Homemade butter and Aval Urundai | Gokulashtami / Krishna Jayanthi Recipes

Last week during a chat session, my cousin sis gave me the idea of posting homemade butter and aval urundai for gokulashtami. Though I had planned for a stepwise homemade butter post, it didnt strike me for the occassion so a big thanks to her for motivating me for this post. Butter and aval are lord krishnas favourite so here I am with this post. Hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making, clicking and writing this post :)

Tanjore painting done by amma

Homemade Butter Recipe :

Ingredients :

• Curd and Milk Malai (Paal , Thayir Aadai) collected - 2 cups
• Water - 1 cup

NOTE : You can use malai from both curd and milk

Method:

While boiling milk a thick layer of malai forms so collect them (you can collect curd malai too)store it a container. Collect it daily for about 15 days or till your container is full and refrigerate it. But take only the thick malai formed on top.

NOTE: The collected malai/cream can be used for your gravies. I have been using this cream for all my gravies, sure better than the store bought ones. As its salty use it only for savoury dishes which calls for cream.

When your container is full or when you are prepared to make the butter, transfer the collected malai in a wide bottomed container and add water to it.

Beat it well in circular motion with a mathu till frothy.You can use mixie and use the whip option too but we prefer mathu as it avoids the work of cleaning the messy buttery mixie after the process :) The first stage is when the froth forms a top layer . Continue beating it for 10mins.

The second stage is when the froth slightly starts collecting in one area. You can see it in the below pictures - It may take around 10-15 minutes. Once the froth completely turns to a collective buttery mass stop beating. The buttermilk reserved at the bottom can be served with salt and hing, tastes best!

Collect the butter and wash it 2 times in water until water is clear. Allow the butter to float in water for 5mins. Your homemade butter is ready for use :) Collect it in a clean container and refrigerate it.

After started taking butter at home, have been using homemade butter for all my cooking and baking. So its homemade ghee for my little as she does not like butter :)

Aval Urundai Recipe :

Ingredients:

• Aval / Poha - 1 cup
• Powdered Jaggery - 1/4 cup
• Elachi powdered - 1/2 tsp
• Coconut grated - 3 tbsp
• Ghee - 1 tsp
• Cashews - 1 tsp broken

Method:

1. Heat ghee in a pan, add the cashews till golden brown. Set aside. Now add the coconut and roast it for 2mins without letting the color change.
2. Soak the aval in water for 3-5 minutes. Drain water and squeeze the aval to drain the extra water
3. Mix jaggery, roasted coconut, ghee fried cashews, elachi powder and mix well.
4. Make lemon sized balls, your yummy aval urundai is ready to be served.

My Notes:

• The butter keeps well for about a month or even more when refrigerated. Use a clean spoon everytime
• You can dry roast aval for few minutes, powder it and then proceed with the steps above

Can you see my kutty krishnar walking towards his favourites aval and butter in the above pic? :) Blogging has made krishnar come into our homes well in advance :)