MALPUA

Malpua is a popular dessert in North India, done during festive seasons. It is also popular in Nepal and Bangladesh. Different ingredients like banana, milk khoya, milk powder are used to prepare Malpua, and depends on the region where it is done. Here, it has been done using Maida, Sooji, Cardamom and fennel seeds mixed together with Milk. It resembles Adirasam, a popular dish in Tamilnadu, but the taste is totally different. 

INGREDIENTS:
Maida/ All purpose flour - 1 cup
Sooji/ Rava - 1/2 cup
Cardamom - 1/2 tsp
Fennel Seed - 1 tsp (crushed/powdered)
Milk - as required
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Salt - a pinch
Oil - for deep frying

METHOD:
1. In a wide bowl, add maida, rava, fennel, cardamom, salt and mix well.
2. Add milk little by little and mix well with a spoon till it reaches the consistence of dosa batter. 
3. Keep aside for 20 minutes, so that the flavour of fennel and cardamom gets blended with the batter.

4. Whisk the batter well  for few minutes with a ladle/spoon so that the batter becomes soft. Add milk if needed to adjust consistency.
5.Heat sugar and little water to a bowl, and boil well for 5 minutes or up to 1 string consistency. 

6. Heat oil, pour a small ladle full of batter in hot oil. It will form a round shape.
7. Bring the flame to low, splash some oil on the upper side, so that both sides gets cooked well.
8. Flip to the other side and cook on low flame.

9. Cook till it turns golden brown, remove from oil.  
10. Drain oil and soak in sugar syrup for 30 seconds. 
11. Remove and place it on a plate.
12. Tasty & soft  Malpua is ready.

Note:

• The batter should not be very thick. 
• If the batter is watery, it will be oily

RICE KESARI

Kesari is a simple sweet done using rava / semiya  or combining both. Here,  it is done using basmathi rice. North Indians usually prepare this dessert using basmathi rice. Even ordinary rice rava can also be used.

INGREDIENTS:
Basmathi rice - 1cup
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp
Cashew nut - 10
Saffron - little
Turmeric powder - a pinch (optional)
Salt - a pinch
Ghee 3 to 4 tsp

METHOD:
1. In a tawa, add a teaspoon of ghee and roast the cashews and keep aside.
2. Wash basmathi rice 3 to 4 times until the water is clear. Drain thoroughly and add to the tawa.

3. In a pan, 2 cups of water and bring to boil.
4. Stir the basmathi rice well on medium flame until nice aroma comes out.

5. Add boiling water and mix well. Add saffron and salt.
6. Cook on low flame until the rice gets cooked well. Close with a lid and stir occasionally without breaking the rice.
7. When the water is completely absorbed, add sugar and mix well and cook on low flame.
8. Add cardamom powder, remaining ghee and cook well till the sugar is well absorbed and comes together.
9. Add roasted cashews, mix well and switch off the flame.
10. Tasty RICE KESARI is ready.

Note:

• Adding a pinch of turmeric is to get good colour to the recipe.
• It can be avoided and instead little more saffron can be added by soaking in warm milk and adding along with water to get the colour.
• Proportion of sugar can be increased according to individual wish.

PAPAYA HALWA

PAPAYA HALWA

INGREDIENTS:- (use the same cup for measuring all the ingredients)

Smashed Papaya/Papaya puree  - 2&1/2 cups
Wheat Flour - 1/4 cup
Dry Roasted Broken wheat rava - 1/4 cup
Sugar - 1&1/2 cup
Ghee - 1/2 cup
Cashews & Almonds  sliced - as required




METHOD:-

Heat a tsp of ghee in a pan, add cashews and almonds. Fry  it and replace it in a container, in which we will use for halwa. In the same pan, add 2 tsp of ghee and fry the wheat flour, till a nice aroma arises. Restore the same along with cahews.
 

Add the papaya puree in the pan, (I used non-stick utensil), and cover with the lid and cook for 5 minutes in low flame. Water starts to ooze out. Now, add the dry roasted broken wheat rava. Mix well. Cover with lid and cook for 5 minutes in low flame.
  

