Paal payasam / Vermicelli milk gheer / பால் பாயாசம்

தமிழ் நண்பர்கள் அனைவருக்கும் இனிய தமிழ் புத்தாண்டு வாழ்த்துக்கள்.

Today is Thamizh new year. The 'Vikruthi' year ends and 'Kara' year starts. I wish all the thamizh readers a very happy new year ahead.  Here comes the special recipes of new year. From the menu shown above the one is steel tumbler is new year chutney, then vermicelli milk gheer and the bottom one is urad dhal vadai.

1. New year chutney

Learnt this recipe from my ugadhi (ughadi is telugu new year) celebrating friends. This chutney is made from ingredients of 5 prime taste (sweet, salt, bitter, sour and umami). An indication that life is filled with diff experiences (tastes).

Ingredients:

Jaggery or sugar - 2 tbs (Sweet taste)

Tamarind extract - 1 tbs (Sour taste)

Finely chopped raw mango - 1 tbs (the skin of raw mango gives umami taste)

Crushed neem flower - 1/2 tbs (Bitter taste)

Salt - a pinch

Mix all the above ingredients in 1 cup of water. Stir till jaggery dissolves.

2. Vermicelli milk Gheer 

Ingredients:

Vermicelli - 2 cups

Milk - 4 cups

Sugar - 1/2 cup (we eat less sugar. adjust for ur taste)

Cashew nuts - 10 nos

Dry graphes - 10 nos

Ghee - 1 tbs

Method: 

1. Boil milk in a thick bottom vessel .
2. In the meantime, heat 3 cups of water in a vessel. Add vermicelli and bring them to boil & vermicelli gets cooked well. Drain water completly. We can cook vermicelli in milk also, but milk may curdle sometimes. Better cook them separately.
3. By this time milk may came to boil and reduced its quantity. Now add cooked vermicelli and cook for 5 mins in medium flame.
4. Add sugar and mix well. Do not cook for long after adding sugar.
5. Roast cashew nuts n dry graphes in 1 tbs of ghee and garnish. Serve hot / cold. 

3. Urad dhal vada.

Please refer my previous post Urad dhal vada.

Rava paniyaram / Semolina deep fried sweet bread

Its Gokulastami today - Birthday of lord krishna.

This is a sweet recipe. Maximum cooking time is 30 mins. Can be served as a snack. I used to prepare this recipe for Gokulastami.

Ingredients:

1. Semolina / Rava - 1 cup

2. Maida / All purpose flour - 1/2 cup

3. Baking soda - pinch

4. Jaggery - 3/4 cup (can use powdered sugar also)

5. Cardamom powder - pinch

6. Oil for deep frying

Method:

1. Soak all the ingredients with 1 cup water for 20 mins (there should be no excess water after soaking).

2. Beat well the soaked ingredients into a thick batter shown below.

3. Heat oil in a pan for deep frying. Scoop up the batter and pour into the oil one by one. Fry till all sides are golden brown. Serve hot :P

Rava kesari / Suji halwa

Kesari - tooks place in almost all the indian festivals. Easy to prepare indian sweet.

Click here for the recipe. Just replace vermicelli by semolina / rava. Others measurements and procedure are same.

Strawberry milkshake

Healthy recipe, more suitable for kids.

Ingrediants:

1. Strawberry
2. Fresh milk
3. Powdered sugar

Method:

1. Remove the stem and wash strawberry.
2. Put it inside a blender / mixi and pour milk till the fruit gets immersed. Add 2 tbs powdered sugar (for 3 strawberry's 1 tbs of sugar). Grind well and serve as a dessert.

Aval laddoo / Poha laddoo / Flattened rice laddoo

Laddoo is a common sweet recipe of india prepared to celebrate festivals. It can be made of basen flour (gram flour), Semolina (sooji). This version is made of poha (flattened rice) and its very crispy inside like wafers. Very simple to prepare.

Ingredients:

1. Aval / Poha /Flattened rice - 2 cups
2. Powdered sugar - 1/2 cup (the recipe requires very less sugar even 1/4 cup is also enough)
3. Dry graphes - roughly 1 handful
4. Ghee - 3 tbs
5. Hot milk - 5 tbs

Method:

1. Heat 2 tbs of ghee in a pan and add 2 cups of poha. Saute till it turns golden brown colour. Coarsely powder the sauted poha using a mixer or blender. Keep this aside.
2. Heat 1 tbs of ghee and saute the dry fruit. Add this to powdered poha.
3. Add sugar and hot milk to poha and mix well. Make small balls out of this when the mixture is hot. Cool down the laddoo and serve. Tip:- Arrange the laddoo in a air tight container and can be kept in the fridge upto 10 days. In that case before serving, heat for 10 sec.

Paal kolukattai / Traditional steamed rice balls in coconut milk

Kolukattai is a traditional indian recipe and it is believed that lord Ganesha loves this dish. Usually rice balls will be stuffed with jaggery coconut mix, but this variety of kolukattai is more popular in chettinad (south india). Simple to prepare and more apt & healthy dish for kids.

