Wheat Halwa (கோதுமை ஹல்வா)

Godhumai Halwa (Wheat Halwa)... the only sweet I crave for anytime. My avva (grandma) prepares this sweet for me every year on my birthday. She makes it finger licking good and any guest to our house for whom we have served this sweet, has definitely packed it too when they left :) Of course the main ingredient of this recipe is whole lot of love, affection and patience to prepare the dish with the most care. I had been carving for this sweet sometime now, and took the recipe from her and tried it for the first time..voilà... It turned out as yummy as I wanted it to be... but definitely missing my grandma's love in it.
Try this recipe yourself and enjoy the delicious sweet. You will need lots of patience and slow cooking process to make this dish a success.  


Preparation Time : 1 hour


Ingredients:
1. Wheat Flour - 1 cup
2. Sugar - 1 1/2 cups (if your sugar is not so sweet, you can use 2 cups of sugar)
3. Ghee - as required
4. Cashews/Almonds/Pista - chopped 2 -3 tablespoons
5. Kesari Colour - small pinch
6. Saffron - few strands
7. Cardamom - 3 to 4 (powdered)

Preparation:
1. Add colour to the wheat flour and prepare a batter by mixing with water. Do not make it watery, keep the consistency of Bajji batter. 
2. Dissolve the sugar in 1/2 cup of water and bring it to boil. Keep stirring until it forms a thick syrup. To determine if you reached the right consistency drop some syrup in cold water and it should float without sticking to the water.
3. Now add the batter you prepared earlier to the syrup with continuous stirring. Reduce the flame to low.
4. From this step is where your patience is very important :). You need to frequently stir and never leave from your stove. 
5. As you see the flour gets cooked and turns into solid consistency,  start adding Ghee - 2 tablespoons at a time, and keep stirring. You will have to keep adding more as it becomes dry.
6. You will now see the halwa coming out well without sticking to the pan and leaving the ghee around. 
7. Now its time to add the garnish. Fry the chopped nuts in a tablespoon of ghee, and add it to the halwa along with saffron strands and the powdered cardamom.
I added 2 more tablespoons of ghee finally, to give it enough moisture. You can reduce ghee as per your like.
Yummy yummy halwa is ready... 


Tips:
1. This sweet tastes richer and better only if you let it rest for atleast couple of hours. Believe me, it becomes so delicious on the second day :)
2. Store the halwa in air tight container in the refrigerator and just heat it for couple of minutes before you serve. The frozen ghee will leave the halwa give it an appealing look and finger licking taste. It will stay good for 7 - 10 days if refrigerated. 
3. If you have added more water when preparing the batter, and the halwa remains watery, you can sprinkle some flour as you keep stirring to bring it back to the consistency.
4. In this preparation, I had to use Atta flour, and the taste was as good as using the whole wheat flour. 

Makkan Peda (with Gulab Jamun Mix)

"Makkan Peda" also known as "Arcot Makkan Peda" is a very famous sweet in Arcot(my neighbour town in my homeplace) in Vellore district.  I still remember my childhood days where this sweet was very popular in one special shop named " Chairman Sweet Stall" in Arcot. Though now we started getting this sweet in many places in and around. Any guest to our house will definitely not miss this sweet as part of their lunch or dinner treat. At first look it would seem like 'Gulab Jamun' for most until they take a bite with those crunchy nuts. 

This sweet is generally made of sweetless kova (a milk product). I couldn't find kova anywhere here at my place and decided to give a try with the instant Gulab Jamun mix and it really came out yummy!!! 

Ingredients: (for 5 pieces)

1. MTR instant Gulab Jamun mix - Half packet

2. Cooking soda - a pinch

3. Milk - less than 1/4th of gulab jamum mix

4. Sugar - 3 cups

5. Dried nuts mixture - one cup. I used cashews, Almonds, Pistachio, dates, dry grapes. Do not miss to use pumpkin seeds if you can acquire some. It adds richness to the taste.

6. Oil - to fry

Preparation:


1. Mix the gulab jamun powder with cooking soda and milk and knead gently and make a soft dough without sticking and rest it for 5 - 10 minutes.
2. Prepare the dry nuts mixture by cutting the nuts into smaller pieces.
3. Now make soft round balls with the dough in hand and make a small hole and fill it with the nuts mixture, close the hole and roll it again and flatten it a bit
4. Now heat oil in a pan and fry the balls 1 or 2 at a time.
5. Most importantly, do not over heat oil. Keep it in a very low flame otherwise it will turn brown quickly but the inner part might not cook.
6. Cooking time for each piece should be 7 to 8 minutes and turn sides slowly for even cooking.
7. In another pan add sugar and equal amount of water and bring it to boil to make the sugar syrup.
8. Once the syrup thickens after boiling for 5 to 7 minutes, switch off.
9. When the peda pieces are cooked, drain the oil and drop into the sugar syrup. Sugar syrup should be hot.
10. Set it aside for 15 -20 minutes to soak it completely and dress it with dried nuts on top.
Delicious, mouth watering Makkan peda is ready to eat.


