Mysore Pak

That was a quick sweet I made for my husband. He is very fond of sweets, and I am not. But then its fun to make sweets for him and Sid my son. Both are extremely fond of sweets. By the way most of the pieces are almost over, kept a few for my son. 

Don't know whether it was the lavish ghee or my love for my family made the mysore pak super soft and it literally melted in our mouth, As you guessed its almost over. Left with a few pieces!! Luckily I clicked the photos immediately so that you can see  plate full!!

Sugar syrup getting ready. One string pakam.

Make a mix out of roasted besan and little ghee. Its helps you to get besan free of lumps 

Add sugar syrup one string to the besan mix. Keep stirring add a little ghee at a time until ghee separates from the pan.

Pour prepared mysore pak in greased plate and wait for 5 minutes for it to settle down, cut into desired shape.

Ingredients

Besan - 1 cup

Sugar - 1 cup (I use madhur sugar which is big crystal and very sweet)

Water - 1/2 cup

Ghee - 2 cup

Tips

Dry roast besan until its bit brownish in colour. 

Use good quality besan. Sieve besan so that no lumps are formed.

Method 

*In a heated pan dry roast besan in low flame till besan releases aroma. Cool it and  sieve the roasted besan. Melt ghee in another pan. Keep aside. 

*In a large pan add roasted sieved besan add half of ghee and mix very well, You can use a hand blender if needed. This will help you to avoid lumps in the besan. 

*Use the same pan in which you roasted the besan gently clean it with a kitchen towel. 

*Add sugar and water allow it to boil. You will notice lot of bubbles,simmer and pour sugar syrup in the pan in which you have kept besan ghee mix a little at a time, stirring continuously. 

*Now keep that in low flame and keep stirring . I used the hand blender to mix sugar syrup, ghee besan mix for even mixture.

* Keep adding a little ghee at a time. You will notice now the sides of the mysore pak mixture becomes little white and the entire mixture releases a lovely aroma. 

*When the ghee starts oozing out the edges its time to pour the mix in the greased plate. Spread the mysore pak mix well in the plate. Wait for about 5 minutes. Now use a kitchen knife and cut into desired shape. 

Make small quantity at a time. Its best eaten fresh and taste great. 

Paruppu Vada and Rasa Vada

Paruppu Vada and Rasa Vada

Evening snack or for breakfast. Paruppu vada is my all time favourite. 

Ingredients 

Channa dal - 1/2 cup

urad dal - 1/4 cup

tuvar dal - 2 table spoon

raw rice - 2 table spoon

green chilli - 4

ginger - a big piece

curry leaves - a few strings

saunf - 1 tsp

hing - a pinch

salt as required

Method of Preparation

Soak all three dals and rice together for about  three hours. Drain water add green chilli, ginger jullian. saunf, hing, curry leaves and salt. Grind to a coarse paste. 

Heat sufficient sunflower oil in a kadai make small vadas using your hand.  Keep making small vadas of about 6 to 7 at a time. Let the vada cook extremely well in oil till golden brown. Use a perforated ladle to remove vada.  Spread a kitchen towel in the plate on which you remove vadas to absorb excess oil 

Variation : Rasa vada :Soak the prepared vada in freshly made hot rasam for about 5 to 10 minutes. Taste great with home made sevai. 

Pooran Poli/Boli with coconut and almonds

Hello,

Yet another delicious diwali spacial. Why wait till a festival comes. Make it as an evening snack for your kids and family. Its very filling and I am sure you family will love this pooran poli/Boli.

Grind grated coconut to a coarse paste

Soak almonds for about 2 hours, remove the outer skin. Grind the almonds to a fine paste by adding 1/4 cup milk.

 

Dissolve 1 cup sugar in 1/2 cup water for one string and add coconut and almond paste to it. Add 2 table spoon ghee, keep stirring in low flame till ghee separates from the pooran. Allow it to cool. Divide into 20 small balls. Keep aside.

Outer covering. Add 1 cup maida and 1.2 cup atta, a little turmeric powder, a little oil / ghee knead to a smooth dough using hands. Keep aside.

Ingredients

Coconut - 1 grated
Almonds - 1 cup (soak in water for 2 hour. Remove skin and grind to a fine paste)
Milk - 1/4 cup
sugar - 1 1/2 cup ( I used 1 cup as the sugar I buy is very sweet)
elachi - a few pods crushed
ghee - 4 table spoon ( for pooran and for poli)

For outer covering

Maida - 1 cup
atta - 1/2 cup
turmeric - a pinch
oil/ghee - a little for kneading

Method of Preparation

In a bowl add maida, atta and oil By adding a little water at a time make a soft dough. Keep aside.

In a heated pan add sugar and 1/2 cup water. Allow the syrup to boil till one string consistency. Add coconut and almond paste. And crushed elachi. Keep stirring by adding a little ghee in very slow flame. Allow the pooran to becomes soft and let the ghee separate from the pooran. Off the stove. Allow it to cool no using hands divide the pooran into 20 equal parts. Make small balls out of it. Keep aside.

