Kasi Halwa| Kashi Halwa| Poosanikai Halwa

Kasi Halwa Recipe or Kashi Halwa or White Pumpkin Halwa is a sweet served generally at weddings or prepared at home during festivals. Its is a famous sweet of Karnataka. It is very popular sweet of Udupi Cuisine. I was planning to make this halwa and buy ash gourd and finally ended up making some curries to finish it off. Usually i make Poosanikai mor kuzhambu| moru curry with this ash gourd.
Talking about the taste of this halwa the taste of the halwa is very similar to other halwas. But the texture is slightly different. It has a slight crunchy texture from the ash gourd. That is very peculiar in this dish. I have seen Venkatesh Bhat's program in television and in that he was mentioning about the importance of the texture.

INGREDIENTS:
Ash gourd- 2 kg
Sugar- 1 and 1/2 cups
Salt- pinch
Lemon juice- 1 teaspoon
Ghee- 2 teaspoons+ 1 teaspoon
Saffron- pinch (or) red food colour- pinch
Cashews- 10 nos
Raisins- 8 nos
Cardamom powder-1/2 teaspoon
Nutmeg- pinch (optional)
Cooking Camphor- pinch (optional)

PROCEDURE:

• Peel and remove the pith and seeds from ash gourd and cut into pieces.
• Grate the ash gourd pieces using carrot garter.
• Now take a clean cotton cloth or muslin cloth and strain the water from the ash gourd. You could use metal strainer too for this process but squeeze the water well from the gourd.
• Measure the squeezed pumpkin and take equal quantity of sugar for the halwa. I got 1 and half cups of ash gourd after squeezing so i took 1 and half cups of sugar.
• Keep a heavy bottom vessel or nonstick pan on top of stove and add the ash gourd water.These steps are essential for retaining the texture of the halwa.
• Bring it to boil. Once it is boiling add the squeezed ash gourd and mix well and close with a lid and allow to cook.
• Cook till almost the water evaporates and the ash gourd is half cooked and become translucent.
• Now open the lid and add the sugar and a pinch of salt; mix well and allow the sugar to melt.
• Add the lemon juice to prevent the sugar from crystallization.
• Add a pinch of saffron of red food colour and mix well.
• Once the sugar get absorbed by ash gourd, add 2-3 teaspoons of ghee. I used very less ghee as i have prepared halwa in a nonstick pan.
• Allow the halwa to cook inside the ghee for some time. Now the halwa starts to leave the pan and bubble at the edges. Keep the flame to low.
• Meanwhile heat a teaspoon of ghee on a pan and fry the cashews and raisins.
• Now sprinkle cardamom powder on top of halwa. Sprinkle a pinch grated nutmeg and cooking camphor if you wish.
• Finally add the ghee with fried cashews and raisins and mix well and switch off the gas.

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Aval Payasam in Jaggery/ Red Aval Payasam/ Rice Flakes Payasam/ Poha Payasam

       Rice Flakes Payasam is a yummy easy to make payasam. Almost every home rice flakes will be available in pantry through out the year. This payasam comes handy at the time of unexpected guest arrival and perfect for all occasions, festivals.

     Simple to make delicious payasam. I have used here red rice flakes for this recipe to make it little healthy. You can follow same instructions if you are preparing this paysam with white rice flakes.

Preparation Time: 5 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes
Cuisine: South Indian
Serves:4-5

INGREDIENTS:

Red Aval/ Red Poha/ Flaked rice- 1/2 cup(You can use White)
Jaggery- 3/4 cup
Milk-1 cup
Coconut milk- 1 cup
Cardamom powder- big pinch
Dry Ginger/ Chukku, powdered- big pinch (optional)
Ghee- 1 tablespoon
Cashew nuts- 8
Raisins-8

PROCEDURE:

• Roast the aval in a pan till roasted smell arises. Now the rice flakes becomes more crispy.
• Melt the jaggery in a separate pan with half a cup of water and sieve to remove impurities.
• In a deep pan add a cup water and allow to boil once it starts to boil add the roasted rice flakes and cook till soft.

