Honey flavored Bread Pudding with Raisins and Cashew Nuts

Bread Pudding is dessert made with a commonly available ingredient - bread. It is popular in many countries in Europe, the Americas', Australia .... Some versions of bread pudding include alcohol - bourbon, rum, some include honey, some others nuts, raisins, dried fruits, etc. Syrup and sauces are also added when serving, to enhance the taste further.   

 

Today, I have added honey and vanilla essence to flavor the pudding along with some cashew nuts and raisins for that extra bite. I also broiled it for a few minutes for a brown and lightly crisp top.

Ingredients
Bread slices - 7
Milk - 2 cup
Eggs - 4
Sugar - 1/2 cup + 1 tbsp additional (optional)
Honey - 3 tbsp
Butter - 2 tbsp
Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
Cashew nuts - 2 tbsp
Raisins - 2 tbsp

Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius. Take some of the butter and grease a loaf pan or square cake pan. 

 

Cut the crusts off the bread slices and cut into 1 inch square pieces. Put the bread pieces into the greased pan and pour the remaining melted butter into the pan. Reserve a few raisin and cashew nut pieces for topping and add the rest to the bread pieces.

In a bowl, add the milk, sugar, 2 tbsp honey and vanilla essence and mix. Break the eggs into the milk mixture and whisk with a fork till the sugar is mixed in. Pour this on the bread and using a spoon press the bread into the milk mixture till all the pieces are well soaked.

I used granulated sugar and depending on how sweet you want adjust the sugar.

Put the pan into the oven and bake for 45 minutes. After 20 minutes spoon the honey over the pudding and carefully spread it all over the top. Top the pudding with the reserved raisins and cashew nuts and continue baking. Once the 45 minutes is up, change the settings to broil and broil for about 5 minutes to get a browned top. Let it cool.

 

Cut slices and serve with honey and cream on the side.

 

 

Coconut Rose Sago / Tapioca Pudding

This Coconut Rose Sago / Tapioca Pudding is an adaptation of the recipe for Coconut Lilac Tapioca Pudding from the book, Cooking with Flowers by Miche Bacher. That recipe used lilac blossoms and candied lilacs. Since lilac is not a blossom we commonly use in Indian cooking, I substituted it with Gulkand which is made from preserved roses. This Tapioca / Sago pudding is thick and combines tastes of both the coconut milk and rose / gulkand.

Ingredients

Tapioca / Sago pearls - 1/2 cup

Coconut milk - 1 cup

Whole milk - 2 cups

Sugar - 1/2 cup

Gulkand - 3 tbsps

Rosewater -  couple of drops

Soak the sabudana or tapioca / sago pearls in 3/4 cup water for a couple of hours. Then drain the water, if any, and keep the sabudana or tapioca / sago pearls aside.

 

Take a saucepan and add the milk and sugar and let it come to a simmer then add the drained sabudana or tapioca / sago pearls. Cook on low to medium heat stirring it occasionally so the sago does not catch the bottom or stick together to a lump. It will take some time to cook. When the pearls start becoming translucent add the coconut milk and continue stirring occasionally till cooked. To check if it is done, take a sago pearl and bite it, it should be soft without a bite to it. Take off the heat and add the rose water and let it cool. Once cool add the gulkand and mix in. Refrigerate and serve garnished with rose petals.  

My Coconut Rose Sago / Tapioca Pudding goes to
- Cooking with Herbs & Flowers hosted by seduceyourtastebuds
- Valentine's Treat hosted by riappyayan
- Lets Cook Sweet Treats for Valentine hosted by Nayna

  

 

 

Upside Down Peach Cake

For some time now, I wanted to make a cake incorporating fruits. Initially, it was the veritable treasure of fruits I saw in the market that got me thinking on these lines. A search on the internet gave cake recipes with apples, pineapples, apricots, peaches and pears. So when I saw tinned peaches in a factory outlet in Kasauli, I quickly bought one expecting to make some lovely desserts.

Ingredients
for caramelization

Butter - 1/4 cup

Brown sugar - 1/2 cup
for cake
Peaches, cut into slices - 2 large or 3 medium sized
Butter, softened - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 2/3 cup
Egg - 1
Flour – 1.5 cups
Baking powder - 2 tsp
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Milk - 2/3 cup
Vanilla essence - 1 tsp

Melt the 1/4 cup butter in 8 or 9" cake round (here I used a 7" x 11" baking dish and it worked just fine). Mix in 1/2 cup brown sugar and make sure entire bottom is coated with this mixture. Gently lay peaches in butter/brown sugar. I used tinned peaches, about 3 halves, both to line the bottom of the cake pan and chopped some to add to the batter.

