Sarkarai Pongal

11th December, 2009

Sakkara Pongal request was made by team mate. Fortunately or unfortunately she didnt come to office on the day i made it :P


Honestly, Sakkara pongal is the best of the four sweets I have done till now. Came out quite well :) Office people liked it :) and my cousins loved it :D


So here goes the recipe...


Ingredients :


Rice - 1/2 cup
Payatham paruppu (Moong Dal) - 1/4 cup
Water - 2cups
Milk - 1 cup
Jaggery - 2 cups
Ghee - As required
Cashew nuts - 10


Procedure :

• Cook the rice along with payatham paruppu with the specified amount of milk and water in cooker. (Fry the rice and dal in a dry pan till it changes colour slightly and gives a good smell before boiling it)
• Dissolve the Jaggery with a cup of water on the stove and filter it and put it on stove again till it boils. Dont let it become very thick ( Shouldnt get to paagu padahm)
• Now mix the Cooked rice and dal with the melted Jaggery and keep stirring on stove and add ghee little by little
• As you leave it on stove for a while, Keep stirring it well till the ingredients have mixed well
• Once done, Fry some Cashew nuts in ghee and garnish the Sarkara pongal

Easy and one of the most delicious sweets of south India, Sakkara Pongal is ready now.

Happy Pongaling!!! :D

Adhirasam

5th December, 2009


1st December was Harini's birthday (Harini is my cousin who lives in Bangalore). I knew that she loved adhirasam. I planned to make it and take it to her place on her birthday. However there was a sudden set-back. Bad luck!!! A long power failure persisted throughout the previous evening. But somehow, I wanted to make it at least by the weekend.


So, by saturday morning, I was all set to prepare adhirasam.


Ingredients : (for around 12 to 13 medium sized adhirasams)
1. Rice - 1 cup (200 gm)
2. Jaggery (Pagu vellam) - 3/4 cup (150 gm)
3. Water - 75 ml
4. Oil - to fry
5. Ghee - (just enough to grease your hands)
6. Cardamom powder
Procedure :

• Soak the rice for around15 to 20 minutes in water.
• Then drain the water well. Add it little by little into the mixer grinder and grind it fine
• Use a sieve to remove the coarse particles
• Mix a little cardamom powder with the rice flour
• Take a thick bottomed vessel, add the jaggery and water, stir them in low flame till the jaggery dissolves completely. Filter this mixture in a tea filter to remove any impurities that might have been present in the jiggery.
• Place the jaggery mixture again on the stove in low flame.
• Now place a cup of water by your side and pour a drop of the jaggery mixture to check its consistency.
• If the mixture does not deform and dissolve in water, the mixture is ready. You can put off the stove.
• Now add the rice flour to this, mix well and leave it aside for at least half an hour.
• Now, we are ready to make adhirasam. First spread out a polyethene sheet on a surface. (I used a cleaned milk cover)
• Then apply ghee on your hand.
• Make the dough into lemon-sized balls and start making them into palm-sized rounds by flattening them on the polythene sheet by hand.
• Heat the oil and fry the adhirasam in low flame till they are dark red in colour.
• Flatten and squeeze out the oil from the adhirasam using two ladles or draining spoons.

Your adhirasam is ready!!!! :D
Tips :
If you want the adhirasam to be soft, take off the jaggery mixture from the stove a little early. Like as soon as it starts taking form in water. And don’t leave it frying for very long in the oil.
For crispy adhirasam fans, the above two steps can be prolonged. But dont leave it till the jaggery mixture sticks on to the vessel. :P It should be liquid but viscous.


