Sakarai Pongal

This is a traditional, festive sweet in India, one of my favorite sweet.

Ingredients:

• Raw White Rice (Pachaarusi) - 1 cup
• Cane Sugar - 1 cup or 1 1/2 as per your requirement
• Ghee - 6 teaspoons
• Cardamon powder - 1 teaspoon
• Milk - 100 ml
• Cashews - 10
• Sultanas - 15
  

Method:

• Cook the rice with 3 cups of water. The rice should be cooked well so that you can mash it with a potato masher.
• Melt the cane sugar in 1/4 cup of water, filter the melted sugar syrup and add it to the cooked rice and mix.
• Keep the rice and sugar mixture in medium heat and add warm milk, cardamon powder and 4 teaspoons of ghee and mix all together.
• Fry cashews and sultanas and add it to the Pongal.
• Serve Sakarai Pongal warm.
  

Coconut Burfi

Ingredients:

Sherreded Coconut - 1 cup
Sugar - 3/4 cup or 1 cup according to your sweet tooth
Cardamon powder - 1 teaspoon
Ghee - 3 teaspoons
Cashews - 8 (optional)
Yellow food color - 1 teaspoon (optional)
Water - 3/4 cup
Method:

• Cashews or optional but I like the added flavor it gives to the burfi.
• Grind the coconut and cashews to a coarse powder. Do not make it as fine powder the burfi should have the bite to it.
• In a heavy bottom or non-stick pan add the sugar and water and prepare the sugar syrup.
• If you take the syrup in between your fingers and slowly separate your fingers a thread like consistency should come then the sugar syrup is ready.
• Now add the grinded coconut, yellow color and cardamon and keep stirring.
• When all the water is absorbed add 2 teaspoons of ghee and stir it until the mixture gets a folding consistency.
• Grease a flat plate with ghee and transfer the mixture to the plate and spread it evenly.
• Cut into preferred size and shape pieces.
  

Tips:

Consistency is very important if you cook for more time the burfi will become very dry and hard. When the mixture starts getting the folding consistency immediately remove from heat.

Sweet Panniyaram

Ingredients:

• Idly rice - 400 gms
• Raw White Rice (Pachaarusi) - 400 gms
• Urad Dhal - 100 gms
• Fenugreek seeds - half teaspoon
• Cane Sugar (Vellam) cubes - 500 gms

Method:

• You need to prepare the dough a day before cooking.
• Soak Idly Rice, Raw White Rice, Urad Dhal and Fenugreek in water for 1 hour
• Grind the soaked mixture to a smooth paste. Dont add too much water the dough should be bit hard.
  
• Leave the dough to ferment all night.
• In the morning, melt the Vellam in hot water and filter it.
• Add the melted Vellam into the dough and mix well.
• Pour the dough in panniyaram pan and cook on both sides with oil.

Carrot Halwa

Ingredients:

• Shredded Carrot - 5 medium sized
• Sugar - 150 gms
• Milk - 250 ml
• Elachi or Cardamon - 5
• Sweetened Condensed Milk - 100 ml
• Almond or Badam - 8 or 10
• Cashews - 8 or 10
• Sultana's - 2 teaspoons
• Ghee or Butter - 100 gms

Method:

Heat a non-stick pan which has wide mouth and melt the ghee. Cut the Almond and Cashews into 2 pieces and add to the ghee and fry for a minute. Add the sultana's and fry until the sultana's popup. Add the shredded carrot and fry for a minute. Add the milk, reduce the flame and keep stirring. When all the milk is absorbed and the carrot is cooked add cardamon powder and sugar. Keep stirring for 2 minutes and add the condensed milk. Fold in the condense milk and cook in low flame for 5 mins. Carrot Halwa is ready to serve warm. I like warm carrot halwa and vanilla icecream.

Tips:

Sugar quantity can be adjusted as required, if you use sweetened condense milk sugar can be used as mentioned above.

If you dont like condense milk or it is not available, boil full cream milk in a non stick pan until it is reduced to half and you can add the reduced milk as alternate to condensed milk. In this case you might need to add more sugar.

Kagchayam

Ingredients

• Plain Flour or Maida - 1 cup or 200 gms
• Banana - 1 (if small add 2)
• Elachi or Cardamon - 4
• Sugar - 5-6 teaspoons(adjust as required)
• Baking soda a pinch

Method:

Peel the skin off cardamon and grind to powder along with sugar. Mash the banana in a bowl, add Plain Flour, sugar and cardamon powder, baking soda and combine all the ingredients together. Add very little water to bind the ingredients together. Make small balls of the mixture and deep fry in oil. Sweet Kagchayam is my childhood favorite.

Sweet Kolukattai

Ingredients

• White Raw Rice or Pachaarusi - 800 gms
• Moong Dhal(Paasi Paruppu)- 200 gms
• Cane Sugar(Vellam) - 600 gms
• Sherreded Coconut - 1 cup
• Ghee - 50 gms

Method:

Wash rice and dhal and spread on to a cloth and allow it to dry under sunlight. After all the water has drained grind the rice and dhal coarsely. Fry the grinded mixture in a dry pan to light brown color. Melt the Cane sugar in 10 tumlers of water. When cane sugar is melted and comes to slight boil add the grinded rice and dhal mixture and keep stirring without forming lumps. Add ghee little by little. Once the mixture is cooked remove it from heat and sherrded coconut and mix it. Make small balls of the mixture and steam cook for 5-8 mins. Sweet Kollukatai is ready.