Sago-Semya payasam

Ingredients:

Milk : 2 cups
Semiya : 3/4 cup
Sugar : 1/2 cup
Cashewnuts - 1 tbsp
Raisin : 1 tbsp
Ghee/ oil :  1 tbsp
Water : 3 cups
Sago: 1/4 cup
Salt : a pinch


Method:

1. Heat milk in microwave for 3 mins and keep it aside.

2. Soak sago in water for 20 min.

3. Drain water from sago after 20 min. At this point, sago should have increased in size little.

4. Add 3 cups water to the sago and cook on the stove on lower flame until nice starch consistency is seen.

5. Heat a pan, add a tbsp of ghee. let it melt.

6. Toast the cashew nuts and raisins till golden brown. Remove from pan, keep aside.

7. In the same pan, add the semya  and roast it until it turns brown.

8. Now add heated milk and sago mixture.

9. Let it slowly simmer for another 7-8 mts, stirring it once in a while.

10. When the above mixture is boiling, add sugar. Let it cook for few mins to melt the sugar.

11.  Add toasted cashews and raisins. Switch off the stove.

12. Add a pinch of salt.

13. Serve warm or refrigerate until chilled. It tastes good both warm and chilled. I personally prefer the chilled one...


Note : Measurements for this particular item was taken using rice cooker cup.

Semya Payasam

What should I say about this sweet !!!! I just love payasam.. I know many of you won't like this.. but this is my favorite sweet.. I pretty much grew up in hostel.. I used to share curries/fruits or any other stuff with my friends and get my share of payasam during our meal.. Those were the days :-P.... All my friends hate payasam.. They used to ask me how can you like this sweet? It tastes just like milk !!!!... Well.. whatever the taste it is, I like it.. That's all matters to me..

I have a feeling that ONLY I can make the BEST payasam.. Well.. in my terms, the definition of BEST is, healthy and payasam should be liquid even after you refrigerate it for so many hours. I add very less sugar as I am kinda health conscious. I just made payasam as our friend's family is visiting us tomorrow. Here is the recipe...

Ingredients:

Milk : 2 cups
Semiya : 3/4 cup

Sugar : 1/2 cup

Cashewnuts - 1 tbsp
Raisin : 1 tbsp
Ghee/ oil :  1 tbsp
Water : 3 cups
Salt : a pinch

Method:

1. Heat milk in microwave for 3 mins and keep it aside.
2. Heat a pan, add a tbsp of ghee. let it melt.
3. Toast the cashew nuts and raisins till golden brown. Remove from pan, keep aside.
4. In the same pan, add the semya  and roast it until it turns brown.
5. Now add heated milk and water. Let it slowly simmer for another 7-8 mts, stirring it once in a while.
6. When the above mixture is boiling, add sugar. Let it cook for few mins to melt the sugar.
7.  Add toasted cashews and raisins. Switch off the stove.
8. Add apinch of salt.
9. Serve warm or refrigerate until chilled. It tastes good both warm and chilled. I personally prefer the chilled one...

Kova Laddu

Ingredients:

Milk powder : 2 cups
Condensed milk : 14 oz
Butter unsalted : 1 stick
Nuts coarsely grounded: handful (optional)

Method:

Melt butter in the microwave.
Add condensed milk to the butter and mix well.
Add milk powder to the above mixture and mix well without any lumps.
Microwave this mixture for 3 mins.
Remove the bowl from microwave and mix well.
Microwave for another 1 min and mix well.
Let the mixture cool for 10 min.
Grease your hands and take a small mixture from the bowl and make a small round using hands.
Add whole nut on the laddu by gently pressing it while the laddu is still warm.
or mix the coarsely grounded nuts in  the laddu and make small balls.

Ravva Laddu

Ingredients:

Surma Laddu

Ingredients:

Carrot Halwa

Ingredients:

Carrots: 3 cups grated

Ghee : 1tbsp

Cashews : handful

Dry grapes : handful

Sugar : 1.5 cups

Milk: 2.5 cups

Water : 1 cups

Elachi powder : pinch

Method :

Heat ghee in a pan.