Cream 1/2 cup butter and 2/3 cup white sugar until light and fluffy. Beat the egg in. In a separate bowl stir together flour, baking powder and salt. To the creamed mix, add the flour mix alternately with milk and continue beating. Finally, add the vanilla essence. If you have any left-over peach slices that didn't fit in the bottom of the pan, chop them up and add them to the batter. Gently spread the batter over peach slices, there will be just enough batter to cover the slices.

Bake at 175 degrees C for 30 to 40 minutes or until you have a lightly browned top. Check if the cake is done after 30 minutes and if not done bake for some more time. Once done, allow to sit for 5 minutes. Loosen cake edge with knife and invert onto serving plate. If you wait too long, it will stick to the pan. Or use a springform cake pan like I did and only the bottom needs to be loosened.

 

 

 

 

Ela Ada / Coconut & Jaggery Pancake

Ela Ada, literally translated means pancake (ada) made in a leaf (ela or ila), in this case wrapped in a banana leaf. Traditionally, the simplest version of this ada had to be made for Onam. This was a simple snack that was made during my mother's childhood days because all the ingredients that go in this was abundantly available. Both the rice and coconut came from the land and some rice was always kept powdered for making breakfast and snack dishes. Ela ada was one of those snacks that was quickly rustled up incase any of the children felt hungry.

 

Staying in a city like Delhi and in an area with hardly any South Indians, laying our hands on banana leaves was next to impossible. During Vishu or Onam truckloads of stuff from Kerala comes into Delhi and at that time getting the leaves is easy. Though it is possible to use parchment paper to make this ada, the ada does not have the flavor that the leaf imparts it. So this time, when my husband made a trip to Mumbai, I asked my mother to send some leaves from the garden. And true to the nature of mothers, mine went ahead and wilted it over fire, making it ready to be used. Tightly wrapped in newspaper, the leaves are in my refrigerator for a few more rounds of ada and snack making.

 

The colors seen when making this ela ada was so good that my husband volunteered to take pics for a step by step pictorial.

Ingredients (makes 5 long Ada)
Banana leaf - 1
Rice flour - 1 cup
Water as required
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Sugar - 1/4 tsp
for filling
coconut - 1/2
jaggery - 1 cup

Clean the banana leaf by wiping it with a moist cloth completely. Switch on the gas stove and keep on low, then slowly hold the banana leaf over it and let it wilt lightly. Keep moving the leaf so that the flame wilts each and every part of the leaf. Do not keep any one portion over the flame for long, it will burn and that portion will have to be discarded. This is done to make the leaf pliable, to be able to fold without tearing the leaf. Once done, lay it out flat on the kitchen platform. Then cut the banana leaf lengthwise in the middle along the vein. Then cut each long piece into 3 pieces. Apply ghee or oil very lightly all over the greener side of the leaf. And keep aside.

 

Mix the rice flour and salt and sugar well. Add water little by little to make a very soft and almost loose dough.

Grate coconut and mix with the grated jaggery 

 Take a little dough in your hand and patting your fingers spread it on the leaf in a rectangle shape.

If the dough is too thick or difficult to spread, wet fingers with a little water and spread it thinly. 

Spread the coconut jaggery mixture on half of the rice dough leaving 1/4 to 1/2 inch space around the edges of the dough

 Carefully lift the dough covered leaf and fold over the to cover the coconut jaggery mix with it

 

 Softly pat it down the folded over leaf to seal all around and the edges.

Steam it in a idli steamer or in a pressure cooker or rice cooker.

 Remove the ada from the steamer and lift off one side of the leaf. Cut into pieces and serve.

Soft and sweet Ela Ada is ready to be eaten.

The step-by-step Photo courtesy: my dear husband

 

My Ela Ada / Coconut & Jaggery Pancake goes to

- - "Dish it out - coconut & sugar/salt", originally from Vardhini's cooksjoy

Rosy Cashew Chirote

Happy Diwali!!!

