Pineapple Halwa ~ Halwa Recipes

There have been days when I thought what next fruit to make into a halwa. Not that I particularly like Halvas but there is things fixation on making a halwa that comes with a deep fitted passion of getting a halwa done. I love Tirunelveli halwa but well it is not an easy task to make. One can get settled down with something else in most cases right. 

This Pineapple Halwa was waiting patiently for over months. Pineapple is one of my favorite fruits. Infact I enjoy chopping down the fruit. Athamma always gets father in law to get pineapple for us when he visits us. On one such occasion he got two fruits and we were at fits trying to decide what to make other than eating it as such. I remembered the many times I used to make Pineapple Upside down Cake a decade ago. Well I am sure I will make it one of these days.

When for Sankranthi, Athamma made this halwa I felt it was more of a toffee too. One that we can roll into balls and gift.

Pineapple Halwa

Pineapple puree - 1 cup
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Milk - 2 tbsp
All purpose flour - 1 tsp
Ghee - 1 tsp

Method to prepare:

Wash, trim the pineapple into chunks, make a puree in a mixer.

Heat a thick bottom pan, add the pineapple puree, bring it boil. Then simmer add the sugar.

Dissolve the flour in milk and slowly add to the boiling puree.

When you find the mix is almost coming from the sides, add the ghee and continue stirring well.

When the mix is almost thicken, remove from flame.

We didn't allow to thicken further to make a burfi, it was quite in a liquid form.

I enjoyed this more as making this into a small balls, which tasted as toffees.

Update: Sending this to Nivedita's Celebrate Sweets - Halwa event!

Other Halwa recipes

Kalakand Recipe | How to make Kalakand in Microwave | Step by Step Recipe

I finally got myself a new microwave oven. After the 7 years old one gave way, we lived without one for nearly 2 months and the live intern was hard! I never thought we were so dependent on that. Hubby dear always complained that I never really used it to the full potential. I told that I have an event running on it and have made so many dishes. Still he wasn’t convinced.

Anyway finally he agreed that a new one was necessary. When it came home, we again had to wait for couple of days for the demo to happen. When it all was done, Athamma was insisting that I make a sweet as the first dish. Since the company has a live demo happening every week, I thought I might attend that to know more about the oven.

It was an interesting session that went on for 2.5 hours with the lady demoing us some four different dishes. Since she anyway made gravy and about 3 different sweet dishes, I decided to make the Kalakand. I strongly regretted not taking my camera with me! I had previously had made thiratai pal in microwave, so I know it comes out great.

The recipe was a breeze and gets done in 4 mins. That quick! And I have a big assignment written already on what different dishes I have to make in it. Well if you have something in mind, tell me know, I will try in microwave.

Get all the ingredients together!

In a bowl, add each of them and mix well.

one by one..

Finally goes the condensed milk

Micro for 3.30 minutes

This is after the 2nd minute in microwave

At 3 minute!

At 3.30 minute, remove add 1 tsp of ghee, stir well.

Like this..

Then spread it on a plate, allow it to rest

Yeah before that garnish with pistas..

Kalakand Recipe | How to make Kalakand in Microwave | Step by Step Recipe

Homemade Paneer – 200 gms (I made from 1 liter milk)
Milk powder – 3/4 cup
Icing sugar - 1/2 cup
Condensed Milk – 200 gms
Cardamom powder a pinch
Pistachio handful
Clarified Butter – 1 tsp

Method to prepare:

You can make paneer at home else buy it from stores. I feel store bought tends to be more hard and sour. Making it home hardly takes time.

In a microwave safe bowl, take paneer, milk power, icing sugar, cardamom powder, mix. Finally add half tin of condensed milk.

Micro for 4 mins and 30 secs. Remove and add 1 tsp of ghee. Mix well and put it back. Micro for 30 secs more.

Remove and pour over a plate. Since there is ghee in the mix, you need not grease the plate.

Sprinkle finely slivered pistas. Let it cool down completely before cutting into small pieces.

If you are in a hurry to eat off, you don’t have to wait for it to cool down. I know the hot kalakand will be very delicious, similar to our palkova.

It takes about 30 -40 mins to cool down to be cut into pieces.

Enjoy every bit of it. Kalakand was extremely sweet and filling, so adjust your sweet as per your taste.

This month’s Indian Cooking Challenge Pani Puri will be published on dot 12 am, check it out!

Baigan 65 / Baingan 65 ~ Another Deep fried Love!

