Paal Payasam/Kheer

Tags

Desserts, easy kheer, easy paal payasam, Indian Desserts, Kheer, Milk Desserts, Paal Payasam, payasam, Rice Kheer

I have been MIA for quiet sometime again. December is going to be a very tight scheduled month. Having a baby has changed everything possible. My DD has turned 6 months old today. Just a few days back we started giving her some solids. As of now she likes avocado.

I was thinking of making a cake. But my hubby said, why don’t you make some payasam, so that she can also have a bit of it. So yes cake plan got cancelled and here is the simple paal payasam/kheer. Did she like it, to my surprise nope, she didn’t 🙂

Ingredients:

Milk : 1 litre/4 cups (full cream)

Basmathi Rice : 2 tables spoons

Ghee : 2 table spoons

Saffron strands : Few

Sugar : 1/4 cup (adjust according to your taste)

Method:

• In a small pan, take a teaspoon of ghee and roast it for a minute.
• Once cool, just give it a pulse in mixie for the rice to break into half.
• In a pressure cooker, grease with ghee.
• Add milk, broken basmathi rice. You can crush the saffron strands and add along.
• Cook it for a whistle. Stop and let it cool.
• Once the pressure is relieved, open and cook in low flame.
• Once the rice gets cooked, add sugar.
• Cook in low flame for around 30 to 40 mins.
• Milk gets thicker. Once it comes to thick consistency,stop and serve.

You can always use jaggery instead of sugar.

Full cream milk gives the best taste.

You can use heavy bottomed pan instead of pressure cooker.

Add some cardamom powder to enrich taste, I didn’t want to make it strong as I am giving my LO.

Add a pinch of salt to enrich taste.

Advertisement

Sweet Diamond Cuts/Shakkarpaara

Tags

Baked Diamond Cuts, Shakkarpaara, Shakkarpaara with Gulab Jamun sugar syrup, Snack With Sugar Syrup, Sweet Diamond Cuts, what to do with excess suagr syrup, Whole Wheat Diamond cuts

Hope you all had a wonderful Diwali. I just made some millet poha ladoo , murukku, gulab jamun. On Diwali day, managed to make some Masala Cheeyam as well.

For gulab jamun I used the instant pack. I had some sugar syrup left out . Its was flavorsome as I had added some saffron, cardamom, vanilla extract. Usually everyone adds rose essence, I didn’t have it, so I used vanilla extract. I somehow didn’t want to throw that syrup. Decided to make sweet diamond cuts with it. It came out awesome. A great tea time snack. I have made it with whole wheat flour. Again traditionally it is made with all purpose flour/maida and semolina/sooji.

I have not given any measurement as I didn’t use any. You can play around with the sweetness and the amount of flour. Also I have not used oil while making dough, as the gulab jamun would leave out oil in the syrup.

Ingredients:

Whole Wheat Flour/Aata

Sugar Syrup

Oil : to deep fry

Salt : a pinch

Water : in case needed to make dough

Method:

• Combine flour, sugar syrup, salt and mix well.
• Form a dough if needed add some water and make a firm dough.
• It should not be loose and should be a thick one.
• Set aside for half an hour.
• Roll out with rolling pin and cut in to small diamond shaped pieces.
• While rolling out as we are deep frying, make it medium sized not too thick nor thin.
• Heat oil for deep frying.
• When hot, slowly drop pieces in and let it fry. Have the heat in low medium.
• Once done, remove and drain excess oil in a paper towel.
• Enjoy with a hot cup of chai or coffee.

For baked and savory version, here is the link Baked Wheat Crackers.

Samai, aval laddo/Little Millet, Poha Laddo

Tags

Aval Laddo, Little Millet Laddo, Little Millet Recipes, Millet laddo, Moriya recipes, Poha Laddo, Samai laddo, Samai laddu

Happy Diwali everyone 🙂  This year being the first year for my daughter, it is quiet special. But these days I am rarely getting time. Preparing day to day food with her is getting challenging.Even if I prepare something taking picture is time consuming 🙂 So I made this quick laddo. I try to include millet in my diet as they are rich in iron. This is a basic poha laddo, with the addition of millet.

