Rava Ladoo

These days as mentioned in my previous post I'm just killing time without knowing what to do. Then there came a thought of making ravva ladoo's which are our favorite. So here they are as virtual treats to you all.

Ravva ladoo is a very easy to make recipe. It is one of my favorites & always in a must have list.I had a pooja coconut sitting on my counter for last one month & I was confused what to do with it. Then yesterday I came in agreeing my thoughts & made these yummy ladoo's.

But before that I arranged this deco & which I wanted to share with you all. I used the nirmalya flowers (Flowers used for before days pooja) in this deco.

Ingredients:
2 Cups sooji/ bombai rava
1 Cup sugar
1&1/2 Cups grated coconut
3 Tbs ghee or butter
1/2 Cup chopped walnuts
1Tsp elachi powder
4 Tbs milk 

In a small pan take 1tbs ghee along with chopped walnuts.Fry them for 2mins & switch off heat.
Now heat a wide pan with 2tbs ghee.Add sooji to pan & fry it till you get a nice aromatic smell. Now in process you might even burn sooji too.So to avoid it keep sautéing the pan for 3&1/2 to 4mins.Switch off heat & transfer it carefully to a heat resistant bowl. To that add grated coconut, sugar, walnuts & elachi powder.Add milk to the mixture & form them in to ladoo's. Be carful as the mixture will be a little hot.

Allow them to cool for 15mins so that they will become a little firmer & will be easy to handle. Store them in a air tight container & enjoy them.

Note:

1. Store them in a airtight container. 

2. shelf life is for 3 to 4 days. 

Pappulo Undralu | Moong Dal Kozhukattai

Happy Ganesh Chaturthi friends.. 

Here is a peek of ganesha from our home.This year upon my hubby's request I made two clay ganesha's (Bala ganesha & Big ganesha) & decorated big ganesha with crystals.

Big Ganesha

Bala Ganesh

For the prasadam I made undaralu,pappulo undaralu & pulihora. Today I'm sharing pappulo undarala recipe with you all.

Ingredients
1&1/2 Cups milk

1/2 Cup moong dal

1/2 Cup rice flour

1 Cup water 

3 Tbs sugar 

1/2 Cup grated jaggery 

2 Tbs ghee

1 Tbs of chopped almonds & dry fruits 

Pressure cook moong Dal & keep aside.Heat a vessel with water & sugar.Allow water to boil then add rice flour slowly while mixing it.Mix it till the rice flour forms as a dough. Switch of heat and cool.Add 1tbs of ghee to dough & knead it. Now take small portions and make balls with them.Follow the same with rest of the dough & keep aside.

Take milk & moong dal in a pan  & bring them to boil. Then add the undaralu to the mixture on by one. Now add jaggrey & elachi to pan & mix them well with dal.Switch off heat & take a small pan with ghee & chopped dry fruits. Fry them for 2mins & add them to the undaralu. 

Note: 
1. Add 4tbs grated coconut while the milk & dal boiling for better taste. 

Paala Thalikalu | Paala Kozhukattai

Happy Krishnashtami friends.. 

I made this "Pala Thalikalu" for krishna's birthday. I made this for first time ever & we loved it. I used milk maid instead for milk & sugar to make my job easy.

Ingredients

2 Cups of milk (1 cup milk maid & 1 cup water)

1/2 Cup rice flour

3/4 Cup sugar(Adjust Acc.)

3/4 Cup water 

Pinch of salt 

2 Tbs ghee

1 Tbs of chopped almonds & dry fruits 

Pinch of saffron 

Heat water in a bowl. Bring them to boil & switch off heat.Take rice flour in a bowl along with pinch of salt. Now add hot water little by little while mixing the flour & forming in to dough. Once you have the dough throw the remaining water.
Add 1tbs of ghee to dough & knead it. Now take small portions and make balls with them. You can shape them as you like but I made them as cylindrical shape. Follow the same with rest of the dough & keep aside.

Heat a vessel with milk. Bring it to boil for 5mins.Now add sugar to milk. Later add elachi & saffron. Switch off the heat & then add the the rice balls made before slowly to the milk mixture. Heat milk on medium heat for 10mins & switch off.

