Adhirsam ( using Jaggery )

Adhirsam ( Jaggery version )

Adhirsam is a very famous jaggery based south Indian sweet which is considered as ‘must do’ sweet especially for Marriage Ceremony , Diwali , etc.

If we follow some tricks and tips perfectly,  surely we’ll get perfect adhirsam.  Let’s see the procedure along with loads of tips.

Rice ( Maavu arisi / Patni chawal ) –  1 cup

Jaggery  :  1 cup ( coarsely powdered )

Water : 1/3 cup

Green Cardamom :  4 

Dry ginger powder :  2 pinches

Melted ghee :  1 tsp and some more for greasing.

Yield :  12 pieces.  

Soak rice for 4 hrs.

Drain water and spread on a kitchen towel.  Let it dry for half an hour.  Avoid drying more than half an hour.

Meanwhile powder jaggery coarsely and let it soak in 1/3 cup of water. 

After half an hour,  Rice will still have some amount of wetness .    ( using dry hands pick a fistful of rice .  It should partially stick to your hands but your palm should not get wet….  This is the perfect consistency )

Using mixer grinder, grind the rice as a fine powder as much as possible.  Can grind rice in batches.  

Sieve the flour to get fine and smooth rice flour.  We can add the left over coarse rice flour while grinding for next batch.  

Keep the prepared rice flour in a vessel .  Mix well with Cardamom powder , dry ginger powder and a tsp of ghee. 

Keep it closed using paper or cloth to retain its wetness. ( Do not use steel plate to cover the vessel )

Generally we should start preparing adhirsam immediately .  ( That is .., we can’t prepare rice flour well in advance as it may lose its wetness )

Now prepare for jaggery syrup.   Boil the jaggery with water  till jaggery completely dissolves.  Strain to remove stones or dust particles. 

Again boil jaggery till it reaches to soft ball consistency.  Keep stirring frequently in between.

Keep a cup filled with a ladle of water. When you drop few drops of jaggery syrup in this water , the syrup will not dissolve but when you gather it , you could feel like soft ball . 

Remove from flame and pour the hot syrup over the  rice flour and mix it using ladle without any lumps. 

Rice flour absorbs syrup and become a thick batter.

Close with a lid.  Give standing time and keep it covered for 7 to 8 hrs or overnight.  The more it matures the more it tastes great.

Next day we can pat and deep fry.

Grease Plantain leaf or plastic cover with melted ghee ( room temperature ).

Heat the oil to medium heat and keep the flame in low to medium throughout the frying process . 
Pinch out a very small portion of dough  and drop in oil, it should not dissolve in oil and also it should not raise immediately  ( just to make sure the dough and temperature of oil is perfect ). 

If that small ball dissolve in oil while frying, try adding little bit of wheat flour in the rice flour.

Divide the dough into equal portion.

Pat the dough into small disks .  Can use ghee greased hands to pat .  Make sure to have uniform thickness. 

If you are making adhirsam for the first time, Pat and start frying adhirsam, only one at a time.  Make sure not to pat too thin or too thick.

Though we are going to fry only one adhirsam at a time, it’s better to have sufficient oil otherwise adhirsam will stick to the bottom of the pan.

If you are confident, you can fry 3 to 4 adhirsam at a time .

Frying will not take more time so keep watching.

Gently drop the patted adhirsam in the medium heat oil and when it starts fluffing , gently flip to other side and fry .  The colour will change slightly and immediately remove from oil .

After removing from oil, using one more ladle , very gently press to remove excess oil .  

Tightly squeezed adhirsam will become hard.

Keep the fried adhirsam in a wide plate. 

Keep frying all the adhirsam but Don’t stack one over the other .   

Actually even after removing from oil, the cooking process will continue with the redemption of the heat exist in the adhirsam.  

Let it cools down completely before tasting it.

Crispy tasty adhirsam is ready to serve.

But it becomes very soft and even more tasty if we eat it next day so if time permits cook adhirsam and eat it next day .

Enjoy delicious Adhirsam with family and friends.

Note :  1 cup of rice may give 2 cups of flour approximately .  

