Carrot Halwa/ Gajar Ka Halwa

First post in 2014!!! So begining this with a sweet Dish..

A classic sweet recipe simple with no complex ingredients, just cook the carrots in milk, add sugar and garnish with nuts and ghee! Thats it!,Perfect to celebrate a sweet occasion !

Ingredients:-

Carrot, grated	3 heaped cups
Milk	2 & 1/4 cups
Sugar	3/4 – 1 cup
Ghee	3 – 5 tblsp
cardamom/elachi powder	A pinch (Optional)
Cashew	4 – 5
Pistachios(optional)	4-5

Method:-

• Cut the carrot into pieces and give them a turn in Mixie, until they turn mushy.
• Add the milk and bring to boil,cook in medium flame.
• Cook till all the milk evaporates and the carrot gets cooked .
• When the mixture is almost dry,add the sugar and keep on stirring.(7-10 minutes)
• When the mixture starts thickening,add ghee,elachi,cashews and pistachios fried in ghee.
• Keep stirring for more 3-4 minutes.
• When the halwa starts leaving the sides and transfer this to the serving plate.
• Garnish with your favourite nuts,sliced and fried in ghee!

Notes:-

You can add less ghee than mentioned.

You can follow the same method and make beetroot halwa. Just replace carrot with beetroot !

 

Spicy Kara Boondi

INGREDIENTS:-

BESAN | KADALAI MAAVU| GRAM FLOUR	1 CUP
RICE FLOUR	3 TBLSP
RED CHILLI POWDER	1 TSP
SALT	AS NEEDED
BAKING SODA	A PINCH
OIL	FOR DEEP FRYING
CURRY LEAVES	FEW
ASAFOETIDA	2 PINCHES
CASHEW NUTS	7-8 NO(OPTIONAL)
PEANUTS	FEW(OPTIONAL)

METHOD:

• Combine both the flour in a bowl. Add salt, asafoetida, and red chilli powder to this.
• Add water to this to make this into a dosa batter consistency.
• Add the baking soda and mix well.
• While adding water to the besan , first add a small amount of water and make it into a thick paste. The amount of water depends upon the texture of besan. 

• Heat oil in a kadai for deep frying. when the oil becomes hot, just pour 2 tblsp of hot oil to the batter and mix well.

• To check whether the  consistency is right for the batter, take a spoon and with the back of the spoon mix the batter well and just hold it on the top of the hot oil.
• If this forms a nice round ball then the consistency if perfect, else it gives a tail you need to add little extra water. Add 1 tblsp and check again.
• If this forms a very thin roundels then the water is more, just add one tblsp of besan to this and check again.
• Now the batter is ready for boondis.
• You need 2 perforated ladle for making this. The ladle with small holes to make boondi and another one to take out the boondis from oil. 
• Pour a ladle of batter to the perforated ladle ,keeping the ladle on the top of the oil and  let the boondis falls into the oil.  

• Fry till the oil sound subsides. Then only we can get crispy boondis. 

• Take out from oil and drain it in a kitchen towel.

• Repeat this for rest of the batter.
• Wipe of the ladle every time when you pour the batter.
• When it is done transfer everything to a wide bowl and deep fry the curry leaves , cashew nuts and peanuts(if adding) in the hot oil till the cashew turn into a nice golden brown color. Fry everything separately.
• Mix well.

• Transfer it to a air tight container.

Bread Paneer Jamun

Gulab Jamuns are my absolute favorites!!! If you have a horrible sweet craving and need something sweet instantly you can whip up this goodness..It is so simple to make and of course no hard to eat..This is made with bread, you can use up any leftover bread slices to make this yummy jamuns…You can make this for parties or for kids, this hardly take us anytime to make but the result is pretty impressive..

Ingredients:

Bread - 6 slices

Paneer - 5-6 grated

Milk - 1 cup

Sugar - 1 cup

Water - 1/2 cup

Method:

Cut off the rims of the bread pieces and dip them in milk. Squeeze off the excess and put it in a blender along with grated paneer.

Pulse it for few times so that it is lump free. Now make small balls out of it and fry them in hot oil in a low flame..

                         

Fry till golden, don't fry it so much or else it wont absorb the syrup. Remove this to a paper towel..

Make sugar syrup by taking sugar, cardamom and water in a sauec pan and bring it to boil.

Boil it for 5 mins untill it reaches sticky stage..

Now pour the  hot syrup over the fried jamuns and cover it with a plate or plastic wrap. Let it rest for atleast 3-4 hours before serving.

Serve with icecream or on its own.

A closer look!!!!

THENGAI SADAM(COCONUT RICE)

Coconut Rice | Thengai Sadam  is a very simple dish ,can be done quickly. An ideal dish for lunch box,which i normally prepare once a week.

