This mango halwa goes to Srivalli’s Mithai Mela.

Pumpkin payasam (Kheer) is our favorite kheer next to carrot kheer. The speciality of this kheer is, you will not be able to taste the pumpkins at all. It’s also very easy to prepare.

This is my entry for AFAM – Pumpkin hosted by me this month.

Palada Pradhaman (pudding) is a very famous sweet dish in Kerala. It is made using rice flakes, jaggery syrup and coconut milk. These days the rice flakes (called ada) are readily available in Indian grocery stores. Also originally whole coconut is grated and ground to extract the milk in 3 stages, which is called the first milk, second milk and third milk. But nowadays both coconut milk and coconut milk powder are readily available, making the process of preparing pradhaman very easy.

I found this recipe for preparing Oats Pradhaman in a magazine. As I have mentioned earlier the recipe calls for coconut milk prepared right from scratch. So I have modified the recipe to simplify the procedure by using store bought canned coconut milk. The pradaman was yummy. It did not taste like oats at all.

This is my entry for Vaishali’s Sweet Vegan.

It seemed like Navarathri started just now and it’s already the 9th day, Saraswathi Pooja. Happy Pooja holidays everybody. We prepare a lot of sweets and sundals these holidays, but “puttu” is very important and our favorite too.

This puttu is different from what the Keralites prepare. It’s made with rice flour, grated coconut and jaggery. The process is also time consuming but worth every effort. Traditionally it’s prepared by soaking raw rice in water, draining it, spreading it on a cloth and powdering the rice, while the rice is still damp. But to make the process more simple store bought rice flour is used. This is especially prepared on a Friday and is distributed to everybody who visits our home to see the Golu. I’ve prepared it successfully a couple of times 3 years back, but now I have totally forgotten the procedure. Fortunately my mother is here and she prepared it this time. It came out very well and I wanted to record it before I forget it once again.

This is my entry for the following events:
1. Vaishali’s Sweet Vegan.
2. Srivalli’s JFI-Festival Treats.

Earlier last week, I stumbled upon Rachna’s blog and found a an interesting recipe for preparing laddus using peanut butter.  It’s such an easy recipe, with no cooking at all.  Surprisingly I had all the ingredients at home and moreover it was my friend’s daughter’s birthday, so I went ahead and made it immediately. 

First I tried it with peanut butter.  One thing I forgot to notice was, the peanut butter had sodium in it, so the laddus were both sweet and salty.  But we did like the taste. 

Later I remembered about the almond butter which was lying in my pantry after using it for the almond butter bread.  Immediately I checked the nutrition label and I saw 0gm Sodium.  So I made the ladoos again with almond butter and it was absolutely delicious.

For my laddoos I used 1/2 a cup of almond butter, 1/4 a cup of regular icing sugar, 1/4 cup of khoya and a pinch of cardamom powder.  Simply combine all the ingredients and shape it into balls.  I got 13 small ladoos for this measurement.

This is my entry for Nupur’s Less is More MBP event.  MBP was originally started by Coffee to give credit to fellow food blogger’s efforts.

For this month’s Open Sesame 2 Contest I chose box no.1 and got the following riddle:

“A moniker in my name for a city
A phrase with me will make you cherished
I am so good for you in my utter simplicity
In Medical dictionary the fact so furnished

I am so famous in the world of bytes
Known for many aspects of usage
I am fat and rotound and make crunchy bites
My fame known from many religious traditions – right from the old age

Am, I forbidden? Or mystical ?
or the eternal giver of Youth
I consists of five internal carpels
Am good for good health of your mouth

I am as basic a fruit as you can think of
Or as hard if you dont try enough
If You eat me on a day to day basis
Then you dont have worry about anything – be it cold or dry cough”

At first I thought that it was difficult because Siri had mentioned that this month’s clue will be difficult than the previous month.  The mind was playing it’s trick telling me that it was difficult even before I could read the riddle completely.  But once I gave it a thorough reading, I was able to guess the answer right away.  That’s a brilliant riddle DK!