Fry cashews until brown. Take it into a separate bowl.

Fry dry grapes until they are swollen. Take it into a separate bowl.

Add grated carrot to the same pan. And fry it in a simmer mode until the raw smell goes and carrot shrinks in size. Add more ghee if required.

Add milk, water and sugar and cook until the carrot mixture leaves the sides of the pan.

Decrease milk/water if the halwa is too liquid in consistency.

Just before halwa is getting done, add nuts, dry grapes and elachi powder.

Switch off the stove.

Transfer it to a bowl.

Gulab Jamun

Yummy Jamuns

Ingredients:

For Jamuns:
GITS Instant Gulab jamun : 1 packet
Milk : 1 cup (adjust to form a dough)
Ghee : 2 spoons enough amount to apply to hands)
Oil : for deep fry

Syrup:
Sugar : 1 glass
Water : 1 glass
Elachi : 1 tsp powdered

Method:

Pour jamun powder in a bowl.

Add enough milk to form a dough.
Rub ghee to hands and start kneading the flour to form soft dough. The dough should be similar chapati dough.

When kneading the jamun mix, work with your fingers gently. Do not apply more pressure with entire palm. This will result in not having fluffy and soft jamuns.

After kneading the dough, close the lid and let it rest for 30 min.
Apply, ghee to your hands and make small balls. Ensure that you are making smooth balls by working them in between your palms gently.
Heat oil to in a pan to deep fry these balls.
Once the oil is heated, put the stove in simmer mode and fry the jamuns. Fry only few at a time.

Oil should not be overheated and always fry the jamuns in simmer mode only. Otherwise, jamuns will turn into brown color and inner part will not cook properly.

Sugar Syrup:

Simultaneously, pour sugar, water and elachi powder in a wide vessel to prepare sugar syrup. Put this vessel on the stove and let it cool. One the sugar syrup boils with bubbles, put the stove on simmer for 4 min and then switch the stove off.

Transfer fried jamuns immediately to the sugar syrup and let it soak. jamuns will double in size once they are well soaked.
Transfer them to a bowl.
Serve hot or cold.

Chakkera Pongal (Sweet Pongal)

Ingredients:

Moong dal (split) : 1 cup (dry roasted)
Raw rice : 1 cup
Water : 2.5 cups
Milk : 1/2 cup
Ghee: 4 spoons
Cashews : handful
Dry grapes : handful
Sugar/jaggery : 3/4 cup
Salt : a pinch

Method:

Dry roast split moong dal until it turns brown color.
Was rice and keep aside.
Heat ghee in pressure cooker/pan
Roast cashews until it turns brown and dry grapes until it swells.
Remove from pan and keep those aside.
In the same pan, add moong dal, washed rice, milk and water.
cook for 4 whistles.
Wait until the pressure releases from cooker and open the lid.
Add sugar/jaggery, nuts, grapes mix well and cook for 5 min.
Add salt at the end and switch off the stove.


Note : Sweet Pongal should be not too thick or not too thin in consistency.

Tip :

You can sprinkle with cardamom at the end.
If the Sweet Pongal is too thin in consistency , cook for few more min. If it is too thick, add enough water/milk and cook until desired quantity reaches.

Rava Kesari

Ingredients :

Rava: 1 cup

Ghee/oil : 1 tbsp

Cashews: 3/4 tbsp

Sugar : 1/2 cup

Dry grapes : 3/4 tbsp

Milk/water : 3 cups

Salt : a pinch

Method:

Heat ghee/oil in a pan. Roast cashews until brown and grapes until swollen. Remove from oil and put it in a separate bowl.

Roast rava in the ghee/oil until it turns slightly brown in color.

Add milk/water and let it boil.

Once the rava mixture boiled, add sugar. Let it cook few more min. Just before kesari is done, salt a pinch of salt. Mix well and switch of the stove.

Apply ghee to a wide vessel and pour the kesari mixture on it. Cut them into squares with a knife. Arrange cashew and grapes on each of the square. Remove from tray/vessel once its cooled.

Tip: You can use a pinch of yellow/kesar color while adding milk to get nicer color.