Ammini Kozhukattai and Ellu Urundai | Vinayagar Chathurthi Recipes

I had enough of kozhukattais yesterday and didnt forget to feed sharmis passions so here it is :) Ammini Kozhukattai or also called as mini or mani kozhukattai - I have no clue of the orgin of the name but they are easy to make and gets emptied in no time.I am sure most days when we make poornam kozhukattais we have leftover outer dough so we can make these mini kozhukattias in no time. And from monday the diet series will resume back so keep watching

Ammini Kozhukattai Recipe Ingredients :

• Rice flour - 1/2 cup
• Salt - as required
• Coconut - 2 tbsp
• Hot Water - as required

To temper :

• Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
• Urad dhal - 1/2 tsp
• Hing (Perungayam ) - a pinch
• Curry leaves - few
• Turmeric powder - a pinch

Method:

First sieve the rice flour 2-3 times, keep aside. Boil water, Take rice flour in a wide bowl.

Add the boiling water little by little and mix it with the help of a wooden laddle. Mix it till it gathers to a smooth dough. Allow it to cool for 2-3 mins then knead once with your hands to make a smooth dough but it will be slightly sticky.Keep aside.

The dough will be very soft but sticky.Slightly grease your hands with oil and make small sized balls as shown below.

Steam the balls for 10-12mins or as required. The outer layer would have turned shiny. Take out the kozhukattais carefully without breaking and set aside to cool.

Now heat oil, add mustard seeds, urad dhal let it crackle then add curry leaves,red chillies, turmeric powder and hing. Next add coconut saute till slightly browned then add required salt. Mix well.

Now add the mani kozhukattais and give a quick stir , mix well and switch off. Your mani / mini or ammini kozhukattais are ready

These kozhukattais are easy to make and they are very flavourful.This is best suited for the festive occassion as it can be done in a jiffy when there is leftover outer dough.

My Notes:

• Add boiling water little by little to get the desired dough consistency. The dough should gather to well but still it will be sticky when touched with ur hands.

• Just grease your hands with little oil if you feel sticky while rolling.

Ellu Urundai / Sesame Ladoos Ingredients :

• White / Black Sesame - 1 cup
• Jaggery - 3/4 cup
• Cardomom powder - a pinch (optional)

Method:

Dry roast the sesame till nice nutty aroma comes and it turns browned. Allow it to cool then grind it in a mixer to a coarse powder.

Then add jaggery and run the mixie once or twice again to make it combined.Add elachi powder and combine well..Then roll them tight into balls and store it in airtight container.

My Notes:

• Make sure you first grind sesame coarsely then add jaggery to it for even grinding. Some make ellu urundai without grinding itself but I prefer this way :)
• I didnt add ghee or oil, the oil leaving from the sesame was just enough to form balls.But if you want you can add 1 or 2 tsp of ghee.
• You can use black or white sesame for making these ladoos
• You can add ghee roasted chopped nuts too.

Easy yummy ladoos are ready, have and bite and enjoy.After the heavy festive recipes are you getting ready to peep in my diet series? See you all soon on monday! :)

Paneer Kheer | Paneer Desserts

To me paneer is always related to savoury sidedishes or starters. So when I saw this paneer kheer in tarladalal protein rich recipes cookbook that I have, I was totally bowled out by the idea of a simple yet delicious looking dessert so instantly tried it.

Ingredients:

Recipe Reference : Tarladalal

• Paneer crumbled - 1/2 cup
• Milk - 2 cups
• Cornflour - 2 tsp
• Sugar - 2 to 3 tbsp
• Saffron - 1 strand
• Elachi powder - a pinch
• Nuts - 2 tbsp (pistachios, badams and cashews chopped)

Method:

1. Crush the saffron in a tsp of milk and keep aside. Add cornflour in a tsp of milk, mix well without lumps and keep aside.
2. Boil milk, add the cornflour milk mixture mix well continuosly and then simmer for 10mins until it starts thickening. Add sugar and mix well until completely dissolved. Add the saffron milk mixture and give a quick mix.
3. Now add the crumbled paneer to the boiling milk, mix well and allow it to boil for 5-7 more mins.
4. Add elachi powder, mix well and garnish with nuts and switch off.You can also toast the nuts in ghee and then add it to the kheer.
5. Allow it to cool for 5mins then refrigerate for 15mins and serve chilled.

My Notes:

• Saffron is optional, I like the flavour so added it. You can skip it too.
• Cornflour is added to fasten up the thickening process of the milk.
• For the above mentioned ingredients, it yields 2 small cups of paneer kheer.
• Adjust sugar according to your sweetness.

Paneer kheer was close to the taste of basundhi, whatever be the name it was heavenly. The paneer blended with the saffron flavoured milk with nuts....what more you want for a dessert..YUMM!! I luv it chilled but you can serve it warm as well.

