This halwa reminds me of my childhood times. when i was doing my schooling, we had a petty shop near our school and there we get so much of kids cookies, chocos, biscuits and this one. I love this halwa a lot. I never knew this can be made at home. I didnt even know that this one is made out of maida. when i was browsing through net, I found this recipe from Srivalli's blog. It was so simple, that made me to try it at home on the same day.

Ingredients

Maida - 1/2 cup

Sugar - 1 cup

Kesari powder a pinch

Cashew - few

Ghee - as required.

Method:

Make the sugar syrup till one thred consistency

Prepare a batter with maida, kesari powder and water.

Pour this batter into the boiling sugar syrup and keep on stirring.

Keep adding the ghee till you get a well formed halwa.

Once it is ready, pour it on a greased plate and decorate it with roasted cashews.

I followed the exact recipe from hers and found it very tasty. My kid too loved it.

I am back to the blogosphere. It was really a tough time to settle down and get things done. I really faced a very tough time as there were continuous doctors visits one after other in the family. I don't know what would have went wrong. Even now there are few more packed boxes, yet to be unpacked...and god only knows when it can be done.

Coming to the Indian Cooking Challenge, already I missed one (Murukku) last time. So I didn't want to miss this time too. I was planning this for almost one half month, got print outs of this recipe at least five times...got delayed....delayed and at the end I made it on sat evening.

Appah how many hurdles I should cross. I was grinding batter for Sunday breakfast and preparing the khova. All of a sudden my husband peeped into the kitchen and asked whether I will be able to prepare bajjis for him. It was raining outside and its a perfect time for a bajji too. It was really shock for me, as he is not a fan of bajji and he asked me for the first time in 3 years of my married life. What else...I got things ready for a bread bajji, the easier one. Finished off with the bajji session and I was very happy that my husband and kutty had a great time with the bajji.

Then started off with the jamuns, by that time the khova got ready and made the batter with the ingredients mentioned. Closed it and kept it. Kept the sugar syrup boiling. Used all the buffer time to finish off with my batter mixing. Once everything got ready, I fried the gulab jamuns and put it in the sugar syrup.

And then the comedy session started...I waited for half an hour....1 hr....8hrs....the next day morning too came....but jamun still remained hard enough.....ooops then only I realised on seeing the unopened cooking soda packet. :'( wat to do....Mission Failure. But the taste was good...but hard.

Please do read the comments from my husband and in laws

Husband - "I have sent one to Dr APJ, to try it as a new weapon and one more NASA to do a research on it"

BIL 1 - When my kid had a jamun in hand "Pappu hold it safe otherwise u may harm ur legs when it falls down"

BIL 2 - "Oh my god, you tried it a wrong time....we are done with the remodelling of our house and we don't need stones any more"

Its my fault and I am really scared of trying it anymore...as i was boiling 2 litres of milk on a LPG.

But anyway am posting this as I tried it. I am eager to see all your comments.

Vinayaga Chathurthi is always my favorite festival. Since I was brought up in a village, its always a joyful event to buy clay ganesha. I will be roaming around to get all decorative things like umbrella, erukka maalai and so on for that ganesha. But this time we missed this festival, as we had to attend a close relative's marriage at chidambaram. After that travel, I couldn't find time to prepare this, as I had to bring back home to normal. I missed khamam dhokla also, so I didn't want to miss this time too. So I made myself to prepare something at least for Indian Cooking Challenge. I reached home by 8.30 PM after that I started my venture. When I read through the procedures, I realized only 2 recipes can be made easily at that time. So ended up my list to kozhukattais and peanut ladoos(from Valli's recipe)

I prepared the same way as mentioned by Valli. This is the second time in my life, I am preparing kozhukattai. Because my mom used prepare only pidi kozhukkattai and not this one, so I never had a chance of learning this. As my husband is very much fond of this sweet, he is very particular about the taste and texture. He has a great list of specification on how a kozhikattai should be. Even after 25 years of excellence in kitchen, he will find faults with my MIL's preparation of this sweet. This made me keep away from preparing this. No other go, I ought to prepare this at least once in a year during this pooja. I thought I am saved this year, but this ICC trapped me into trouble :( .

My poornam came out well and the dough too. But after seeing my first set of kozhukattais, my husband thought he only will prepare it. I was very conscious on the getting a fully covered kozhukkattai, but he felt that the cover is too thick. So he only did all the kozhukatais after that. Really it came out well and you can see the snaps.

