Swings & Roundabouts

Rava (Sooji) , 1 cup
Sugar, 1 cup
Water, 2 cups
Ghee, 1/2 cup
Kesari powder, a pinch
Cardomom, 2 pods
Broken cashewnuts, 5
Edible camphor (Pachai karpooram), a pinch (optional)

Method:
Heat a tablespoon of ghee in a heavy bottomed pan and add the rava to it.
Roast it nicely, keeping the flame on low, till the rava turns golden.
Boil two cups of water and add the water to the roasted rava.
Add a pinch of the food colouring, mix well and keep mixing till the water gets absorbed.
Once the rava is cooked, add the sugar. Mix.
Add the remaining ghee (keeping a spoonful for roasting cashew) in stages and keep stirring.
You’ll know the kesari is dome when it doesn’t stick to the sides of the pan and rolls into a ball when you stir it.
Take the pan off the heat.
Heat the spoonful of the ghee and add the chopped bits of cashew. Make sure they don’t get burnt – take them off the flame whilst golden.
Powder the cardomom and the camphor.
Garnish the kesari with the cashewnuts and sprinkle the cardomom powder and camphor powder and serve.

Photograph by Sundeep D

Can there be a more sumptuous treat than this Queen of Sweets? Fresh carrots, whole milk, assorted nuts make this a medley of yumminess.

To make this, you need

Carrots, grated – 1 kilo
Whole milk – 1 litre
Khova / Khoya / Mawa – 150 gms
Sugar – 2-3 cups
Ghee – 3 tbsp

Ghee – 1 tbsp
Broken cashew – 1 tbsp
Golden raisins – 1/2 tbsp (optional)
Cardomom / elaichi – 2-3 pods

Take a thick-bottomed kadai and heat the milk in it. Once the milk starts boiling, slowly add the grated carrots into it. On a low flame, let the carrots cook in the milk.
Keep stirring frequently to prevent the milk forming a layer on the bottom and/or getting burnt.
Once all the milk has been absorbed, add the grated mawa to the mixture. The mawa / khova / khoya will add a creamy texture to the halwa.
After the mawa has been folden in, add the sugar.
The sugar will melt and needs to be stirred constantly to prevent from caramelising.
After the sugar has blended well with the cooked carrots, add the ghee and continue stirring.
As the halwa gets cooked, it will absorb the ghee into it.
The halwa is ready when it stops sticking to the sides of the pan and rolls into a ball when stirred.
Take it off the flame.
Heat ghee in a smaller pan and saute the nuts and raisins before adding them to the halwa.
Add powdered cardomom and mix well.
Enjoy!

Kalakhand

Am back after a year long break. Apologies re the shoddy blogging!! Have tons of recipes so sit back and enjoy!

To kick-start, here’s a quick-n-easy sweet you can whip up in a jiff.

Things you need:

Ricotta cheese, 500 g

Condensed milk, 1 tin

Butter, 25 gm

Lemon juice, 1 tablespoon

Elaichi 2 pods, powdered

Heat the butter in a thick-bottomed pan, over a medium flame till it melts evenly. Now, add the cheese and keep stirring it till it becomes a smooth paste. Keep stirring whilst adding a tin of condensed milk until everything’s well mixed. After five minutes of this, add the lemon juice slowly without letting up stirring.

The mixture will curdle and slowly become thicker. As you continue to stir, you’ll notice it coming off the edges of the pan. The sweet is ready when it easily rolls into a ball as you stir.

Add powdered elaichi to it, mix well and transfer to a well greased plate.

Spread the mixture evenly, cut into squares / diamond shapes and allow it to cool. Transfer to an air-tight container.

Makes about 30 pieces.

[Yes it is that easy! And it is thanks to Cee Kay and Dottie that this recipe came into being.]

Akkara Adisal is the quintessentially Iyengar dish that has an unsurpassable taste. Be it any festival or a birthday in the family, finishing a sumptuous meal with this for dessert will be the perfect high note. Add a pinch of pachai karpooram to it just before serving and you’d realise that this is the ambrosia of the gods.

Raw rice – 1 cup, washed
Jaggery – 2 cups
Water – 6 cups
Milk – 2 cups
Ghee – 4 tbsp
Cashew – 10, broken into pieces
Raisins – 10
Cardomon – 2-3 pods
*Pachai karpooram – a pinch

Take a cup of rice (I use ponni raw rice), wash it a couple of times and strain the water off it. Heat two tablespoons of ghee in a heavy-bottomed kadai and add the rice to the ghee. Saute it for a few minutes, making sure the rice doesn’t burn.

Transfer the rice to a small vessel, add a cup of milk and pressure cook it. I usually wait for two whistles before I switch it off. Meanwhile, take two cups of jaggery, mix three cups of water to it and boil the mixture in the kadai.

After about 5 – 10 minutes, take the mixture off the flame, cool it off a little and strain it. This gets rid of the stones, pieces of sugarcane husk and other assorted impurities that find their way into jaggery. Once done, pour the mixture back in the kadai and boil again, till the mixture thickens a bit. Now add the cooked rice and let it all boil together till the rice gets cooked completely. Add three cups of well boiled milk (sunda kaachina milk) to the mixture and let it all simmer together for a few minutes.

Roast the broken cashew pieces and raisins in the ghee and add those to the payasam along with powdered cardomom and pachai karpooram.

Your akkara adisal is now ready.

Warning: addictive!

*Addition of this to the akkara adisal (or any other payasam) is optional. But this ingredient has a heavenly smell that always reminds me of my gran and her kitchen. Guaranteed to take your dessert up by a few notches and earn the label of ‘heavenly’.

+Note: One can make it to be of a slightly thicker consistency – the result would be akin to chakkarai pongal then.