Chocolate Maida cake - A Sweet

My sister and her 4 yr old daughter Gauri came from Gurgaon to spend a week with us. Her Kerala visit is after 5 years. I was busy for the one week she stayed with us. My brother-in-law likes this sweet very much and wanted me to send them through her. So on the day of her return, I prepared this.

Maida - 1 cup

Coco powder - 1 tablespoon

Sugar - 2 cups

Oil / Ghee - 3/4 cup ( I used 1/2cup of oil and rest ghee)

Water - almost a cup

Preparation
Seive maida and coco powder together so that they get mixed well.

Take a kadai. Add sugar and water and make sugar syrup of one string consistency.

Add the maida,coco mixture with out forming lumps.

When maida gets mixed with the syrup, add ghee little by little. This step willl take about 10 minutes.

When the mixture starts to leave the sides, transfer to a greased plate.

Allow it to cool for 10 minutes. Then cut into desired shape

I used twice the quantities mentioned here

Dates and Cashew Delight

A pudding with date balls in it. An absolutely yummy dessert, which will be favored by kids and adults alike. An ideal choice of dessert for kids party.

You need for the date balls:

Dates -200 gm
Cashew- 75 gm
Bananas – 2 Nos
Butter /Ghee- 50 gm
Sugar – 50 gm

For the custard you require

Milk – 1 cup
Custard powder – 4tspn
Sugar – 4 tbspn
Vanilla essence – ¼ tbspn

Prepare the date balls to be dropped in the custard

Finely chop dates, cashew and bananas separately.

Take a kadai, melt butter. Add dates.

Keep mixing it till it turns dark brown.

Add the chopped banana and cook till it is blended well with the dates.

Add sugar and mix till it reaches halwa consistency. Remove from fire

Allow it to cool. Make gooseberry size balls of the mixture and roll them over the chopped cashew and keep it aside.
If you want to reduce the calorie, you can skip this step of rolling over cashew. It tastes good without this also.


Now let us move on to custard preparation

Mix the custard powder with little milk. See to that no lumps are formed.

Add the mix to the remaining milk. Add sugar.

Boil the mix till it starts to thicken. Remove from fire.

Allow it to cool.
Drop the date balls into the custard.

Refrigerate and serve.

Kalathu Podi - To mix with rice and eat

Recipe for another podi.

Horsegram(Mudirai/Kollu) - 1 cup
Chana dal - 1/4 cup
Urad dal - 1/4 cup
Peppercorn - 4 nos
Jeera - 1 tspn
Red chilly - 4
Salt as required

Dry roast the dals separately, till nice aroma comes .
Roast the rest of the ingredients together.

When cool, powder the ingredients together fine ly,in a mixer grinder.

Mix with hot rice using oil/ghee. Serve papads or mezhukkuvaratti as accompaniment.

I eat with gingely oil even though I love to have with ghee

Copra Kalathupodi

Whole wheat dosa

This time I am posting a dosa out of whole grain.

Whole grains are believed to be nutritionally superior to refined grains, richer in dietary fiber, antioxidants, protein (and in particular the amino acid lysine), dietary minerals (including magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, and selenium), and vitamins (including niacin, vitamin B6, and vitamin E).
Source-wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_grain

Whole wheat - 2 cups
Raw rice (Pacharisi) - 1 cup
Cumin seeds - t tspn
Salt

Soak wheat for 8 hrs.
Rice need to be soaked for 3 hrs only. Soak then separately.
Grind both wheat and rice together to a smooth batter. Since we are using whole wheat, u may find the skin of the wheat not grinded fine. Thats alright.
Add salt and allow it to ferment.
Before making dosas, add a tspn of cumins seeds and start preparing dosa.
The dosa will not be very thin but not like uttappam also.

You can serve dosa with any chutney of your choice

Milagu Vellam

You need
Pepper powder -1 tspn
Turmeric - a pinch
Salt
Buttermilk/beaten curd - 1 cup
Water -1/2 cup

Seasoning
Ghee - 1 tspn
Mustard seeds -1/2 tspn
Red chilly - 1 nos
Methi seeds -1/2 tspn
Curry leaves

Boil half cup water.
Add pepper powder,turmeric and salt.

When it boils and starts to thicken, add buttermilk/beaten curd. When the quanity of water is reduced by nearly half, you can add buttermilk. You need not wait till it becomes a thick paste.
The conistency required is watery.

