Aval Sakkarai Pongal / Sakkarai Pongal using Poha

Aval Sakkarai Pongal / Sakkarai Pongal using Poha

Aval Sakkarai Pongal is one of the quickest sweet that we could make during festivals. I made this tasty pongal for Rama Navami along with Panagam and Buttermilk. I always tend to make something out of Aval / Poha during regular days itself as it makes the process easier and quicker. Aval Tamarind Upma, Aval Payasam, Aval Curd item are some of  my own favorites.

Ingredients

Thick Aval / Poha - 1 Cup

Jaggery - 3/4 cup

Cardamom Powder / Elachi - 1 tsp

Pachai Karpooram - 1 small pinch

Cashew nuts - 2 tsp

Ghee - 3 tsp ( Add more if you like..)

Method

1. In a separate vessel, make the Jaggery syrup with little water. Drain the impurities or any dirt from the syrup and keep it ready. Consistency of the syrup should be neither watery nor thick. Should be in the middle form.
2. Wash the poha/aval and add it directly to the cooking pan/kadai. Add some water for the poha to get cooked. Close the lid and let the aval cook for 2-3 minutes.
3. When its cooked three fourth, add the jaggery syrup, cardamom powder, crushed pachai karpooram, ghee roasted cashew nuts and stir them well till it thickens.
4. Add ghee at the end and switch off the flame.
5. Flavorful sweet pongal is done within minutes and ready for prasadam.

Tips/Variations

Add good amount of ghee on top for kids which makes it more tasty... 

Adhirasam \ Ariselu

Adhirasam or Ariselu, a traditional South Indian Sweet is one of the mandatory sweet included in the "Seer Bhakshanams" during marriages. "Seer Bhakshanams" are the sweets and savouries made by the bride's side and sent to the groom's side along with the bride after marriage. Also, its also made during some festivals too.. I made this Adhirasam \ Ariselu on the day of "Kartika Pournami" for prasadam. Though its my first try, it did not disappoint me at all and to my surprise, the Adhirasams did not drink that much oil too....Though i know the actual traditional method of making Adhirasam \ Ariselu, I wanted to make the process simpler this time. So I tried using Swad Rice Flour instead of  following the traditional way. This was a huge success to me as all the Adhirasams got over the next day itself, and my kids loved the Adhirasam and grabbed few on their own. After making these yummy Adhirasams, I realised that its a "No Big Deal" sweet surely and we can make and enjoy them at any time.

Ingredients

Rice Flour - 2 Cups

Jaggery - 1 Cup

Cardamom Powder - 2 tsp

Sukku Powder \ Dry Ginger Powder -  1 tsp

Oil - To fry the Adhirasams

Method

• Fry the rice flour for few minutes and keep it aside.
• Add the jaggery pieces or powdered Jaggery which comes to 1 Cup into a vessel and add a cup of water. Make the Jaggery Syrup carefully. The consistency of the jaggery Syrup decides the final outcome, so this process needs more attention.
• While making the Syrup, check to see whether the string consistency has arrived. Take a small amount and drop it on water in a container. It should float and you would be able to make a small ball out of it.
• Take out the syrup from the stove. Add the cardamom powder and Ginger powder to the syrup and mix it well.
• Slowly add the rice flour into the Jaggery Syrup without making any lumps. Mix the rice flour thoroughly with the Jaggery Syrup and keep it aside.
• After 3-4 hours, heat oil in the frying pan. When the oil gets heated, take a small ball of the Adhirasam dough, make a small round using your hand itself or on a plastic paper and slowly drop this into the heated oil.
• Allow the Adhirasam to get fried on both side equally. Then, drain the excess oil if any and keep the Adhirasam on a tissue paper.
• Continue the same process for the rest of the Adhirasam Dough. At a time, I dropped 4-5 Adhirasams into the oil and drained them. It depends on your kadai size and speed. You can drop more too if you have a bigger frying pan.
• Finally, arrange all the fried Adhirasams\Ariselu on a plate for Neivedhyam.

Tips \ Variations

Instead of rice flour, you can follow the traditional method of making the rice flour by soaking raw rice in water, drying them on a cloth and then grinding the semi wet rice into rice flour. By following this method, the Adhirasams would be much softer and tastier.  Next time, I am planning to adopt this method and try them out.