The first time I made chirote I idea of coloring came instantly but later thought better still would be to add food color to alternate layers. It seems like petals of a double colored flower after the frying. And that's when my husband came up with the idea of adding nuts to make a baklava like dessert. So this time, my recipe is a colored chirote with cashew nut powder mix in between layers. An Indian baklava like sweet with a milk cashew taste.

Ingredients
Oil for deep frying
for the chirote
Maida / All purpose flour - 1 cup
Rawa / Semolina - 1/4 cup
Water - 1/4 cup
Oil - 2 tbsp
Beetroot, grated - 1.5tbsp / Red food color
for applying between layers
Ghee / Butter - 2 tbsp
Cashew nut powder - 2 tbsp
for the syrup
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Water - 1/2 cup
Saffron - few strands
Lightly powder the rawa / semolina in a dry grinder. Mix together the maida / flour and the rawa in a bowl. Heat the oil and add it spoon by spoon into the flour, mixing it with a spoon all the while. Then wait for a few minutes for the oil to cool a little. Using your fingers rub the oil into the flour mixture till it resembles bread crumbs. Divide this flour into two. Take one half and add water one spoon at a time and knead into a dough. Use only 1/4 cup of water at most. To the other half of the flour add the grated beets or the food color and knead into a dough adding little water at a time. Divide the two dough into equal sized and number of balls and keep it in a bowl and cover with a lid or cling film.

Melt the ghee / butter a little and mix the cashew powder into it. Keep this aside.

Take a rolling pin and using a clean surface, roll out each ball into a thin round chapati and keep separately. When you have 3 or 4 such chapati. take a white chapati and apply the ghee and cashew nut powder all over the chapati covering the entire chapati. Cover this chapati with a red one the another one and spread the ghee and cashew nut mix like before. Place the third chapati - a white one on top of it and apply the ghee and cashew nut mix like before. Now, starting from one edge, raise this edge a little and start rolling it inward into a tight log like in a pinwheel roll. Take a sharp knife and cut off the two ends of the log. Hold the log with one hand and cut the log into half inch to 1 inch pieces, keeping the knife in a slight slant direction so the colored layers are visible. With the rolling pin flatten these pieces by rolling it out lightly. When rolled the pieces will be an oblong rectangle.

In a sauce pan, add the sugar and water and heat till a simple syrup is made. Add the saffron strands or saffron syrup and take off the heat.
Heat the oil in a kadai or pan and slowly fry the rolled out pieces one by one, gently pressing down the pieces. As it fries the layers will separate, scoop out when done and drain off on paper towels. When the oil is drained completely add the pieces one by one into the saffron infused sugar syrup and dip all sides to coat completely. Then lift off with tongs and stand it in a bowl to drain excess syrup. Continue frying all the pieces and dipping in the sugar syrup. Once the syrup is drained serve on a platter.

This recipe for Rosy Cashew Chirote is going to these events :

-  "Diwali Special" hosted by gayathriscookspot.

&

-  "Diwali Bash 2013" hosted by cooksjoy.

-  "Diwali Delicacies Event" jointly hosted by priyaeasyntastyrecipes & spicytreats

-  "Spotlight: Festival Treats" hosted by cuisinedelights

Shankarpalli / Shakkarpare

Every time I make Shankarpalli, I am reminded of my friend L's mother. Auntie shared her recipe with me and encouraged me to try it her way. I remember, I had made some and took it to her for her verdict. Auntie is a very good cook and took pride and pleasure in preparing different and new dishes. She could turn the simplest of meals to the tastiest, with her koshimbirs, thechas and chutneys. Auntie would cook up quite a faraal spread for Diwali - chivda, ladoo, coconut barfi, kaju katli, chakli, shankarpalli and she would ply L and me with all these goodies and we would happily stuff ourselves. This year, they will be in Mumbai during Diwali but since I am not going there I will miss them. This is Shankarpalli goes to Auntie. 

Ingredients

Milk - 1/2 cup

Sugar - 1/2 cup

Ghee - 1/2 cup

Maida / All purpose flour - as required

Oil for frying

In a pan heat milk and add the sugar and mix in. Add the ghee and stir till it is melted and mixed. Take off the heat and keep to cool. The milk will curdle and it is normal. When it has cooled down, add the maida little by little and make a soft dough. Make balls of dough and keep covered in a container. Roll out each ball of dough into square / rectangle shaped chapati. It should be slightly thicker than normal chapati (not phulka). Place this on the back of a plate and cut into square / diamond shaped pieces. Once two such chapatis are made and cut into squares, start the frying. And then roll and cut parallely with the frying.