It can't get any better, seriously. Since Sunday the climate has been so awesome, drizzling most of the time. How different it was from last week, it was scorching hot, sweating profusely, panting for breath. While this week it was simply too wonderful for words. Such days makes you feel lazy, wanting for scrolls that you can take imaging yourself transported to a hill station. Well reality shows something different. Our roads hardly suit for a stroll nor for a leisure outing.

Anyways we are enjoying till it lasts. We went for a Tamil movie Singam and had a fun time feeling the flying experience. Konda was literally rolling over the antics and thoroughly enjoyed herself. Luckily it didn't rain while we ventured out. With the weather being so good, you obviously crave for hot snacks. But I wasn't really in the mood to prepare anything.

It was at that strategical moment I got a call from Amma that she made something she happened to read about. On closer look, the dish surely looked like baigan and knew it was deep fried. It beckoned us to promptly eat, but I exercised a bit of refrain and controlled enough to click few pictures. So don't blame if the pictures are not clear enough to make you drool, but the taste is sure enough.

I asked Amma about the name, she said it is called Baingan 65 and has no clue why the 65 was tagging along the name. Who really cares? The dish is simple enough and tasty. Of course you got to first have deep fried love okay!

Baingan 65

To be deep fried

Brinjal - 250 gms
All purpose flour/ Maida - 3 tsp
Besan / Gram flour - 2 tsp
Red chili powder - 1 tsp
Garam Masala - 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste
Oil for deep frying

To be fried

Green chilies, slit - 3 nos
Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp
Curds/ Yogurt - 1/2 cup
Oil - 1/2 tsp

Method to prepare:

Wash and cut the brinjal into long pieces. In a bowl, mix the flours along with red chili powder, salt, turmeric, garam masala along with brinjals. Sprinkle just enough water to get the flour stick to the baigans.

Heat a pan with oil, deep fry the baigans till crispy. Remove, keep aside.

Heat another pan with 1 tsp of oil, add slit green chilies, cumin seeds. When the cumin seeds starts crackling, add the curds, and cook till it thickens. Ensure the flame is low.

When the curds is almost done, add the fried brinjals and continue cooking till it becomes dry.

Serve hot with sauce. You really don't need the sauce, believe me!
The brinjal doesn't get soft because you got to really cook the curds and then add the fried brinjal

Especially when you saute the green chilies and they almost loose their spice level, it tastes really delicious!

Best way to eat I would vouch, is to take a bite of the green chili along with the baingan!

Hyacinth Bean, Brinjal Mango Curry ~ Anumulu Vankaya Mamidikaya pulusu

I survived two days already! Yes Konda's school reopened and we managed two days well. Now the ball is set to roll and I am sure we won't even feel the days flying past us in a rocket speed. With last 45 days being so relaxing in the mornings, I know it is going to be hectic and after two weeks even more so. I was telling Konda that she should tell me her choice for lunch ahead so that I can plan. So will have to prepare the menus for the next week.

Unexpectedly it rained, and what a day it has been since morning. I happened to go out in bike and enjoyed the entire ride. Infact might have wanted to go on and on! Peddu and Chinnu have been enjoying their vacation still with Dhoom 2, believe me I don't know how one can survive that for 30 times, but we did. we have. It is still going on in the background even as I am writing this. 

Before I get on to the recipe, wanted to let you that MEC this month is hosted by Kamalika themed on Delicious Dals, do send in your entries.

At times when you find you need to quickly make some gravy to go with rice, this could suit very well. Amma had the mochas soaked and while I prepared the Sunday Non Veg Lunch, she quickly whipped this for both of us. 

This is an authentic andhra dish, though you may have traces of Tamil cuisine in it as we can hardly at times seperate the two. We don't complain ok.

A bit of translation.

Annumulu is Hyacinth Bean
Vankaya - Bringal
Mamidikaya - Mango
Pulusu of course means anything that is liquid in form to be eaten with Rice

Annumula Vankaya Mamidikaya Pulusu

Dried Mocha - 1 cup

Brinjal - 2 medium

Raw Mango - 2 medium slices

Shallot Onions - handful

Mustard Seeds - 1/2 tsp

Curry leaves - 4-5 nos

Garlic - 3-4 cloves

Tomatoes - 1 medium

Turmeric powder a pinch

Sambar powder - 1 tsp

Tamarind pulp - 2 tsp

Salt to taste

Oil - 2 tsp

Method to prepare:

Dry roast the mocha, then pressure cook with 2 cups of water till tender, Keep it aside

Peel small onions, garlic and chop into small chunks,

Heat a pan, add mustard seeds, curry leaves, small onions, garlic, saute till onions are turn pick. 