If you make the Jaggery Syrup as I mentioned above and take it out of the stove at the right time, these Adhirasams also would be a definite hit.

Pesarapappu Boorelu - Traditional Andhra Festive Sweet

Boorelu , a delicious sweet is a sign of Joy, Happiness which is made in every household of Andhra during the festive days.  This golden sweet ball has a yummy pooranam inside which is covered by a dough, fried in oil. Generally, the Pooranam is made out of Channa Dal or Moong Dal with Jaggery Syrup or Sugar Syrup. Boorelu made with the Channa Dal ( Senaga pappu ) poornam is called as "Senaga Pappu Boorelu" and its called as "Pesara Pappu Boorelu" if its made with Moong Dal ( Pesara Pappu) poornam. For Kartika Pournami, this time I made the Pesara Pappu Boorelu for Prasadam. Process time for making this mouth watering sweet is little longer due to the preparation of Dough and Poornam separately. But this will get compensated completely after seeing the delightful golden sweet balls on your plate.

Ingredients

For the Dough

Raw Rice -- 1 Cup

Idly Rice --  1\2 Cup

Urad Dal \ Minna pappu -- 3\4 of a cup

Water -  Little to Grind

Salt --- To Taste

For the Poornam

Moong Dal \ Pesara pappu -- 2 Cups

Cardamoms -- 7 or 8

Powdered Sugar -- 1 Cup

Shredded fresh coconut -- 1 Cup

Ghee -- 2 tsp

Oil -- For Frying the Boorelu

Method

• Soak the rice and Urad Dal together in a bowl of water for 3-4 hours and grind it in a wet grinder like a Dosa Dough. Add required amount of Salt to the Dough and mix it. Keep the Dough ready for making the Boorelu.

• Soak the Moong Dal in a bowl of water for an hour. Grind the Moong Dal with very little water and make a paste.  Using the Idly Maker, steam the Moong Dal paste and cook them completely. Take out the Poornam Idlies from the Moulds and grate them using a normal grater or using a food processor or regular mixer grinder. 



• Add shredded coconut, powdered sugar, cardamom powder, ghee to the vessel on top of the grated Moong Dal and mix them together.  Make small balls of the Poornam and keep them ready.

• Heat oil in a frying pan.. Take one poornam ball and dip it inside the Dough and drop the Boorelu into the heated oil carefully. Make sure that the dough covers the poornam completely. Likewise, drop 4 or 5 Boorelu into the oil and fry them till golden brown and drain them.
• Finish the process with the remaining dough in the same way and arrange the Boorelu on a plate for Prasadam. If any excess dough is left, add some seasonings to the dough and fry them separately like mini vadas. Excess Poornams can be eaten as it is like a laddu.

Karadaiyan Nombu Adai / Karadayan Nombu Adai

Karadaiyan Nombu Adai / Karadayan Nombu Adai

Karadaiyan Nombu Adais are made in two different tastes. One variety is the sweet adai made with jaggery and the other variety is the salty one. Both tastes very good with a side of some fresh butter.

For both the Adais, soak the red karamani / red moth for 30 minutes and cook them separately and keep ready.

Sweet Adai Preparation :

Ingredients :

Rice Flour -  1 Cup

Rice Rava - 1 Cup

Crushed Jaggery - 1.5 Cups

Cardamom Powder - 1 tsp

Cooked karamani / Red moth - 1/2 cup

Fresh Coconut Flakes - 2 tbsp

Method

• In a big cooking pan, dry roast the rice rava and rice flour till you get a nice aroma. Add some water and allow the rice mix to get cooked to three fourth. Keep it ready.
• In a separate vessel, make the jaggery syrup. The Syrup need not be thick and its enough if the jaggery is completely dissolved. Add the cardamom powder, coconut flakes, cooked karamani seeds into the jaggery syrup and pour them over the rice mix.
• Mix them well without lumps and allow the sweet adai dough to cool for few minutes.
• Then, rub the hands with some ghee and make round adais using the cooled dough. Put a small round in the middle and complete making adais using the same process.
• Steam cook all these adais in a pressure cooker or in any other cooking pan.
• While steam cooking the adais, switch off the flame when the adais start sweating slightly which indicates that they are steam cooked perfectly.
• Transfer them into a flat plate or flat container. Continue the same process for the rest of the dough too...

