Nutella Filled Puffs

I always wanted to try making veggie puffs.  Not sure whether i can do it or not.  Finally i managed to find the puff pastry sheets from my local grocery and tried this nutella filled puffs couple of days before. For those who wants to know how to use the frozen pastry sheets, please follow this video.

Nel Pori Urundai

Pori Urundai is one of my favorite evening snack.  This is my first attempt in trying this pori urundai.  Last year my MIL was here with us and she made pori urundai for karthigai deepam.  This year I had no other choice other than trying this on my own.

Paruppu pradhaman

Paruppu Pradhaman is one of Kerala Iyer's Famous Payasam.  My patti is an expert in making this payasam.  I used to wonder in those days without so much facilities like Mixer Grinder, Pressure cooker etc., how people make so many yummy dishes.

Mysore Pak

This is one of my favorite sweet. My grandma and also my mother-in-law, they both are experts in making this sweet.  I learned this recipe from my MIL when she was here during last winter. 

coconut Burfi/Thenga burfi

I made these burfi couple of week back. Just after the varalakshmi Vratam, I had so much coconut (we buy atleast two -one for kalasam & one for naivedhyam). My husband and my girls never take coconut. I was literally wasting two coconuts and I don't use coconut in my cooking. Thought of making this burfi and called my chitti for the recipe. Here foes the recipe.

Ingredients:-

1. Coconut - 1 cup (shredded)
2. Sugar - 1 I/2 cup (acc to taste)
3. Cardamom - 1
4. Edible Camphor / Pachakarpooram - a pinch
5. Milk - 2 tsp
6. Ghee 2 tsp

Take a heavy bottomed pan, add the sugar and required amount of water (i took 3/4 cup of water for 1 1/2 cups of sugar) and let it boil.  Milk is used to remove dirt from sugar syrup. When it starts boiling, just add it. White foamy stuff will form. Thats dirt. Remove it. Add the cardamom seeds and pacha karpooram to it. Look for one string consistency.  If you touch the sugar syrup(be careful it will be super hot), it should form a single line. Now add the shredded coconut to it and mix it well and make sure no lumps are formed. Add ghee to it and spread it in a flat plate and cut it when it is warm. Enjoy. I added 1 1/2 cups of sugar to it. If necessary we can always reduce the quantity of sugar. I made this sweet especially for myself ! So I didn't bother to reduce the quantity of sugar :)

Pumpkin Kheer

This is something I made when we were in Delhi last year. I finally managed to find time to write this post. I was actually searching for the picture in my folders.  I made this in microwave and it came out pretty good.  My girls were not so excited about this payasam ( they like pal payasam ). Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:-

1. Pumpkin Pieces -  1 1/2 cups (chop it into small cubes)
2. almonds - 10 seeds
3. Milk - 2 cups ( I used the regular mother dairy milk we get in Delhi)
4. Sugar - 1 cup (acc to taste)
5. Edible Camphor - a pinch
6. Cardamom - 1 or 2
7. food color - Orange color a pinch

Take a microwave safe bowl, put the pumpkin pieces and almond seeds adding required amount of water. Cover it with a lid and MW for 5 to 7 minutes, checking / stirring in between, or till it is done. When the pumpkin pieces are cooked, take the bowl out very carefully and let it cool. Grind it into a fine paste. Again put the pumpkin paste in the bowl, along with one and half cups of milk& food color  and let it cook or 3 to 5 minutes. Check it often cos the milk may spill. Now add the edible camphor and cardamom seeds and the remaining milk & sugar and let it boil for another 3 to 5 minutes. Take it out. Let it cool, refrigerate and enjoy. Be careful before taking it out from the MW.

I am sending this to Srivalli's MEC Potluck Party.

Jhangri - My first attempt

Jhangri is a sweet I can eat all day long. When my MIL was in June, she made Jhangri and showed me how to do it and asked me to try putting with less quantity. I wanted to try it for a long time but because of some personal reasons, didn't get time to try it. But last week I was going through Rak's Jhangiri Recipe and got tempted so much.  Yesterday I made up my mind to try and luckily it came out really good. First three pieces were not so good cos I soaked it in the sugar syrup for a long time. It became soggy. But then I managed to find out the reason and finished the project!

I am sending this Jhangri recipe to I am sending this Poli recipe to Tried & Tasted Event - Raks Kitchen, this time Sowmya of Nivedhanam is hosting, an event by Kitchen Chronicles by Lakshmi Venkatesh.

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Neiappam

I made these neiappams for today's evening tiffin. My patti used to be an expert in making neiappams. She had her iron appakaaral. I used non-stick appakaaral for making this neiappam. This time I followed Aparna's Neiyappam recipe,  instead of my patti's. Both were almost same except for the fact that my patti usually add couple of teaspoons of ghee to the appam batter. Aparna's My Diverse Kitchen blog has been chosen for this month's T&T event by Srivalli, initally started by   Zlamushka, currently taken over by Lakshmi.