When the mixture starts to froth on the top, remove from fire. You should be careful at this stage, if you let it boil more, the curd/buttermilk will get curdled.

Take a pan. Add ghee. You can subsitute gingely oil for ghee. Add mustard, red chilly,
methi seeds and curry leaves. Add the seasoning to the milagu vellam.

The word vellam means Water in malayalam and malayalam words are an integral part of Kerala Iyer lingua. As the name suggests, the consistency of the gravy is watery. This is usually prepared for dinner in my house during rainy days.

Very light and healthy milagu vellam can be eaten with hot rice, with pappads or any vegetable side dish as accompaniments.

Chena Arachukalakki (Yam coconut chutney)

Arachukalakki is basically a variant of chutney. The basic ingredients for any type of arachukalakki is coconut, green chilly, curd/buttermilk.The vegetable used may vary. Depending on the vegetable,some ingredients are added.

Now coming to chena arachukalakki you require the following ingredients

Chenai/Yam cubed - 100 gms
Grated coconut - 1 cup
Green chilly - 3 Nos
Pepper corn - 5 nos
Tamrind paste - 1 tspn
Ginger - 1 small pcs
Salt

Seasoning

Oil - 1 tspn
Mustard seeds - 1 tspn
Asofeotida - 1/2 tspn
Red chilly - 2nos
Buttermilk/Beaten curd - 1 cup

Grind all the ingredients in a mixer to a caorse paste.
Do seasoning and add to the grinded mixture.
Pour the buttermilk to the pan which is used for seasoning. No need to boil it.
Add the buttermilk to the mixture and mix well. Adding buttermilk to the hot pan enhances the taste.

Arachukalakki can be served as main dish with hot rice and papad. Mostly it is served as side dish with molukkootal as main dish.
Salt pickled mangoes or gooseberry can be used for arachukalakki. In that only the basic ingredients are needed. Salt can be added later if required, since salted mango/gooseberry is used.

Banana Pepper Fry

Raw banana -2 Nos
Onion - 1
Green chillies – 4 nos
Ginger paste – 1 tspn
Fennel seeds – 1 tspn
Dhanya powder – 2 tspn
Crushed pepper – 2 tspn
Turmeric – a pinch
Tamarind paste – 2 tspn
Salt
Oil
Curry leaves

Remove the skin and cut banana lengthwise of 1 inch long pieces, as we cut for finger chips. (Not very thin)

Take a kadai. Add 2 tbspn oil. Add fennel seeds, curry leaves.
Then add finely chopped onion.

When onion is almost done, add banana pieces, slit green chilly, ginger paste, dhanya powder, turmeric and salt. Mix well. Sprinkle handful of water.

Cover and cook for 10 mts. With stirring once or twice in between
The mixture will turn dry with masala coated all over the pieces.
If you feel the banana pieces are not cooked well, sprinkle water , cover and cook for sometime.

Add crushed pepper and tamarind paste. Mix and cook for 2 minutes.

Remove from heat.

This spicy dish goes well with sambar rice, curd rice and with chappathis too.

Copra kalathupodi

Kalathupodi/parippu podi is a traditional powder mix which is made in all South Indian homes. Podi recipes varies from state to state, what even from family to family. I am sure every family will have their list of podis.This podi I believe is native to Andhra. I learnt this from mother-in-law. This podi is to be eaten with rice, mixed with ghee. Health freaks can substitute gingely oil for ghee. It also tastes good. I am a big fan of any kind of podis. My mom also makes different kinds of podi. Her recipes will follow soon.

When I started to write about podis, this podi came first to my mind, since it was an integral part in my college hostel days. Whenever we were able to smuggle rice out of hostel kitchen, we mix podi and ghee with rice. Our room senior used to make rice balls and pass it to all the room mates (We were 8 of us in a room).
You require
Grated copra - 1 cup
Roasted Chana dal/Pottu kadalai - 1/2 cup
Red chilly - 15 Nos
Hing - 1 tbspn
I use the Hing piece instead of powder. The piece when roasted and powdered retains the aroma much better than the powder version.

To powder
Slightly roast the chana dal. This is just to make it crisp.
Add a teaspoon of oil (I use Gingely oil). Fry the chillies.
Blend the copra in the mixer.
Remove and grind the chana dal. Seive it so that coarse particles can be grinded again.
Finally grind the red chillies. When it is alsmost powdered, add all the ingredients and salt as required.
The powder should not be very fine.