I was wondering what I can cook using apples apart from the famous pie and milkshake.  I was searching Food network’s site for some interesting recipes.  Then I saw an announcement for another event “Sweet Series”, this month’s theme being puran poli.  All of a sudden I got the idea of making an apple poli.  I thought of making apple halwa, like carrot halwa and then stuffing it inside the all purpose flour dough to make polis.  To my surprise it turned out very very tasty.  The halwa was so delicious by itself and so was the poli too.  Thanks once again DK and Siri, I would have not come up with this recipe if it was not for your  contest.

As it was my test recipe, I tried it with small quantities only.  But the next time I make this poli I’m going to double the measurements.

For the dough:
All purpose flour (maida) – 1 cup
Salt – pinch
Ghee – 1 tablespoon

For the stuffing:
Apple, small, grated – 1 (be sure to check that it’s sweet)
Milk Khoa (Khova, Mawa) grated or crumbled – 1/4 to 1/2 cup
Sugar – 2 tablespoons (or as per taste)
Cardamom powder – 1/2 teaspoon
Ghee – 2 teaspoons
Powdered dhalia – optional

 
Procedure:
1.  Combine all purpose flour, salt and water to form a ball of dough, just like chapathi dough.  Then add the ghee and knead it thoroughly.  Cover the dough and let it sit for atleast one hour.

2.  Cut the top and bottom of the apple. 

 3.  Slice the apple.

4.  Peel the skin. 

5.  Grate the apple slices. 

 Grated apple, grated khoa and sugar.

6.  For the halwa/puran, add the ghee in a microwave safe bowl and the grated apples, cook it for 2 minutes. 

7.  Then add the sugar and khoa to the cooked apples.  

8.  Cook it for another 3 minutes or until you don’t smell raw apples.  Alternatively you can prepare this on stove top also.  Add 2 teaspoons of ghee in a frying pan and sautee the grated apples, until they are cooked well.  Then add the sugar, let it dissolve and then add the khoya and combine it toghether.  If this mixture is a bit watery add some more khoya or the powdered dhalia, so that the stuffing will hold together properly.

 Apple puran and all purpose flour dough.

9.  Now divide the dough into 4 equal size balls.  Also take 4 equal portions of the stuffing.  Make the stuffing smaller in size than the dough.  Eat the rest of the halwa just like that.  Everybody will ask for more.

10.  Roll the dough into a small circle.

 11.  Place one portion of the stuffing on the the rolled out dough.

 12.  Cover the stuffing using the dough.

13.  Press the tip of the dough and flatten it into a disc. 

 14.  Roll out the stuffed dough into a circle, like roti.

 15.  Meanwhile pre heat the tava (griddle).  Place the poli on the hot tava, cook it on both sides, applying little ghee.

The taste was unbelievable!  I was really proud of my creation.  My mother and my son loved it very much.

This also goes to Mythreyee’s Sweet Series Event – Puran Poli, Sweet Chapathis/Rotis.

When I was growing up, my favorite after school snack was the pela pindi undalu my grandmother used to prepare for me. It’s powdered toasted rice, shaped into balls adding either jaggery or sugar. It’s nothing fancy but I just loved it and still am a big fan. My grandmother used to prepare the powder for me in bulk and send it to me until she passed away last year, so I did not get a chance to make it myself. I wanted to introduced this traditional dish to my son, so I started the process. I can’t believe how painstaking task it is and I’m floored by the fact that she made this for me each and every time I wanted this. She prepared it for me even 2 years back when I was pregnant and she was 77 years old. I think I should have chosen this recipe to pay my tribute to my grandmother for the JFI – Love event. Now let’s proceed to the recipe.

Ingredients:
Raw Rice – 3 cups (I used 3 cups of rice and got 2.5 cups of powder.)

Procedure:
Wash the rice a couple of times, drain it in a colander completely and spread it on a clean cloth or unprinted paper. Let it dry for 3 hours. Now toast a handful of rice in a dry frying pan. It has to be nice and golden brown. Don’t toast all the rice at once. The key point is that all the rice should be toasted evenly and should not get burnt. That’s why it’s done little by little. This is how it’s done originally. By the time I toasted 1 cup of the rice, my knees were paining like anything and moreover the rice was not toasted evenly also. I think if it’s a gas stove the process can be completed a little quickly. I have an electric range. When I reduced the heat, it was not getting browned, but when I increased the heat, it was getting burnt.