Ingredients:

-for dough

1. Rice flour - 1 cup
2. Salt - a pinch
3. Grated coconut - 1/4 cup
4. Crushed cardamom - 2 nos

- to cook

1. Coconut milk - 1/2 cup
2. Luke warm water - 2 1/2 cups
3. Milk - 1/2 cup
4. Powdered sugar - 3 tbs

Method

1. Mix everything mentioned below for dough with half cup of luke warm water and make a soft dough. Make small balls out of this dough and keep aside.
2. Boil the remaining water in a pan and drop the rice balls. Cook in medium flame. Cook till the outer layer of rice balls are trasparent (1st pic in 2nd row). This takes 4 mins.
3. Mix 1/2 cup coconut milk + 1/2 cup milk + 1/2 cup water which is used for steaming rice balls together and bring them to boil. Drop the cooked rice balls from step 2 to this boiled mixture and add sugar immediately. Cook this mixture for 2 mins in medium flame and remove from fire. Serve hot.

Badam Halwa / Almond halwa

Halwa is a popular dessert recipe across india made from soaked wheat or almond or cashew nut. Sometimes made from grated carrot or beetroot.
Six months back we got lot of almonds in a party and it was sleeping in my kitchen for a long time. I was hesitant to prepare this dish bcoz i was under the impression that the recipe is difficult. Atlast tried one day and found the procedure is very simple and easy to cook.
Perfect indian dessert recipe.

Ingredients:

1. Almond - 2 cups
2. Milk - 1 cup
3. Crushed cardomom - 4 nos
4. Saffron - 1 pinch
5. Powdered sugar - 1 1/2 cups
6. Ghee - 6 tbs

Method:

1. Soak the almonds over night in water and blanch the skin.

2. Grind the almond with a cup of milk. If the almond batter is tight add 1/2 more cup of milk and grind well.

3. In a big pan cook the almond batter + sugar + 1 tbs ghee. Stir the mix continously. Add 1 tbs of ghee for every 10 mins and stir consiously. When the almond batter comes to thick paste consistency (2nd pic in 2nd row) add cardomom powder, saffron and remaining ghee and stir well. The halwa comes like round ball as shown in the pic. At this consistency remove from fire and cool completely.

4. Set up a working area and press the halwa to a sheet of 1/4 inch thickness using a rolling pin. Cut into different shapes (diamond or square) using a knife and serve.

Tip:- Arrange the remaining halwa in a air tight container and it can be stored in fridge for 15 days.

Avocado / Butter pear milkshake

Avocad milkshake - stomach filling recipe. More suitable for or after breakfast / dinner. Most of us heard about Dorito - Salsa combination with this american fruit. Here comes a delicious milkshake. Learnt this recipe from my hubby... Thanks!!

Ingredients:

1. Avacado
2. Milk
3. Powdered sugar
Method

1. Cut the stem portion and peel off the skin of Avocado. Slice the flesh portion and put it into the blender. Discard the seed.
2. Pour milk till the fruit slices are immersed. For one Avocado add 2 tbs of sugar. Grind well till the fruit flesh is shiny and creamy.

Semiya kesari / Vermicelli halwa

Semiya kesari / Vermicelli halwa is a most popular indian dessert. Prepared in almost all parts of india. The cooking procedure is very simple and can be prepared in a very short time.

Ingredients:

1. Vermicelli - 200 grams
2. Food color - 1 pinch
3. Powdered sugar - 150 grams
4. Cashew nuts - 10 nos
5. Rasins (sun dried graphes) - 10 nos
6. Cardamom - 2 nos (roughly crushed)
7. Salt - pinch
8. Ghee - 4 tbs

Method

1. Heat 1 tbs of ghee in a pan in low flame. Add vermicelli and stir fry till nice aroma comes out of it (or till golden brown). Whip a washed plate with a dry towel and keep aside the vermicelli in it.
2. Heat 1 tbs ghee in the same pan and fry cashew nuts, rasin and cardamom in it. Keep this aside along with vermicelli.
3. Dissolve the food color, salt in 3 cups of water and heat in the same pan. Wait till the water boils. Then add vermicelli, fried cashew raisin cardamom mix. Stir well.
4. When the vermicelli mix starts bubbling add the sugar and remaining ghee. Mix thoroughly. Cook the vermicilli till the water content goes off. Stir consiously for every 2 mins.
Thats it. Serve hot or cold.

Tip:- Substitute vermicelli by suji/semolina & follow the same procedure for suji halwa.
Instead of Ghee we can use vanaspathi/dalda.

Mango milk shake

Yup... Simple and delicious!

Ingredients:

1. Riped Mango - 1
2. Honey or sugar - 2 tbs
3. Fresh unboiled milk - 1/2 glass (in which u r going to serve the milk shake)

Method:

1. Peel the mango and cut the flesh portion into a mixie / blender jar. Let the mango juice which sheds while cutting, drop into the blender jar.
2. Add sugar or honey & milk and grind for 7 mins. Thats it. Serve immediately or after refrigerating.

Eggless sponge cake

Here comes a simple eggless sponge cake for all the veggie lovers!!!

Ingredients:

1. All purpose flour or maida - 2 cups
2. Vanilla essence - few drops
3. Baking powder - 1/2 tbs
4. Powdered sugar - 1 1/2 cups
5. Butter - 3/4 cup

Method

1. Take the all purpose flour in a vessel big enough for beating / mixing.
2. Melt the butter in very low flame and add it to the flour.
3. Add vanilla essence, baking powder and 1 cup of water and mix well using a hand mixer / hand beater. If the batter is tight add some more water slowly and beat again. Finally add sugar slowly. The batter consistency is shown below.

4. Grease the baking pan and pour the batter and level it with a spatula. Preheat the oven to 350 degree F and bake the cake for 15 - 20 mins. Pick a tooth picker and it should come out without any sticking batter. Else cook for 5 more mins.

Cool completely before icing.