Ingredients:-

• Coconut grated - 1/2 a Cup
• Basmathi Rice/Raw Rice - 1/2 Cup
• Coconut Oil - 2 TSP
• Cooking Oil - 2 TSP
• Mustard - 1 TSP
• Chana Dal - 1 TSP
• Urad Dal - 1 TSP
• Green Chilly - As needed
• Salt - As Needed

Method:-

• Cook rice and allow it to cool. The grains should not be sticky
• In a kadai,add the cooking oil and temper the mustard seeds,channa dal, freid gram,urad dhal and green chilli. When it is done add it on the top of the rice.
• Add the ghee in the same kadai and fry the scrapped coconut till golden brown. Keep a close watch it shouldnt get burnt.
• Add salt to it. Mix it along with the rice and smear the coconut oil and mix gently. 
• Add a few curry leaves.Serve with pappad/vadagam.

                                         

Thalakom

Thalakom... This is my Grandma's masterpiece and my Dad loves this soo much...

Ingredients:

• Ladies finger - 2 nos
• Pumpkin - 1 small piece
• Potato - 1
• Carrot - 1
• Raw Banana (Vazhaikai) - 1/2
• Tamarind - 1 lemon size
• Salt - To Taste

For Grinding:

• Red Chillies - 8
• Raw Rice - 2 teaspoon
• Thurdhal - 2 teaspoon
• Sesame seeds - 1 teaspoon
• Grated Cocunut - 1 cup
• Oil - 2 teaspoon

For Seasoning:

• Oil - 1 teaspoon
• Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
• Fenugeek seeds/Vendhayam - 1/2 teaspoon
• Curry Leaves - few

Method:

• Cut the vegetables for the thalagam as we cut for the sambar.
• Soak the tamarind in the water and extract the juice and keep it separately.
• Heat the oil in the pan and fry the thurdal, sesame seeds, red chillies in the oil.
• Once the dhal becomes light golden color add the grated cocunut and fry it till it becomes light brown color and grid all these into a fine paste in a mixer along with the raw rice.
• Cook the vegetables in the pan , and when the vegetables are half-cooked, add the tamarind extract and salt and let it boil for sometime.
• Finally add the ground paste and allow it to boil.
• Season the thalagam with mustard, fenugeek and curry leaves.
• Thalagam is ready for serving

Thiruvathirai Kali

Thiruvathirai Kali is prepared on the auspicious occasion of Thiruvathirai. Cendanar of Naukoor, a disciple of Paddinattu Adigal, used to eat only after feeding some Saiva devotees. Due to a constant bad weather he could not get together all the essentials for a proper meal. He had no option but to mix water with flour and prepare a mashed paste. Lord Siva understood his predicament. He wanted the people to know how sincere his devotee was to him. Therefore he disguised himself as a Siva devotee and visited Cendanar’s hut and enjoyed what was given to him as food. The temple attendants saw the premises scattered with the mashed paste the following morning. Inquiries led to an understanding of Cendanar’s piety and he was thereafter bestowed with all due respect. This incident took place in a Markali Thiruvathirai. This is why Thiruvathirai Kali forms an important prasad on this holy day.

Ingredients:

• Raw Rice - 1 cup or ground rice powder - 1 Cup
• Grated Jaggery - 1 1/2 Cups
• Water - 3 Cups
• Moong Dhal - 2 table spoon
• Cardamom - 6
• Grated Cocunut - 4 table spoon
• Cashew nuts - 6
• Ghee - 2 tablespoon
• Salt - A Pinch

Method:

• Wash the raw rice in a water and rinse it. Immediately after rinsing put the rinsed rice in a Kadaai and fry it until the rice becomes golden brown color.
• Grind the Raw Rice in a mixer and the rice powder should be like Rawa. Take the contents in a bowl.
• Put the moongdhal in the kadaai and fry it till it becomes golden brown color and pour one cup of water to cook the dhal. It will take approximately 5 minutes to cook. The dhal need not cook completely. It should be in half boiled consistency. If you take one of the dhal and press it with your fingers, then it should get smashed. This is the right consistency.
• While the dhal is getting cooked, you can prepare the jaggery juice in parallel.
• Heat another pan, add water (till the jaggery immersed in the water completely) and add grated jaggery. When the jaggery dissolves completely in water, strain it to remove dust and sand particles. Keep the strained jaggery juice in a separate bowl
• Once the dhal is almost cooked, pour two cups water, strained jaggery juice and a pinch of salt.
• When the jaggery mixture begins to boil, add the powdered rice and stir well to avoid bumps. (like we do for the preparation of upma)
• Powder the cardamon and add it along with the grated coconut.
• Fry the cashews in the ghee and add to the kali. Add the remaining ghee to the kali and stir it one.