Ingredients:

Little Millet/Samai : 1 cup

Poha/aval/Beaten Rice : 1/2 cup ( I have used red poha here)

Dalia/Pottukadalai : 1/2 cup

Sugar/Jaggery : according to your taste ( I used jaggery)

Ghee : 1/4 cup

Cashews : 10 to 15 numbers

Milk : 2 to 3 tablespoons

Method:

• Dry roast little millet/samo, poha, dalia and grind it to a fine powder.
• If you are using sugar grind it to a fine powder as well. I used jaggery, so I made a syrup and heated it.
• Heat ghee in another pan, roast cashews.
• Add ghee, jaggery syrup to the powder and mix.
• Heat milk and mix with the above.
• Form round balls when hot. If needed add more ghee.

As we are adding milk, this needs to be refrigerated. Stays good for a week.

Do check out some more Diwali recipes, Rice Kodubale, Sweet Somas/Gujia.

For Vada recipes to be prepared on Diwali, check here Uzundhu Vadai/Medu Vadai, Masala Vada/Paruppu Vadai

Once again Happy Diwali 🙂

Oats Carrot Cake(Eggless)

Tags

Carrot Cake gluten free, Gluten free cake, Healthy cake, Oats Carrot Cake, Oats Flour Cake

It has been very long since I posted. As most of you know, we had our little munchkin born in the month of June. I couldn’t get along with blogging. Being a first time mom , I am still in sleepless mode 🙂 In between my DD turned 4.5 months, phew did I say 4.5 months…YES she is already 4.5 months old. She was a preemie baby born 3 weeks early. She was born even before my mom could reach us. Some things were out of control, she was in NICU for sometime. We managed ourselves. First few days were totally a mess. Thankfully we got better once my mom arrived.

Fellow blogger friends, sorry I couldn’t visit your pages and leave comments. I am still not in full fledged mode to return to blogging but definitely will be coming back 🙂 So we celebrated her 3 months with this Oats carrot cake( I started writing this post when she was just 3 huh now you know!!!)…..As my mom is a complete vegetarian who doesn’t take eggs, I decided to make an eggless cake.

Ingredients:

Oats : 2.5 cups ( finely ground)

Baking Powder : 1 teaspoon

Salt : 1/4 teaspoon

Cinnamon : 1/4 teaspoon

Nutmeg : 1/4 teaspoon

Walnuts : 1/4 cup

Sugar : 1/2 cup (I used coconut palm sugar)

Carrot : 1 cup grated(finely packed)

Milk : 1 cup

Vanilla essence : 1 teaspoon

Butter : 1/4 cup

Method:

• Preheat oven to 350F.
• Combine ground oats, sugar, nutmeg powder, cinnamon powder, walnuts and give a nice aeration.
• Combine Carrot, milk, vanilla essence, butter.
• Now combine wet and dry ingredients together.
• Grease a baking tray with butter, pour the batter.
• Bake for 30 mins, until a tooth pick comes out clean.

For the glazing I didn’t get it perfect, just added butter, sugar and some orange zest. Sorry for the poor pictures, as we were in a hurry.

Paruppu Payasam/Moong Dal Kheer — Happy Tamil New Year and Vishu

Tags

Coconut milk, Dal Kheer, easy vegan desserts, gluten free dessert, Milagu Kuzhambhu, Moong dal kheer, Paruppu Payasam, payasam recipe, Payatham Paruppu Payasam, Vegan desserts, vegan Indian desserts, Vegan Paruppu Payasam, Vendhaya Dosai

I am a little late in wishing everyone a very Happy Tamil New Year and Vishu. Anyways never late, here is an authentic payasam recipe for the celebration 🙂 As a tradition we make arusuvai unnavu on this special day, which mean all the six taste is incorporated in food specially. I made few and adjusted a few 🙂 here is what I made on this special day.