Then add tomato, fry well. Sprinkle Salt and cook in sim till it turns little soft. 

Add Brinjal peices, saute well. Then add turmeric, Sambar powder, simmer till all is cooked, 

Once brinjal turns soft, add tamarind pulp, add raw mango pieces and water and bring to boil, then simmer for 5 mins. 

Finally add the cooked Mocha to the curry and bring to boil. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Serve with steamed Rice.

How to make Mango Shrikhand | Aamrakhand | Thanda Mela

The late nights, the even later mornings, burning the midnight lamps not for school but because you couldn't keep off the fiction you took to read. Enjoying a heavy breakfast, then dashing off to play with friends. Reluctantly coming back home for lunch. But happy that you can then continue reading another book. Come 5 in the evening, off to play a game of shuttle. Followed by a stroll in the lush greens of the neighbourhood. Back home for dinner and slipping away again to meet friends.  Coming back home finally to tug at the curtains to ensure no trace of the night lamp sneaking out. Spending another long night devouring the pages at length, trying to beat the author on his story.

This was how I remember all my summer vacations to have been. Later in years, it was mulling over cookbooks to bake pizzas and cakes or make the best of the season by dishing out many Mango dishes. The many cartons of mangoes that came our way found themselves dressed up as ice creams, soufflés, cakes, drinks and what not! Of course I wasn't adventurous to attempt at a curry, though I wish I did. All this flashed across my mind because I read  Tintin's The Crab with the Golden Claws late last night. I love each and every one of them, though this is more special because he meets Captain Haddock

And the fact that Konda's vacation comes to an end today and she will be now on to Class 5, which again was a very significant year for me. Though I must say I remember each and every year as clearly as if it happened yesterday. Though I may not actually remember what happened yesterday! As always this past 1 and half months just flew but I know for a fact that she spent most of her time watching TV and then playing with her friend K. I did give her some story books to read. Maybe she is yet to get the love for books. Of course we kept her occupied with lots of activities, coming to which, yes I have finally put up the Kid's Delight - Activities and Cooking with Kids event.

Yes I have a huge bag full of books to be bound, luckily my father in law promised to help me. We will get it done before the last day! It is no fun if I don't get to it on the last day, really!
 

Coming to the recipe for today, I was thinking I will make lots of Mango based dishes. But with the lack of mangoes in our city, this was the lone mango dish that got prepared. I almost thought I may not have an entry for my own event, when Amma made this for us and I remembered the good ol' days eating this Shirkand
 

How to make Mango Shrikhand | Aamrakhand | Thanda Mela

Ingredients Needed:

Curds / Yogurt – 1 cup
Sugar – ¾ cup
Mango Pulp – 1 cup
Cardamom a pinch
Nuts – 1 tbsp

Hang Curds for 6 hrs. Then beat well with sugar till frothy.

Wash, dice and extract pulp from the mangoes. Beat the pulp again before adding to the curds.

Mix everything together along with cardamom, nuts. Refrigerate for couple of hours before serving.

This goes for my Thanda Mela. I am celebrating 3 years of blogging with this wonderful event. Hope you have your cool entries sent!

Peanut Chutney with Roasted Onions, Tomatoes ~ Indian Chutney

Resistance to change is often the most common thing to happen. Especially with food one can imagine the affinity towards food that we grew up with. One of the biggest challenges happen after marriage, when we get to learn what our spouse likes and how we got to change the spouse or change ourselves. Sometimes you can, sometimes you end up changing. But hey it is part of the institution right!

Believe me it starts with the smallest dish meaning from the chutney served for the breakfast to the main course. By chutney I no way say it is small still easier to make and decide in my opinion. So it started for me with Groundnut chutney. My friends always tease me, infact everybody who knows us tease us saying we have a groundnut factory. Meaning we make this 365 days, it ought to be such right. Little did they know that the trait is rather from the land our ancestors came and not just our own.

Anyway, coming to this and the point of assimilation, Athamma adds a variation to the chutney. She adds roasted tomatoes, Onions, Green chilis to the roasted Peanuts. While anything roasted and ground tastes awesome, I somehow couldn't accept the fact that the pure, exalted taste of Groundnut was marred with the amalgamation. True to the situation, they couldn't accept the fact that one could actually think of eating with just plain groundnut ground as chutney and on top not even seasoning it!

