder,raisins and cashews. Stir well and remove.
• Chakkara Pongali is ready to eat.

There is also another version of the pongali- the spicy one. Pressure cook rice and dal with four cups of water. Fry peppercorns, inguva, curry leaves, jeera and salt and add this popu in the cooked rice and dal and mix well. The spicy version is ready.

Kajjikayalu or gujiya November 12, 2007

Its festival time and best time to eat kajjikayalu or gujiya. Here is the recipe

For the filling -

Ingredients

1 cup shredded cococnut
1/2 cup jaggery
1/4 cup water
2 tbs ghee
1/2 tsp cardamom powder
1/2 cups kismis

For the outer cover

Ingredients

1 cup maida
water
ghee
salt to taste

Method

Add salt and mix maida with little water and knead well. Apply some ghee on the dough and keep it aside

Take a small pan and melt jaggery in water so that it has syrup like consistency. Sprinkle cardamom powder.Add coconut and let it cook for few minutes and keep it aside.

Now make round balls of about half an inch diameter. Roll the dough into small circle and add the stuffing in the center. Now close the circle in half and twist the sides. the shape is a semi circle shape. Now deep fry it in oil and your tasty kajjikayalu are ready!

Happy Deepawali! November 8, 2007

Happy Deepawali

Here is a quick coconut sweet recipe!

Coconut Sweet

Ingredients

1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup sugar
1 cup rava
1/2 tsp cardamom powder
1/2 cup nuts – cashewnuts, kismis, pistachio
1/2 cup milk
ghee

Method

Take a pan and add little ghee and fry rava till it becomes golden brown. Add coconut and fry again for a while. Add sugar and mix well till it melts. Now add milk, nuts and cardamom powder and mix well. Now transfer the whole mixture into a flat plate and spread and let it cool. Cut it into squares and enjoy!!

Double ka Meetha (Bread Pudding) November 6, 2007

Its festival time and a time to indulge into tempting sweets. I miss the usual shor sharaba of my favourite shopping street..sarojini nagar..in south delhi. The entire market is decorated and almost every evening its jampacked with..people going here and there…shopping and eating at the same time! Then there is our good old green park which is quite famous for its sweets..specially Kaju burfi. Hyderabad is famous for its biryani and wide variety of sweets. One of them is double ka meetha. Traditionally, lot of ghee is used in making indian sweets, but I have limited the amount of ghee this time…

Ingredients

White bread 5 slices
milk 1 cup
sugar 1cup
cashew nuts 10 gms
kismis 10gms
cardamom powder pinch
ghee 1 tsp
water 1/2cup
 

Process

Take the slices of bread and roast them in the toaster. Take a pan put sugar and add 1/2 cup of water and make a single string syrup. Fry cashewnuts and kismis in gheeon low heat and keep aside.

Now take the slices of bread and make them into small pieces and put them into the syrup. Mix well and add the boiled milk to it.Top it with fried cashewnuts and kismis. Serve hot.

Gulab Jamun October 15, 2007

I learnt gulab jamun recipe from my aunt when i was a little girl. It took her almost 2 hrs to make 25 gulab jamuns..i was amazed and surprised at her patience. But when i tasted those delicious perfect rounded gulab jamun..i understood. One needs to perfect the art of making round balls! haha jokes apart I love making and eating gulab jamuns. It took me 4 years (i was still in school then) to perfect the art of making round balls. I used to make it for my mother because she had a sweet tooth..hmm..probably she ate too many and ended up having diabetes. Since then i stopped making them…and now almost after 10 yrs I tried again..so here it is the good old recipe of Gulab Jamun.

Ingredients

MTR gulab jamun mix or any gulab jamun mix you get in indian grocery shop

Cardomam seeds – 1 tsp

Sugar – 2 cups

water – 1 cup

Ghee – 2 tbsp

Oil

Method

1. Make a smooth dough with half cup of water and make sure the dough is really really smooth. You can use ghee to smoothen it. After it becomes soft, leave it for at least 10 minutes. Make balls by gently rolling each portion between your palms into a smooth ball. Place the balls on a plate. Cover with a damp yet dry kitchen towel.

2. First of all, you need to make the syrup first. Mix 2 cups of sugar in 1 cup of water and heat it. Keep stirring it so that the sugar dissolves properly. Heat it for at least 20 min. Add cardamom powder or kesar if you have and lower the heat.

3. Take a deep pan and pour oil into it. Heat it on high for a while and then keep it on medium heat. Put in the balls into the hot oil from the side of the pan, one by one. They will sink to the bottom of the pan, but do not try to move them here and there.  After about 5 mins, the balls will rise to the surface. The Gulab Jamuns should rise slowly to the top if the temperature is just right. Now they must be gently and constantly agitated to ensure even browning on all sides. If the balls break that means the dough was not smooth enough. So make sure the mix is smooth.

4. As soon as you take the gulab jamuns from oil, put them in the syrup. Keep stirring them. After a while the gulab jamuns will soak completely in the syrup and thats it..gulab jamun is ready to be gobbled up!!

Semiya Payasam October 15, 2007

Semiya payasam is a traditional indian sweet made up of rice/vermicelli cooked in milk. It has rich and creamy texture. The sweet smell of cardamom enhances the taste. In india, it is quite common dish during festival days. Here is the recipe..

Ingredients:
1 cup roasted vermicelli 
2 cups milk
1/5 tspoon saffron stands (mixed in warm milk)
1/4 cup cashewnuts (roasted in ghee)
cardammom powder
1 cup Sugar

Method:

Heat milk in a thick bottomed pan and let it boil on medium heat. Once it boils over then switch it to medium low heat till it reduces to half. Keep stirring till at regular intervals.

Add the soaked saffron and sugar to the milk and let it cook for another 4-5 min. Add roasted vermicelli and chopped cashewnuts to milk and let it cook for another 4-5 min. Keep stirring it so that no lumps are formed. Serve it hot!