 

Heat oil in a kadai on medium high. When hot, reduce the heat and slowly slide the pieces into the oil for frying. Fry till the pieces are light golden then scoop it onto paper towels to drain off the excess oil. Store in an air tight container.  

Today, when the milk and ghee mix was cooling, I started prepping my lunch, a potato and beet salad. That's when the idea of adding grated beets came to me, so I took one portion of the dough and added the beet and kneaded again. After that continue with the steps of rolling and cutting and frying. The beets give the fried shankarpalli a red hue but it was negligible if browned when frying.

Beet Shankarpalli



 

This recipe for Shankarpalli / Shakkarpare is going to these events :

-  "Diwali Special" hosted by gayathriscookspot.

&

-  "Diwali Bash 2013" hosted by cooksjoy.

-  "Diwali Delicacies Event" jointly hosted by priyaeasyntastyrecipes & spicytreats

-  "Spotlight: Festival Treats" hosted by cuisinedelights



Chirote / Khaja, a layered sweet delight

Chirote is a sweet snack made in Maharashtra for Diwali that looks like a not completely pressed dry flower. This is sweet is layered and looks like a rosette with the layers opening after it is fried. The chirote also known as khaja, chiroti or pakwan, features in the cuisine of different states like Oriya, Karnataka and a few others. I read about chirote a few years ago and although it seemed like a great tasting sweet, I had my doubts about being able to get it right. Last evening, I did give it a try and it did not seem difficult at all, just that it requires a little patience.

 

Just like the lights and lamps, snacks, both sweet and savory are intrinsic to the celebration of Diwali. As children, during the run up to Diwali, all the apartments in the whole building buzzed like a beehive. We saw a lot of cleaning at all homes, new torans / bandhan dwars were put up, and a few days prior to Diwali rangolis were drawn, diyas were lit at entrances, etc. Along with all this, the women managed to make yummy delights as well. Typically, the afternoons, when most of the ladies managed to take some time out from chores, were earmarked for making goodies. Yummy aromas from all around wafted in from the windows at that time and sometimes we could guess which aunty was making what goodie. The aunties took pride in cooking up a range of sweet and savory snacks and each aunty was known for at least one delicacy. Like Aunty S was known to make the tedious and time consuming wheat halwa at home. Aunty A made yummy besan ladoo that her daughter also learnt to make later. Aunty L made ribbon pakodas that were soft and crisp at the same time. The best Maharashtrian chakli was made by Aunty K along with a melt in the mouth burfi. I remember having some spicy chivda as well but cannot remember who made it. On the day of Diwali, we children would take plateful of goodies to the other apartments and would return with some of their goodies. Tea time meant having a choice of the yummiest of snack spread at home.

For many years I could not be bothered with making any of these snacks but then I guess with age comes nostalgia and I started preparing a few delicacies at home. And now, I like to try at least one different snack each time and the Chirote is one such attempt . I followed Madhura's recipe for Chirote because the addition of rawa / semolina gives it a little crunch and this worked well for me.

Ingredients

Oil for deep frying
for the chirote
Maida / All purpose flour - 1 cup
Rawa / Semolina - 1/4 cup
Water - 1/4 cup
Oil - 2 tbsp
for applying between layers
Ghee / Butter - 2 tbsp
Rice flour - 2 tbsp
for the syrup
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Water - 1/2 cup
Saffron - few strands
Lightly powder the rawa / semolina in a dry grinder. Mix together the maida / flour and the rawa in a bowl. Heat the oil and add it spoon by spoon into the flour, mixing it with a spoon all the while. Then wait for a few minutes for the oil to cool a little. Using your fingers rub the oil into the flour mixture till it resembles bread crumbs. Then add the water little by little and make a soft smooth dough. Divide the dough into six equal balls and keep it in a bowl and cover with a lid or cling film.

The ghee / butter should be in room temperature and not hard when using. In a bowl add the ghee and the rice floor and mix well. Keep this aside.

