Pineapple Rava Kesari | Pineapple Kesari Bath

For want of a better reason, I settled down to say that I wanted to share this Pineapple Kesari for starting with a sweet this new year. I hardly ever give in for such sentiments, however I thought it's never too late to begin now. 

As I said in my recap, I am never too keen on having any resolutions. I have seen myself breaking those resolutions the first chance I get and decided long back never to strain on planning to have anything specific. Still it is always good if we have a definite plans and that I decided would be to cook and experience all those foods that I keep wanting to make and never get around making it myself.

Pineapple Kesari

Coming to one such dish, this Pineapple Kesari would fit the bill so well. I have been wanting to make this for a long time and never had a good chance at making it. Since we ended up getting the whole fruit, and I made that Pineapple Upside down cake, I thought I might as well make this too. So one stroked out of my long to do list.

The kesari came out so well. I followed the same process I do for making the regular Kesari bath. Normally the juice is not added and is made with just water. I added juice and also used milk. The only risk you run when you use milk is, it will cuddle, the moment you add the tart pineapple juice. However if you are fine with the creamy cuddled milk, you are just fine.

 

Pineapplie Rava Kesari

Ingredients Needed:

Semolina / Rava - 1 cup
Milk - 1 & 1/2 cup
Pineapple pieces - 1 cup
Pineapple Juice - 3/4 cup
Sugar - 1 cup
Cardamom a pinch
Cashew nuts and Raisins - 5 each
Ghee - 2 tbsp
Yellow food colour a pinch

How to make the Pineapple Kesari

In a non stick pan, heat ghee and roast the cashews, raisins till done. Remove the nuts, add the semolina and roast well. Remove and keep aside one done.

Now to the pan, add the milk and bring to boil. Simmer and add the pineapple juice, pieces along with food colour. Simmer for couple of minutes. Then add the rava and mix well. It will take about 6 - 7 mins for the rava to get cooked.

Then add the sugar and cardamon. Combine everything well.

Simmer and continue cooking for another 5 mins.

Finally add the roasted dry fruits along with ghee, mix everything well and remove

Notes:

As I have mentioned, the milk will tend to cuddle because of the tartness in pineapple. Simply use water if you want to avoid that.

Adjust sugar and ghee as per your paste.

Other Kesari Recipes

Kesari Bhath
Sooji ka Halwa | Suji ka Halwa Recipe in Microwave
Corn Rava Kesari with Palm Sugar
Vermicelli Kesari ~ Semiya Kesari!

Other Halwa Recipes

Corn Rava Kesari with Palm Sugar, Dried Green Chana Sundal ~ Navratri Special Dishes

For today's Navratri Pooja, it's second day for Goddess Lakshmi. It has to be a Kesari, so I made a kesari with Corn Rava and Palm Sugar / Panang Kalkandu. Palm sugar can be used as alternative to white sugar. Unless you are told that the kesari is made using Palm Sugar, you won't really find much difference in taste. PJ has a wonderful post on what Palm Sugar is all about.

Since I have made Kesari with all possible grains/ingredients, seeing the corn rava got me thinking that I could make kesari with it and use Palm sugar instead of refined sugar. 

For the Sundal, we made with dried Green Channa, with simple tempering. Since today is Friday, Lord Ganesha is also invoked along with Goddess Lakshmi. To please Lord Ganesha, nothing can please him more than Kolukattai with Coconut purnam. 

So today's prasadam was Corn Rava Kesari with Palm Sugar, Green Chana Sundal and Kolukattai.

Corn Rava Kesari with Palm Sugar

Ingredients Needed:

Corn Rava - 1 cup
Palm Sugar - 1 cup
Water - 4 cups
Cashew nuts - handful
Ghee - 2 tsp

How to make Kesari

Pound the palm sugar and melt with enough water. Once melted, remove the scum if anything found. Keep it aside.

Heat a pan with ghee with cashew nuts, then add the rava. Saute well. Add melted palm sugar to the pan and bring to boil.

Simmer and cook till done.

Notes:

Pressure cooking the corn will make the task of cooking this easy. First I had cooked it directly, though the kesari got cooked well, it got dried up fast with the corn kernels getting dried up. So I had to microwave it for 10 mins with 1 cup water.

So if you Pressure cook the corn kernels, this is very easy to get done.

Dried Green Channa

Greed Chana - 1 cup

For Tempering

Oil - 1 tsp

Mustard Seeds, Urad dal - 1/4 tsp

Green Chilies - 2 long

Salt to taste

Soak the dried green chana overnight and pressure cook till done.