Tomato Chutney

I don't usually follow a fixed recipe for tomato and onion chutneys. It keeps changing with my mood and also the availability of raw materials. It is very rare that I repeat the same recipe. There will be some change in the list of ingredients used. Usually I don't give much thought to this. But once I started blogging, I am taking to my mind what all I use while making chutneys. I shall keep posting the variations as and when I make.
The first version goes here -

Urad dal - 1 tb spn
Red chilly - 4 Nos
Onion - 1
Medium Sized Tomato- 2
Curry leaves - 2 strand
Salt
Oil for frying

Take a pan. Add one tablespoon oil.
Add urad dal and red chilly. Fry till urad dal turns brown.
Remove dal and chilly from the pan.
Add chopped onion. Saute till it turns transparent
Add curry leaves.
Add chopped tomatoes and cook till tomatoes are done.
Grind all the ingredients together with salt to a fine paste.
Add a teaspoon of coconut oil to the chutney.

Wheat Rava Adai

An easy to prepare nutritious adai. (Adai is a form of dosa with little thickness)


You need

Wheat rava - 1 cup
Green chilly - 5 Nos
Small Onion(Sambar onion) - 10 nos
Tamarind paste - 2 tspn
Onion - 1
Coriander leaves
Salt

Preparation

Soak wheat rava for 2 hours. Just add enough water to cover the rava.
Dry grind green chilly,small onion, tamarind paste and salt in a mixer grinder.
Add the soaked rava to the grounded mixture and run the grinder once. This is just to blend all the ingredients.
The mixture should be in a semi solid state. It should not be watery at all
Add chopped onions and coriander leaves.
Mix well.

Heat an iron girdle or a non-stick pan. Grease with oil.
Take a lemon size of the mixture. Place it on the pan.
Flatten it using your fingers to the size of a puri.
Depending on the size of your pan, you can make 2/3 adais at a time.
When it is cooked on one side, flip over and cook the other side also.

You can serve the hot adais with tomato chutney or any pickle of your choice

Microwave Tips

Some tips for microwave oven usage, for our daily chores in the kitchen.
I shall be updating this post as and when I come across new tips.

1)
To bake corn, keep the corn with the skin for 2 minutes (micro power high).
Tilt the corn so that the upper part moves down. Keep for another 2 minutes.
Remove the peel and brush butter and salt

2)
To melt jaggery – Keep the jaggery in a microwave safe glass bowl. Add 2 tablespoon water. Keep for 2 minutes. You can strain the melted jaggery to remove the dirt, which are usually found.

3)
Sometimes we need grated coconut to be fried brown to add in curries or for making chutney powders.
Keep 1 cup grated coconut in the oven for 3 minutes. You can mix once in between. Coconut will be fried.
You may not get the brown color.
For that, take one spoon oil in a pan. Add the oven fried coconut.
Fry for a minute. It will turn brown.
If you have to do the whole process on the stove, you will need lot more oil and time

Wheat Coconut balls

A healthy sweet- Unlike most sweets where maida or besan is used, here it is wheat flour. Also ghee used is very minimal. And sugar quantity is very less. Usually in sweets, the proportion of sugar is twice or equal to the the quantity of flour. So overall, it is a healthy sweet that can be quickly made with the ingredients which are readily available in the kitchen

You require

Wheat flour – 1 ½ cups
Sugar – 1 cup. You can take a heaped cup of sugar, if you will like it sweeter.
Milk – ½ cup
Grated coconut – 2 tbspn
Cardamom – ½ tspn
Ghee – 2 tbspn


Preparation

Take a heavy bottomed pan. Add ghee.

When it melts, add wheat flour.

Fry till it turns light brown . You can smell wheat then.

Add sugar. Mix well so that the flour and sugar gets mixed evenly. Sugar should not melt.Then the mixture will have a liquid consistency.

Add milk. Keep mixing so that no lumps are formed.

Add cardamom powder.

Mix evenly for another 3 minutes.

Transfer the contents to a plate greased with ghee.

Spread it and let it cool.

Make lemon sized balls.
Don’t wait it to really go cold. You should make balls when your hands can withstand the warmth of the mixture.
You should be fast in making balls. If it cools, you will find it difficult to make balls.

Sambar Rice

A lunchbox recipe

Keep these ready :

Cooked rice – 2 cups
Tuvar dal – 1 cup
Tomatoes – 2 nos
Small onions – 10 nos
Drumstick – 1 no
Carrot – 1 no
Turmeric – a pinch
Chilly powder – 1 tspn
Coriander powder -2 tspn
Tamrind extract – 2 tbl spn

Seasoning
Mustard – 1 tspn
Methi seeds – ¼ tspn
Red chilly – 2 nos
Green chilly – 2 nos
Curry leaves – few

Prepration

Pressure cook tuvar dal with one tomato chopped into pieces.