So I got an idea of toasting it in the microwave oven. But that also did not give the result I expected. Then I spread the rice in a cookie sheet and toasted it in the oven at 350 F until the rice was golden brown (approx. 35-40 minutes). Keep checking it every 10 minutes and give it a toss. The rice was toasted perfectly. Let it cool down for a while and then powder it in a blender/food processor. Store it in a clean air tight container.

Here is the close-up shot of the rice toasted using a frying pan.  Notice that it is not toasted evenly. 

Rice toasted in the oven.

Comparison:

Ingredients for the undalu/urundai:
Toasted Rice Powder
Powdered Jaggery or Sugar
Ghee, 1-2 teaspoons
Milk, as required.

Procedure:
Combine all the ingredients and shape into balls, like you would prepare rava laddus. Add ghee or milk as required to get the correct consistency.  Personally I prefer the jaggery undalu.

Can you let me know what this dish is called in your language?

Also please vote for me here, if you like my Ragi Kozhukattai.

As most of you know I’m relatively a newcomer to the food blogosphere.  I started my blog on 14th of March 2008.  Around the 2nd week of April I came to know about Dining Hall (the old one) and Food Blog Desam and sent mails to be a part of it.  I received mails stating that both these forums were not active.  So when I found out about the new Dining Hall I was really surprised and thrilled both at the same time.  Thank you very much Siri and DK for doing this.  They have started this new forum with a bang.  One among the many creative ideas they are upto is the International Food League’s Open Sesame Contest.  To make it short, we have to solve a riddle, for which the answer is an ingredient with which we have to cook and if you are lucky enough you may also end up with a prize!

This was my riddle:
I am old and ancient and in many places a staple
health and longevity are wonders I wear like a lapel

My different forms give different taste
one form is enjoyed in the mornings – eaten in haste!
Another form is in form of soups and porridge
Or in forms of plain or stuffed breads

I thrive in the hot summers..But make you feel good and warm
I am good to people although many just use me for feeding birds and cattle in farms
I am just no mean and lowly grass with striking resemblance to maize
I have ‘pearls’ of wisdom to share if you want, to listen to me with grace

People with celiac turn to me
I give you fibre and irons, so rich i am for the world to see
Now sit tight and give it a hard thought – be clever be sane
to guess who I am, the highly nutritious and healthful whole grain.

As soon as I read the riddle I thought of 3 grains:

1.  “enjoyed in the mornings – eaten in haste” – oats
2.  “pearls of wisdom” – I thought may be pearl barley
3.  “feeding birds and cattle in farms’ – millet

So first, I emailed Siri with oats as the answer, but she replied that it’s not oats.  Then I googled barley and celiac disease and found that people with the disease should not consume barley.  Then I googled celiac and millets and found that it’s good for the disease, so emailed that and found that it was the correct answer.

Reason for chosing this particular recipe:
There are many types of millets and the dishes that can be prepared with those are also countless.  Since I love baking, I thought of baking millet bread.  As mentioned in the riddle, I also came across a wonderful recipe for a stuffed bread using millets.  It looked so yummy and simple to bake too.  Instead I chose finger millet (ragi) and this kozhukattai (dumpling) recipe because the ingredients are easily available and anybody can make this.  Not everybody will be interested in baking or everybody has an oven.  So I wanted to make something very simple, delicious and nutritious too.  I have made the very same kozhukattai 3 years back when I saw the recipe in a Tamil magazine.  Unfortunately I did not save the recipe.  So I was searching the net for the recipe and to my luck, the very same recipe was published in another Tamil magazine very recently.

Ingredients:
Finger Millet Flour (Ragi flour) – 1 cup
Powdered Jaggery – 3/4ths of a cup
Mung Daal – 1/2 a cup
Coconut, grated – 1/4 cup
Cardamom powder – 1 teaspoon

Procedure:
1.  In a frying pan, dry roast the mung daal for 2-3 minutes and cook it.  Note that the daal should not be cooked completely.  Don’t use a pressure cooker, it will become very mushy.  In a saucepan add 2 cups of water and let it cook for a couple of minutes.  It should be par boiled.  Now drain this and keep it aside.

2.  While the daal is cooking, dry roast the ragi flour also for a couple of minutes.  Ragi flour tends to lump and is sticky also.  To avoid that, the flour is just heated for sometime.

