Aval/Poha Kesari and Friday Kolam

The sweet, kesari is synonymous with rava kesari. If there is a change in the ingredient or addition of another, it gets added to the name like Pineapple kesari or semiya kesari. As with halwas, there are varieties of kesari. The most common at home is rava kesari. Two years back, during our visit to my BIL at Bangalore, we were invited by J akka, sister of my co-sister (manni in Tamil). J akka is like a sister to me too and incidentally she shares my sister's name. J akka cooks well. One of her signature dish is Bisi Bele Bath. She had made that for lunch and for dessert, it was kesari. When I tasted kesari, the texture and color was similar to rava kesari but the taste was slightly different. It was then she told me it was made of aval/poha.

From then on, I wanted to try it at home. But it never happened until two weeks back when my uncle and family came for breakfast on a Sunday. I decided Sevai with potato masala and coconut chutney. I could not decide on the sweet. I wanted to make something light and quick and kesari fits the bill. But then wanted something different to offer to the guests and I was running short of time. My uncle and family was expected anytime. Then luckily the bulb flashed and was reminded of aval kesari. I could make it in flat 15 minutes from start to finish.

I used matta aval (thick, brown variety). if you are using the white variety, the color will be yellow. Since I used brown, the color was brown too. The flavor of poha was more prominent that what I had in J akka's house.

You need



Coarsely powdered Aval - 1/2 cup

Water - 1 cup

Sugar - less than 1 cup (Take 1 cup if you like it very sweet)

Ghee - 1 1/2 tblspn

cashew/raisins - few

cardamom powder - 1/2 tspn

Yellow color - a pinch


Method

Pulse aval in the mixie coarsely. The texture should be grainy and not too fine. This will help in getting a fluffy kesari rather than a gummy kind.  Heat a kadai. Add half  tablespoon of ghee. Roast cashews and raisins and remove them. Add a cup of water and and a pinch of yellow color. When water starts boiling, stir in the powdered aval. Mix well. When the water is fully abosrbed, add sugar. Aval doesn't turn lumpy like rava. Its lot more easier. Stir in a tablespoon of ghee. Keep mixing and it  gets done in 5 minutes. You can see the ghee floating on top. Add cardamom powder and the roasted cashews. The amount of ghee required is also less than in the usual kesari. It remained soft even the next day.

Friday Kolam and this is the last friday of the month in the regional calendar (Thai/Makaram)

MahaShivarathri wishes to all my readers who celebrate.

Methi kofta in kadhi & Friday Kolam

Kadi is to North Indians  what morkootan/morkuzhambu is to South Indians. Morkuzhambu has liberal use of coconut in it and the choice of veggies determine the taste. And what I like about Kadi is that its very light, no coconut and can be made in a jiffy, though some kadis take the elaborate route too. Next is green, which I try to make atleast thrice in a week. When ever I buy a bunch of methi, it sure gets its way into various dishes in handfuls. This is a Tarla Dalal's recipe where the koftas are not deep fried but steamed. When I saw the reecipe for Kadi and steamed kofta with one of my favorite green, I could not wait to try it out. Kadi was delicious. The koftas didnot breakup and stayed in shape even when I served for dinner. Koftas were not bitter too.

If you feel its too much of time involved, then you can shape the koftas ready the previous day and refrigerate them. Before preparing the kadi, all you will have to do is to just steam the koftas and kadi making will not take more than 10 minutes including the preparation and cooking time.

For Methi Koftas


Finely chopped methi leaves - 1 cup

Whole wheat flour - 1 tbspn

Rava/Semolina- 1 tbspn

Ginger-green chilli paste- 1/2 tspn

Tamarind juice - 1/2 tspn (or lemon juice)

Sugar - 1/2 tsp

Cooking soda- a pinch

Preparing Kofta

Add salt to methi and leave it aside for 5 minutes. Squeeze the water and plce in a bowl. Add all the ingredients for kofta along with little salt and knead to a soft dough. Add little water if required.

Moisten your hands with water and shape the dough into small koftas. I got 12 out of it. Steam in a steamer of your choice and keep it aside. I microwaved it for 2 minutes.

 

 
For Kadhi

1 cup fresh curds whisked with 1 1/2 cups of water

Besan/Chana dal flour - 2 tblspn
Onion - 1
Turmeric  a pinch
Salt to taste

To Temper

Oil - 1 tblspn

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Hing - a pinch
Curry leaves - few


Preparing Kadhi

Combine whipped curd and besan in a bowl. Whisk well and there should not be any lumps.

Heat oil in a pan add cumin. when the seeds crackle, add hing , curry leaves, onion and saute for 5 minutes or so. Add the whisked curd-besan mixture, turmeric powder, salt and bring to a boil over low flame.