• Add the jaggery water inside the cooking rice flakes and mix well.
• Allow to cook some more time to cook the rice flakes inside the jaggery water.

• Add some milk and allow just to boil if you cook more time jaggery may tend to split the milk. Add the cardamom, dry ginger powder and mix well.
• Add the coconut milk and just allow to boil and switch of the gas. Do not over cook it.

• Roast the cashew nuts and raisins in ghee and pour on top of payasam and mix well.

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Ragi Semiya Payasam/ Ragi Vermicelli Payasam/ Ragi Pal Payasam

       As everyone knows ragi is a healthy cereal. Here I have planned  a twist on the traditional Vermicelli Payasam by using Ragi Vermicelli. I did not find any difference in taste by using this healthy alternative.

       This payasam can also be served to elder age group by simply avoiding ghee in this recipe. Easy to prepare healthy tasty payasam in minutes. Ragi vermicelli took for me about only two minutes to cook. So a delicious healthy dessert is ready without any pain. Try this dessert....

INGREDIENTS:

Ragi vermicelli- 1/2 cup
Milk- 2 cups
Water- 1/2 cup
Sugar- 1-2 tablespoons
Ragi flour- 1 teaspoon
Cardamom, crushed- 3 pods
Ghee- 1 teaspoon
Cahewnuts, broken- 5-6
Raisins- 10

PROCEDURE:

• Roast the vermicelli in a pan till some of the vermicelli turns to light white colour.
• Heat ghee in a pan; add the broken cashew nuts and raisin ; roast till golden colour and keep aside.

• Heat milk in a pan with water and sugar.
• Dissolve the ragi flour in normal milk and add this into the boiling milk.(It slightly thickens the payasam at the final stage)

• Keep on stirring and keep the flame to low heat. Now add the vermicelli and mix well. This vermicelli cooks fast in around 2 minutes.
• Add the crushed cardamom pods. Allow to boil for a minute to get the flavour. Now add the roasted cashews and raisins in  ghee. Switch off the gas and serve hot.

• Note: Adding Ragi flour in this recipe is optional. I have added to get the consistency as ragi vermicelli has less starchiness, i have added to give the texture to the paysam.
• Ragi vermicelli cooks fast in 2 minutes. So once the vermicelli cooks, reduce the flame and do other steps quick enough to maintain the texture of the vermicelli.
• Adjust the sweetness according to your taste.
• Can replace sugar with sugar free for diabetic individuals.

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Sakkarai Pongal/ Sarkarai Pongal with Jaggery/ Sweet Pongal/ Sarkarai Pongal/ Chakkara Pongal/ சர்க்கரைப் பொங்கல்

   Pongal is a popular four day long harvest festival celebrated in Tamil Nadu. It falls in the mid of January each year. It is a thanksgiving occasion to nature. Chakkara Pongal is a delicacy made of newly harvested rice. Nowadays we use raw rice instead of new rice.

       It is cooked with jaggery, ghee and cashew nuts and is offered to sun god. It is one of the easiest traditional dessert recipe that we can make with little effort. In most of the temples this sakkarai pongal is offered to god and distributed to people who visit the temple, in the name of Prasadam.

INGREDIENTS:

Raw rice/ Pacharisi- 1cup

Moong dhal/ siru payiru paruppu-1/4 -1/3 cup

Jaggery/ Sarkarai, broken in to small pieces-1 ½  cups

Milk- ½ cups (optional)

Cashew-1 tablespoon

Raisins-1 tablespoon

Cardamom pods/ Elaichi,crushed-5

Ghee-3 tablespoons
Grated coconut- 1 tablespoon

Coconut pieces-1 tablespoons (optional)

PROCEDURE:

• Dry roast the dhal in a pan till light golden colour. Add 4 cups of water in the cooker, add rice and dhal. Cook for 3 whistles on medium flame. 
• When steam escapes open the lid, mash the rice and dhal mixture slightly.