Making peanut ladoos was not a big deal and it also came out as expected. Actually I thought of doing a small pooja with this as the neivedhyam, but its was toooooooooo late.

Recipes are transferred from generations. In my case both my Mom and my MIL learnt cooking from my mom's mom. She was an expert and till now some of her masterpieces remains unacheivable. Like athirasam, idyappam, suzhiyam etc. Some of them were tried several times and left as it didnt turn out upto her level. Later they stopped trying even. When I heard of this Indian Cooking challenge, I felt very happy to get a chance to try out the tough ones. After mastering them, I can challenge my Mom and MIL ;) hehehe

Coming to the trial run, my trial run was a great success. As it is already month end, I decided to prepare it yesterday. I had all the ingredients ready at home. But when I started, immediately the power went off. Ooops what a bad sign I got. I determined to go ahead and finish it off with the charged light. Cooking in Candle Light:) As I am doing it for the first time, I took a print out of the recipe mentioned there. My hubby dear helped me in getting things done and reading out for me. The only thing is he was very keen on measurements. I wanted to have less sugar, but he was jumping on not use different measurements. It appeared so kiddish, but I really loved the overall experience.

I used the exact measurements and the same procedure as mentioned.

Only thing I couldnt achieve was, I couldnt get a good round shape, as it was so hot. I prepared the balls immediately, after I took off from the stove. Later I realised I would have waited for some more time, so that it would have cooled little bit. Any which ways, I will be preparing it often, as it turned out well.

The most lovable thing was, my son loved it so much. He was asking for it, before he went to bed. Later the next morning as soon as he got up, he took that box and was asking me to open it and give him one. Thats the appreciation I got.

This is a sweet prepared only during the "Mattu Pongal", when we used to do pooja for our "Veetu Theivam"(family GOD hehehe). From the morning, we will be preparing only tiffin items for breakfast and lunch. Will start cooking only in the evening. We will do a heavy menu for the offering, which will the standard items every year. This sweet will surely be a part of the menu and this will be the last preparation. We will do the pooja only after 10pm in the night, have dinner after pooja and we will wear the new pongal dress after that only. But being an atheist, me and my chithi(who is also from an atheist family) will taste everything on time, before pooja. After all these hungama, "swamy ther" (Chariot) will come and we will offer this sweet to that god or goddess (i don't know as I will be almost sleeping on that time every year and get scoldings the next day morning). Stories aside, here comes the recipe

Ingredients:

Rice - 1 cup

Jaggery - 1 1/2 cup

Ghee - 5 tbsp

Cashew - few

Raisins - few

Cardamom - 3

Coconut scrapped - 2 tbsp

Method:

In a kadai roast the rice, till it becomes puffed. 

Cool it and grind it in a mixer. It will become like rice semolina. 

Heat a 1 tsp of ghee and roast the cashew and raisins and keep it aside. 

In the left over ghee, add the coconut and roast till golden brown. Keep it aside. 

In that kadai, add the jaggery and 4 cups of water. When it starts boiling, add the rice semolina and mix well, without forming lumps. 

keep on mixing as you do for halwa. Till it becomes thick enough. 

It is usually served ball shaped while offering to god and for us in a bowl with a spoon ;)

I was thinking so long for the Mithai Mela conducted by Srivalli and ended up here. But I missed the deadline, I don't whether she will accept this. 

It’s my long time goal, that I should prepare a good kesari. Finally I mastered in that after several trials. Whenever i say i am going to prepare kesari, my husband used to tell me "You prepare rava upma instead, as it will be far better when compared to your kesari". Scared of his comments I will stop trying out. But yesterday, I was so determined to prepare the kesari and get any sort of comments from him. When you have tensions on how it would turn out, the recipe will be spoiled. This time I didn’t take any tension and I did it my own way. Hurray I did it and my husband enjoyed it a lot. More than him my kid loved it so much. That’s what i needed.

Ingredients: 

Rava\Sooji - 1 cup

Sugar - 2 1/2 cups

Water - 4 cups

Cardamom powder - 1 pinch

Saffron color powder - For coloring

Ghee - 4 tbsp

Cashew - 10

Dry Grapes - 10

Hell a lot of patience and love 

Method:

In a hard bottomed kadai, add 1 tbsp of ghee and roast the cashew and dry grapes. Keep it aside in a plate.