3.  Combine the ragi flour, grated coconut, cardamom powder and cooked mung daal.

4.  In a saucepan add the jaggery and water just enough to cover the jaggery and heat it.  Once the jaggery dissolves filter the solution to get rid of impurities.  Now pour the liquid back into the saucepan and boil it for another 2-3 minutes.

5.  Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and combine to form a dough.  Add some water/milk if required.  Now pinch golf ball size dough and shape it into cylinders in your palm making a fist.  I got 11 dumplings for the above measurement.

6.  Place it in an idli plate and steam it just like you would steam idlis, but for an additional 10 minutes.

Ragi kozhukattai was very delicious.  We all loved it.   It’s a very healthy after school snack for kids,  without oil and white sugar.  Enjoy!

My Notes:
1.  As mentioned earlier, steam the kozhukattai for more time than you would steam idlis.  Mine did not cook properly in the inside, so I had to steam it for another 10 minutes and it was done perfect.

2.  Also eat it immediately, it hardens after a while.

I saw this recipe in a tamil magazine a couple of months back.  I was very hesitant to try it because I was wondering how ridge gourd would taste in a sweet dish.  Finally I got the courage and prepared it yesterday.  The experiment was a grand success.  I did not tell my husband what I was preparing.  After it was done I gave him little payasam and asked him how it was.  He told,  “It tastes like any other payasam.  Why do you want to post it in your blog?”  He has a very sensitive nose, so he can guess what’s cooking even with the mildest aroma.  He himself could not believe that it was made with ridge gourd.

Ingredients in the original recipe:
Ridge Gourd, Big – 1
Milk – 4 cups (I used 2% milk)
Water – 1 to 2 cups for cooking the ridge gourd
Sugar – ¼ to ½ cup as per your taste
Cardamom powder – little

Optional:
Condensed Milk – 2 tablespoons
Cashews, raisins for garnishing
Ghee for frying the nuts, 2 teaspoons
Green food color

My variation:
Milk – 2 cups for cooking the ridge gourd (I used skim milk instead of water)
Cashews, whole – 5 (to cook along with the vegetable)

Servings:
For 6 cups of milk used, I got 4 cups (exactly) of ridge gourd payasam.

Procedure:
1.  Wash the ridge gourd under running water and peel the coarse ridges.  Discard it and then peel the skin and save it for grinding chutney.

2.  Cut the gourd into small pieces.  I pressure cooked the gourd, 2 cups of skim milk and 5 cashews for 2 whistles.

3.  While the ridge gourd is cooking, boil the 4 cups of milk in a heavy bottomed vessel.

4.  Wait for the pressure to release and grind the cooked vegetable in a blender.  I used an immersion blender and got a very smooth ridge gourd puree.

5.  Add this puree to the boiling milk and let it cook for another 10 minutes or until you are not able to smell the vegetable.  Keep stirring once in a while so that the bottom of the vessel does not scorch.

6.  Add the condensed milk, sugar and cardamom powder and the food color if you wish.  Let this mixture simmer for a while.

7.  Meanwhile heat the ghee in a small frying pan and fry cashews, raisins and add it to the kheer.

8.  Serve it hot or cold.

My Notes:
1.  The paysam was very delicious.  At first I added ¼ cup of sugar but felt that it was not sweet enough.  So I added another ¼ cup, but this made the payasam very swweeeeeeeet.  I will reduce the quantity of sugar  the next time (more than ¼ cup but little less than ½ cup) .

2.  In case you choose to cook the vegetable with water, just remove the cooked vegetables alone and blend it.  Reserve the liquid for some soup or stew.  If you use milk, you can blend everything together.

3.  The author of the original recipe has also given recipes for potato, chayote squash (chow chow), cabbage, cauliflower, green peas, bottle gourd and red pumpkin kheer in the same method.  I have prepared the red pumpkin kheer a couple of times and it tastes very good too.  I have not yet tried the other vegetables.

4.  I also prepare chutney with the ridge gourd peel and chow chow peel always.  Yesterday morning I prepared chow chow kootu (daal), so I had reserved those peels too.  So I prepared a chutney with the peels of both the vegetables.  I know that many of you do it already.  Those who are not aware of the recipe, if you are interested I will post it here.  Let me know.