My little one she loves most of the dishes with milk so this sweet was no exception , she enjoyed it thoroughlly. The picture in the cookbook was too tempting and this was one of few dishes I tried soon after I got the book and with no doubt this was a super hit.

Jelly Custard and Jelly Milkshake | Jelly Dessert Ideas

I am always bowled out when I see jelly by its shaky and glossy look. But I am not fond of having jellies as such so googled and founds these 2 easy jelly dessert ideas. The first time I tried to set jelly , it didnt set at all.So making jelly was like a dream to me though its a simple process. The next time when I tried to set jelly for this jelly custard, it came out perfect. See 'my notes' for tips to get perfectly set jelly.

Jelly Custard Recipe:

Makes 3 mini glasses

Ingredients:

• Strawberry jelly - 1 packet (the whole packet will not be used for jelly custard use the remaining for the given dessert ideas or enjoy the jellies as such :))
• Milk - 2 cups
• Custard powder - 2 tbsp
• Sugar - 4 tbsp

Method:

1. Prepare jelly according to the pack instructions,(but always use little less water than mentioned in the pack)If the pack says to add 500ml of water use only 400ml of water to make sure the jelly sets well.
2. Now pour it into 3 medium sized glasses, exactly to half of the glasses and refrigerate it for an hour or two.Pour the remaining jelly in molds, cups and refrigerate them.
3. Meanwhile you can prepare the custard. Take 1/2 cup milk, mix it with custard powder and sugar without any lumps until sugar dissolves completely, keep aside.
4. Heat the remaining milk in a pan, when it starts boiling add the milk custard powder sugar mixture.Keep mixing continuously to avoid forming lumps.Mix well once the mixture is thickened (when you pour it should not be runny) switch off.
5. Allow it to cool for 10mins(When cooling the mixture thickenes further so switch off accordingly)
6. Then fill the remaining half of the glass with this mixture. Refrigerate for 30mins, garnish with nuts/cherries and serve chilled.

My Notes:

• Make sure you use little less quantity of water then mentioned in the pack. Else your jelly will not get set easily.
• I used strawberry flavour , you can use any flavour of your choice.
• Dont try to half the jelly packet, the jellys will not set. So use the full packet, form jellies and then store them refrigerated.
• I tried to click the consistency of the custard, by then the custard got thickened so be very careful and keep stirring till the custard reaches the desired consistency.

The remaining jelly poured in molds, cups can be demoulded easily and stored refrigerated for about 10days. You can either eat them as such or serve them with any chilled dessert or a scoop of icecream.

Jelly Milkshake Recipe:

Makes 2 cups

Ingredients:

• Jelly - 3 tbsp
• Milk - 2 cups
• Sugar - 3 tsp

Method:

Pulse the milk with jelly and sugar to form a thick and creamy shake. Serve chilled.

The granular texture of the jellies in the milkshake is the yummiest. My little one loved the jelly as such and I luved it in the form of milkshake . So our jellies were over in about a weeks time :)

There are many flavours available in weikfield brand : strawberry, cherry, mango, lime, pineapple, orange etc so pick your choice from them.

Aval Payasam - Tamizh Puthandu Vazhthukal!

Wishing all my readers a very happy tamil new year!!

The best part of tamil new year is the custom of arranging jewels, fruits, money in front of a mirror overnight and early morning the first thing we see is all the arranged things through the mirror. And thats how we start the tamil new year day followed by a hearty meal with sambar, kootu,poriyal, vadai and payasam. :)

Aval Paysam Recipe:

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• Aval - 1 cup (thick/thin variety) - I used thick here
• Milk - 2.5 cups
• Powdered Jaggery - 1/4 cup
• Grated Coconut - 1 tbsp grated (optional)
• Elachi powder - 1/2 tsp
• Cashews broken - 1/2 tbsp
• Ghee - 1 tsp

Method:

1. Heat ghee and fry the cashews till golden brown and keep aside.In the remaining ghee roast coconut until slightly browned and keep aside.
2. Soak aval in water for 5-7mins or until the aval becomes soft. Drain water and keep aside.
3. Heat milk in a non stick/heavy bottomed pan and simmer for 5 mins. By now the milk would have become slightly thick.
4. Now add powdered jaggery, elachi powder and mix until jaggery is well combined.Now add coconut , mix well.
5. Then add aval and simmer for another 5mins. Garnish with cashews and switch off. Serve hot or cold.

My Notes:

• I used thick aval so soaking for 5-7 mins was required. If you use thin variety then soak only for 3-5 mins else it will become mushy.
• This payasam becomes thick after sometime so take it off in a running consistency. Add milk at the time of serving if required.
• You can add 1 tbsp of condensed milk to make this payasam even more rich and creamy.

This payasam is quite easy especially during the festival times when we have loads of work in the kitchen. It comes handy when we have the craving for payasam during regular days.