In the same kadai, add the sooji and roast till it the aroma of roasted sooji fills the room. Keep it aside.

Add the water and saffron color powder to the empty kadai and let it boil. Once it starts boiling, add the roasted sooji slowly, so that it doesn’t form any humps.

Close it with a lid and cook it for 10 mins in a low flame. Once the rawa is cooked well, add the sugar and stir well.

Add some ghee to it and make sure it is not stuck to the bottom or side of the kadai.

Keep on stirring it in a low flame, it should look like some halwa not sticking to the kadai. That’s how the ghee will be taken in by the sooji. Later the same ghee will be oozed out. That point you can stop. 

Add the roasted dry fruits to it and mix well. I started it about 7 pm and I stopped it only by 9pm. Have patience and get the tasty kesari. Enjoyyyyy.

I am sending this to FIC – Orange hosted by Aparna, originated by Harini. Hope they accept mine. 

My mom made this for my wedding anniversary this year. I don't eat much of sweets either homemade or store bought. I love to eat only spicy ones. But this one was too good, as it had only mild sweetness in it. Also my son loved it a lot. When my mom started preparing it, I really loved the aroma which filled in my entire house. It was a cardamom aroma, it was very pleasant. This needs not much work to be done and it can easily be prepared within minutes, when the batter is ready. The batter can also be stored for a week as it is made of jaggery. This dish is actually prepared during Maatu pongal offering to GOD. 

Ingredients:

Rice - 1 cup

Uradh Dhal - 1 tbsp

Jaggery - 1/2 cup (If you need it more sweeter, you can add more)

Cardamom - 5

Coconut - 2 tbsp

Method:

Soak the rice and dhal for 1 hr and grind them together in a grinder.

Before taking it off the grinder, add the rest of the ingredients and grind it. 

The Batter is ready now. In a kadai add oil for frying. 

Once the oil is heated, pour a spoon of batter. Immediately it will swell like a poori.

Turn it aside and take it off. Don't fry it too much. 

Actually this one will have crispier portions at the end and softer portion in the middle. The crispier portion will be like a ring and center portion will be like an idly. 

If it is of less sweet, you can have 4-5 at a time. If it is more sweeter, you can have only 2. 

This Paniyaram goes to RCI:Chettinadu Vegetarain Cuisine hosted by Srimathi. 

As we are leaving for a long leave for pongal Holidays , we had a stock milk sleeping in my freezer. Thinking of how to use it effectively, this pal payasam flashed into my mind. My MIL did it for me and it was so delicious. So a quick post on the same

Ingredients:

Milk - 3 litres
Sugar - 500 gms
Cashew - 10
Dry Grapes - 10
Sooji - 2 tbsp
Ghee - 3 tbsp
Cardamom Powder - 1 pinch

Method:

Boil the milk by keeping it in simmer, by stirring it often. The milk gets thickened after a while. But you need hell a lot of patience for it. You can continue your household in between, and only thing you need to do is, stir it often.

Once the milk is thickened, add the sugar and cardamom powder.

Roast the Sooji in 1 tsp of ghee and add it to the payasam. Roast the Cashew and dry grapes in the rest of ghee and add it to the payasam.

That's it done, you can serve it hot or cold. It tastes almost similar to Basandhi. Have a nice treat and Happy Pongal to everyone.

Ingredients:

Moong Dhal - 2 cups

Jaggery - 2 cups 

Sukku - 2 table spoon

Ghee - 2 Tbsp

Cardamom Powder - 2 pinch

Cashew - 10

Dry Grapes - 10

Method:

In the kadai, roast the moong dhal in 2 tsp of ghee, till it becomes golden brown. 

Transfer the moong dhal to a bowl containing hot water and cook it well. 

Once it is cooked well, add the grated jaggery and mix well. 

Once the jaggery dissolves, and the kheer starts boiling, add the sukku. 

Too much of sukku will spoil the dish, so make it less. This sukku is very good for health, that too especially for kids. Also this will add flavour and aroma to the kheer. 

You can make it a habit to add sukku in any of the dish, whenever you are arranging for a treat at home. This helps in digestion. 

Add the cardamom powder and switch off. Roast the cashew and dry grapes in ghee and add it to the kheer. You can add any dry friuts to it. 

This can be served both hot and cold. Its a delicious dessert served in almost all tamil family treats. 

I am sending this as an entry to Srilekha's EFM - Sweets