• Boil jaggery with a cup of water and boil till the jaggery dissolves well. If the jaggery is not pure, strain and then add.
• Now add the jaggery water and allow to boil the mixture. 

• Add milk grated coconut (optional) and cardamom; mix well and cook for 2 minutes.
• Fry coconut pieces first in ghee then in the same ghee fry cashew, raisins together and add in the pongal.

•  Mix well and serve hot.
•  Note: Using milk in this recipe is purely optional. In temples they serve pongal without adding milk.
• You can increase the quantity of milk as per your taste. But the colour of the pongal turns lighter colour if you increse the quantity of milk.
• Select dark coloured jaggery which always tastes good and gives rich colour to pongal.
• Click here to view Ven Pongal Recipe.

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Gulab Jamun/ Gulab Jamoon

    'Gulab jamun' is a milk-solid based dessert, similar to a dumpling. It is made mainly from milk solids, traditionally from freshly curdled milk. In India, milk solids are prepared by heating milk over a low flame for a long time until most of the water content has evaporated. These milks solids, known as ‘Khoya’ in India, are kneaded into a dough, sometimes with a pinch of flour, and then shaped into small balls and deep fried at a low temperature. The balls are then soaked in light sugar syrup flavored with green cardamom and rosewater or saffron.

      I have used here dry milk powder which we use for preparing tea for making the jamun. But you can replace this with Khoya/ Kova. Mix Khoya with all purpose flour and baking soda and deep fry. Don’t add milk to make jamun balls. Khoya can be freshly prepared by boiling milk for some time and when it reaches thick creamy consistency add a drop of lime juice or yoghurt  which curdles the milk. Then separate the milk solids from water using a sieve/ colladar.
 

INGREDIENTS:

To make Jamun balls:   

Normal Milk Powder/ Kova - 1 cup

All purpose flour/ Maida - ¼  cup

Milk - ¼ cup (room temperature)

Ghee - 1 teaspoon

Baking Soda – a pinch

To make Sugar Syrup:

Water - 1 cup

Sugar - 1 cup

Rose essence/ Rose water - few drops (optional)

Cardamom, crushed  - 2 pods

Oil (to deep fry)- 1 cup 

PROCEDURE:

 To make Jamun Balls:

• Sieve Milk powder, all purpose flour and baking soda into a bowl, it helps to baking soda mix evenly and avoid lumps.
• Add ghee and slowly add milk to form soft dough. 
• Keep it aside for about 5-10 mints. It will helps to absorb excess milk and makes softer balls.
• With a drop of ghee grease your palm (optional) and make gooseberry size balls out of the dough.

• Meanwhile heat oil in a pan on medium flame for frying.
• Once the oil get heated reduce the flame to low, carefully drop the balls into oil and deep fry until it turns golden (Do not increase the flame), to get an even color keep rolling the balls with spatula.
• Once the balls are ready, take out into a paper towel and drop the hot balls immediately into the warm syrup.

To make Sugar Syrup:

• In a pan add sugar, water, rose essence and crushed cardamom pods.
• Once it starts boiling, reduce the flame and allow it to simmer.

• Stir well the syrup until the sugar dissolved completely.
• Check the syrup for sweetness and consistency should be thin syrup. Not thick and grainy. Keep it aside. 

• Notes:
• If the dough is too dry and not combined, add little more milk to make balls.
• Don’t  make the oil too hot ,it will become hard inside and burnt outside. So always keep in low to medium flame.
• If you add more baking soda, it will change to soapy taste, too soft and also cracks while frying.
• The Jamun expands the size while frying, so make sure the pan has enough space to accommodate the Jamuns.
• The Jamun will be hard if knead or if you press the dough too much.
• Allow to soak the balls in the syrup for at least 30-45 mints. Preferably allow to soak overnight for more softer jamuns.
• Serve warm or chilled.

   

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