Pori Urundai

Things we need
Puffed rice- 4 cups
Jaggery - 1 cup
Cardamom Powder
Dry ginger powder - a little
Rice flour to make balls

Dissolve the jaggery in 1/2 glass of water and allow it to boil. After 2 mins, when the jaggery is dissolved, drain it into another vessel till the residue is left in the Kadai. wash them off. Most of the jeggery we buy contains some sediments of mud.

Add cardamon powder and dry ginger powder and boil it till we get the right consistency. For that, have a small cup of water beside. Once the jaggery syrup to the water. The jaggery will sink like a stone and not dissolve. And if you are able to make a small ball with it, its done.
Now add the jaggery syrup to the puffed rice, when its warm make small balls out of it with the help of rice flour and little ghee.

Store in an air tight container.

Enjoy!

Manoharam / Sweetish crunchy Jaggery snack

I am blogging after quite a break. Well busy cooking ;-) and lazy to sit and pen down. So no excuses. It was fun cooking. I was revisiting some of  my recipes and relishing them. So I promise there are more interesting and unique recipes to come. I've done them all and clicked away pics and I should post them soon.

This is a sweet dish I did during the Karthigai. Way back in November. It came out very yummy. I ate this recently at grandsweets Chennai. I was always enchanted by this sweet and that pushed me to try this out.
This dish is sweet and crunchy
Here goes the recipe

Things we need

Rice - 5 cups
Urad dal - 1 cup
Salt - very little
Butter - 4 spoons (solid state)
Oil - for deep frying
Jeera - a little

Jaggery
Cardamom
Dry Ginger powder - 1 spoon
Rice flour - 2 spoons

The achu or the Murukku maker.

Wash and drain both of these, strain, drain, and dry them. Have them ground into a powder from the "machine " (as it is called in India)
Else just take rice flour and urad dal flour in the same proportion.
Sieve them well.

Now in a big bowl, take butter, add salt, jeera, whisk them well. Don not add too much salt, remember it is a sweet dish. In one part of the bowl, mix and make dough with water. I am prescribing this method as it would prevent browing of the murukku. If we knead the whole flour into dough, the last murukkus will come out in very dark color.

Now, Press them into the Achu or the murukku maker. Use this mould plate.

Then deep fry them. This is called Thenkozhal. Keep it in a dry container and allow it to cool. Break them into pieces.

Now the manoharam part.
Measure the thenkuzal in cups. For every cup of Thenkuzal take 3/4 th of a cup of Jaggery.

How to make the paagu
Melt the jaggery in a thick bottom vessel. When its dissolved drain the jaggery in another bowl to get rid of the sediments at the bottom. Now allow it to boil and thicken to form the paagu.  To test this. Add a drop of the jaggery in a bowl of water. it should be a thick ball that sinks at the bottom of the vessel and not dissolve. Thats the consisteny we need to attain for Paagu.

Now add the paagu to the broken Thenkozhal.and mix until all of it is covered with the jaggery.When it is okie for you to touch, make it into small balls and store. If not just leave it at just the mix. Its yummy.

Kadalai Urundai/ Mallatai Urundai/ Peanut balls

Things we need
Peanuts - 1/4 kg
Jaggery - 200 gm
Cardamom Powder
Dry ginger powder - a little
Water to make balls

Dry roast the groundnut and remove the skin and slightly crush it so that it will break into two halves. (You can also use readily available roasted peanuts). Allow it to cool down.


Dissolve the jaggery in 1/2 glass of water and allow it to boil. After 2 mins, when the jaggery is dissolved, drain it into another vessel till the residue is left in the Kadai. wash them off.  Most of the jeggery we buy contains some sediments of mud. 

Now boil it till we get the right consistency. For that, have a small cup of water beside. Once the jaggery syrup to the water. The jaggery will sink like a stone and not dissolve. And if you are able to make a small ball with it, its  done.

Add the syrup to the roasted peanuts. Mix well. Have a little water  and beside. Make small balls with it.

That is all. Peanut balls are done.

Strawberry Pie

I love sweet stuff. And Strawberries are one my favorites.


Things we need
Fresh Strawberries  1/2 boxes ( or 5 cups)
Sugar  - 1/2 cup
Corn Starch - 2 spoons
Unsalted Butter
Pillsbury Pie Crusts
Whipped cream.