Take a pan with 1 tbs ghee & add almonds,dry fruits to it. Fry them for 2mins. Add it to milk mixture & mix them well.

Serve it cold or warm it tastes yum..

Note: 
1. You may not need the whole 3/4 cup of water. Stop adding water when a perfect dough is formed.

Sweet Dhokla

Friday is a day of Goddess Lakshmi and for me every Friday is a very very important day as I perform "Sri Vaibhava Lakshmi pooja"on that day. This pooja is so powerful and I know it doesn't need a Intro.

For the pooja I offer a sweet made of Besan as Prasadam..So here comes my challenge every week in search of a sweet dish made of Besan..

This Friday I was going thru blogs and saw Dhokla in a blog suddenly my tube light has lighten with "Sweet Dhokla". It came out very well and I hope that even the Goddess will bless me for my new invention.

I made few changes for the dish like added little rice flour, used Yeast for baking powder and Suger in place of lime..

Here it is...

Ingredients

1/4 Cup Rice flour

3/4 Cup Besan Flour

1/2 Tbs Yeast

1 Cup Sugar ( Adjust according to your taste)

Seasoning

2 Tbs Butter

1 Tbs Mustard

1 Tbs Jeera

Cilantro for Seasoning

How to make it ???

1.Take yeast, 1 Spoon sugar and add little warm water to it.Mix them well and keep it aside for few mins.

2.Mix Besan and Rice flour to a paste by using the above yeast mix. Close the above mixture with a wet towel and allow it to rise for 1hr.

3. Grease a microwavable box with butter and pour the Besan mixture to it.Microwave it for 4 Min ( It may take less than that too).Use a tooth pick to check whether it is fully cooked or not. Cool the Besan cake for few minutes.

4. Take sugar and mix it with 1 cup of water. Microwave a bowl with butter and seasoning. Allow the Mustard to splutter and add sugar syrup to it. Microwave sugar syrup for few mins.

5. Now take the Besan cake and cut it to pieces. Add the sugar syrup to the cake and garnish it with cilantro.

Godhuma Rava Payasam | Gothambu Payasam | Wheat Payasam

Sweets are one of those dishes represent special occasion, celebration & joy in our life. Today is my FIL's b'day & they are with us here to celebrate it. At first I thought of making some yummy " Besan Ladoo " & my thoughts jumped on to many options. Later my thoughts finalized this delicious payasam.
When I saw this recipe on "Kitchen Corner" blog I immediately bookmarked it & waited for right time to make it.I did some additional changes to recipe which turned out super delicious & got me lots of compliments.
In fact I was worried about my hubby who hates broken wheat in any form.But he just drooled it with no hesitation.. Pheww... I'm happy with the dish now.

Ingredients 
1 Cup broken wheat 
1/4 Cup moong dal 
1/2 Cup coconut flakes or grated coconut
1 Cup milk ( Used 1% fat milk)
1/2 Cup almonds
2 Tsp elachi powder
1/2 Cup sugar
1/2 Cup jaggery
2 Tbs ghee
2 Tbs chopped raisins & chopped almonds 

Pressure cook broken wheat & moong dal together. Meanwhile soak grated coconut & almonds in milk.Leave them for 30mins. 
Now grind soaked almonds & coconut along with milk to smooth paste. To that I added pressure cooked wheat,dal & grind it coarsely.
In a wide pan melt jaggery & sugar. Add the ground mixture to pan & mix it sweet mixture. Keep stirring it so that it won't stick to bottom. Cook for 5 mins & switch off heat. Now add elachi powder to payasam & allow it to cool. 

Heat a small pan with ghee along with sliced almonds & raisins. Fry them till almonds turn brown. (At this point raisins get a chewy effect & I love it.. ) Then add to payasam & mix them well.

Note (Very Importent):
1. You can use coconut milk instead of grated coconut.Grated coconut is just a replacement to coconut milk. 
2. You don't have to grind wheat & dal. I did it so that my hubby will not get that flaky wheat while having it. 
3. You can use just jaggery.. I'm used to half & half of jaggery & sugar. I like the taste of sweetness it gives.