Inipu/Sweet — Paruppu Payasam(dal kheer)

Pulippu/Sour — Maa vathal khuzhambhu(Mango preserve kuzhambhu)

Kasappu/Bitter — Vendhaya Dosai (methi dosa)

Thuvarpu/Astringent — Madulai / Served some pomegranate

Kaarpu/Spicy — Milagu Kuzhambhu(Pepper corn gravy)

Oovarpu/Salty– Any uppu poriyal will do, so I made prangikkai uppu poriyal(yellow pumpkin stir fry)

Recipe for Maa vathal Kuzhambhu, Vendhaya dosai, milagu kuzhambhu is coming soon….

Here is a sneak peak of my platter, excluding vendhaya dosai 🙂

I made a vegan version of this recipe for the first time and turned out well.

Ingredients:

Pasi Paruppu/Moong Dal : 1/2 cup

Water : 1 1/2 cup

Turmeric Powder : a generous pinch

Coconut Milk : 1 1/2 cup to 2 cups(replace by milk if not vegan)

Jaggery : 1/2 cup (adjust according to your taste buds)

Coconut Oil : 1 tablespoon (replace by ghee, if not vegan)

Cashews : Few

Raisins : Few

Method:

• Pressure cook pasi paruppu/moong dal with water and turmeric powder for 3 to 4 whistles.
• Let it cool. When pressure subsides open the cooker and make sure dal is cooked well.
• Now add coconut milk and let it come to boiling stage.
• Heat jaggery with 1 to 2 tablespoons of water. When it starts melting and heating, pour the mix through a filter over the cooking dal and coconut milk.
• Let it heat for another 3 to 4 mins.
• In a small pan heat coconut oil, when hot add cashews.
• When they turn slight golden brown, add raisins let them pop.
• Once popped add it to the payasam.
• Stop and serve either hot or cold.

Oats Qunioa Balls

Tags

Oats cranberry balls, Oats Quinoa Balls, Oats recipes, Quinoa, Quinoa Balls, Quinoa Indian style recipe

Most of my blog readers won’t need any introduction to Vidya @ Traditionally Modern Food , she is one good friend of mine and has always been very supportive from my initial days of blogging. We share a great bond together. I have given a guest post to her on Oats Quinoa Balls, hope you all will like it. Hop on to her blog to find my recipe 🙂

Link to her blog and recipe click here

Blog link: https://traditionallymodernfood.wordpress.com/

FB link: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Traditionally-Modern-Food/762621750435010?ref=hl&ref_type=bookmark

Pinterest link: http://www.pinterest.com/tradmodfood/traditionally-modern-food/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/tradmodfood

You will soon find a post from her on my blog 🙂

Rava Kesari

Tags

easy Indian desserts, how to make rava kesari, how to make rava kesari restaurant style, Indian Sweets, Rava Kesari, soft rava kesari, sooji recipes, sooji sheera, south Indian sweets

Rava kesari/Sooji Sheera is one of the easiest and yummiest Indian sweet which can be prepared very quick. Whenever I need to prepare some sweet as neivedhyam for pooja specially in the mornings ,this is my first choice. You can make a lot of variations in this with fruits. You can use Mango/Banana to get the extra punch 😉 For my earlier post on Mango Kesari, check here.

