Aval Kesari | Poha Kesari | Poha Sheera | Easy Krishna Jayanthi Recipes

So as I told you yesterday, I had made Aval Kesari for Krishna Jayanthi neivedhyam day before yesterday. And as it goes, it should be posted here right? :) Have I told you friends that I am a certified Cuemath teacher and I take math classes for kids at home. So I gave the kids who came for class day before yesterday this kesari. At first I offered them by asking, 'Do you kids like kesari?' And the reply I got was 'Aunty, who is there who wouldn't like kesari'. That's the speciality of this sweet right. It pleases everyone and it's so easy to make too.. It can be done in less than half an hour and when those unexpected guests arrive it's a life saver, right ! So now let's see how to make this easy and tasty sweet.. 

Makes: 1 cup

I Took: 

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 20 minutes

I Used:

Poha/Aval/Rice Flakes	-	½ cup
Sugar	-	½ cup
Water	-	1 cup
Cardamom	-	1 no
Ghee	-	2 tbsp
Cashew Nuts	-	6-8 nos
Food colour	-	A pinch

The Way:

1. In a pan, dry roast the poha/aval for 4-5 minutes in low flame till they turn crisp

2. Transfer it to a plate/mixie jar and allow it to cool. Once completely cool, grind them to a coarse powder like that of sooji/rava/semolina consistency

3. Now heat ghee in the pan. Roast the cashews to golden brown colour. Then transfer to another plate and keep aside

4. In the same ghee, roast the powdered aval/poha. The ghee should get coated evenly in the poha

5. Now pour water and allow it to boil. Once boiled, simmer the flame and allow it to cook

6. Mix the colour in a tbsp of water and add it to the poha 

7. The poha would take around 5-7 minutes to cook. The test is to check the poha with wet hands. If it is not sticking to your hand then it is cooked (learned this tip from Jayashri's kitchen :)) and also all water should be absorbed and it would become a thick mass. You can cook the poha covered.In that case stir it in between so that it doesn't get burnt

8. Now once cooked add sugar and mix well. The kesari will again turn watery but don't worry

9. Keep stirring. Add the powdered cardamom and roasted cashew nuts

10. The ghee would start leaving the sides and the kesari is ready then !

Cheers,

Chitz

Aval Laddu | Poha Ladoo | Easy Krishna Jayanthi recipes

So friends, how did your Janmashtami celebs go this year? Mine was simple as usual with some homemade butter, sago kheer and aval kesari as neivedhyam to kutty krishna. This year I did not have a great mood to dress up little Dhruv like last year. U know why, we cut his hair last week :( I was saving the trip to the hair dresser so that I can tie his hair and dress him up like kutty krishna but he was getting very irritated with those particularly longer strands near the ears that we had to cut his hair. I lost all my enthu coz of that and so it was a simple krishna jayanthi yesterday with just homemade neivedhyam. 

Last year it was nice, we dressed him up in his dhothi and tied his hair and made him wear some of my jewellery and he was looking like a thoppa (paunch) ganapathy in a kutty krishna attire :) Maybe next year I should plan something different ! So now recipe of the day is a simple poha ladoo with just 2 main ingredients poha and jaggery. If you want you can use sugar in place of jaggery. Just replace jaggery with ½ cup sugar in the recipe. I love this one. Simple and easy to make. And for the past one week, this was satisfying my sudden cravings for a sweet or quick bite ! So off to the recipe..

Makes: 8 ladoos

I Took: 

Preparation Time: 30 minutes

I Used:

Poha/Aval/Rice Flakes	-	1 cup
Jaggery	-	¾ cup
Cardamom	-	1 no
Ghee	-	¼ cup
Cashew Nuts	-	3-4 nos
Raisins	-	6-8 nos

The Way:

1. Dry roast the poha for 3-4 minutes in low flame. It will become crunchy. Then transfer it to another plate/mixie jar and allow it to cool

2. Add cardamom and jaggery to the cooled poha and blend to make a fine powder

3. Heat the ghee in a pan and fry the caashews and raisins. Once the cashews turn golden brown and the raisins turn big, switch off the flame ( I also remove the pan from the flame else the residual heat will keep it warm for some more time)