Would like to hear from you ...  Kindly pass on your lovely comments .

Health Mix Halwa

Health Mix Halwa

Health mix halwa is Healthy and also easy to prepare.  I have used Manna brand health mix.  We can use store bought or homemade health mix to prepare this halwa.  It takes less time unless like wheat halwa.   Let’s see how to make health mix halwa.

Wheat flour -  ½  cup 

Health mix flour -  ½ cup

Melted ghee  -  1 cup

Sugar  -  1 + ¼ cup

Water  -  2 cups

Green Cardamom -  3

Cashews  -  6

Nutmeg powder / Jadhikai / Jaiphal   -  2 pinches

In a heavy bottom pan  mix wheat flour, health mix flour and ¾ cup of ghee without any lumps add chopped cashews .  Cook on low flame .  Keep stirring frequently till nice aroma comes and the cashews becomes golden brown. 

Meanwhile mix water and sugar in a vessel and boil till sugar completely dissolves .  Keep it aside.

When the flour mixture is ready and cashews turns into golden brown add the sugar syrup gradually and keep stirring while adding syrup.  You should get the mixture without any lumps. 

Keep the flame in low and keep cooking till the halwa thickens nicely.

Add cardamom powder and nutmeg powder.

When all the water gets absorbed and the halwa become very thick in consistency, add ghee in instalments.

Add one tsp at a time and mix nicely till it gets absorbed in halwa.

Keep a mould or plate , well-greased with ghee.

Cook halwa till it become fairly thick and it becomes like a dough and it will comes out smoothly without sticking to the walls of the pan.

Spread the halwa in the silicon mould or plate which is well greased.

Let it cool and comes to room temperature.   

If you are using silicon mould , do not disturb halwa till it comes to room temperature and unmold it in flat plate gently.  

Cut into square or desired shape.

Enjoy the healthy halwa with family and friends.

Note :

ü I have used Manna brand health mix.  You can use any brand or homemade health mix.

ü Mill ground wheat flour tastes great than the readymade wheat flour.

ü No need to add any food colour.

ü Avoid using Non-stick Pan for cooking halwa , as you may not able to find out the correct consistency .

I would like to hear from you….  Kindly pass on your suggestions and appreciations.   Thank you.

Carrot Burfi

Carrot Burfi

Burfi with carrot and coconut which melts in mouth.  

Grated Coconut :  ½ cup

Grated Carrot  :  1 + 1/2 cup

Full cream milk :  1 cup

Ghee :  ½ cup

Sugar :  2+ ½ cup

Cardamom powder :  1 tsp

In broad vessel mix milk and sugar…. 

Boil till one string.  (  If you take a drop of syrup and press within two fingers , you’ll get a thin string . )

Add coconut and carrot .

Gradually add ghee …  one tsp at a time.

Cook till all the water gets evaporated and the big bubbles starts forming .  When the burfi starts leaving the sides remove from flame and spread on the greased plate . 

Let it cool for some time.

Mark as a square or diamond shape .  Let it cool completely .

Can remove pieces very easily.

Very tasty Carrot Burfi which really melts into the mouth is ready to serve.  

Rasmalai

Rasmalai

Rasmalai is a very famous Milk based Bengali sweet.  ‘ Ras’ refers to the juice and ‘Malai’ refers to the milk cream.  Let’s see how to prepare it .

For Paneer balls :

Paneer --  250 grams

Corn flour --  2 tsp

Cardamom powder – ½ tsp

Sugar --  2 tsp

For sugar syrup :

 Water :  2+ ½ cups

Sugar :  1 cup

For Rabdi / Flavored milk :

Full cream Milk :  1 ltr

Sugar :  1 cup

Cashew & Almond :  10 each

Cardamom : 2

Saffron :  few threads .

In food processor knead Paneer .  Can also knead by hands.  Add Corn flour, cardamom and sugar and mix  with the kneaded paneer.

Shape them into equal size disc , roughly about 25 discs.

Making sugar syrup :

Boil sugar & water… let the sugar dissolve completely.  Keep the flame to low and drop half portion of the prepared paneer discs , do not stir .