Then, add the wheatflour along with cashews and mix well, so that no lumps formed. Cover with lid and cook for 5 minutes in low flame. The flour helps to bind.


Now add sugar, and mix well till the sugar dissolves.


Hereafter, the flame should be in high. Stir continuously. Add a tsp of ghee, for every 5 minutes. Total time for cooking in high flame is 20 minutes. So, 4 tsp of ghee will be used. While adding ghee, keep the flame in low/sim, to avoid burnt.

After the stipulated time, (adjust the time accordingly),  the halwa will leave the sides and it will be  dough. Switch off the flame and restore it in a container.


Drop a tsp of ghee over the top, and smear evenly using spoon, to give a texture to the halwa.
Delicious Papaya Halwa is ready...

Note:-
Increase the time from 20 minutes to 30 minutes (no need to add ghee further), to cut the halwa into pieces.

KAJU PISTA KATLI

This recipe is similar to Kaju Katli. We take equal portion of Kaju/Cashew and Unsalted Pistachios for this recipe. The green colour we get is natural and its flavour is unique. We can even make this katli more healthy by adding almonds too. See also for Cashew Badam Burfi and Badam Katli

INGREDIENTS:

Cashew nut - 1/2 cup

Pistachios -  - 1/2 cup

Sugar - 1/2 cup

Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp

Ghee - 2 tsp

METHOD:

1. In a tawa, add cashews and pistachios and stir for few minutes till it becomes little warm. Allow to cool completely. No need to over roast it.

2. In a mixer, add the nuts and grind to a fine powder, add cardamom powder and keep aside. 

3. In a tawa, add sugar and 1/2 a cup of water and allow to boil.

4. Grease a burfi plate with little ghee.

5. Check for one string consistency, it might take 5 to 6 minutes approximately.

6. Lower the flame at once, add the powdered nuts and mix thoroughly.

7. At first it will turn watery and then starts to leave the sides of the pan. Switch off the flame.

8. Add ghee, give a mix and transfer the contents to the greased plate.

9. When the mixture is warm, cut into pieces of desired shape.

10. Tasty and tempting KAJU PISTA KATLI is ready.

Note:

• Do not over cook after it leaves the sides of the pan, it might harden faster and we will not be able to cut into pieces.

THATTAI

This is one of the authentic South Indian snack done in almost all parts of Tamilnadu. The ingredients used slightly vary in some places. Some use urad dhal flour instead of broken dhal flour along with rice flour, which is the main ingredient. Some use both. Here, I have done adding broken gram/fried gram flour along with rice flour.

INGREDIENTS:

Rice flour - 1 cup
Broken gram flour - 3 tsp
Sesame seeds-  1 tsp
Red chilli powder-  3/4 tsp
Pepper powder-  1/4 tsp
Asafoetida/ Hing - 1/2 tsp
Salt
Ghee - 2 tsp
Oil - to deep fry

METHOD:

1. In a bowl, add all ingredients along with Ghee, mix well and knead to a dough adding water little.
2. The dough should be firm and not soft.
3. Divide into equal sized balls.

4. Heat oil in a tawa.
5. Take chappathi press, place a sheet of plastic cover and smear little oil.
6. Place a dough on it and smear little oil on the top of the dough and place another plastic sheet on it.
7. Press gently, adjust the dough and press again to thin shaped poori.
8. Take out the plastic sheet on top, use a fork to make holes here and there to avoid puffing like pooris.

9. Drop a small piece in the oil. If it raises to top at once, the oil is ready to deep fry.
10. Gently remove and place in the hot oil and lower the flame.
11. Cook on low flame until crisp and the bubbles ceases.
12. Remove from the oil when it turns golden brown and place on a dosa tawa/ tissue for removing excess oil.
13. Tasty & Crispy Thattai is ready.

Note:

• The oil must be reduced to low flame while frying, otherwise the center part may not be cooked.