4. Add the powdered poha-jaggery mix to the ghee. Mix well. Make sure there are no lumps

5. Now make small laddus when the mixture is warm

Notes:

• I use organic poha and organic jaggery. So there is not much impurities in them. If using normal poha dust away those ones that are visible before dry roasting them

• Some use milk instead of ghee to make these ladoos. If then use warm milk else it will be difficult to shape the ladoos. If then the ladoos must be consumed within a day or two as they do not have a great shelf life

• Grind the poha to a fine powder else it will be difficult to shape the ladoo

• If more cashews or bigger pieces of cashews are used then also it will be difficult to shape the ladoos

• These ladoos stay good and fresh for a week and make sure you store them in an air tight container

• If using sugar instead of jaggery, the method is the same. Instead of grinding jaggery grind ½ cup sugar

Cheers,

Chitz

Ribbon Pakoda | Ola/Ottu Pakoda | Ribbon Murukku | Nada Thenkuzhal

Ribbon shaped fritters prepared from besan flour

Not many of you would need an intro to this lovely snack ! You might have always seen your mom or granny prepare this for Diwali or Janmashtami & just munching them as such is a delight on it's own :) It is also a very common snack/fritter in the South Indian bakeries. At times, on lazy days, we used to have them as an accompaniment to rasam sadam when cooking elaborate meals with poriyals & kootu were not in picture. Have you tried them that way? If not, do take a chance. You would love them. As a matter of fact, they taste awesome with sambar sadam too ! Very easy to make, just mix all the ingredients together & fry them in hot steaming oil. Voila, your fritters are ready. Now let's take a peep on the ingredients that needs to go in for the dough :)

Recipe Source: Ma

I Took: 40 minutes

Serves: 3-4 cups

I Used:

Besan Flour	-	1 cup
Butter	-	2 tsp
Red Chilly powder	-	1 tsp
Black Sesame Seeds	-	1 tsp
Asafoetida	-	1 tsp
Oil	-	For deep frying
Salt	-	As Needed

The Way:

1. In a bowl mix together the besan flour, butter (softened), red chilly powder, black sesame seeds, asafoetida & salt 
2. Add water little by little & mix together to make a soft yet firm & non-sticky dough. It should not be watery & almost like the chapathi dough
3. Meanwhile heat oil in a kadai to deep fry. Grease with oil the string hopper/idiyappam mould with the ribbon pakoda disc on. Fill the mould with the dough 
4. Press the dough onto the hot oil in circular motion to form a single layer. Do not overcrowd as it will not ensure even & fast cooking
5. Fry them until the sizzling (shh) sound ceases. Turn over to the other side & fry again till the sizzling ceases 
6. Drain the excess oil onto a tissue paper & cool completely. Continue the same process with the remaining dough

Store in airtight container and enjoy them over a cuppa chai !

Notes:

• If the sesame seeds are too big, then they might get stuck in the disc & you will not get the desired shape. If then, pulse them in the mixie before adding to the dough. This ensures that they are fine enough to get through the holes of the disc
• If you like the pepper flavour you can add ½ tsp freshly ground pepper. Again make sure they are fine enough to get through the holes of the disc
• Originally dalda is used in the preparation of this pakoda, but considering the side effects on health I used butter instead !

Cheers,

Chitz

Rava Ladoo | Rava Laddu | Semolina Ladoo

Sweet balls of semolina and sugar

Sweets! I am a very picky person when it comes to sweets. And rava ladoo is one among the few favorites of mine. And it also holds the distinction of being the second sweet I made all on my own after marriage :D  and Deeps loves this one.. For a long time I was under the impression that it's very difficult to make sweets at home. But then I was at my lovely sister's place for one Diwali, I realised that I was under a very wrong feeling all this while !! It was in a jiffy, she made two sweets and a savory. I should say that's where I was struck with the arrow of confidence for making sweets at home ;) 

Recipe Source : Rak's Kitchen

I Took : 40 minutes

I Used :

