chocolate burfi

Ingredients:

Maida – 1 cup
Sugar – 2 cups
Milk Powder - ½ cup
Coco or baking chocolate powder – 1 tablespoon
Ghee – 4 to 5 tablespoon
Warm Milk – ½ cup

Method:

Put ghee in a kadai and heat it. Add maida to the ghee and fry for two to three minutes or till you get nice aroma. Remove it and add milk powder and mix thoroughly. Keep it aside.

Stir coco or chocolate powder in the warm milk and keep it.

Put ½ cup water to the sugar and boil it till it reaches soft ball consistency. Add maida little by little and mix well. Add the chocolate mixed with the milk and stir thoroughly. Stir continuously till it become thick and leaves the sides of the vessel. Put it in a greased plate and spread it. When it is cool, cut it into squares.

Note: You can also make this burfi using bournvita or drinking chocolate instead of coco. In that case use ½ cup bournvita or drinking chocolate. You can also add condensed milk instead of milk powder.

You can make double colour burfi also. First make the burfi only with maida and milk powder and add vanilla or any desired essence and spread it on a greased plate. Cool it thoroughly. Then make the above chocolate burfi and pour over the maida burfi already prepared. Spread it and cool it. When it is cool, cut it into desired shape.

Kalkandu Vadai (sweet vadai)

Kalkandu Vadai is a very famous Chettinadu vadai. This is a sweet vadai instead of the usual salt vadai. Tastes Great. In my native place whenever we want to do some group pooja or if it is an auspicious day like diwali, thiru karthikai like that then we prepare this kalkandu vadai.
It used to be originally made with kalkandu (Sugar Candy in English & Misri in Hindi) and hence the name Kalkandu Vadai. Nowadays it is replaced with normal sugar.
Ingredients

Urad Dal - 3/4 cup
Raw Rice - 1/4 cup
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Or Kalkandu -( palm candy)- 1/4 kg
Oil for frying

Method
Wash & soak the urad dhal – rice mixture. After about 30 minutes, drain the water and spread the mixture on a clean cloth/towel. So that the cloth sucks the water. If using Kalkandu keep it ready in powdered form.

Grind the dhal as fine as possible, using the sugar or powdered kalkandu. Avoid water as far as possible.

Make small vadais (like medhu vada) & deep fry initially on medium & then low fire. The vadais puff up very well, so do not fry more than 3-4 at a time. As usual like for our usual vadas the oil should not be very hot. The vadai tends be little more brown than the usual medhu vada, so don't worry.

The Kalkandu Vadai remains good for 2,3 days.

pine apple kesari

Ingredients:

Rawa – 1 cup
Pineapple chopped finely – 1 cup
Sugar - 2 cups
Ghee – 4 to 6 tablespoons
Cashewnuts – few
Raisins - few
Cardamom powder – 1 teaspoon
Kesari or yellow colour – few drops

Method:

In a kadai, put two tablespoon ghee and fry the rawa. Remove it. In the same kadai, put one tablespoon ghee and fry cashew nuts and raisins separately and keep it aside.

Add half cup water to pineapple pieces and cook till soft. (You can microwave it also). Cool it and grind to a fine puree.

In a heavy bottomed vessel pour two cups of water and bring to boil. When it is boiling add the rawa and stir continuously till the rawa is thick and cooked soft. Now add sugar and pineapple puree and stir continuously. Make sure there is no lump. Add few drops of kesari or yellow colour and mix well. Add ghee now. Kesari will leave the sides of the vessel. Now add cardamom powder, fried cashew nuts and raisins and mix well and remove from stove.


Tips: You can add 2 or 3 drops of pineapple essence at the end to get nice flavour of pineapple. If the pineapple is sweet, then you can reduce the sugar to 1 and half cups.

milk halwa (another method)

Ingredients:

Milk – 2 cups
Sugar – 3/4 cup
Ghee – ½ cup
Rawa – ¼ cup

Method:

Put all the above ingredients in a thick bottomed Kadai and keep it on medium flame. Stir continuously till it become thick and leaves the sides of the vessel.
Remove and put it in a greased bowl.
No need to add any flavouring agent. It tastes like milk khoya. However if you desire, you can add almond or pistas sliced.