                  

Thattai

Ingredients:-

• Rice Flour - 2 Cup
• Fried Gram (Odachakadalai) Flour - 1/2 Cup
• Red Chili Powder - 1 teaspoon
• Hing - 1/4 teaspoon
• Salt - To Taste
• Coconut sliced pieces - 2 teaspoon
• Fried Gram (Odachakadalai) - 2 teaspoon
• Curry Leaves – few
• Oil - For Frying
• Butter - 1 table

Method:

• Take a pan, add rice flour, fried gram flour, salt, red chilli powder, hing, sliced coconut pieces, curry leaves, fried gram, butter and mix it well. Sprinkle water and mix all these ingredients to make it a thick dough.


• Take a piece of plastic paper, spread oil in the paper, make small ball of the flour, and keep it in paper.


• Grease the fingers with oil and press the ball to flatten it.


• Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed pan.


• Slowly turn the plastic paper over your palm. The greased plastic will enable flattened thattai to slip on your hands easily


• Turn them to cook evenly until golden yellow/ deep brown


• Drop them on a paper towel to drain excess oil


• Once cooled, store them in an air tight container.


• The delicious Thattai is ready for neivedhyam and for serving.

Vella Seedai

Ingredients:

Rice - 2 cups
Grated Jaggery - 1.5 Cups
Sesame Seeds - 1 handfull
Chopped Cocunut - 3 tablespoon
Cardamom - 1/2 teaspoon

Method:

• Soak the rice and rinse it in water for about 30 mins and then spread the rice in a towel till it becomes dry. Usually it will take only about 10 mins for the rice to dry.
• Soak the sesame seeds in water for 30mins
• Now grind the rice in a mixer to a nice powder.
• Add jaggery in a pan with 1/2 cup of water and when it dissolves, strain the jaggery water to avoid sand
• Again boil the jaggery water along with cocunut and sesame seeds and keep stirring it until the jaggery comes to one string consistency. When we take a drop of jaggery juice in a finger and rub it with another finger, it should form like a string. This is the correct consistency for the jaggery juice.
• Now remove the jaggery juice from flame . Pour the jaggery juice into the rice flour and mix it well along with cardamom powder.
• Keep this mixture aside for atleast one day
• The next day, heat the required oil in a heavy bottomed pan
• Make gooseberry size small balls of the vella seedai mixture and drop around 5-6 balls once the oil is hot.
• Deep fry the seedai till it becomes golden color. Repeat the process for the rest of vella seedai flour.
• The Delicious Vella Seedai is ready for Neivedhyam for krishnajayanthi as well as for serving.

Uppu Seedai

This is something that my Mom makes superbly. But i don prefer this seedai as i love the Sweetening one more..

Ingredients:-

• Urad Dal Powder – 1 Ladle
• Raw Rice – 2 ½ Cup
• Butter – 1 Tbsp
• Grated Coconut – 2 Tbsp
• Salt, Hing – To Taste and As Needed
• Oil – For Fryng

Preparation:-

• Soak the rice in water for 30mins.Soak the gram dal in water. Rinse and drain the water after 30 mins and spread it in a thin towel to absorb the wet. (for about 10 mins)
• When the rice is dry, take it from the towel into a mixer and grind it to a nice powder. Strain the ground rice flour at least twice to take smooth flour. We will be getting around 11 ladle of rice flour. Heat a pan, add the smooth rice flour and dry fry it for a while till the rice flour becomes hot. The rice should not be fried till red/brown color. Now mix the rice flour with 1 ladle of urad dal flour along with hing, salt, grated coconut, butter and gram dal
• Mix all ingredients and sprinkle water to make it a dough. Do not add more water. The dough should be tight. Water should be used very minimum, just to keep the dough tight. 
• Take 1 teaspoon of oil in a plate. Grease the palm with the oil and make tiny balls out of the seedai dough. Place the tiny seedai balls in a paper to dry it. Heat oil in pan. Take one tiny ball of seedai and drop it in the hot oil. When the seedai immediately rises up in the hot oil, then this is the right stage to start the frying of seedai balls.
• Take 2 handfull of seedai balls and drop it in the oil and keep the flame very low. Allow the seedai to fry well to cook completely inside. When the bubbles and frying sound starts decreasing, take the seedai using a fry ladle and place it a fry basket to remove excessive oil
• Now the yummy uppu seedai/Salt seedai is ready for neivedhyam

Note:

• The rice flour and urdal flour should be very nice. This will prevent breaking of seedai while frying in oil. Sometimes if the flour is wet or if it is not smooth, there may be chances of bursting of seedai while frying in oil which is very dangerous. So we should be cautious while doing seedai.
• This quantity of ingredients will make 2 bowls of mouth-watering uppu seedai.