Then temper the boiled chana with the tempering ingredients.

Navaratri 2012 Recipes | Easy Recipes for Navratri

Indian Festival Foods

Samba Godumai Sakkarai Pongal with Moong Dal, Double Beans Sundal ~ Navratri Special Dishes

The second three days are dedicated to Goddess Lakshmi, and the prasadams will have to be sweet based, mostly with Jaggary, we we can use sugar as well. So decided to make a Sakkarai Pongal with Samba Godumai, fine. The previous time when I had made a Sambar Godumai sweet pongal, the rava was thicker version and I had used other spices as well. I kept it to very simple version like the regular Sakkarai Pongal.

Today's version is made with very fine rava of Samba Godumai and along with Moong dal, channa dal. Other than nuts and ghee, this version is very simple and quick to make. 

We have been having heavy rains since last night. We woke up to heavy rains and decided not to send the boys for school. Konda wanted to go as she had some tests and I think she wanted to enjoy the trip through rains. I remembered my school days, when I never used to miss even a day, even when it was raining cats and dogs. It's been a tough task keeping the boys engaged. They ended up finding out their own games and have been on a rampant of different games. Well that had our help going out of her wits. Anyway the unexpected off gave them many ideas.

Coming back to the dishes, I also made a simple sundal with Double beans. I remember Amma cooking so much with Double Beans. All her biryanis always had fresh double beans. Athamma remembered this and took a packet when we shopped.  

Now that we have got different grains, flours and lentils, you will be assaulted to different variations of these ingredients. What else will you say, when I ended up making Bansi Rava Kesari, Samba Goduma Sweet Pongal and next on my list will have to be something different! Gosh I have exhausted my ideas on twisting and turning the same ingredients into either pongal or kesari..:) That's not to say this wasn't delicious. We really enjoyed the taste the rava gives.

Sweet Pongal with Fine Broken Wheat

Ingredients Needed:

Broken Wheat Fine - 1/2 cup
Yellow Moong Dal  - 1/2 cup
Channa Dal - 1 tsp
Jaggary - 1/2 cup
Water - 1 cup
Milk - 2 tbsp

Cashew Nuts handful
Ghee - 1 tsp

Method to prepare:


Melt jaggary in another pan. Remove scum if any.



Pressure cook the moong dal and channa dal till done. Add the samba goduma to the pressure cooker along with jaggary. Cook for couple of whistles.

When the pressure falls, remove and add milk. In another pan, heat ghee roast the cashews. Add to the pongal.

Double Beans Sundal

Ingredients Needed:

Double Beans - 1/2 cup
Curry leaves
Mustard Seeds, Urad Dal - 1/2 tsp
Green Chilies - 1 long
Dry Red chilies - 1 long
Hing a pinch
Salt to taste
Grated Fresh Coconut.

How to make the sundal

Soak the beans overnight and change water before pressure cooking them. This needs more than 4 whistles as the beans are dry ones.

Once done, drain and keep it aside.

Heat a pan with oil temper with curry leaves, mustard seeds, urad dal, hing, and chilies. Saute for a minute and then add the drained beans. Simmer for couple of minutes.

Serve as prasadam.

Navaratri 2012 Recipes | Easy Recipes for Navratri

Indian Festival Foods

Coconut Poli ~ How to make Coconut Poli

For Ganesh Chaturthi this year, the new sweet that I decided to make was Coconut Poli. I anyway have to make Dal poli and Kozhukattai, so decided that making Coconut Poli was the best dish to make in the given situation. It turned out so well and I hope Ganeshji was happy with this sweet. 

Exams got over for the kids and they have vacation for the next ten days. I wonder what we are going to plan for their entertainment and keep them occupied, so that they don't get bored and yet learn something new. 

Coconut Poli

Ingredients Needed:

All purpose flour / Maida - 2 cups
Coconut, grated -1 cup
Jaggary - 1 cup
Cardamon powder a pinch
Oil for the dough - 3 tbsp
Oil for cooking 1 tsp for each

How to make the Coconut Poli

For the dough:

In a wide bowl, take the flour, a small pinch of salt, slowly add water to knead to a soft pliable dough. Then add the oil and incorporate well into the dough. Knead till you get the dough soft and non sticky. Cover with a wet muslin cloth and rest for at least 30 mins. For best results you can rest it for atleast an hour or so.