Wishing you all, the best in this tamil varudapirappu and always. See you all soon on Monday with another recipe from my kitchen :)

Chikki (Peanut Burfi) / Kadala Mittai

I think most of us must have tasted chikki/peanut burfi. It is one of my favourites, but never knew this could be so easy to make with only 2 main ingredients.

I was not aware that caramelising sugar is as simple as just melting the sugar in a dry pan until nithi cleared me :)

Ingredients:

Recipe Reference : 4th sense cooking

• Peanuts - 1 cup
• Sugar - 3/4 cup (Orginal called for 1 cup, but 3/4 cup was sufficient for me)

Method:

1. Dry roast the peanuts until crsipy and when the skin starts coming out. Take out the skin of the peanuts and powder them until fine. Grease a pan with butter/ghee and keep it ready.



2. Take a dry pan and add sugar in it. Heat it till the sugar melts completely(Do not add water). Simmer, add the peanut powder and mix well until no lumps are formed. Swich off.



3. Immediately transfer it to the greased plate and flatten them using chapathi roller. Then draw line with butter/ghee greased knife immediately. Be very quick in doing this step else the chikkis will harden and the lines cant be drawn.



4. Allow it to cool down for 10mins and break the chikkis along the drawn lines.Chikkis are ready!

My Notes:

• The only and main important thing to note down is you have to be very quick after the peanut powder is added. You cannot mark lines when the burfi is cooled so draw lines immediately.



• These are slightly sticky by texture and crispy like the store bought ones.

Isnt that super fast and easy?! I bet kids will luv it! The only time consuming part is peeling the skinof peanuts. You can get readymade roasted skin peeled peanuts which makes it all the more easy.

Rasmalai with homemade rasgullas

Rasmalai is a rich indian delicacy, thickened milk with the slight flavour of sugar syrup and saffron topped with nuts...Its yum combo!! I used homemade rasgullas, you can use store bought ones too.

Ingredients:

• Rasgullas - 6
• Milk - 2 cups
• Condensed milk - 2 tbsp (optional)
• Sugar Syrup - 1/2 cup
• Chopped Nuts(pista and badam) - 2 tbsp
• Saffron - 2 to 3 strands
• Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp

Method:

1. Take 2 tbsp of warm milk, add saffron strands and keep aside. Squeeze the rasgullas gently, extract the sugar syrup and keep aside.



2. Take a wide heavy bottomed vessel and add milk. Bring to a boil and reduce to medium flame. Keep stirring till the milk starts thickening and reduced to half.



3. Now add the milk with saffron to the boiled thickened milk and keep stirring. Then add the sugar syrup squeezed from rasgullas and keep stirring.Add the condensed milk.



4. Add the chopped nuts and mix well. Now finally add the rasgullas and let it cook in low flame for 5mins till the rasgullas absorb the milk.



5. Rasmalai is ready now. Serve chilled!

I've become a great fan of rasmalai since I tasted it from Annapoorna GowriShankar.Guess they use condensed milk so wanted to give a try at home using condensed milk. Homemade ones are best too if prepared in the right consistency.

You can also use store bought rasgullas, tinned ones are easy to reach - Haldirams works best .

My Notes:

• Dont use saffrons more, it will be over powerful and will spoil the taste.



• The addition of condensed milk not only makes the rasmalai rich but extra tasty and gives a unique flavour to it.



• The chopped nuts can be roasted in a tsp of ghee and added.



• Allow atleast 30mins sitting and refrigerating time before serving to taste best.

Rasgulla / Mini Rasgulla - Step by Step Recipe

I am fond of sweets and rasgulla is no doubtedly in my favorite list. The first time I tried rasgulla at home was during diwali time, but was not completely satisfied with the result so didnt post here. After almost 2 months when I tried last week with little variation, I could reproduce the exact shop taste and texture.

I took the measurements from Sailus food, for method I referred hers but followed ammas cook book too.

I am not sure what went wrong but the pressure cooking method which I tried for the first time didnt work out perfect for me, the rasgulla texture was very chewy and not like the shop ones. So followed ammas cookbook method this time and got perfect rasgullas.

I did reserve few rasgullas for rasmalai and the post is ready too :) Both were very tasty and was emptied in a jiffy.I made them as mini rasgullas and they were looking cute as snow white balls :) So here goes the step by step recipe from my kitchen, hope its useful who wants to try your hands on rasgulla.

Ingredients:

• Milk - 1/2 litre
• Lemon Juice - 1.5 tbsp (or) Curd - 2 tbsp
• Water - 1 and 3/4 cups water
• Icecubes - 4 to 5
• Sugar - 3/4 cup
• Cardamom powder- A generous pinch
• Pistachios - 3 to 4 chopped finely for garnishing

Heat milk, bring it to boil and simmer it. Take 1.5 tbsp lime juice from a lemon and keep it ready.

