Carrot Halwa

             Happy new year to all my readers!

               

  

 Ingredients:

2 cups of shredded carrots
2 cups of milk
2 pinches of cardamom
1/4 cup of sugar 
2-3 tbsp of ghee
cashew nuts and raisins for garnish

Preparation:

1.Add a tbsp of ghee to the thick bottomed vessel, add cashews and raisins to roast.
2. Then add the shredded carrots to roast for 5 minutes. Add warm milk to the pan and mix well.
3. Keep stirring till the moisture is absorbed and the carrots are well cooked.
4. Add sugar and cardamom to the pan. Stir well and add the remaining ghee.
5. Carrot halwa is ready. Very simple and very delicious to taste!

Rava Laddu

Rava laddu is one of my childhood favorites. It can also be made as a quick evening snack or as a prasadham. The ideal rava laddu needs to have the right amount of firmness, sweetness and coarseness.

 Ingredients:

1 cup of fine Rava/ Sooji
3/4 cup of powdered sugar
1/4 cup of ghee
2 tbsp of cashew nuts
2 tbsp of raisins
1 tsp of powdered cardamom
Warm milk(optional)

Preparation:

1. Heat 1 tbsp of ghee in a skillet and add cashew nuts. As they turn golden brown, add raisins. As they plump up, transfer to a plate.
2. Add rava to the pan and dry roast them till nice aroma comes. Switch off the flame and add sugar, roasted nuts and ghee. Mix them.
3. The mixture should be warm to make a small lemon sized balls. As the mix becomes dry add a tbsp of warm milk and continue making balls.

4. Rava laddu will be soft but eventually it becomes firm. Store them in the refrigerator.

Puran Poli

  Puran Poli is another sweet dish which is common in India. This dish combines bengal gram and jaggery to bring a unique flavor and is relished both in South and West India.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup of maida/all purpose flour

pinch of turmeric

pinch of salt
2 tbsp of coconut (optional)

water as required

Ghee as required

Oil for frying

Filling:

1/2 cup of Bengal gram dhal/ chana dhal

1/2 cup of toor dhal

1 cup of  powdered Jaggery
1 tsp of powdered cardamom

Preparation:

1.Mix the maida flour, salt, oil and add water. Knead well enough to make a soft dough. Keep aside for an hour.

2.Soak Bengal gram dhal and toor dhal for 1 hour. Pressure cook them together but do not overcook them. Filter the water and allow it to cool.
3.Grind the dhal with jaggery. Fry the coconut for 2 minutes and add to the filling. Add the cardamom and mix well and the filling is ready. Make small balls of the filling.

3. Make lime sized balls out of the dough, add the filling to it.

4. Roll it out. 

5.In a pan put little oil, fry the poli on both sides till it turns golden brown. 

6.Apply ghee on the surface of the poli.

                       

Semia payasam (Vermicelli Kheer/Pudding)

Payasam (a.k.a. Kheer) is a traditional Indian sweet dish. I made this recently for my fathers birthday and it turned out well. So I decided to share it with my dear readers today. As always, I welcome your feedback and comments.

Ingredients: 

1 cup of semia
3-4 cups of milk
3/4 cup of sugar
handful of cashew nuts
10 raisins 
pinch of saffron
2 tbsp of ghee 


Preparation:


1.Add ghee to heavy bottomed vessel and add nuts and raisins. Roast them till they turn golden brown. Be careful with raisins, remove before it turns dark.

2.Transfer them to a plate and add the semia to the ghee. Roast them slightly till nice aroma comes.

3.Add boiled milk (warm milk) to the semia. Keep stirring till the semia is cooked.

3.Now add the sugar and allow them to dissolve.

4.Transfer the nuts and saffron. Mix them well. Semia payasam is ready.

Coconut Burfi/ thengai burfi/ Seven Cup Burfi

   Coconut burfi can be done in different ways. When I was a kid, my mom used to make this sweet for my birthdays. This sweet brings me nostalgic feel. Being thousands of miles away, I am connecting with her by trying out her recipes. Another name for this sweet is seven cup burfi- The name comes from the fact that there are seven cups of ingredients.  

Ingredients:

1 cup of fine rava/ sooji
1 cup of grated coconut
1 cup of cashew nuts (powdered)
1 cup of melted ghee
1 cup of milk
2 cups of sugar
pinch of saffron
4 pieces of cardamom
raisins for decoration


Preparation:


1.Mix the above ingredients in the following order, rava , coconut,  powdered cashew, ghee, milk and sugar in the heavy bottomed vessel.

2.Start stirring in the low flame to avoid any lump formation.

3.Keep stirring till the sweet starts to thicken. Towards the end, add the saffron soaked in 1/2 tbsp of milk and powdered cardamom.

4.Apply little ghee on the plate and transfer the sweet. Allow the sweet to cool and cut in to squares. 

5.Decorate with raisins.