We have to cook paneer disc in sugar syrup.  Let it cook for 5 minutes with closed disc in low flame.  Remove the lid and cook for 10 more minutes in low flame.    Paneer  may dissolve in sugar syrup if the heat is high. 

Remove first batch of cooked paneer carefully and drop the rest of the discs gently in sugar syrup and cook in the same way.   After it gets cooked, add the 1^st batch of cooked paneer  also in the sugar syrup.  Let all the cooked paneer soak in sugar syrup for 2 hrs.

Preparation of Rabdi / Flavored milk :

Soak Almonds in hot water for an hour.  Remove skin.  Grind along with cashews . 

Add Almond Cashew paste and sugar to the full cream milk.  Boil in medium flame till the  quantity reduce to  half of its portion.

Add cardamom powder and saffron .

Remove from flame. 

Very gently squeeze the paneer disc to remove excess sugar syrup and add all the cooked paneer in Rabdi / flavored milk.  Let it soak in flavored milk.

After it comes to room temperature we can refrigerate.

Serve chilled Rasmalai .

Garnish with sliced Almond and saffron threads.

Very soft Rasmalai is ready to serve.

Masala Bath

Masala Bath

Recipe courtesy : Tarla Dalal.

Tasty Masala bath is mild with few masalas and so very easy to prepare.  

Rice : ½ cup

Mix veg :  ½ cup ( chopped )

Salt to taste

Cumin seeds : 1 tsp

Coriander seeds : ½ tsp

Clove : 1

Black pepper : 6

Green chilly : 1

Ginger :  ½ inch

Turmeric powder :  2 pinches

Water : 1 cup

Onion: 1

Hing powder :  2 pinches

Oil :  1 tbsp

Coriander leaves for garnishing.

Soak rice for 15 minutes and drain the water.

Chop veggies of your choice .  Traditionally Ivy gourd , Brinjal and Peas are used.  But according to my kids preference I used carrot, peas and beans .

Finely chop green chilly, onion and ginger .

Dry fry ½ tsp of cumin seeds, coriander seeds , pepper and clove.

Powder it nicely.  Spice powder is ready.

In a small cooker , pour oil and temper with ½ tsp of cumin seeds.  Add onion and saute nicely. 

Add  rice ,  salt, spice powder, turmeric, veggies , green chilly , ginger , hing powder and stir fry for a couple of minutes in low flame. 

Add a cup of water and close with the lid.

Cook for a whistle .

After opening , garnish with chopped coriander leaves.

Serve hot with Chips / Raitha / Pickle.

Traditionally Ivy gourd , Brinjal and Peas are used for this recipe.

Morkali

Morkali

Easy to prepare , simple yet tasty Morkali is a healthy tiffin.

Rice flour :  1 cup

Sour Curd : 1 cup

Water : 1 + ¼ cup

Gingelly oil  :  4 tbsp

Salt to taste

Sundried curd chilly / Mormilagai  :  6

Green chilly :  2

Curry leaves : few

Hing powder :  2 pinches

Mustard seeds : ¼ tsp

Mix Rice flour , Curd, salt and water nicely without any lumps and keep it aside.

In a deep Pan/ Kadaai , Heat oil and temper with mustard seeds.  When it stops popping, add chopped green chilly , sundried curd chilly and saute for a minute.

Add hing powder and curry leaves.

Add the rice flour mixture gradually while stirring and cook in low flame with lid.

Now and then stir and cook till all the liquid gets absorbed.

Remove from flame.   Serve hot.

Enjoy this simple yet delicious Morkali with pickle. 

Aadi Velli or Purattaasi Sani

During  the  month of Aadi ( Jul-Aug) we offer  Maavilakku maavu  or  Kozhukkattai  or  Sarkarai  Pongal as a Neivedhyam during Fridays.
 

It is believed that the Goddess Shakthi doubles her power and worshipping her will help one to achieve what one needs. The Goddess will protect her devotees from all negative effects.

 

Maavilakku shall be made during  Purattaasi Sani  ( Saturday ) or Thai Velli ( Friday ) for Neivedhyam.

 Maavilakku  Maavu

Kozhukkattai

Sarkarai  Pongal