Salt Adai Preparation :

Ingredients

Rice Flour - 1 Cup

Rice Rava - 1 Cup

Salt - To Taste

Mustard Seeds - 2 tsp

Hing / Asafoetida - 1 Dash

Cooked Karamani - 1/2 Cup

Fresh Coconut Flakes - 2 tbsp

Grated Ginger - 1 tsp

Green chillies - 2 Medium ( cut into small squares )

Curry Leaves - 5 or 6

Oil - 2 tsp ( Just for tempering )

Method

• In a big cooking pan, dry roast the rice rava and rice flour together till you get a nice aroma and keep them separately.
• In the same pan, add oil first. When its heated, add Hing, mustard seeds, green chillies, grated ginger, curry leaves. When tempering is done, add the cooked karamani seeds along with fresh coconut flakes to the cooking pan. Add the dry roasted rice flour mix too into the kadai.
• Add 3.5 cups of water and required amount of salt. Close the lid and allow them cooked to three fourth.
• When its done, switch off the flame and let the dough cools down.
• When its cool enough to make adais, make salt adais following the same method we do and steam cook the salt adais too. 

Tips / Variations

Its always better to follow the old method of making rice flour while making these Karadaiyan Nombu Adais. Soak the raw rice in water for few minutes and dry the soaked rice in a thin muslin cloth. When its dried, make a coarse rice powder using a mixer grinder. If we make use of this special rice powder while making the adais, it would be softer and more tastier than using regular rice flour / rice rava.

For my convenience, I used the mix of Rice Flour and Rice Rava that are readily available. Somehow I like coarse adais than thick, pasty adais. So I combined Rice Rava with Rice Flour in my process. But you can alter this according to your taste buds. 

Plain Medhu Vadai / Urad Dal Vadai

Plain Medhu Vadai / Urad Dal Vadai

Medhu Vadai, the soft spongy and crispy rounds are always special and great to enjoy them during tiffin time, great prasadam during festival time and perfect on any occasions. I made this medhu vadai on several occasions but everytime failed to take pictures as they would disappear quickly from the serving plate. That's the main reason for the delay in posting this recipe. There are so many varieties of Vadai we could make using the same batter. I would append those varieties whenever I make in future.. These vadas can be an excellent breakfast treat with a side of cocnut chutney and sambar too....

Ingredients

Urad Dal / Minna Pappu / Ulutham Paruppu - 2 Cups

Rice Flour - 1 tbsp

Salt - To Taste

Curry Leaves - 7 or 8 crushed

Hing / Asafoetida - 1 Dash

Method

Soak the Urad Dal in warm water for 1-2 hours. Grind them in a wet grinder by sprinkling very little water while grinding. Do not pour more water while grinding. Try to get a fluffy batter and keep it aside. If you are using a mixie, then try to use the whipper for grinding which gives a very fluffy batter.(In my experience). To that batter, add all the other ingredients and make a small round shape with a hole in the middle ( like a mini donut ). Drop them carefully into the heated oil in the pan. Fry them on both sides till golden colour and keep doing the same for the rest of the batter. Now the golden crispy vadais are ready for Neivedhyam.

Chow Chow Bath / Kesari Kichidi Combo

Chow Chow Bath / Kesari Kichidi Combo

"Chow Chow Bath"  was first introduced to me in Bangalore. I never heard of this combo before. Initially I said no to that combo as I was unsure about its taste and ingredients. After I knew that its a combo of Rava / pineapple kesari and Rava Upma / Sooji Upma, I was quite happy and it became one of my favourites.  Whenever I go to any Darshinis, I mostly order this combo as its so yummy with a mixed taste of both sweet and salt. Kesari, a delicious mouth watering sweet always remind me of the Marriage Tiffin time and takes me to that occasion all the time. Though we all make Upma regularly, once a while we can make this combo to make the Breakfast time more special. Kids will definitely love this combo as its colourful and yummy. This recipe is dedicated to my dear daughter who loves this combo very much.