Take a rolling pin and using a clean surface, roll out each ball into a thin round chapati and keep separately. Place one thin chapati on a flat surface. Spoon a little of the ghee and rice flour mix and dot it all over the chapati. Spread it so it covers the entire chapati. Cover this chapati with another one and spread the ghee and rice flour mix like before. Place the third chapati on top on it and apply the ghee and rice flour mix like before. Now, starting from one edge, raise this edge a little and start rolling it inward into a tight log like in a pinwheel roll. Take a sharp knife and cut the two ends of the log. Hold the log with one hand and cut the log into half inch to 1 inch pieces, keeping the knife in a slight slant direction so the layers are visible. With the rolling pin flatten these pieces by rolling it out lightly. When rolled the pieces will be an oblong rectangle.

In a sauce pan, add the sugar and water and heat till a simple syrup is made. Add the saffron strands or saffron syrup and take off the heat.
Heat the oil in a kadai or pan and slowly fry the rolled out pieces one by one, gently pressing down the pieces. As it fries the layers will separate, scoop out when done and drain off on paper towels. When the oil is drained completely add the pieces one by one into the saffron infused sugar syrup and dip all sides to coat completely. Then lift off with tongs and stand it in a bowl to drain excess syrup. Continue frying all the pieces and dipping in the sugar syrup. Once the syrup is drained serve on a platter.

Variation
Caster sugar - 1 bowl
Once the pieces are fried and drained off on the paper towels, drop one piece at a time into the bowl and coat all sides with the sugar. Spread it on a platter and its ready to serve.

Sugar syrup coated chirote

This recipe for Chirote / Khaja is going to these events :

-  "Diwali Special" hosted by gayathriscookspot.

&

-  "Diwali Bash 2013" hosted by cooksjoy.

-  "Diwali Delicacies Event" jointly hosted by priyaeasyntastyrecipes & spicytreats

-  "Spotlight: Festival Treats" hosted by cuisinedelights

Almond Haven aka Badam Burfi

Diwali is round the corner and preparations are on with cleaning the house, putting up the lights, and preparing sweets and savories that are customary for this festival. While growing up, we looked forward to the two-week vacation more than anything else. New clothes, crackers, and lots of snacks were the bonus. That Diwali was around the corner was obvious from the cartloads of diyas, candles, tea-lights, rangoli colors, and rangoli stencils that flooded the market. The shops were all lit up and on display were hampers with sweets and dry fruits and other gift items. On sale was the ubiquitous "star" and "disco" lights also.

In Mumbai, these snacks and sweets are called faraal. Preparations and plans for making faraal began weeks back. The aunties in the locality would discuss what faraal to make and what things were to be bought. Those were the days when supermarkets were not there and readymade flour was not available. Therefore, just before Diwali, the flour mill saw an influx of steel dabbas with different dals and cereals that were needed to make these goodies. The afternoons were reserved for grinding these items at the flour mills and housewives would then get down to making two or three items per day. Children on vacation would hover around to sample it and the elders would give their ‘initial reactions’ on how it turned out.

Cut to the present, with only the two of us at home, and in a different city than Mumbai, Diwali is as much or as little as we make it to be. Till date I enjoy the excitement that surrounds this festival - whether it is buying those cute diyas or drawing out a few awkward rangolis or making faraal at home. The cleaning is on, one set of lights are out, I want to buy some new diyas and along with that today I started on making the faraal. I decided to start on a sweet note with an Almond / Badam Burfi. The only thing about making these goodies is that it is requires strong will and steely resolve on my part to make it last till Diwali and in the case of hubby dear the only way is to hide it from him.

Almond / Badam Burfi

Ingredients

Almonds - 1 cup

Sugar - 1/2 cup

Water - 1/3 cup

Almond essence - 3 to 4 drops (optional)

Ghee - 2 tbsp

Food Color (optional)

for garnishing

saffron strands - small pinch

crushed almonds - 1 tsp

Grease the pan you will set the burfi in and keep aside. Heat water in a saucepan and when it boils add the almonds / badam and take off the heat. Keep aside for an hour. After an hour wash the almonds and skin them, it will be easy to do this now. Grind the almonds to a fine paste with a little water.

In a saucepan, add the sugar to the remaining water and heat till it is of one-string consistency. Heat a kadhai or any heavy bottomed vessel and add the sugar syrup and almond paste and stir and mix it well. Keep on low heat and stir often if not continuously. Add the almond essence and keep stirring till the whole mix comes together and starts leaving the sides of the pan. Spoon a little of the ghee around the almond mix and bring it together. When the mix comes together completely into a ball smear the rest of the ghee on it and put it into the greased pan. Use a square or rectangle pan for ease of cutting the burfi into shape.