Combine Kadhi and Kofta
If you are serving immediately, slowly drop the koftas. Else just before serving, add the koftas to kadhi and bring to a boil to serve hot.

I am sending this to Yasmeen's Bitter Better Health event

Friday Kolam/Thai Velli kolam

Since I was not keeping on good health, I could not do the podi kolam. So only one for this week.

Mexican Wedding Cookies for Global Kadai Event and Thai Velli Kolam

The idea behind the Global Kadai event announced by Cilantro interested me - indianizing the recipe. One is free to make any changes to suit the availability of ingredients in India. the first recipe is the popular Mexican wedding cookies. Since no egg in the orginal recipe, I  didnot have to look for an egg replacer. No leavening agents like baking powder or cooking soda. I opted for coconut in place of pecans and used cardamom for flavor instead of cinnamon. Though i love cinnamon, to give an Indian flavor, chose cardamom. Coconut and cardamom paired well with the cocoa and its a keeper recipe. I had only 1/2 cup of butter so halved the recipe. I got 2 dozens of cookies.

Baking Temp : 180 C
Time              : 15-18 minutes
Yields            : 2 dozen


You need


Butter, softened - 1 cup

Powdered Sugar - 1/3 cup

Vanilla essence - 2 tspn

All purpose flour - 1 3/4 cup

Fresh grated coconut - 1 cup

Cocoa powder - 1/2 cup

cardamom - 3/4 tspn

Salt - a pinch

1/2 cup powdered sugar for coating the cookies



Method

Cream sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla essence. Mix the rest of the dry ingredients and slowly add to the creamed butter and sugar mix. Gather the ingredients and make a soft dough. Chill the dough for 1-2 hours to firm up. I chilled for 2 hours. Pinch off the dough and make small balls. Line it on a greased baking tray and bake at 180 C for 18 minutes. When warm, roll it on the powdered sugar and leave it to cool.

Though the cookies were less sweet on its own, the sugar coating makes it up. It was very tasty and could not stop with one. I baked it one evening and on the second day only 10 was left.

Here is the kolam for this Friday.

Thai Velli/Friday Kolam and By the Book

During the month of Thai/Makaram, every one cleans their courtyard on Thursday evening to decorate with the kolam. So when you see everyone in your neighborhood indulges in the cleaning and decorating, even someone who has not mastered the art of kolam, will be inspired to try your hand at it. Its infectious. Here is my attempt for this Friday.

(9 dots 9 lines)

By the Book :

My dear friend Jayashree has tagged me to show the most loved cookbook. Few years back, if someone has asked me about cookbooks, I would have had a  look like 'Me cooking from a book' kind. I never thought I will follow a cookbook, may be because I have not seen anyone in my family following one. Its kind of passing the recipes from Mother to daughter kind. I was under the impression that cookbooks are for the newbies who are to learn even  how to light a stove too.  After marriage too, I didnot feel the need for one. Whenever I had any doubt regarding any of our traditional recipes, I could call my Mom . (Then she was staying at local call distance). My MIL used to tell she learnt most of the traditional dishes from Meenakshi Ammal's book way back in 1950's.  Later when I heard my co-sis swearing by Mallika Bhadrinath often, I was inspired to buy one for myself. Mallika's 100 Vegetarian recipes (II series) was the first book I got.  It took sometime for me to start trying from the book. After blogging, things have changed in a big way. I got to know about various cuisines, cookbooks. I keep a diary of the recipes I try and now I have close to 15 books. I still have somebooks where I haven't tried even a single recipe. 

                                            

Those of you who wish to showcase your most cherished cookbook, feel free to take up the tag and link back to Jayashree's post

Happy Pongal/Shankaranthi

Wishing all my readers a happy Pongal/ Shankarathi.

Thai Velli Kolam#4

Last in the series of kolam for the month of Thai. By next friday, 'Maasi' (Kumbham) will start. On the occassions of festivals, I do draw kolams. But the number of kolams will be the minimum(1 or 2). During Thai masam, we see to that the whole front yard is filled with kolams, big or small.

Thai Velli Kolam#3 (1 Feb)

Third series of kolam drawn for thai velli.(1 feb)

Thai Velli Kolam (of 25th Jan)

As I had mentioned in the earlier post on pongal, these are the set of kolams, drawn for the friday,25th Jan. I had drawn few more,but failed to take the snaps.

Happy Pongal

Happy Pongal/Shankaranthi to all of you......
With the start of Makaram/Thai month, every thursday evening, our courtyards will be cleaned and adorned by kolam/rangoli. We put using rice/kola powder and rice paste. Some people change the kolams on monday evenings also. That is Tuesdays and Fridays will have fresh kolams made. I rarely change on tuesdays. But for Fridays it is always new kolam.
This is the start of the series for the month of kolam

Neivedyam for pongal