WHEAT HALWA / GODHUMAI HALWA

The traditional way of making Godhumai/Wheat Halwa is done by soaking whole wheat, grinding it again and again to extract milk, which is very difficult. When I referred some cookery blogs, I came across the easy way of doing this halwa using wheat flour. I never thought preparing wheat halwa will be so easy, eventhough it took around 45 to 50 minutes, keeping on stirring all the way through. But this recipe needs our full attention without any disturbances.It was very hard for me to keep stirring along and click pictures. My hands started paining, but the end result made me so happy. It is somewhat a long procedure to prepare this recipe. This recipe is not much complicated but needs continuous stirring. The entire recipe should be done on low flame.

See also for Badam Halwa, Kasi Halwa, Carrot Halwa, Beetroot Halwa, Asoka Halwa

INGREDIENTS:

Whole wheat/Godhumai flour - 1 cup

Sugar - 2 cups

Ghee - 3/4 cups

Cardamom - 1/2 tsp

Cashew nut - 10

Sugar for caramelisation - 3 tsp

Saffron - 10 strands

Milk - 1 tsp

METHOD:

1. In a wide bowl, add wheat flour and knead to a dough by adding needed water as we do for chappathis.

2. Add 4 cups of water to the same bowl and soak the dough for 4 to 5 hours.

3. Heat little milk and soak the saffron strands.

4. In a big thick bottomed tawa, add little ghee and roast the cashews and keep aside.

5. Add 3 tsp of sugar and start mixing on low flame. At one stage the sugar dissolves and browning starts to appear. 

6. Switch of the stove, add little water. Don't mind if it crystallizes, when it cools down it will turn watery, which is brown in colour. Transfer it to a vessel/cup.

7. Mean while, mix the dough thoroughly with hands in the soaked water till it dissolves without any lumps. 

8. Using a strainer, strain the water and discard the left out residue.

9. Add the wheat flour milk to the same tawa, place it on the stove and start stirring.

10. Keep on stirring, till it reaches the porridge state and starts thickening. It will take approximately 7 to 8 minutes.

11. We should keep on stirring continuously, otherwise there is chance of lump formation.

12. Add saffron milk, caramel sugar syrup mix well for a minute.

13. Add sugar, and keep on stirring. At first it will turn watery and then starts to bubble.

14. At first small bubbles starts to appear. Add 2 tsps of ghee and mix well.

15. The ghee gets fully absorbed while stirring and looks more transparent.

16. Just add ghee then and there and mix continuously for 15 to 20 minutes.

17. Slowly it reaches a glossy texture after some more time  and comes together.

18. Add roasted cashews and cardamom powder and mix well.

19. Grease a bowl/plate with little ghee and transfer the Halwa.

20. Tasty and delicious Wheat Halwa is ready. 

Note:

• I used anodised kadai, which was very helpful.
• Better to use non stick kadai, since the end result can be reached easily.
• I decided to avoid food colour and added caramel sugar. If found difficult, a pinch of food colour can be added. But, it is advisable  to avoid artificial colours.
• Add ghee in regular intervals. 
• Always it is safe to do this recipe on low flame.
• The wheat flour milk should not be thick to fasten cooking process. 
• It should be thin to avoid raw smell of the flour

COCONUT POLI / THENGAI POLI

This is one of all time favourite dish of my family. Usually stuffing is prepared for poli using chenna dhal and jaggery. It might be time consuming to cook dhal first and grind along with jaggery to make the stuffing/puran. In this recipe, stuffing is very easy and simple to prepare. Just grate the coconut in a mixer/grater and cook for few minutes along with jaggery. 

• Paruppu Poli

• Khoya Poli / Palkova poli

INGREDIENTS:

 Maida/All purpose flour - 1 cup

Whole wheat flour - 1/4 cup

Coconut grated - 1 cup

Jaggery - 3/4 cup

Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp

Ghee - 1 tsp

Salt

Oil

METHOD: 

1. In a bowl, add maida and wheat flour along with little salt and make a soft sticky dough by adding water. Smear 2 to 3 tsp of oil and knead the dough and keep aside.

2. In a tawa, add grated coconut and jaggery and cook on low flame till the water content of the jaggery goes off and gets blended. Add cardamom powder and ghee, mix well.