Take a small lemon sized dough make a small disk and keep one pooran inside. Cover the outer cover so that pooran is completed covered. Now gently roll out roti sized pooran poli using a roller pin. You can use maida for dusting. Heat a thick dosa tawa place the rolled out pooran poli, adjust the heat, cook that side of the poli turn to the other side, Let both sides cook very well. Now sprinkle a little ghee on top  of the cooked pooran poli. Continue making the rest of the pooran poli till the dough and pooran finish. I am sure by the time you make the pooran poli will also get finished!! Serve hot with chilled badam milk.

Diwali special- Wheat Halwa

Hello,

Diwali special wheat halwa.  Its a delicacy and involves a lot of work. You can say laborious work involved in this sweet. But it tastes great and is very healthy too. 

It minimum requires three days hard work to make this sweet. 

Day 1 

Soak half Kg whole wheat in sufficient water for about 8 hours.

Day 2

Drain excess water, keep the  drained water in another bowl. Grind the wheat adding soaked water to a fine paste. Add more water and keep removing the wheat milk using a strainer. Allow the wheat milk to sediment. You will see water becomes clear and the wheat gluten  sediments.  Keep removing only the water and keep adding fresh water unless you get  gluten. 

Day 3

In a heated big pan add ghee, add wheat gluten and cook till wheat milk becomes translucent. Now add sugar and ghee and keep cooking till the ghee separates from the halwa. 

Day 2 

Wheat milk

Day 3 

Wheat gluten cooked in slow flame till translucent

Adding little ghee at a time and keep stirring. You can add sugar at this level.

 Sugar is completely dissolved and you an see the caramelised halwa releasing ghee from the sides.

 Halwa is ready. decorate with roasted almonds.

Ingredients

Whole wheat - 1/2 KG

Sugar - 2 cups

Ghee - 350 grams

Almonds ;- a few thinly slices

Method of Preparation

Soak whole heat for about 8 hours, drain and grind to fine paste, keep extracting the milk out of wheat. Allow the wheat ,milk to sediment, keep throwing the clear water on top and add fresh water.After two three times you will get the thick gluten completely sediments in the bottom of the vessel.

 In a heated pan pour 2 table spoon ghee and add extracted wheat and keep cooking in very slow fire. Once the wheat gluten becomes translucent add sugar and little ghee at a time, keep stirring till you see the ghee separates from the halwa. And the halwa becomes like a glowing jelly. Off the stove Allow the Halwa to take its own time to cool down, Remove the excess ghee when the halwa is warm. You can use it for some other sweets.  Now in another small pan pour a little ghee and roast thinly sliced almonds or cashew nuts. Spread the halwa in a greased plate and cut into desired shape. 

Broccoli mushroom cheesy medley with rice/toasted bread

Broccolii Mushroom cheesy Medley

Broccoli - 1 small
Mushrooms - 100 grams
Cheddar Cheese - 75 grams
Butter - 1 tsp
Pepper - crushed
salt

Method of Preparation

Wipe and clean mushrooms in a clean kitchen wipe/tissue paper. Do not wash the mushrooms as the mushrooms will absorb water and your medley will become soggy. Remove broccoli flowerets and blanch in hot water. Drain excess water. In a heated kadai add butter and saute broccoli and mushrooms till soft. Add cheese, salt and pepper. Make sure you cook in high flame. Off the stove. Serve hot with freshly cooked rice or toasted bread. 

Courtesy : My daughter Arundhathi (This dish is her creation)

Mathan thoran, Seemachakka(Bread fruit) thoran and Seemachakka(Bread fruit) sambhar

Hello,

I know I am not regular now a days. Busy with holidays, kids. Yet thought a few dishes that I made will be new to my readers. 

By the way I am extremely thankful to all the wonderful people who visit by blog on a regular basis. A whooping 1 lakh view for "Google plus" thats awesome folks. Kindly leave a comment which will help me to communicate with my readers.

Will soon post Diwali sweets and savoury, 

Cheers for the weekend. 

Today I am sharing two dry thoran and one sambhar with mathan and Seemachakka / bread fruit.

Mathan thoran ( yellow pumpkin dry curry)

Ingredients

Mathan(Yellow pumpkin) - 250 grms

coconut - 1 tbsp

red chilli - 2

green chilli - 1

mustard - 1/2 tsp

urad dal - 1/2 tsp

oil - 1 tbsp

salt to taste

Method of Preparation

Wash peel and chop mathan into small piece. In a heated kadai pour oil add mustard, urad dal and red chilli, Once mustard splutter add mathan and mix well. Add salt and cook till soft. Grate coconut and slit green chilli. Add to mathan curry and serve hot.

Seemachakka thoran (bread fruit dry curry)

Bread fruit/seemachakka  - 250 grms

coconut - 1 tbsp

red chilli - 2

green chilli - 1

mustard - 1/2 tsp

urad dal - 1/2 tsp

oil - 1 tbsp

salt to taste

Water - 1/2 cup

Wash peel and chop seemachakka into small piece. In a heated kadai pour oil add mustard, urad dal and red chilli, Once mustard splutter add seemachakka and mix well. Add salt and half cup of watecook till soft. Grate coconut and slit green chilli. Add to seemachakka curry and serve hot.