Tips:
1. When the peda soaks in syrup it will expand in size, so prepare enough syrup to serve.
2. To get the rich taste, use Kova instead of the gulab jamun mix

Poli (With Channa Dhal/Jaggery)

Poli is a very famous sweet in souther india and also is known as Puran Poli in North. This is a festive season sweet made in almost all houses in TamilNadu and Andhra on their respective new year day. Preparation of this dish is a little time consuming process. I had been always enjoying this delicious sweet at my sweet home for all these years. This is the first time I tried my hands on this tamil new year (April 14,2010) and it turned out yummy!!! I also made the mixed dhal vada along with the sweet and took to office to celebrate the new year and all my colleagues liked it too! 

Ingredients:
1. Channa dhal - 150 gms
2. Jaggery (grated) - 100 gms
3. Maida Flour - 100 gms
4. Oil - 4 tablespoon
5. Salt - to taste
6. Ghee
7. Cardamom - 3
8. Turmeric powder - a pinch

Preparation:

To make the stuffing
1. Soak Channa dhal for 1 to 2 hours and pressure cook it with required water for 4 whistles.
2. After the pressure releases, drain the water from the dhal and grind it to a paste with grated jaggery and cardamom without water. This paste would be in a semi-solid consistency.
3. Heat a pan with strong base and add this paste to the pan. Cook and stir it ocassionally until the wetness goes off and the mixture comes to a solid consistency.
4. Now switch off the stove and bring the mixture to cool.

To make the outer layer

Mix the maida with little salt and turmeric powder. Add little water and knead the dough. Add required oil and knead it without lumps and until it becomes smooth. Once the dough is ready, spread little oil over the dough and keep it aside for atleast 30 minutes.

To make the Poli
In this preparation we need to use either fresh plantain leaves or plastic sheet. Wash it thoroughly in water and wipe it with a clean towel to dry.
It is good to have atleast two leaves/sheets to use alternatively. Wash your hands and get ready to make poli as the remaining preparation needs to be done by hands only.

1. Add 2 to 3 drops of oil in a plantain leaf/plastic sheet and spread it completely. This will help from not sticking the dough to the sheet when you transfer it to the tava.
2. Take a small portion of the kneaded maida dough and make it to a ball shape.
3. Place the ball shaped dough on the sheet and start spreading it with your fingers into a circle of even size.
4. Now make a small ball of the stuffing and place it in the dough and cover it completely with the dough around it.
5. Again spread it with your fingers into a circle of even size. Try to make it as thin as possible.
6. Now heat the tava and when it is hot enough slowly transfer the poli from the plaintain leaf/sheet to the tava without breaking it.
7. Spread 1 tablespoon of ghee around it and allow it to cook. Once it cooks, turn sides and cook it for another 1- 2 minutes.


Hot, tasty and sweety poli is ready to eat. 

Yellow Pumpkin Halwa

This is my 50th recipe :) I never thought I would be able to make it here when i started, but now I am sure there is many more to come. I wanted to dedicate this recipe to my lovely husband who had been motivating me all through this. And guess what, it was also a special occasion that was coincidental... yes it is Valentine's day, and I decided to make a sweet.

I had always tried and tasted halwa made with white pumpkin, but this time I wanted to try it with yellow pumpkin and it came out well. 

Preparation time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

1. Grated pumpkin - 1 cup

2. Milk - 2 1/2 cups

3. Sugar - 1 1/2 cups

4. Ghee - 4 tablespoon

5. Cashewnuts - 20 to 25

6. Cardamom powder - little.

Preparation:

1. Heat ghee in a pan and fry the cashews and remove it when golden brown.

2. Now add the grated pumpkin in the same ghee and fry for 5 minutes in a very low flame.

3. Add milk and cook the pumpkin well in the milk. This will take atleast 30 minutes, as the pumpkin has to cook in milk. Also you need to cook in a low flame.

4. When it is almost cooked, add sugar and mix well and cook for another 15 - 20 mins.

5. Add the roasted cashew nuts and powdered cardamom.

Tasty and sweety pumpkin halwa is ready. This halwa will have a pumpkinish flavor. Try hot halwa with cold vanilla ice cream. It tastes yummy yummy!!!

Sakkarai Pongal (Sweet Pongal)

A very famous sweet of TamilNadu made of rice, moong dhal and jaggery. This is a must to have sweet on Harvest Festival - known as Pongal in TamilNadu which is celebrated the same day as 'Sankaranthi' in Andhra.


Ingredients:

1. Rice - 1 cup

2. Moong dhal - 1 cup

3. Milk - 1 cup

4. Jaggery - 1 cup grated (you can vary the quantity based on the sweetness of the jaggery you use)

5. Ghee

6. Cashew

7. Dry grapes

8. Cardamom - 2

Preparation:

1. Cook rice and moong dhal in 2 cups of water.

2. When it is half cooked, add milk and continue cooking.

3. When this is cooked completely, add the grated jaggery and mix well. Make sure to add jaggery only after rice is cooked. otherwise rice will not get cooked after adding jaggery.

4. Mix them well and cook in low flame for another 10 minutes. You can add cardamom powder or crushed cardamom.

5. Now heat ghee and fry cashews and dry grapes and add it to the cooked mix.

Sweet and tasty 'Sakkarai Pongal' is ready to serve.