Sprinkle the crushed saffron and the crushed almonds on the burfi and keep it in the refrigerator to set.

This recipe for Almond Haven aka Badam Burfi is going to these events :

-  "Diwali Special" hosted by gayathriscookspot.

&

-  "Diwali Bash 2013" hosted by cooksjoy.

-  "Diwali Delicacies Event" jointly hosted by priyaeasyntastyrecipes & spicytreats

-  "Spotlight: Festival Treats" hosted by cuisinedelights

Apple and Pear Compote

Compote is pieces of fruit cooked in a syrup with a few spices or flavorings like cinnamon, cloves, orange zest and sometimes even bits of nuts. Compote was a French dish originally and was served as a dessert along with cream. It is different from fruit preserves - 1. compote has whole pieces of fruit and 2. compote does not contain pectin which gives jams and marmalades its jelly like texture.

For me, I have always had a fancy for preserves. I have often bought preserves from stores and have stuffed myself with bread just so I could eat some of the preserves :) Another thing that fascinated me is the use of fruit sauces on puddings, ice creams and desserts in general. So, I checked for recipes and liked the idea of making compotes since it does not use preservatives and can be easily made at home with available ingredients.

 

During my last two trips to the weekly market, I saw these green apples that were going quite cheap as compared to the otherwise inflated prices. And the pears are also making a come back in the markets right now. I bought them both, some to be eaten raw and I wanted to give a compote recipe a try.

 

Ingredients

Apple - 1 cup

Pear - 1 cup

Honey - 2 tbsp

Cinnamon - 1/2 inch piece

Bay Leaf - 1 small

Lime essence - 1/2 tsp

Water - 1/4 cup (+3tbsp)

The apple and pear are to be peeled, cored and diced into small pieces and then measured. The size of the fruit will hence decide how much you need to use. It took me 1 apple and 1.5 pears to make a cup each. The recipe is quite simple, put all the ingredients except the lime essence together in a pot and mix well. Put the pot on low heat and cover and cook. When cooking, keep an eye on it so it does not catch the bottom and burn. The fruits should soften in about 15 minutes. Once done add the lime essence and take it off the heat. Remove the cinnamon stick and bay leaf.

The apple and pear compote is ready.

It can either be cooled, bottled and refrigerated to be used later as a topping on ice creams and puddings or can be served for dessert on it own. To serve, take a dessert goblet and spoon the compote till half full, top with whipped cream and a pitted cherry.

Semiya Kheer / Payasam

No sadhya is complete without kheer / payasam; in fact nowadays most sadhya in Kerala serves not one but two payasams - usually one milk based and the other coconut milk based. When payasam is served at a sadhya, it is served along with pappadam and pickle. It is said that having pappadam and pickle between mouthfuls of payasam helps in having some more payasam! Many people ask for the payasam to be poured on the banana leaf and then crush pappadam into it and scoop it all together. Most times it is a jaggery sweetened payasam that gets this treatment. I have never tried this but maybe sometime :)

At home, we make payasam on occasions like Onam, Vishu, and piranaals (birthdays) and it is either semiya or parippu payasam. This year for Onam, we made semiya payasam and for a change, I added saffron strands along with cardamom powder.

Ingredients

Semiya / Vermicelli - 100 gms.

Condensed milk - 1 tin (400gms)

Whole Milk - 1.5 ltr.

Sugar - 3tbsp (optional)

Cashew nuts - 20

Raisins - 20

Green Cardamom - 4

Ghee - 2tsp.

Saffron - 1/2 tsp.

Powder the green cardamom seeds finely. Warm a little milk and mix in the saffron and keep aside.

Heat a pan and add the ghee, when hot add the cashew nuts and fry till light brown. Scoop the nuts out, draining as much oil as possible and place on a paper towel. Add the vermicelli to the pan and sauté on low heat till light golden. Take off the heat and add the raisins in and stir for a minute, drain as much ghee as possible and put it on a paper towel and keep aside. 