Take a pan. Add oil and add the seasoning items.
Add onions. Saute till they become soft.
Add chopped tomato.
When it is cooked, add the vegetables. ( You can use bringal/ash gourd/pumpkin). You can use vegetables of your choice.
Add turmeric,chiily powder, coriander powder and salt.
Mix well.Add enough water to cook the vegetables.
Cover and cook for 10 mts.
If the vegetables are cooked well, add the cooked tuvar dal. Mash the dal before adding.
Add the tamarind extract. When it starts boiling remove from fire.
Add fresh coriander and curry leaves.
Take the rice in a bowl. Slightly mash it with the ladle. Mix sambar with the rice well.

Maddur Vada

This popular snack of Karnataka is named after the town Maddur in Mandhya district. This vada is unique to the Karnataka state.
Here goes the recipe for mouthwatering, crispy vadas, which I learnt from a cookery show in a television channel

You need:
Raw rice powder – 1 cup
Wheat flour – ½ cup
Rava – ½ cup
Maida- ½ cup
Onion – 1
Curry leaves – 4 strands
Green chilly – 4 nos
Salt
Oil – for deep frying

How to make the vadas

Mix all the flours,salt, chopped onion, chillies and curry leaves. Mix well
Heat 3 tbspn of oil to smoking point. Pour the oil to the mix
Take a small portion of the mixture and mix water. Make a soft dough.
It is not advisable to mix the whole portion with water, since by the
time we prepare, the mixture will be soggy and it will absorb too
much of oil. Also you may not get crispy vadas.

Take a plastic sheet. Grease it with oil. Take a small ball of the mixture and keep it on the sheet.
Spread to thin vadas of small pappad size by your fingers.
Deep fry with medium flame.

Raddish Chutney

Ingredients

Medium sized raddish – 2 Nos
Onion - 1

Coriander seeds – 1 tb spn
Methi seeds – ¼ tspn
Urad dhal – 1 ½ tspn
Red chilli – 2
Jeera – ½ tspn

Prepration

Grate the raddish and fry it with little oil.
Saute onion.
Roast coriander seeds, urad dal, red chilli, methi seeds and jeera with little oil.
While roasting, add jeera and methi towards the end since it might get burnt.
Grind all the ingredients, except onion, to a fine paste.
Then add onion and grind coarsely.

This chutney goes well with dosa and chappathi.

Baingan Kurma

Things Needed

Brinjal - 1/2 Kg
Onion - 100 gm
Tomato - 200gm
Curd - 1/2 cup
Oil - 2 tbpsn
Garam masala - 1/2 tspn
Salt

Grinding -1

Garlic - 50 gm
Ginger - 1 inch piece
Chilli powder - 1 tbsp
Coriander powder - 1 tbsp
cumin seed - 1/2 tsp
khus khus (poppy seeds) - 2 tsp
turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Grinding -2

Grated coconut- 1/4 cup

Prepration

Cut the brinjal into long pieces. Apply little chilly powder,turmeric and salt. Keep it for 15 minutes.
Heat oil in a pan and shallow fry the brinjals till light brown and remove.
In the remaining oil, fry onion till soft.
Add the grinded masala 1 to it and fry till aroma comes.
Add the chopped tomatoes and salt
When tomoatoes are cooked, add the fried brinjal and add little water.
Cook for 5 mts till the gravy thickens.
Add the grounded coconut paste and beaten curd.
Cook till it boils.
Sprinkle garam masala powder and remove.

Microwave Tomato Rasam

Required:-

Medium sized tomatoes - 2 Nos
Tamarind extract - 2 tbspn
Water - 2 cups
Red chilly - 3
Jaggery powdered - 1/2 tbspn (Optional)

For Powdering

Pepper - 5 corns
Coriander seeds - 1 tbspn
Cumin seeds - 1 tspn

Slightly fry all the three ingredients and powder them finely.

Prepration

Make puree of the tomatoes

Take a microwave safe bowl. Mix tomato puree,tamrind extract, water,salt, jaggery, powdered masala.Add the red chillies after breaking into two.

Keep in the oven for 4 mts at micropower high

Stir once and keep for another 1 minute depending on your oven type.