3. After it cools down, make into lemon sized balls. Stuffing/ Puran is ready.

 

4. Grease a banana leaf/butter paper/plastic sheet with little oil.

5. Take lemon sized dough, spread the dough a little with fingers. Grease fingers with little oil before spreading the dough.

6. Place the stuffing/puran on the dough and close on all sides. Roll it gently so that the ball is even.

7. Using a rolling pin, gently roll into polis. Else, smear some oil on palm and spread the stuffed dough gently.

8. Heat a tawa, transfer the poli, cook well on both sides till brown spots appear. Sprinkle little oil.

9. Tasty COCONUT PURAN POLI is ready to be served with ghee as topping.

Note:

• Broken Coconut can be refrigerated in freezer compartment, so that grating it will be easy. Just the white part alone gets separated.  The brown part doesn't stick to the coconut pieces.

 

APPLE - ALMOND KHEER

APPLE - ALMOND KHEER

INGREDIENTS:-

Apple - 1 and 1/2 apple

Milk  - 6 cups 

Condensed milk  - 2 tbsp 

Finely Sliced Almonds - 1/2 cup

Ghee - 3 tsp

Sugar - 3 tsp

Cardamom Powder - 2 tsp

Saffron Strings - 10 strings

METHOD:-

Set all the ingredients ready.

Boil milk in  a sauce pan. Once it is boiled, keep the flame in low/sim, and let it boil for 30 to 40 minutes. Scrap the sides of the pan. Stir frequently to avoid  burnt. After sometime, allow it to cool.

Peel the skin of the apple and grate it. (grate the apple, before starting cooking)

Heat ghee in a separate pan and add sliced almonds. Fry for a minute and add the grated apple. Saute continously till the water in the apple are absorbed completely. 

Add the cardamom powder, saffron strings, condensed milk, sugar and mix together, for 2 minutes. Allow it to cool.

Mix  the milk and the grated apple mixture together, when both are completely cools.

Apple -Almond kheer is ready to serve.

Note:-

Use the same cup for measuring the ingredients.

The cup which I used is, 1 cup = 150 ml. 1 tbsp = 15 gms, 1 tsp = 5 gm

MAIDA HALWA

 This is an innovative idea, halwa using maida. For Regular halwa, corn flour is used. I tried all purpose flour.

Ingredients:-

All purpose flour / Maida- 1 cup

Sugar - 2 cups                                                  

Water - 4 cups

Lemon juice - 2 tsp nos.

Saffron Strings - 7 to 10

Ghee - 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp

Chopped Cashews - 10 nos.

Sliced Almonds - 10 nos.

Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp

Nutmeg Powder -1/4 tsp

METHOD:-

Dissolve the maida flour in 1 and 1/2 cups of water.

Soak the saffron strings in 2 tsp of water and keep it aside.

Heat a thick bottomed Kadai, or non-stick pan with the remaining 2 and 1/2 cups of water and add sugar. It nearly takes 10 to 15 minutes to get 1 string consistency. Click here for sugar syrup stages. Add 2 tsp of lemon juice. The reason for adding lemon juice is, to avoid crystallization.

Once the one string consistency is obtained, reduce the flame to sim to medium flame.

Now, add the maida flour mixture, soaked saffron strings and stir continuously. The mixture gets mixed with the sugar syrup, now add 2 tbsp of ghee and continue stirring. The ghee gets absorbed by the mixture.

Again add 2 tbsp of ghee and continue stirring. Repeat the process till all the ghee is added.

{Note:- Ghee should be added in portions only}.

In a separate pan, heat 2 tbsp of ghee, and cashews, almonds. Mix this with Halwa. Add cardamom powder and nutmeg powder to it.

The correct stage to switch off the stove, is, dip a finger in water and tap the finger on halwa.

If there is no sticking of flour on finger means, halwa is cooked.
Transfer the contents to a greased tray. Once it arrives to room temperature, cut into desired shapes.

Note :-

1 cup = 200 gm. Use the same cup for measuring all the ingredients.

1 tsp =  1 teaspoon = 5 gm

1 tbsp = 1 tablespoon = 15 gms