Sweet Appams - Festival special

The sweet appams are prepared for many festivals in India. It is made during Ganesh Chaturthi, Krishna Janmashtami to name a few. You can prepare this on any day if you just feel like having something sweet and tasty. This is one of my all time favourites and I just find it very difficult to have a control on the count of appams I eat!!! Normally, when we plan for any deep fry dish at home, I kind of control the quantity made so that the cholestrol levels don't shoot up further. But, when we plan for appams, I am usually quite liberal and prefer to forget about the cholestrol levels....

Ingredients

Wheat flour - 2 cups

Rice flour - 2 tbspns

Jaggery - 1 1/2 cups powdered

Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp

Cashew nuts - a few

coconut grated - 2 tbspns

Ripe banana - 1 big

Oil for deep frying

Procedure

1. Mix the jaggery in 2 cups of water and keep it in the microwave for 5 mins.

2. Mix it well and ensure that there are no lumps. You could strain the liquid if required.

3. Allow it to cool and mix it with all the other ingredients. The consistency of the batter should be like the Idli batter.

4. Set it aside for around 2 -3 hours.

5. In a kadai, add the oil and once it is hot, simmer it and pour the batter using a small ladle. Once it starts floating, add the next one. Depending on the size of the kadai and the amount of oil, you may add 5 to 6 appams in one batch. Turn it and remove it once it is golden brown on both sides. It takes a little patience to make appams as it takes a while to get done.

6. Enjoy the simple yet tasty sweet.

Diwali Special - Chocolate Burfi

The spirit of Diwali has been bright and colourful in our apartment. For the past two days we have been busy making sweets, eating sweets, making savouries and eating them....Ok, I should add sharing them too with friends!!!

Wishing you all a very Happy Diwali.

I would like to share one of my favourite sweets - Chocolate burfi. After we have made this my son Pranav's visit to the kitchen has increased! Everytime he goes in, he picks one burfi. I must tell you its really irresistable....Try this and you'll know.

Ingredients

Maida 1 1/2 big cups

Sugar 3 big cups

Cocoa powder - 4 tablespoons

Ghee - 4 tablespoons

Chopped Almonds - a few(Optional)

Procedure

1. Sieve Maida and keep it aside.

2. Heat 1 tablespoon of ghee in a non stick kadai and add the maida and roast it till the raw flavour goes and transfer it to a plate and allow it to cool.

3. Add the sugar in the kadai and water to immerse the sugar and bring it to boil. Keep stirring till the sugar syrup is thick and falls firmly like a stick. Remove from the stove.

4. Mix cocoa with a little milk to form a creamy liquid.

5. Keep the kadai on the kitchen counter(not on the stove) and add the cocoa liquid and mix well.

6. Slowly add maida little by little and and mix well so that there are no lumps. Keep mixing till there is heat in the kadai. At this stage it will become like the chapathi dough.

7. Add the remaining ghee and cut almonds and keep it in the stove for just 2 mins so that we give it a final mix. All the ingredients will be well blended at this stage.

8. Greese a steel tray with a little ghee and transfer the above mixture into the tray. Spead it well and press it with a small plate so the the top portion is flat and uniform. You may add so more chopped almonds at this stage.

9. Allow it to cool in room temperature and use a knife to cut it into squares or diamonds and leave it like that. Do not wait for it to cool completely to cut it as it will be difficult if you wait till that stage.

10. Once it is completely cooled, use the knife to pull out the burfis.

11. Enjoy the yummy Chocolate Burfis.

Chakkara Pongal

I remember my childhood days when my mom used to give us Chakkara Pongal as prasadam after her Friday puja. We used to wait patiently for her to finish the puja so that we could taste the ghee flowing chakkara pongal...

My mother in law also makes it very well and she makes it as a dessert for large family gatherings.

Ingredients:
Rice – 1 cup
Yellow Moong Dhal – ¼ cup
Jaggery – 2 ½ cups
Water – 3 ½ cups
Milk – 1 cup
Cashew nuts – a few
Raisins – a few

Ghee - 4 tablespoons
Saffron – a few strands (optional)

Procedure:
Mix the rice and the dhal and pressure cook them with the water and milk till the rice is really soft.
Fry the cashews in 1 teaspoon ghee and keep it aside.
Add the cooked rice and dhal to the kadai along with the powdered Jaggery. Keep stirring continuously.
Soak the saffron in 1 tablespoon of hot milk.
Add 3 - 4 tablespoons of ghee, fried cashews and saffron and mix well.
Remove from the kadai and serve hot.