The pie crusts - to thaw them, please fopllow the instruction given on the box.
Preheat the oven to 450
Hull all the strawberries. Take one box of the strawberries, grind them well in a food processor. In a vessel, heat them till they thicken up a bit. Do not add water. Mix the corn starch & sugar in a little amount of water till the lumps dissolve. And add this to the boiling berry sauce.  Stir them well. The liquid will thicken up a bit . Do not add more corn starch, as that will dominate the taste and the sauce will become very thick.

Grease the baking tray with butter and roll out the pastry sheet. With a fork, make small holes. This allows the pie to get cooked evenly.  Fill in sheet with the sauce we made & arrange the 1/2 box of hulled strawberries along the sides of the pie sheet. Close this with the other pie sheet & crimp the edges using your thumb. Brush the top of the pie with butter. With a sharp knife make little slits on top.


Slide it into the oven & reduce the temperature now to 250. Let it stand for 35 mins. The top of the pic turns slight brown when done.

A yummy strawberry pie. It is very yummy when served with whipped cream.

Carrot Halwa/ Gajar Halwa/ Sweet Carrot pudding

Things we need

Carrot   2 lbs

Sweetened Condensed Milk  14oz

Unsalted Butter 6oz

Cashew & Almonds shriveled

Cardamon 

Peel & Grate the carrots in a food processor.In a big thick bottomed skillet, melt the butter, fry the nuts & Keep them aside.
Add the shredded carrots & saute them until they are soft (2 to 3 mins). Add the nuts to the mixture, then the  sweetened condensed milk. Mix them well and close it with a lid & allow it to cook on low flame for around 30 mins. stirring it occasionally . By then, everything is absorbed well & the butter starts oozing out. Ts done.

Serving tips

Heat the halwa a bit & serve it with ice cream. Its very yummy that way.

Its not a healthy dish for sure. But a bit of indulgence is no harm.

Akkara Adisal - Rice, Jaggery & Ghee Pudding

This is one dish, I always loved preparing. I made this dish on Thiru aadipuram, which is andal's(Godha devi's) b'day. She loved Lord Krishna . Anything with Ghee is really delightful to eat.

Things we need

Rice- 2 cups

Milk - 6 cups

Jaggery- 5 cups (well grated)

Ghee - 1 cup

Cashews - a handful

Raisins - a handful

Saffron Strands

Jaadikai (Nutmeg) - a little grated

Cardamon - powdered

How to make

Wash the rice & add the milk to the rice & pressure cook it. Once done, Mash it well & keep it aside.

Then in a thick bottomed vessel, add around 1 1/2 cups of water & add the jaggery & allow it to boil. The jaggery will dissove completely & will start to thicken. Take a drop of the boiling jaggery & drop it into a cup of water. The jaggery shouldn't melt & it should go to the bottom of the cup like a ball. When you see so, the pagam is done (the consistency is perfect).

Add the boiled & mashed rice to this & mix it well. Allow it t boil a bit. In a kadai add a little ghee, fry the cashews, raisins, the nutmeg & add it to the dish. Then in a small cup, take 4 or 5 strands of saffron & soak them in milk &then crush them till they dissolve & give out color. Add this & the cardamon powder to the dish & mix them well.

Finally add the remaining ghee & mix well. The ghee is a key thing in this dish so do add enough to render it tastier.

(In the picture it looks a little thick in consistency, as I liked it that way,but, it has to be a a little semi solid in consistency for the real Akkara adisal)

Its done. It is an easy dish. Enjoy the delicious Akkara Adisal.

Mundiri urundai/ Cashew Balls

This is an item I learnt from my Mom in law. We so this for the festival of Karthigai.

Cashew is an all time fovourite for many of us. So lets explore.

Things we need

Cashew 1/4 kg

Jaggery 200 gm

Cardamom powder

Ghee to fry

Water

In a kadai, fry the cashew and keep them aside. Dissolve the jaggery in 1/2 glass of water & aloow it to boil. After 2 mins, when the jaggery is disso;ved, drain it into another vessel till the residue is left in the kadai. Most of the jeggery we buy contains some sediments of mud. Clean that out & put the liquid back in kadai & boil it well. Add the cardamom powder.

Now boil it till we get the right consistency. For that, have a small cup of water beside. Then add the jaggery syrup to the water. The jaggery will sink & not dissolve. And if you are able to make a small ball with it, its done.

Add the syrup to the cashew. Mix well. Have a little water beside. Make small balls with it.

That is all. Cashew Balls are done.