 

Besan Ladoo

Happy Sankranti/ Pongal Friends... 

I was just breaking my head on what should I do for Sankranti. Giving a end to my thoughts I decided on making " Besan Ladoo" becoz hubby dear loves them. 

My mom use to make "Ariselu & Murukulu" for this festival. I don't know if there is any relation to "Ariselu" & to this festival, but all our neighbors would be busy making them. 

I was planning for drawing some "Rangoli" tomorrow in my balcony so that I won't be missing any part of the festival in US. I know we can't replace India, still got to adjust with our customs in new environment.

Adapted this recipe from Manjula's Kitchen.I followed her recipe & it came out perfect. 

Ingredients :

1 Cup besan/ Senagapindi / Kadalai Maavu flour

1/2 Cup ghee melted 

1/2 Cup sugar

1 Tsp elachi powder

2 Tbs sliced cashew

1 Tbs sliced almond for garnish (Optional)

Heat a pan with 1 tbs ghee. Add besan to pan & keep stirring it. Besan will turns golden color or a nice aroma comes once it starts turning golden color. 
Switch off heat and cool besan till you can handle it with your hand.Mix sugar, elachi & cashew to besan. Now add the rest of ghee to the mixture & mix the ingredients well.Now take a hanfull of mixture & shape it in to a ladoo. Repeat the same with rest of the mixture.Now dip them Garnish them with almonds on top & ladoo is ready to serve. 

Note :
1.Some time the mixture will be to dry to roll on, sprinkle little say 2tsp milk and it will be easy to roll on. 

3. Once ladoo are rolled you can dip them in ghee for a perfect taste or you can just add the ghee as I have done.
4. Add 3/4 tsp of sooji if you are using plain besan.

Kajjikayalu | Somas | Karanji

Happy Diwali.... 

Kajjikayalu are traditional sweets which doesn't need an introduction in south Indian house hold.This festive dish is made of maida & some sweet stuffing in it. A little time taking dish but you can forget all the efforts once you taste them.

As a tradition for Diwali at my mom's place we make gulab jaamun, kajjikayalu or gavvalu (sweet & savory). She says this tradition has come from my grand mother to my mom & now to me.I learnt this recipe from my mom while helping her making them.

This recipe needs a kajjikaya peeta, but I have given a step by step instructions for this which can help in making them without peeta.

Yields 27 kajjikayalu.
Ingredients

11/2 cup all purpose flour

2 Tbs oil 

pinch of salt 

Little water

Oil for frying

For stuffing 

1 Cup channa dal

1 Cup grated coconut

1 Cup sugar 

2 Tbs cardamon powder 

 

 

How to make ???

Mixing flour

Take bowl add flour, oil, salt & little water at a time till the flour comes together like a ball.Allow it to set for 15mins & then roll small balls as shown above & keep them aside.

Stuffing

Heat a pan and add channa dal to it. Dry fry dal till you get a nice aroma from channa dal.

 

Grind coarsely  channa dal, coconut powder ,sugar & cardamon powder.

Mean while heat oil for frying.

Take a maida ball & roll it to a round shape.Add a spoonfull of stuffing powder.

Then close it in to half.

 Now fold ends as shown in the figure.

Then press edges with a fork.

As our oil is ready for cooking place slowly kajjikayalu in oil.Fry them in medium heat.

Once they are done remove from oil & place them on a tissue paper.Same process repeats for rest of all kajjikay's.

I was left with 1/2 cup of stuffing powder which I rolled them to ravva ladoo's. 

Note:

1. Don't fry them on high flame. 

2. Fold the ends carefully or the stuffing will spill in oil & messes all kajjikaya's. 

3. Be careful while handling heated oil. 

Badam Kheer with Vermicelli

I am all exited when I saw that my blog has 100 followers. Oh yes today it became 101 too.I was down with fever & cold  for past 3 days & yesterday morning when I realized about it I just couldn't wait making some sweet dish as a sign of celebration. I decided on making Badam Kheer & I felt it was kind of easy considering my situation & went a head making it. It was just awesome & satisfied my sweet tooth a lot. 