Rava/Semolina	-	1 cup
Sugar	-	1 cup
Ghee	-	¼ cup
Milk	-	1 tbsp
Cardamom	-	1 no
Cashew nuts	-	8 nos

The Way:

1. Roast semolina in a pan on a reduced flame till a nice aroma comes. Keep stirring continuously to ensure the semolina is roast evenly and it does not burn
2. Cool down and grind it into a very fine powder using mixer. I used fine ground semolina and hence avoided this step
3. Powder sugar along with cardamons in a mixer. Sieve off the pods of cardamom from the powdered sugar
4. Sieve the powdered semolina and sugar to a bowl
5. Heat ghee in the pan. Fry the cashews in it till golden brown and add it to the semolina-sugar mixture
6. Sprinkle the milk and mix thoroughly
7. Make small ladoos (balls) out of this mixture immediately. Roll it tight, if you could not roll, sprinkle little more milk or add more warm ghee and roll it again

Notes:

• I used confectioners' sugar. Hence needn't powder the sugar. I used only around 3/4 cup of the confectioners' sugar, else it would make the ladoo too sweet
• While half way through the rolling of the ladoos, the mixture lost its heat. So I microwaved for 2 minutes and then added milk and rolled again

I love making this sweet that I follow verbatim from Rak's kitchen. So here goes this post to the Tried and Tasted from Rak's Kitchen event happening at Nivedhanam. 

Cheers,
Chitz

Rava Kesari | Sooji Halwa | Semolina Halwa

Sweet of semolina cooked in ghee and sugar

And come here begins a new year with aspirations, expectations and of course resolutions !!! As like every other time, I had no intentions of taking resolutions as I know there wouldn't be justice served ;) Then suddenly a thought struck me today morn... Why not challenge myself into taking one or two resolutions that I would love to keep up?? So here is the result, a half year long wish to start a blog. And what better way to start a cookbook blog other than with a sweet. So here I begin with my all time favorite 'Kesari' - supple, ready to melt in mouth and easy to make sweet. Wishing you all a Happy New Year :) :)

Recipe Source: Ma

I Took : 30 minutes

Serves: 30-35 pieces

I Used :

Rava/Semolina	-	1 cup
Sugar	-	1 ½ cup
Water	-	2 ½ cups
Ghee	-	8 tbsp
Cashew nuts	-	6-8 no
Cardamom	-	2-3 no
Food Colour	-	2 pinch

The Way :

1. Powder sugar along with cardamom in a mixer. Sieve off the pods of cardamom from the powdered sugar & keep aside
2. Mix the food colour in 2 tbsp water and keep aside
3. Heat ghee in a flat bottomed vessel or pan. Fry the cashews in it till golden brown and keep aside
4. In the same ghee fry the semolina in a medium flame until it turns light golden brown in colour. Keep it aside
5. Add water to the pan. When it starts to boil add the roasted semolina, the food colour and reduce the flame . Stir continuously to make sure that no lumps are formed. Cover and cook for 2-3 minutes until the semolina is cooked well
6. Add the powdered sugar and mix well. Adding sugar will make the mixture  a little moist. So stir well & continuously, leaving no lumps
7. Keep stirring until it becomes a mass & starts to leave the sides of the vessel. Add the roasted nuts, give a quick stir & switch off
8. Transfer to a ghee greased bowl or container of the desired shape. Cut into square or diamond shapes before serving

Notes :

• Always take care to add sugar only after the semolina is cooked well, else it can compromise the taste & texture of the kesari
• This semolina-sugar ratio is of good sweetness. Adjust sugar according to your preference
• Do not compromise on ghee as it is what makes the dish special. Feel free to add more if you prefer !
• Adding milk instead of water gives a more rich flavour and aroma. In that case, increase the quantity of food colour for a darker look
• Common food colours used are saffron and yellow !!
• Kesari can be refrigerated & relished for 1 or 2 days. Then heat it for a minute or two in microwave before serving 
• Addition of milk decreases shelf life
• You can also add essence to the kesari, pineapple being the most commonly used one

Cheers,
Chitz

*Updated with new pics on 07/09/2013