Badusha - Sweet

This is my favorite sweet. My MIL used to make it very often and she is very good at it. This time, I learned the recipe from her. Even though it was not professional like hers, it came out very well. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:-

1. Maida flour - 1 1/2 cup
2. Unsalted butter - 3 tbsp
3. Baking soda - pinch
4. Oil to deep fry
5. Sugar - 1 cup (acc to taste)
6. Pachakarpooram - a pinch
7. Coconut-1 tbsp

First add baking soda to the butter and whisk it for few mts. You will see bubbles forming. Now add the flour to it and make it a soft dough adding required amount of water. Keep it aside for few mts. In the mean time, put the sugar in a heavy bottomed skillet, add a cup of water and make it a semi-thick syrup***. Add pacha karpooram to the sugar syrup and mix it well. In the mean time, pre heat oil and make small patties out the dough and deep fry it till it becomes golden brown keeping the heat in medium flame. Put the patties in the sugar syrup and soak it well. Remove it from the syrup and put it in a vessel. Now pour the remaining syrup on top of each badusha and garnish it with coconut.

*** - Keep a cup of water near you. Pour a drop of sugar syrup in it. If it dissolves, then the surup is not ready. If it doesn't dissolve and forms a small soft ball, it means the syrup is ready

Carrot Halwa

This is something I wanted to make after seeing Rashmi's blog. I usually make quick carrot halwa with leftover carrots from carrot rice. This time I used fresh carrots to make this halwa. This is the first time I am trying, so I used only one carrot. Here is the recipe I followed.

Ingredients:-

1. Carrots - 1 or 1 cup shredded
2. Milk - 2 cups
3. Sugar - 1 cup
4. pachakarpooram - a pinch
5. Cashews - for garnishing.
6. Ghee - 2 tsp

First take a pan, put the shredded carrots, add a cup of milk and let the carrots cook in the milk under medium flame. When it is 3/4 cooked, add the remaining milk little by little, add sugar and pachakarpooram and let it cook finely. Now add the ghee on top of it and mix it well. Stir continuously and turn off the stove when everything form like a ball. In the mean time, fry cashews to golden brown and add it to the halwa. Since I added more milk, it taste like a pal therattupal.

Sabudhana payasam

This is another dessert. Its very common in Tamilnadu Iyer families to make payasam using sabudhana. First time I made this payasam without soaking sabudhana in water. It didn't came out well. Again I tried making this payasam after soaking sabudhana in water for 3 hours. Here is the receipe.

Ingredients :-

1. Sabudhana - 1 cup
2. Milk - 4 cups (preferably whole milk or 2% milk)
   
3. Sugar - 2 or 3 cups (acc to taste)
4. Cardamom powder - a pinch
5. Pacha karpooram - a pinch

First Soak sabudhana in water for 3 hours. After three hours wash it and pressure cook it with 2 cups of milk, upto 3 whistles. After opening the pressure cooker, add the remaining milk and turn the stove to low. Let it cook for another 15 mts. Stir it every two minutes make sure nothing it burnt:) Now add the sugar and let it cook for another 5 mts. Turn off the stove. Finally add cardamom powder and pacha karpooram to it and close the lid. After 5 mts. open the lid. Now payasam is ready to serve.

If you like to garnish it, fry few cashews and raisins in ghee, to golden brown and pour it on top of the payasam.

Semiya Paayasam

Here is another dessert... Semiya - Vermicelli, a kind of pasta from which we can make upma, payasam, vermicelli bagalabath etc. Here is the receipe for semiya payasam.

Ingredients:-

1. Semiya - 1 cup
2. Milk - 4 cups (whole milk or 2% milk)
   
3. Sugar - 3 cups (acc to taste)
   
4. Cardamom powder - 1 or a pinch
   
5. pachakarpooram - a pinch
6. Cashews - 6
7. ghee - 1 tsp

First take a pan, preheat a drop of ghee and fry the semiya(vermicelli) to golden brown. Keep it aside. Now take another pan, pour milk, if you want you can add a cup of water with milk and bring it to boil now add vermicelli to it and cook it in a slow flame for 7 mts. Now add sugar to it. Turn the stove to very low. Since the sugar will release some water, there is no need to add water or milk along with sugar. Stir it every two mts. Add the cardamom and pachakarpooram to it and turn off the stove when the vermicelli is fully cooked. Now payasam is readyIn the ghee pan, roast the cashews to golden brown. Add it to the payasam.

If needed, you can also add raisins, we have to roast it along with cashews and add it to the payasam. I personally feel, adding raisins to these type of payasam(where we add sugar) will disturb the taste of milk and sugar.

Paruppu payasam

In our family, we make this paruppu payasam or paruppu kanji along with idly on sivarathri night. This will be our palagaram on that day for all of us from small kids to big aduts. Here is the receipe of paruppu Kanji..

Ingredients:-

1. Moong dhall - 1/4 cup
2. Jaggery - 1/4 cup
3. milk - 6 ounce
4. cardamom - 1

First roast the moong dhall for 2 to 4 mts until it turns to a light pink color. Then pressure cook the moong dhall with 2 to 3 cups of water. Mash the dhall finely. Now add cardamom and jaggery to it and let it boil till the raw smell of jaggery disappear. Now add the milk and let it boil for another 5 mts. Now paruppu kanji is ready to serve.

We can also add a tablespoon of cooked channa dhall along with moong dhall. If you want to garnish it, then roast cashews in a drop of ghee, till golden brown and pour it on top of this kanji or payasam.