 

Take a saucepan and boil the milk in it. Keep stirring it in between so that it does not catch the bottom. (I changed the vessel after boiling the milk because it did catch the bottom a little).  Once it boils, lower the heat and add the condensed milk and stir till it mixes completely. Add the roasted vermicelli / semiya little by little into the milk stirring all the while so it does not clump together. Add the cardamom powder as well and stir. It will take about 15 minutes for the vermicelli / semiya to cook on low heat. When the semiya has cooked, add the sugar (I added it because I found the payasam a little less sweet) and stir till mixed in. Add the saffron milk, cashew nuts and raisins and mix well. Take it off the heat. Serve hot or cooled in a frig.  

Tips:

1. Stir when adding the semiya and continue stirring in between else it will clump.
2.To powder the cardamom finely in a mortar pestle, add a teaspoon of sugar to the cardamom seeds when powdering. 

3. Sugar should be added only after the rice or semiya is cooked, else the milk may split.

4. Choose the thinnest vermicelli for payasam.

Update:
This Semiya Kheer / Payasam goes to these events

-  "Diwali Special" hosted by gayathriscookspot.

&

-  "Diwali Bash 2013" hosted by cooksjoy.

Sheera / Sooji ka Halwa Naivedyam

Sheera / Sooji ka halwa is often offered at pujas as prasad. Since it is Ganesh utsav, I made this for naivedyam a few days back. It is not difficult to make sheera, just stick with the measurements and after making it a few times you will be able to make it on your own.

Ingredients
Semolina / Sooji / Rawa - 1/2 cup
Ghee -  a little less than 1/2 cup
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Water - 1.25 cups
Green Cardamom - 1 crushed
Cashew nuts - 8 to 10
Raisins - 8 to 10
Almonds - 6 to 8

Heat a pan or kadhai and pour the ghee after reserving a tablespoon. When warm add the cashew nuts and sauté it till light golden then take it out onto paper towels.

Separately heat water in a saucepan and add the sugar and the crushed cardamom to it. Let it boil well. Take off the heat and keep aside.

Lower the heat and add the sooji or rawa to the pan stir continuously so that it does not burn. Sauté till light brown. Add the raisins and the fried cashew nuts to this rawa, mix well. Raise the heat and pour the sugar - water mix into the rawa, stirring all the while. When the rawa starts coming together add the ghee that was kept aside and mix well. Cover and take off the heat when all the water is absorbed. Garnish with almond slivers.

Take it into a bowl and offer it to Lord Ganesha.

Prasad

Sweet Seviyan / Vermicelli

Ingredients
Vermicelli - 1 cup
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Water - 1 cup
Whole Milk - 1 cup
Malai - 2  tbsp
Ghee - 3tbsp
Cashew nuts - 12-15
Raisins - 8-10
Saffron syrup - 1 tsp
Saffron - 1 pinch

Take a flat pan and dry roast the vermicelli for about 5 minutes. Then add the ghee and continue roasting till it gets a nice golden color. Take off the stove. Spoon the vermicelli out leaving the ghee in the pan. In this pan fry the raisins and the broken pieces of cashew nut one after the other and scoop them out onto paper towels.

 

Heat 1 cup water in another pan and add the roasted vermicelli to it. Cook the vermicelli till 3/4th done and the water is absorbed. Add the milk and the malai to the vermicelli and continue cooking. Once this mix has thickened check if the vermicelli is cooked completely. Then add the sugar and stir it in till completely mixed. The consistency of the seviyan will be thickish, incase you want to make it a little thin add a tablespoon of milk at a time to loosen it. Then add the fried cashew nuts and raisins. Take it off the stove and add the saffron syrup and mix well.

Sprinkle the saffron and badam slivers on top and the seviyan is ready to serve.

 

P.S: If you want a very lightly sweet seviyan / vermicelli, add the sugar little by little till you get the required taste.
Contributed this recipe on tarla dalal website: http://www.tarladalal.com/Sweet-Seviyan-38690r

Brunch with leftovers!

Take some leftovers, put them together with some additions and voila! you have a lovely brunch.

On a cold Sunday morning, the urge to sleep in under a warm comforter is really high and hence a meal of leftovers makes life easy. The menu was - an onion and green chilli omelette, potato masala sandwiches, cheese slices, sweet puttu and bananas and tea to round it all off.

I had some potato masala in the refrigerator and I used this to make some stuffed sandwiches which I then toasted with butter in a pan. I also had some puttu which I had steamed with sugar and extra coconut to make an instant sweet ending to our breakfast. Added some small bananas to the steamed puttu - all Kerala style! All this needed was a Kerala chaaya and my meal was ready to be served.