Ingredients:

Rava/Semolina/Sooji : 1 cup

Water : 4 cups

Sugar : 1 cup

Ghee : 1 1/2 tablespoon

Dry fruits(cashews, raisins) : few

Kesari food color/Red food color : a pinch (optional)

Saffron strands : Few (I haven’t used)

Method:

• Heat 1/2 tablespoon of ghee, when hot roast cashews first. Next add raisins when it pops, remove and set aside.
• In the same pan, roast rava/sooji for 2 to 3 mins, until nice aroma rises. Do not over roast, set aside.
• Now heat water in a large pan. Add the food color, saffron strands if using. Let it get heated well.
• Now mix the roasted rava and continuously stir.
• Rava will absorb all the water, make sure it gets cooked really well.
• Now add sugar and mix.
• Sugar will leave out water. Keep stirring. Add ghee as well.
• Mix and in a bowl grease some ghee, pour this rava kesari and mix the dry fruits.

It gets thicker by time. 4 cups of water gives perfect soft kesari. I usually use 1 cup rava and 2 cup water, which makes it feel very dry when stored later. 4 cups water ratio works wonder and it stays real soft after long hours.

2 cups water and 2 cups milk can also be used. Food color is totally optional.

Oats Barfi

Tags

how to make oats burfi, how to make oats flour, Oats, Oats Barfi, Oats Burfi, Oats desserts, Oats Indian recipes, Oats recipes, simple oats desserts, Sugar free barfi, Sugar free desserts, Sugar free Oats barfi

It has been long since I made some desserts at home. Wanted to try something quite healthy and easy. I have a huge pack of rolled oats and my hubby kept asking me to prepare something with it. I have been preparing oats uthappam all the time 😉 So made some of these barfi and came out very delicious.To avoid sugar, I have added jaggery. You can go ahead with sugar as well. Do give it a try.

Ingredients:

Oats Flour : 1.5 cups (take 1.5 cups of oats and grind to fine powder/Instant oats can also be powdered)

Almonds : 2 tablespoon

Cashews : 2 tablespoon

Walnuts : 2 tablespoon

Cardamom : 5 to 6 pieces

Raisins : 1 tablespoon

Jaggery : 3/4 cup( can reduce it to 1/2 cup/ also can be replaced by sugar)

Ghee : 3 tablespoon + extra to grease tray

Method:

• Grind almonds, cashews, walnuts, cardamom to fine powder.( I could get 1 cup out of this)
• In a pan, heat one tablespoon of ghee. When it is hot, roast oats flour and roast in low medium flame for 5 mins. (nice aroma would raise) Make sure not to over burn.Set aside.
• Heat another tablespoon of ghee. When hot, add the ground  dry fruits powder and roast in low medium flame for 5 mins. Make sure not to over burn. Set aside.
• Heat 1/2 tablespoon of ghee, add raisins and let it pop. Make sure not to over burn.
• Heat jaggery with one to two tablespoon of water (in case of sugar, add sugar and water) and when it melts, add roasted oats flour, roasted dry fruits powder, raisins.
• Cook in low flame. It mixes very fast and cooks within 5 mins. Add 1/2 to 1 tablespoon of ghee and cook.
• It combines well and will come to the center of the pan. Stop the flame.
• Now grease a tray with ghee.
• Pour this barfi mixture and level it.
• Let it cool for half hour to one hour.
• Then cut it to pieces and store in an air tight container.

With the same you can make ladoo’s. Just by forming small balls out of it. It is a great tea time snack.

 

 

 

Quinoa Laddoo

Tags

how to make Quinoa ladoo, Quinoa, Quinoa Desserts, Quinoa Indian recipes, Quinoa Indian style recipe, Quinoa Laddoo, Quinoa Ladoo

Happy Deepavali to everyone 🙂 My celebrations would go less if I don’t have any laddoo 😛 So I was wondering which laddoo to prepare. For the usual mothichoor laddo I don’t have the laddle to prepare. So I decided to make something different. Here is Quinoa laddoo…Because of its gluten free nature, I couldn’t bind it at all. Then found the trick from here and these are the lovely healthy laddoo’s 😀

Ingredients:

Quinoa : 1 cup

Jaggery : 1/2 cup(can be replaced by sugar)