The passage of years mends lot of things. Yes it has mend so that that my in laws now eat the plain groundnut ground with or without seasoning. And I eat the one made with all roasted stuffs. This morning when I was busy working on something, I saw Athamma roasted the onions, tomatoes. I assumed she was planning to make something else. But to my surprise the next happened was, everything along with peanuts went into the mixer. Well well, this was one dish that I haven't shared and it is crime not to share one dish that I have come to like!

Peanut Chutney with Roasted Onion, Tomatoes

Roasted Groundnut - 1 cup (100 gms)
Green chillies - 3-4
Onion, medium - 1/2
Tamarind - marble size
Tomatoes - 1 medium
Salt to taste
Garlic pods - 5-6

Seasoning (optional)
Mustard seeds + Urud dal - 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves few
Oil - 1/2 tsp


Method to prepare:

Chop the green chillies to small bits, peel the onions, soak the tamarind to make it soft.

Heat a pan, add 1 tsp of oil, saute green chilies, onions, tomatoes until they become light brown. Allow it to cool.

Then take all the roasted ingredients along with peanuts in a mixer and grind to coarse consistency but not to coarse. This should not be a smooth paste.

This is served with Dosas and Idlis.

I know I haven't been able to post much, I have been busy cooking for the book. We made about 6 different pickles and will do doing a tasting and shooting tomorrow. Wish me luck to get the work done faster, days are nearer closer than I thought!

If you are interested to check out other Chutneys posted here, Visit the Chutney Index

Vermicelli Coconut Burfi

After what was a nomad life for the better half of the month, we are back to our routine with Athamma returning from her trip. I think she cut short her trip because of the simple fact that Chinnu refused to speak to her over the phone. While Peddu tried enticing her by promising never to ask for endless cups of Bourn vita to be eaten as snack or bullying her, Chinnu did a stunt of not talking to her. I tell you my boys know how to get their Nanamma back home.  As Konda is busy with her Summer activities that involves painting, swimming and stitching, she is not aware much of other things. For which I am thankful..:)

For those of you who wanted to know the progress of my book, well I finally was able to install the software to do the design. I can confess enough how much of a stress it was, trying to lay hands on the software to do the designing. When I finally installed it successfully, I was feeling so light as if I have the entire part done. Well I know the big work starts now. On the recipe part, I am so tempted to include so many but will again have to audit on how many to take in and include for later.

Coming to the recipe for the day, it is a sweet dish that Amma made the other day after getting inspired by the telly. There are so many cookery shows in the TV these days that one can get worked up seeing so many aired at the same time. Most times it will be a fun thing watching Athamma or Amma trying to watch all the shows in one go. They check out one show, if it is not good, switch to the other. They simply watch for the fun of shows as most never get to be done nor even being jotted down. But they do attempt at dishes when it calls for ingredients that are readily available with them like this one. Amma adapted this to suit her way of cooking.

Vermicelli Coconut Burfi

Vermicelli - 1 cup
Sugar - 1 cup
Fresh Coconut, grated - 1/2 cup
Milk - 1 cup
Cardamom  a pinch
Cashew nuts
Raisins
Ghee/ Clarified Butter for roasting

Method to Prepare:

Heat a pan with ghee and roast the vermicelli till golden in colour. Keep it aside. Then roast the nuts, raisins and remove.

Boil the milk and add the vermicelli, simmer till done.

Add sugar and stir well to get the sugar dissolved. Simmer and continue to cook till the vermicelli is done and the milk is all evaporated.

At this stage add the grated coconut and mix well. When you find the mix is coming together, you can add the roasted nuts and raisins.

Grease a plate with ghee and quickly spread this mix over it. Cut into diamond shaped Burfis and decorate with nuts if you want.

This made a good one to make when you are in a hurry as it gets done really fast.

Enjoy your weekend!

Silky temptation of thin finely roasted Vermicelli, cooked over slow flame with milk boiling to thickness though not enough to cut through with knife, sweeten with a bowlful of sugary granules, thicken with pristine white, flowery coconut that was grated with a swollen elbow, that tastes to juicy if you sneak in between the cooking, crowned with jewels enough to put a ruby to shame, that swam in a hot oil to balloon twice its size and with a nutty taste of the cashews in between. If you had removed a while before it would have been called kheer, a moment later it evolves itself as The Burfi!

Well wondering what all this is about! Sra and Nandini tempted me to describe food that was cooked, this is the best I could've get at..:)