Ingredients

1Cup vermicelli 
2Tsp ghee

10 Almonds/badam 

2Cups milk 

1/2Cup sugar (Adjust sugar if needed)

1Tsp cardamon Powder 

1Tsp sliced almonds 
Pinch of saffron flower/kumkum puvvu

Blanching  almonds

Take water in a vessel & bring to boil. Now add almonds to the water. Allow them to boil for few mins & switch off heat. 

Filter almonds & allow them to cool. Now peel of the almonds skin & grind them to a smooth paste with little milk. 

Take a wide pan and heat it with ghee. Add vermicelli to it & light fry them ( This will give a unique taste to vermicelli). Once done add milk to the pan & bring it to boil. Cook till vermicelli is done.

Take a little warm milk along with saffron & mix well. 

Now add sugar & almond paste to pan & bring it to boil. Now switch off heat and mix cardamon powder & saffron milk. 

Serve it with almonds sprinkled on it.

Note:  

1.You can also add sabudana in place of vermicelli. 

Sweet Pongal

Dussehra is represented as festival of Shakti. It's just not becoz she destroyed mahishasura, but it's also celebrated for our well being, good health & prosperity.

It's believed that sharad rutu cools down the earth and as it gets colder, different viral diseases could spread around & trouble people. So for a protection from all those bad forces we celebrate navratri for 9 days. Every Day Amman will go on a procession or uregimpu on streets of the city ensuring people that she is there to protect us. 

In my house for navratri we recite "Lalitha sahasranamam" for all 9 days and will offer prasad to Amman. According to Lalitha sahasranamam it's said that we should offer "Rice cooked with Jaggery "or " Gudanna " to Amman. 

We even offer different prasads like vada pappu, Pulagam, Boorelu, Pulihora or some sweets which consist of moong dal, besan & jaggery.

Ingredients
1 Cup Rice
1/2 Cup channa dal or senga pappu 
1&1/2 Cup jaggery
4 Tbs water
1 Tsp cardamon powder
2 Tbs ghee
1 Tbs cashew
21/2 Cups of milk

Pressure cook rice and channa dal with milk for 2 whistles. Switch of heat and allow the cooker to cool down. 
Heat a wide bottom pan add jaggery & water to it.Allow jaggery to melt in water and switch of heat. 
Now add the cooked rice & dal to jaggery and switch on heat. Keep stirring them so that they don't stick to the bottom. Once they all mix together well add cardamon powder & switch of heat. 
Heat a small pan with ghee & once it melts add cashew and fry them till they turn light brown. 
Add cashew to pan and the sweet pongal is ready.

Note:
1. You can replace jaggery with sugar.
2. Add more milk for a smooth pongal.

Ragi Rava Ladoo

Ragi or Finger millet grains are known for their nutritional benefits like good dietary fiber, cooling agent for your body, reduces cholesterol levels & many more.

Even with all those health benefits I never liked them becoz they never tasted good Or say no taste at all.I still remember my mom  running behind me to finish the one big glass of ragi malt mixed with yogurt.

Anyways now I want to experiment new ways of cooking these healthy grains & that's how the ladoo was made. 

 

Ingredients

1/2 Cup ragi 

1/4 Cup coconut pieces

3/4 Cup grated jaggery 

1/2 cup sliced almonds & raisins 

1 Tbs elachi powder 

1 Tsp butter

*** Ragi grains are hard to grind as they are. So you need to sun dry them or just dry fry for few seconds in a hot pan and grind them.

Heat a pan and add ragi grains to it. Dry fry them for few secs. Coarse grind Ragi grains to get a rava texture. Now heat a pan with 1 tsp of butter. and fry ragi rava for 5mins or till the nice aroma comes out of it. Switch off pan and allow it to cool. 

*** I used fresh coconut as it has the wetly texture which blends all the ingredients together. 

Grind coconut and keep aside.

Now mix all the ingredients in a  bowl together. ( No need to add milk or butter to make balls)

As the coconut is fresh you will be able to roll nice ladoos as shown. 

Out Come: They are very tasty with all those almonds, raisins, elachi & jaggery. I love to call it a healthy bite.