Seemachakka sambhar (bread fruit sambhar)

Seemachakka  sambar

Ingredients

seemachakka - one cup cut into cubes
turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
salt as required

For the masala

Tuvar dal - 2 tbsp
channa dal - 1 tbsp
coriander seeds - 1 tsp
red chilly - 3
badigye chilly - 3 
curry leaves - a few
hing - a small piece
coconut - 1/4 cup
Tamarind pulp - 2 tbsp(cook and extract pulp)

Tuvar dal - 1/4 cup (wash, soak and cook in pressure cooker till soft) (optional)
ghee - 1 tsp
mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
fenugreek seed - 1/2 tsp
curry leaves a few

Method of Preparation

Dry roast the masala add coconut and roast till golden brown. Grind to a coarse paste by adding little water. 

Wash and soak tuvar dal in water. Pressure cook for two whistles. 

Wash peel and cut seemachakka into small cubes.Add little hot water in kalchatti and cook the seemachakka till soft, add turmeric,  salt. Add tamarind pulp. Add coconut paste and cooked tuvar dal, add one or two glasses of water allow the sambar to boil. In a small pan pour oil add mustard, fenugreek seed, allow mustard to splutter, add one red chilly hing and curry leaves. Pour it in the prepared sambar. 

Sweet kozhakattai/Urad kozhakattai

Hello,

Last week we have celebrated vinayaka chathurthi. Let me share with you two different varities of kozhakattai/modak. One sweet another salty. You can make this as an evening snack for children and yes your family will love it too. The simple dish takes lot of preparation. You can prepare the pooranam previous day but make sure you roll it into small ladoos and keep it. As once the poornam sets its difficult to roll!! But during festivl days we make it fresh as the kozhakattai is offered as a naivedyam/offering  to God Vinayakar/Ganesha . Making the kazhakattai need little expertise. 

Sweet Kozhakattai/Modak

Ingredients

For Tengai pooranam

Grated coconut - 1 cup
Jaggery - 3/4 cup
cardamom - 2 nos.

Method of Preparation

Heat a pan and add one table spoon of water and add grated jaggery. Allow the jaggery to dissolve, strain using a steel strainer to remove dust particles/stones form jaggery. Pour the melted jaggery back to the pan allow it to boil, Now add grated coconut and cardamom. Mix well make a soft pooranam. You will notice the pooranam is no more sticking to the pan and forms into a ball leaving the edges, and releasing oil from the freshly grated coconut. Off the stove. Bring the pooranam to room temperature. Using your hands make small balls of pooranam. Keep aside.

For outer cover

Rice - 1 cup

Method of Prparation

Soak rice for about 3 to 4 hours. Grind to a fine paste adding enough water.In a heated kadai pour two tbsp sunflower oil/coconut oil pour the rice batter and stir till its turns into a soft dough. Cool it down to room temperature. Use your hands and knead it into a very soft dough without lumps.

Now finally to make sweet kozhakattai. Keep sunflower oil in a small bowl and grease your palm with oil and make a lemon sized kozhakattai ball and press it in the moddle to make it like a small disk.. Try to make it thin and in the middle place one thengai pooranam ball. Close the kozhakattai gently by pressing the mavu around pooranam. Make sure the poornam is completely covered. Now shape it like modak. If you wish you can use the modak shaper available in the market.It gives a beautiful shape to your modak.

Use iddly vessal, arrange modak in it. Stem the modak in iddly vessal for about 10  minutes.  Open the modak and place in on a clean banana leaf. You can offer it as a naivedyam for lord Ganesha and serve hot or cold.

For urad kozhakattai (salty)

Ingredients
Rice - 1 cup
Whole urad dal - 1/2 cup
salt as required
grated coconut - 2 tbsp
green chilly - 2
ginger - a samll piece
curry leaves - a few

for tadka

mustard - 1/2 tsp
urad dal - 1/2 tsp
red chilly - 1 broken

Method of Preparation

Soak rice for about 3 to 4 hours. Grind to a fine paste adding enough water and salt.In a heated kadai pour two tbsp sunflower oil/coconut oil pour the rice batter and stir till its turns into a soft dough. cool it down to room temperature. Use your hands and knead it to a very soft dough without lumps. 

Soak urad dal for about 45 minutes, drain excess water and grind to a coarse paste by adding green chilly, ginger and curry leaves. Keep kadai and heat it. Pour oil and add mustrad seeds, allow it to crackle, now add urad dal and broken red chilly. Gently fry urad dal till it turns into golden brown add coarsely grinded urad dal paste, coconut and salt. Mix it and cook in low fire for about 3 to 4 minutes. Off the stove, cool the urad pooranam. Make small balls out of it. 

Take a big lemon sized rice mavu flatten it in your hand. Fill the urad pooranam,close it completely.  Make it into small purse shape. Stick the edges steam it same like sweet kozhakattai. Offer to God Ganesha and serve as Prasadam.