So, I gave some of my home-made adhirasams to Harini and she loved it. She was a crispy adhirasam fan and my adhirasam, all turned out to be crispy :P
I also took some to my office and got a good feedback there as well. But I did fail to satisfy one soft adhirasam fan.
So try it out. Adhirasam isn’t tough to make really. :) I truly felt it :)
Happy Adhirasaming!!! :D

Maa Laadu (Roasted gram flour laadu)

24th Nov,2009 (Tuesday)

was leaving to Chennai on 25th November. I planned to meet Malathy aunty and Shyam uncle (The sweet-hearts whose house I stayed in during my initial days in Bangalore) in their place before leaving to Chennai. So after my first successful ( :P ) Gulab jamun venture, the next easiest sweet my mom suggested was maa laadu. So I decided to do that and give some for aunty and uncle and the rest to my family. :)

Ingredients : (for 12 - 13 medium sized balls with this quantity of ingredients)

1. Roasted gram (pottu kadalai) - 1 cup (200 gm)

2. Sugar - 3/4 cup (150 gms)

3. Ghee - (50 gms)

4. Cashew nuts

Procedure :

• Powder the roasted gram and sugar separately to get fine powders and mix them together.
• Break the cashews into small pieces, fry them in ghee till they become golden brown and add them to the mixture.
• Melt the ghee slightly before you add it to the mixture. Do not add all the ghee at once. Add one tablespoon at a time and mix well. Stop adding when it comes to the consistency of making the mixture into balls. Too much of ghee spoils the powdery effect of the sweet. So watch it when mixing the ghee.
• Once that is done, start making them into medium sized balls. One hand is sufficient to make the balls. Press them tight so that they do not go out of shape as soon as u place them on a dish :P

Now your maa laadu is ready :D

Happy maa laaduing!!! :D

Gulab Jamun

20th Nov,2009 (Friday)

I am fortunate.I have quite a number of relatives here to pay a visit to during weekends. This sweet making venture started off with one such visit. I was invited for lunch at my grandfather's brother's place.

I felt that I have to make something on my own and take it with me when I go to my thatha's place. I called my mom at around 8:30 in the evening asking her suggestions on what sweet to make. She said gulab jamun or maa laadu. Amma said "Asadu kooda gulab jamun pannum" (Even a stupid can make gulab jamun). :P So, I chose gulab jamun and rushed to the closest departmental store to get gulab jamun ready-mix. I got the 100g packet.

I would admit that gulab jamun is easy, but everything needs a finesse of work. As my amma rightly says " Edha seiyardha irundhalumum adhula oru azhagu venum!!!"

I just stuck to following the instructions behind the packet and started preparing the dough. Made it into small balls and started preparing the sugar syrup. I was all set to fry my jamuns in oil. Dropped 5 to 6 balls in the oil and got all tensed to see that they were cracking. Though the balls weren’t disintegrating in the oil, they started having cracks.

Worried, I called my mother asking what the reason could be. She asked if the water quantity was right and if I rolled the balls tight.

Mothers are experts!!! I have no second opinion on that. I re-rolled the remaining balls tight and the from the next fry, everything was fine :D

I fried them in low flame and dropped the balls into the sugar syrup.

I would say, the outcome was quite good except that cardamom powder was slightly less in my syrup. People there tasted it and liked it. And the Jamuns were quite in form. :)

Procedure :

• Things you require in addition to the mix are just - Sugar, Water and cardamom powder.
• Just follow the instructions behind the jamun instant mix packet.

Tips :

• Fry the jamuns in low flame and let it cook for long. The reason is, in high flame, only the outer layer of the jamun cooks and inside still remains raw.
• Rolls the Jamun balls tight to avoid the cracks during frying.
• Don’t roll them into huge balls. Smaller the better. The reason is, they enlarge while frying as well as soaking in sugar syrup.

For those who want to put a pullayar suzhi (take their first step) to their sweet making venture, and for those people who want to just do a sweet which is very simple and quick, Gulab Jamun is the best and the most encouraging choice according to me.

Innovations are unlimited. For instance, u can place a half cashew inside every jamun and fry it. So people who eat get happy on the small surprise nut that comes in their mouth!!!

Happy Jamuning!!! :D