Ghee : 2 tablespoons

Water : 1 tablespoon

Milk : 1/4 cup (any kind I used whole milk)

Method:

1. If you have pre washed Quinoa proceed to step 3
2. If it is non pre washed Quinoa, wash it thoroughly for at least 4 to 5 times. Drain the water. Spread the quinoa seeds over a kitchen cloth and dry it inside home. (no directly sun drying) I left it for a days time.
3. Next grind quinoa to Suji/Semolina consistency.
4. Heat ghee in a pan. When it hot enough add the grinded quinoa and roast it in slow flame.
5. Roast till it turns nice golden brown and the raw smell goes off.
6. Stir continuously to get uniform roasting.
7. In another pan heat  jaggery with water till it dissolves.
8. Filter out for any impurities and mix with quinoa.
9. Warm up the milk and with the above.
10. Form a nice dough. As quinoa is gluten free, it does not hold together. So milk helps in binding.
11. Now form balls with it by applying little ghee in the palms.

Now quinoa laddoo is ready 🙂

 

 

 

 

Sweet Somas/ Coconut Gujiya (Baked)

Tags

Baked Gujia, Baked Gujiya, Baked kajjikayalu, Baked Somas, Baked Sweet Somas, coconut gujia, Coconut Gujiya, Gujiya, kajjikayalu recipe, Somas recipe, Sweet Somas, Sweet Somas recipe

Diwali preparation in full swing , here is a traditional recipe which is tuned a little healthier 🙂 You can have it guilt free 🙂 We call this as sweet somas in TN. Gujiya usually prepared with mawa, but the filling can be changed. So here it is with coconut and jaggery(gur). Replacing sugar with jaggery make it much better. I have prepared this with both All purpose flour and Whole wheat flour.

You can find step by step pictures at the end of the post.

Below are made with Maida

 

 

Below are made with Wheat flour

Ingredients:

For the filling:

Grated Coconut : 1/2 cup

Roasted Gram(Channa Dalia)/Pottukadalai : 1/2 cup

Jaggery/Gur : 1/4 cup (You can increase it as per your taste)

Poppy Seeds/Khus Khus : 1 tablespoon ( optional this gives a lot of crunchiness)

Cardamom/ Elaichi : 2

Water : 1 tablespoon

For the covering:

All purpose Flour(Maida)/Whole wheat flour : 1 1/4 cups

Corn Flour : 1 tablespoon

Oil : 1 teaspoon + extra to brush

Salt : a pinch

Water : as needed to knead dough

Method:

• Mix all purpose flour or wheat flour with corn flour, oil, salt. Add water slowly and knead a soft dough.
• Cover it set aside for at least half an hour.
• Next Grind the roasted gram/pottukadalai along with cardamom to Suji/Rawa  consistency and set aside.
• Heat a pan and dry roast grated coconut till nice aroma comes and water content goes off.
• Next dry roast poppy seeds for just 2 mins.
• Place the jaggery in the pan, add 1 tablespoon water and heat it. Heat till it gets meted.
• Now add jaggery syrup with roasted gram flour, coconut, poppy seeds and mix.
• It should not be watery, just a dry mixture.
• After half an hour, form small poori’s with the dough.
• Take a small round bowl and place it over the poori and squeeze it, remove the extra edge to form a nice round shape.
• Now place the filling in between and fold over.
• pinch the edges. Make sure they are pinched properly otherwise they would open up while baking or frying.
• Now take a fork and pinch on the edges. Or with a pizza cutter the edges can be trimmed off. I used fork, as I don’t have a cutter.
• Preheat oven to 390 F and grease baking tray with oil.
• Now place one by one and brush them with oil.
• Bake for 12 mins in one side. Then remove flip sides and bake for another 12 mins on the other side.
• Remove and cool down for few mins. Now the baked somas/Gujiya is ready 🙂

As always this can be deep fried in oil.

Jaggery can be replaced by sugar.