For the stuffing:

Grate the coconut and keep it aside. Melt the jaggary in a pan with just water to cover it. Once it melts, remove the scum and add the grated coconut in and continue cooking with the mix becomes thick to handle and not runny.

Add cardamon powder and switch.

For making the poli.

For step by step pictures refer dal polis

Divide the coconut stuffing into small balls, pinch out small balls of the dough, place the stuffing in the middle and cover on all sides with dough. Flatten using your greased fingers.

Heat a tawa with oil and cook the rolled out polis on both sides.

Serve oil

Ganesh Chaturthi Greetings ~ 2012 | Vinayaka Chavithi Subhakanshalu | Festival Dishes for Ganesh Chaturthi

"Vinayaka Chaturthi Subhakanshalu to all my readers!"

We just finished our pooja and kids are running around. While I thought I would quickly wish and share our this year's pictures.

This year our twins joined us for getting the Ganesh Idol home. They were so amazed by the crowd and the many Ganesh Idols on display. They had learnt Ganesh prayer and knew couple of rituals done for Ganesh's birthday. When they saw the umbrella for the idol, they also wanted one for each.

Finally after the shopping we came back and started the pooja preparation, which I went on with my neivedhyam preparation.

We need to make the regular dishes for this pooja, so only new one I got around making was the Coconut Poli.

Last year was an elaborate three day affair, while this year we decided to do the pooja for a day.

Our Neivedhyam for Ganesh were

Sweet Poli
Coconut Poli
Sundal
Kudumulu
Nugul untallu ~Sesame Laddoo
Ellu Purana Kozhukattai 
Lemon Rice
Vankai Uurulagadda Kura 

Will be back tomorrow with Coconut Poli recipe

Other Ganesh Chaturthi Recipes

Please check out our previous years celebrations:
Vinayaka Chaturthi Pooja 2007
Vinayaka Chaturthi Pooja 2008
Vinayaka Chaturthi Pooja 2009
Vinayaka Chaturthi Pooja 2010 
Vinayaka Chaturthi Pooja 2011  


Enjoy your festival day!

Mysore Pak (Hard) Recipe | Diwali Sweets

This post is almost a week late in making an appearance. When I think of some of those delicious recipes that are yet to be out, this is fine. I am sure many of you know about the melt in the mouth types of Mysore Pak that's sold in the shops. There is another version of this delicious sweet that's mostly done at home and that's the hard version of Mysore Pak, which has those characteristic honeycomb texture and design. What makes this recipe even more interesting is the fact that you can make this with the leftover sugar from the other sweets.

Imagine after helping Amma so many years in our Deepavali sweets and savories, this simple point somehow missed me. I was so surprised by the innovation our mothers come up with. The sugar syrup that was left out after preparing Kaja, was used to make this Mysore Pak. So you really don't have to worry about the Mysore pak being soft. Harder it is, it's better.

I know the weather right now is not really suitable for sweets, pakodas might be very inviting. It's been pouring non stop for the past week or so. It's been worse today and I came back home early. Riding through the rain, not bothered about getting drenched, enjoying every single moment, makes it so wonderful. Of course one shouldn't think about how unprepared the city is for rains. I wish govt takes some efforts to make things better.

Anyway with the rain lashing at the background, kids studying for their mid terms that's going to start next week, I will leave you with the recipe using leftover Sugar syrup to make Hard Mysore Pak. If you are in mood to savour something that lasts for a while, then this is something that you would choose rather than those melt in the mouth types of Mysore Paks.

This was part of our Deepavali Sweets this year.

Not only has Amma reduced the usage of ghee, she has replaced it with some cooking oil.

For making Mysore Pak, with step by step pictures you can check out the soft version.

Making hard Mysore Pak with leftover sugar syrup after making Kaja.

Mysore Pak (Hard)

Besan / Bengal Gram flour - 1 cup
Sugar - 2 cups
Ghee - 1 cup
Oil - 1/2 cup

Method to prepare:

In a kadai heat ghee and oil together till it is warm. Simmer for couple of minutes.

In another non stick pan, roast the besan on low flame.

Melt the sugar by adding just enough water to cover and remove the impurities.

Continue boiling it for couple of more minutes. Soon you will have a one thread consistency.

Add the besan to the sugar syrup and mix everything together. Then slowly add the ghee oil mix little by little.

Grease a plate or a square tin ready with ghee.

When you are done with all the ghee, continue stirring briskly for another couple of minutes when you see the batter leaving the sides, it means the paak is done.