Note: You can also prepare this in microwave oven. Put everything in a microwavable bowl and cook it for 8 to ten minutues or until it reaches the right consistency. Make sure to take it out every two minutes and stir throughly and put it in microwave.

badam halwa (almond)

Ingredients:

Badam (almond) - 1 cup heaped
Sugar - 1 cup flat
Ghee - 3 tablespoons
Saffron - few strings
Cardamom Powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Yellow food colour - little (Optional)
Almond essence - two to three drops (Optional)

Method:

Soak almonds in lukewarm water for about one hour and remove the pink skin. Grind the peeled almonds to a coarse paste.

Take a thick bottomed kadai (preferably non-stick kadai). Put the sugar and the ground almond paste into it and keep it on medium flame. First the sugar starts melting and the mixture looks liquid. Stir continuously till it become solid and leaves the sides of the vessel. Then switch off the stove. Add two tablespoon of ghee on the halwa. Ghee melt in the heat of the halwa. Add saffon and cardamom powder and mix everything. Now add the remaining ghee and once again mix well and transfer it to a greased bowl.

Note:There is no need of adding any colour or almond essence to the halwa. However, if you desire you can add two to three drops of essence and yellow food colour.

sweet poli

Sweet Poli is a festival dish and it is prepared with dhal or coconut sweet stuffing.
you can use maida or wheat flour for this.

Ingredients:

Maida or wheat flour - 2 cups (heaped)
Coconut gratings - 1 cup
Jaggery powdered - 1 cup
Dry ginger powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Cardamom powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Ghee - 4 or 5 teaspoons
Gingelly oil - 3 to 4 teaspoons
Turmeric powder - a pinch
Salt - 1/2 teaspoon

Method:

Add salt and turmeric powder to wheat flour and mix well. Add water little by little and make a dough (like chapati dough) and apply little gingelly oil on the dough and keep it aside for atleast half an hour.

In a thick bottomed vessel put the jaggery powder and add 1/4 cup water and bring to boil. Remove from stove and strain it so that any mud or dust will be removed. Put back the strained jaggery water to the vessel and again allow to boil. When it starts boiling, add coconut gratings and mix well. Cook on medium flame till it become solid. Add dry ginger powder and cardamom powder and mix well. Cool it.

Grease banana leaf or a plastic sheet and put a small orange size dough and flatten it. Put lemon size coconut mixture in the centre and fold it. Then gently spread it with your fingers. Remove it and put it in a hot tawa. Pour little ghee around the poli and cook till light brown spot appears on both sides.

Dhal Poli

Ingredients:

Bengal Gram Dhal - 1 cup
Powdered Jaggery - 1 cup
Maida or wheat flour - 2 cups
Turmeric Powder - a pinch
Ghee - 5 teaspoons

Cardamon powder - 1/2 teaspoon
A pinch of salt

Method:

Soak Bengal gram dhal in water for about two to three hours. Cook the Dhal in water till soft, but not mushy. Drain the excess water and cool it.

Grind the cooked dhal to a fine powder. Add 1/4 cup water to the jaggery and bring to boil. When it starts boiling, strain it and put it back in a heavy bottomed vessel. Add dhal powder and stir continuously till it become thick. Add cardamom powder, mix well and remove from stove. Let it cool.

Mix maida, salt and turmeric powder and make a soft dough using water little by little.

Take a plastic sheet or foil, flatten out small ball sized quantity of the maida dough. Place a smaller sized ball of the sweet filling and cover it completely using the flattened maida dough. Cover with another plastic sheet. Roll it round using a rolling pin. (You can also make a thin round using your fingers). Heat up a tawa and when it is hot place the poli and pour a teaspoon of ghee all around and cook. Turn and cook on other side until light brown spots appear.