Rava Kesari :

Ingredients

Rava / Sooji - 1 Cup

Sugar - 1 Cup ( Adjust according to your taste ) 

Water - 2.5 cups to 3 cups

Ghee - 3 tbsp

Cashewnuts - 12 - 15 cashews

Cardamoms - 3 or 4

Kesar Food Colour - 1 pinch ( For colouring )

Method

• In a heavy bottomed frying pan, heat little ghee and roast the cashews till golden brown and keep it aside.
• In the same pan, add the rava/sooji and dry roast them with little ghee on a low flame. Stir constantly till it turns golden brown.
• When you get a nice aroma, add water and a pinch of kesar food colour to the roasted rava and after its cooked to desired level, add sugar to the rava and allow them to cook for few minutes.
• When it slowly comes to a pudding consistency, add the crushed cardamom powder, roasted cashews and remaining ghee and stir them thoroughly for another 3 minutes.
• Transfer them to the serving bowl and enjoy.

Sooji Upma / Rava Upma / Rava Bath / Rava Kichidi 

This is the simpler version of rava upma which i always include while making this combo. Though we make different versions of Rava kichidi for breakfast, this goes well with a spicy chutney on its side.  I will post different versions in the following posts. 

Ingredients

Rava / Sooji - 1 Cup

Oil - 2 tbsp

Hing/Asafoetida - 1 Dash

Mustard Seeds - 2 tsp

Jeera / Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp

Urad Dal / Minna Pappu / Ulutham Paruppu - 2 tsp

Channa Dal / Senaga Pappu / Kadalai Paruppu - 2 tsp

Green chillies - 3 ( slice it or cut into small pieces )

Crushed Ginger - 2 tsp

Curry Leaves - 1 stem

Peas - 1 handful

Red Onion - 1/2 cut into small pieces.

Method

• In a heavy bottomed frying pan ( preferably Non-stick), dry roast the sooji/rava till it turns golden brown. Stir constantly so that it does not turn black. Transfer them to a plate and keep it ready.
• In the same pan, add oil first. When it gets heated, add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, Hing, urad dal, channa dal. When its roasted, add the cut/sliced green chillies, ginger, curry leaves and red onion. Fry them for about 3 - 4 minutes. Add the frozen peas to the contents and fry them for another minute.
• Add 3 cups of water and required amount of salt to the pan. Cover the pan and allow them to boil for 3-4 minutes. While its boiling, reduce the flame and slowly add the rava/sooji into the water. Stir continuously while adding in order to avoid lumps in the upma. After adding the rava/sooji, mix all the contents uniformly and cover the lid till the sooji/rava gets cooked. Remove the lid and add a tsp of ghee into the upma and serve this with a side of spicy chutney. 

HOW TO MAKE Semiya Payasam / Vermicelli Payasam

Semiya Payasam / Vermicelli Payasam

Semiya Payasam / Vermicelli Payasam in one of the favourites in my family. Though we all mostly make this sweet during festivals and special occasions, the preparation itself makes a normal day so special.!! Semiya Payasam is made by roasting the vermicelli with ghee, slowly cooked and simmered in milk and sugar, flavoured with crushed cardamom powder and little saffron and garnished with ghee roasted cashew nuts. It tastes heavenly if made using whole milk. As the process is simpler, its easy to make a normal day into a very special day....Its all in our hands!!! Have a beautiful day with a cup of sweet semiya payasam.

Ingredients

Semiya / Vermicelli - 1 cups

Milk - 4-5 cups ( Used 2% Milk )

Sugar - 3/4 th of a cup

Cardamom Powder - 1 tsp

Saffron - 1 pinch ( Optional )

Ghee - 2 tsp

Cashew nuts - 8-10 ghee roasted

Method

• In a kadai / cooking vessel, add a tsp of ghee and roast the cashew nuts first and keep them aside. Then add another tsp of ghee and roast the vermicelli till it turns golden colour.
• When you get a nice aroma, add enough water to cook the vermicelli.
• When its well cooked, add milk,saffron and sugar and allow them to cook for another 5-6 minutes.
• Don't forget to stir the payasam once a while.
• Add cardamom powder and roasted cashew nuts to the Payasam.
• You can have this Payasam either warm or chilled.
• Finally add the roasted cashew nuts to the Payasam and enjoy.

Tips / Note

Vermicelli payasam thickens after a while as the vermicelli absorbs most of the milk. Also, it gets thickened when its refrigerated. So, just before serving add warm milk to the Payasam and mix them well and serve.

You can add roasted raisins to the Payasam along with cashew nuts.