Immediately pour it on the greased plate. Wait for 10 minutes, before making marks on the top.

Allow it to cool completely before breaking it.

Notes: We had about 1 cup of sugar leftover, we added 1 more cup which needed to be cooked for removing impurities.

Mini Kaja ~ Andhra Sweets | Diwali Sweets | Step by Step Recipes

After a week long holidays on account of Deepavali, the school reopened today for the boys. For Konda the school was closed because of the rains. Whatever was the reason, it so happened that all of them had a long vacation and it was tough for them to get back to school. Anyway one fun part was the fact that the boys were asked to wear colour dress, meaning non uniform. I remember my own childhood, when we all used to go to school in our Deepavali dress and used to check out everybody's new dress. Somehow the feeling is not the same now. It used to be a single dress for us, and we used to make sure we had the best accessories and enjoyed the day to the core.

Somehow I feel that kids these days don't really give much importance to what a festival dress would mean. Each of them get about 3 - 4 dresses and that really makes it very regular. At least the feeling that it's a new dress makes them very excited. Another thing that I noticed on the Diwali eve on the roads, was the fact that almost everybody were seen in new cloths. It was rather interesting factor. What with the insistent rains, it was a scene with everybody trying to cover themselves best.

Another interesting topic will be the movies that get released for the Diwali. Two high budget movies got released and we are waiting for the reviews to come in. Hubby dear is waiting for the booking to be opened, which may not be for another two weeks or so. We are not movie buffs but try to watch movies if they turn out to be interesting.

Coming to the recipe for today, it's another Kaja recipe on showcase. Rather it's the old recipe in new form. Couple of months back, when we eat at Hotel Bliss in Tirupati, I was served a sweet that I don't eat. I requested for a replacement and I was happy to see this treat being offered. It was a kaja in mini version, hot from the pan and such a delight to eat. Ever since then I was telling Amma about it and finally when she made her regular Kajas, I told her that I ought to make a mini version of the kajas, as I had to take for my colleagues.

Taking these mini Kajas were good as nobody has to share or break this delicious sweet. Just pop into your month to enjoy!

The recipe is very much the same as the Bombay Kaja. Only difference is the way you make it. Unlike the Andhra Kaja, where about 3 -4 layers are stacked and then rolled out, this is made with a single layer rolled out and then made.

Mini Kaja
Same as how Bombay Kaja is made.

Ingredients Needed

Maida - 1 & 3/4 cup
Baking Soda - a pinch
Ghee (solid and firm) - 1 tbsp

For Pathir

Rice flour - 2 tbsp
Ghee - 2 tbsp

Oil for deep frying

For Syrup

Sugar - 1 & 1/4 cup
Water - just enough to cover the sugar

How to make Mini :

For the dough:

Sieve the maida with baking soda in a wide bowl. Add the ghee and rub well. Slowly add water and knead to a stiff dough. Let it rest for a while with a wet cloth. By the time we got back to the dough, it was almost 15 - 20 mins.

For the pathir:

In a bowl, add the rice flour and ghee, beat well. When you add more ghee it becomes more flaky.

For the Sugar:

Add the sugar with just enough water to cover. Heat it till the sugar melts. If there are any impurities, remove. Then continue cooking to rolling boil. After 5 -7 mins, take a drop and check if it's reached 1 thread consistency. When you touch between thumb and index finger, you should get a single thread. Switch off the flame.

Rolling out the dough

Divide the dough into equal balls. Take one ball, cover the rest with wet cloth.

Dust the dough well and using a rolling pin, roll out to a medium thickness discs the size of a regular chapati. Spread the pathir all over the surface. Then starting from one side, roll inside as you get a rope. Press well to make sure the rope doesn't get off.

Then cut into small pieces. Again press these small pieces into a slight longer size using a rolling pin, as shown in the picture.

Have everything ready for frying together.

Heat a kadai with oil. When the oil gets hot, simmer. Add the rolled out kaja and cook on both sides.

When it turns colour and cooked on both sides, drain using a spatula and put into the sugar syrup. Let it be for 5 mins, remove to another plate.

Notes:

This variety of Kaja doesn't require resting time. Make the kajas into small shape so that it's easy to make and giveaway.

If you add little more ghee for the pathir, the kajas will be more flaky.

If the sugar syrup gets thick, you can add little more water, bring to boil. Make sure the syrup is thick.

Andhra Special Kaja
Bombay Kaja