Season with mustard seeds. Add curry leaves and coriander leaves.

You can use this rasam with rice or drink it as soup. It will be a good appetizer.

Microwave Mysurpa

This is the microwave version of the mysurpa. Unlike the traditional way of making, this is quite easy and can be quickly made.

Ingredients
Besan flour - 1 cup
Powdered sugar - 2 cups
Ghee - 1 cup
Milk - 2 tspn

Lightly fry the besan. This is just to remove the raw smell of besan. You can as well heat the pan for few minutes till it turns hot. Remove the pan from fire. Then add besan and keep mixing for sometime. That heat is enought to roast the besan flour.

Mix besan,powdered sugar and ghee in a microwave safe bowl. Make sure no lumps are there.

Keep it in oven for 2 1/2 mts at micropower high.

Take the bowl out and add milk and mix well.

Again keep for 2 1/2 mts at micropower high.
Here please check after one minute .Becoz, the heat differs from oven to oven.So there is a chance that it might get burnt if kept for a longer time. So check in between. You can make out the change in the color of the mixture. It froths.

Remove the bowl and mix well.

Transfer the contents to a greased plate.

When cool, cut into pieces.

You get very soft,tasty mysurpas in five mts

Total prepration time - 15 mts

Coriander Chutney

Kothamalli Thokayal


Ingredients

Coriander leaves - 1 cup
curry leaves - 1 strand (optional)
urad dal - 2 tb spn
red chilli - 3 nos
tamarind paste - tbspn
salt

How to prepare
Raost urad dal and red chilli with a teaspoon of oil. When urad dal turns red, remove from fire
Saute coriander and curry leaves for a minute, till they change the color.
Grind all the ingredients to a coarse paste. Thokayals taste good if it is grinded caorsely.

Enjoy with molakootal. This will go with dosa/chappathis also.

Madras Vethakozhambu

I think I should rename this as chennai vethakozhambu...

Ingredients
--------------
Chundakka/manathankkali vethal - 2 tb spn
Red chilli - 2 nos
methi seeds - 1 tspn
small onion - 8 nos (optional)
mustard - 1 tspn
Gingelly oil (Nallennai) - 2 tbspn
tamarind - small lemon size
Salt
turmeric - a pinch

Grinding
--------
Coriander seeds - 2 tbspn
red chilli - 6 nos
jeera - 1 tspn
methi seeds- 1 tspn
curry leaves - 1 strand

Grind the above ingredients in powder form. Don't add water. It is not necessary that it should be powdered finely.

Prepration
------------
Take a wok. Add gingelly oil (I prefer nallennai. it tastes good).
Add mustard seeds. when splutters, add red chilly and vethal.
Let it fry for 2/3 minutes
Add onions and saute till it turns brown.
Then add the grinded masala . Fry for a minute.
Add the extracted tamarind juice, turmeric and salt.
Let it simmer and when it starts to thicken, remove from fire.

Small quanitity of the kozhambu is taken while mixing with rice unlike sambhar and other kootans.

Nenthrapazham varattiyathu - (Banana in jaggery syrup)

Ingredients
Ripe banana - 1
Powdered jaggery - 4 tbspn
ghee- 2 tspn
powdered cardamom - 1/2 tspn

Take one ripe nethrapazham variety of banana. It shld not be over ripe.
Cut into circles of 1/4 inch thick pcs. Don't slice into thin circles since it will be get mashed when u mix later.
Take a non-stick pan.
Add a tspn of ghee and add the banana pcs.
Cook it over low heat.
When it is 3/4 th cooked, add powdered jaggery and mix well.
Cover and cook for 5 mts.
The jaggery would have melted and get coated over the banana pcs. Remove from fire and half a tspn of ghee and a tspn of cardamom powder.

A good breakfast accompaniment. healthy too....

Following the same steps,it can be cooked in microwave oven also.

Maaladoo

Ingredients


Pottukadalai/porikadalai/Chutney Dal - 1 cup
Sugar - 2 cups ( can take 1 1/2 cups also if u wish to have it less sweeter)
Ghee - 1 cup
Powdered caradamom - 2 tea spn
Cashew,raisins (Optional)

1) Dry roast the pottukadalai for 2 mts. It makes powdering easier.
2)Grind the pottukadalai finely
3)Seive the powdered flour to separate the coarse ones.
4)Finely powder sugar
5) Heat a tea spoon of ghee in a kadai, roast the cashew and raisins.
6) Mix the roasted cashews,raisins, cardamon powder,powdered pottukadalai and sugar.
7) Mix well
8) Take one portion of the mixture in a bowl.
9)Heat 3 tablespoon ghee for a minute.
10) Pour ghee into the mixture taken in the bowl
11) Mix and see to that it is reached to a consistency where u can roll them into lemon sized balls.
12) Repeat steps from 8 -11 for the remaining mixture left.