When milk starts boiling, add the lemon juice to the boiling milk and stir properly. Stir continuosly till the whey water clears and the milk curdles completely. Before adding icecubes you can take some whey water which can be reserved for future use which is what I did. Now switch off the stove, add ice cubes and allow it to melt completely.

Take a muslin cloth and pour the curdled milk,filtering the whey water completely.Wash it well in running cold water to remove the lemon smell. Squeeze the excess water and hang it aside for 30mins without disturbing it.

After 30mins, the paneer would be crumbly in texture. Now knead it well for 10mins. Once everything comes together to a smooth pilable dough, form them into smooth mini/normal lemon sized balls and keep aside. I made around 13-15 mini balls.

Heat water in a wide bottomed vessel, then add sugar and keep stirring till sugar dissolves completely. When the sugar syrup boils and starts bubbling, add the balls slowly one by one and simmer it for 3mins.

The balls will go to the corner, move them to the middle. Keep in medium flame and close with a lid. Cook for 10mins opening the lid every 3-4 mins this is to ensure the vapour passes out not allowing the sugar syrup to ooze out. After 10 mins, the balls would be closely doubled in size.

This is the stage when your rasgullas are done. Cool it completely, add chopped pistachios and chill it for an hour and serve chilled. This method was from ammas cookbook and I find it easy as you can open and see the rasgullas now and then.

Though amma kept on saying to try with whey water to make the paneer as that is the traditional bengali style of making rasgullas, this time I am completely satisfied with the results. But sure to make it once with whey water and update it here with my feedback.

My Notes:

• The whey water can be used for making chapathi dough which makes chapathis very soft. It can also be used to curdle milk while making rasgulla next time which is the traditional bengali method.



• After the lemon juice/curd is added stir well and continuosly till the whey water clears out completely.



• The smoother the balls you make, the rasgullas will not crack out when getting cooked. Also Make sure to simmer once the balls are added for the first time.



• I felt adding curd better as I could feel the faintest smell of lemon juice which noone else felt at home.



• The rasgulla texture purely depends on the way the balls are getting cooked so follow the procedure as mentioned.

Pori Urundai for Karthigai Deepam

First of all thanks to everyone for the encouraging words for my previous pizza stepwise post. It made all the efforts I had put in fruitful :)

I am fond of lighting lamps and arranging them outside and inside the house, who doesnt?! This year for blogging sake, made pori urundai in advance. These days my little one has become a choosy eater(now mothers gene at work ;)), But pori is her favorite right from the day she tasted it. So this time when I tried pori urundai at home I made sure to make tiny balls to give it to her, seeing her smile to a mile, I was a contented mother :)

Pori Urundai (Sweet Puffed Rice Balls) Ingredients:

• Pori / Puffed rice- 3 and 1/2 cups
• Jaggery - 1/2 cup
• Water - 1/4 cup or little less than that (It should be just for the level of jaggery to immerse)
• Elachi powder - a pinch
• Ghee - 1 tsp to grease hands

Method:

1. First add jaggery in a wide bottomed bowl, add water and dissolve it well, keep aside for sometime so that the jaggery gets dissolved completely.Now strain using a strainer to remove the impurities and keep aside.



2. Now switch on stove and add strained jaggery water/syrup in a wide pan and add elachi powder. Stir continously and check it throughout so that we dont leave the consistency.



3. Consistency check : Keep a seperate bowl ready filled with water.Take a drop of jaggery syrup and put it in water, it should stand firm and not dissolve. It should form a slightly hard but flexible ball when you roll it with your fingers and see. When this consistency is reached, add the pori and switch off.



4. Now stir well, so that pori gets completely coated with the jaggery syrup. By the time of stirring, the hotness would be hand bearable.



5. Grease your palms and roll them into tight balls. Dont let it cool else it would be hard to roll them into balls.Store in airtight container and enjoy!

Karthigai Deepam is a festival of lights, celebrated in the Tamil month of Kaarthigai. It is celebrated on the full moon day of the Kaarthigai month which coincides with Krithikai star. It is also considered as the extension of the Deepavali festival. The lighted lamp is considered an auspicious symbol. It is believed to ward off evil forces and usher in prosperity and joy. While the lighted lamp is important for all Hindu rituals and festivals, it is indispensable for Karthigai.

Rows of agal vilakkus (oil lit lamps) in front of every house... this is the image that at once comes to mind when we think of Karthigai Deepam - the festival of lights that is celebrated throughout Tamil Nadu during the month of Karthigai (November-December). Not many of us are aware that it is one of the oldest festivals celebrated in the state, perhaps even before people began celebrating Deepavali and Navarathri.

Hope you all have fun lighting lamps and bursting crackers. See you all in the next post!!