Cucumber Wheat Dosa

An easy to make breakfast recipe and healthy too. This recipe will come in handy when you run out of resources for the usual idly and dosa. Also can try this for a change.

Ingeredients
Wheat flour - 2 cups
Grated cucumber - 1 cup
Grated coconut - 1/2 cup
crushed/powdered pepper - 1 tea spn
jeera - 1 tea spn
salt - to taste
water - as required.

Make a smooth batter mixing all the ingredients. Keep it aside for 15 mts.
Make dosas. You get good soft doasas.Any type of chutney goes with it.

Rasa Kaalan

Ingredients

ash gourd - 1 cup
yellow Pumpkin- 1 cup
(Both cut into cubes)
drumstick - 2 nos cut into 1.5" long
brinjal - 1 (optional)
Ladies finger - 5 nos cut into 1" long pieces (optional)
powdered jaggery - 1 tspoon
blended curd - 1 cup

Grinding
grated coconut - 1 cup
green chilly - 5 nos
black pepper - 8 corns
rice flour - 1 tspn ( I add rice flour for thickening of the gravy. Amount of coconut can be reduced)

Grind the above to a smooth paste and keep it aside

(no of chilly and pepper can be adjusted according to one's taste)

Seasoning
mustard seeds
Red chilly - 2
methi seed -1/2 tspn

Take ash gourd,pumpkin and drumstick in a vessel. Add water so that the vegetable pieces are immersed in water.
Add 1/2 tspn salt, pinch of turmeric and 1/2 tspn of red chilly powder. when these vegetables are half cooked, add brinjal and ladies finger pcs. Add powdered jaggery.
Once the vegetables are cooked, add the grinded paste. mix well.
When it starts to boil, add the blended curd. Add salt as required. (Salt added in the beginning is for the vegetables and now for the gravy).
When bubbles start forming, it should be removed.
When adding curd, it should not boil too much, else the gravy will become thin and taste also changes.

Add the seasoning and curry leaves.

Yummy gravy for rice is ready. This is one of my favorites of mom's cooking. Many a times I can't match her taste.

Seven Cup Cake

Seven Cup Cake

An easy sweet to make. Not much of paakam etc so even beginners can take a plunge....

Milk - 1 cup
Basin - 1 cup
Sugar - 3 cups
Grated cocunut - 1 cup
Ghee - 1 cup

The ingredients add to 7 cup and hence the name. Actually if you want you can reduce the quantity of sugar to 2 1/2 cups also.

Take a kadai or a heavy bottom vessel.Boil the milk.
Add coconut to the boiling milk. Stir till the milk mixes with the coconut and no moisture is left.
Add sugar. When sugar syrup starts to thicken ( make sure no sugar crystals seen)add the besan flour slowly without forming lumps. Let it cook for 3 minutes.
Slowly add ghee to it and keep stiring.
When it starts to leave the sides of the pan, pour the mixture on a greased plate.
When it cools, cut into desired shape

Kesari

First recepie - A sweet.

Rava Kesari
Fried Rava - 1 cup
Sugar - 2 cups
Ghee - 1 cup
Water - 2 cups
Elaichi powder - 1/2 t.sp
Cashew/Kismis - 1 tb sp
yellow/red colour - 1 pinch

Boil water after adding color to it. Add the fired rava slowly to the boiling water. Keep mixing while adding rava to avoid forming lumps. When rava is cooked (ie, when the rava and water forms a solid proposition) add sugar to it with continuous stirring. You will see some rava lumps already. Don't panic. You can break them using the laddle by pressing on the lumps. Keep mixing. When it starts to solidify, add ghee little by little. Add elaichi powder. When the mixture does not stick to the sides of the pan, it is ready.
Take a small frypan. Add 1 teaspoon of ghee. Add cashew to it. When cashew starts browning, add kismis.
Add the fried cashew and kismis to the kesari and mix well.

Preparation time - 15 mts
Serves - 4

Usually I make this after dinner when Hubby dear cannot find any sweet to eat. This is the instant sweet which can be made with the 'all time' readily available items in the kitchen.