Uluva Payasam

 
2 tablespoon Uluva
2 tablespoons rice
1/2 cup shredded coconut
3/4 cup jaggery (crushed) (add more if needed)

Soak the Uluva and rice together over night.
Add water and cook the mixture on a medium flame till rice is cooked and most of the water is absorbed.
Mash the mixture coarsely once it is cooked.
Add jaggery and coconut to the mixture and continue cooking for 5-10 minutes on low flame till the jaggery melts and the kheer thickens a bit.
Serve hot with a spoonful of ghee.

This is generally cooked for new moms since Uluva increases milk supply. jaggery always preferred over sugar for health as well as taste reasons. The sweetness of jaggery along with the slight bitterness and crunchiness of the Uluva are an excellent combination.

(By:Sammy Nathan)

Raw Pappaya Halwa

 

Papaya halwa ingredients:

2 cups papaya
1 cup milk (boiled)
1 cup sugar
a pinch of yellow colour
4 tbsp clarified butter (ghee)
Garnishing ingredients:

5 cashewnuts
5 badam
5 pista
a big pinch of cardamom powder
Pappaya halwa preparation:

Peel the skin, remove the seeds and grate the papaya.
Roast the garnishing ingredients (except cardamom powder) in 2 tsp of ghee till they turn into light golden yellow colour.
Allow it to cool then broken into small pieces.
Now heat a heavy bottomed pan and heat with 2 tbsp of ghee.
Add the grated pappaya and saute on low flame till the raw smell disappears.
Now add milk and mix well.
Cook on low flame till the papaya become tender.
Once the halwa starts to thickening stir continuously for 2-5 mins.
At this point add sugar food colour.
Combine well and cook for further thickness.
Add the remaining ghee and stir.
Cook on low flame till the ghee separates form the mixture.
Finally add the garnishing ingredients.
Now your easy and tasty papaya(pappali) halwa is ready to serve.

(By:Majid Hussain)

Jilebi

Ingredients:
• 2 cups All Purpose Flour
• 1-1/2 tbsp Rice flour
• 1/4th tsp Baking powder
• 2 tbsp Curd
• 3 cups Sugar
• 2-1/2 cups Water
• 1/2 tsp Cardamom (powdered)
• Ghee or Vegetable oil for frying
How to make Jalebi:
• Mix the flour, rice flour, baking powder, curd in a bowl.
• Mix well, add water and whisk until smooth.
• Set aside for about 2 hours to ferment.
• Whisk thoroughly before use.
• Prepare one string syrup by dissolving sugar in the water.
• Just before the syrup is ready add cardamom powder.
• Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan or kadhai.
• Pour the batter in a steady stream into the kadhai to form coils.
• Make 4-5 at a time.
• Deep fry them until they are golden and crisp all over but not brown.
• Remove from the kadhai and drain on kitchen paper and immerse in the sugar syrup.
• Leave for at least 4-5 minutes so that they soak the syrup.
• Take them out of syrup and serve hot.
• Jalebi is ready.

 (By :Santhosh Mohanan)

Adhirasam

 
Ingredients:

• 1/2 kg Rice
• 300 gm Jaggery
• Oil for frying

How to make Adhirasam:

• Soak rice in water for half an hour.
• Spread it on a large cloth or newspaper for half an hour.
• When it is three fourth dried, put it in a mixie and powder it.
• Dissolve jaggery in enough water and mix well.
• Put this on heat.
• Cook it until the jaggery syrup becomes thick like a paste.
• Combine this syrup with the powdered rice and mix well to make dough.
• Cover it and leave it for about 8 hours.
• Take 2 cups of oil and heat it.
• Make a ball of out of the dough on a plastic sheet and flatten it by hand.
• Fry in oil until it becomes golden brown on both sides

(By:Santhosh Mohanan)

Gulab Jamun

 
Ingredients

• 1 cup All Purpose Flour
• 2 pinch Soda Powder
• 100 gms Ghee
• 3/4 Liter Milk
• 6 Cardamoms (crushed)
• 1 tbsp Sugar
• 1 tsp Rose Essence
• 2 Pinch Saffron

For Syrup

• 3 cups Sugar
• 3 cups Water
How to make Gulab Jamun:
• Boil the milk till it reduces to half cup.
• Cool and add soda powder and 1tbsp sugar.
• Mix properly and make it smooth.
• Slowly add flour and prepare a fine dough. Leave it for an hour.
• Apply little ghee on the palms.
• Make small balls from the prepared mixture.
• Pour ghee in a pan and heat. Fry the balls in ghee on a low flame.
• Boil water with equal amount of sugar. Also add cardamom and saffron.
• Filter and add rose essence to it.
• Put the fried balls in this solution.
• Remove after 3-4 hours.
• Gulab Jamun is ready to serve.

(By:Santhosh Mohanan)

MYSORE PAK

 
Ingredients:
1 cup gram flour(besan)
1 cup sugar
1 cup ghee
½ GLASS WATER

Method:
Heat 1 tea spn ghee and add gram flour.
On a medium flame, fry till nice aroma comes out of it and it turns slightly brownish. Take care not to burn, it burns easily, so make sure to keep stirring it. Take it out on a plate and keep aside.
Mix sugar with 1/2 cup water and bring it to boil, keep mixing with a spoon.
When it is boiling, and you can see rapid boiling, add the fried four and mix (do not wait till it forms syrup).
Now add 1 tbl spn ghee at a time, keep mixing all the time. When all ghee is done, keep mixing continuously. If you stop mixing for a min, you will see the mixture has lots of air in it and when you start mixing again, the air goes off.
When the mixture starts leaving edges and looks a bit dry pour it into a greased plate and flatten immediately
Keep the plate tilted at an angle, this way, all the extra ghee comes out of the Mysore pak and you get very dry pieces. Cut into desired shapes.
PS: These are some very important notes to keep in mind
- If the flour remains half fried(roasted), it gives a different taste. So make sure not to skip the first step of frying/roasting it well.
- The plate where you pour the mixture should be greased with ghee and kept ready before you even start heating the water because you cannot spend time on greasing it when the mixture is ready to be poured. You have to work very fast at this point.
- Always keep the plate at an angle to remove extra ghee.
- Never try to make this dish on a high flame, it gets burnt very easily, so start with a cool, patient mind .
- Cut into pieces when it is still warm. When it is completely cooled, it crumbles very easily.

(By:Asha Iyer)

Kaju Pista Roll

  
Kaju Roll Ingredients:
Cashew nuts 100 gms
Sugar ½ cup
Butter 25 gms
milk for making the paste

Preparation:

Soak the cashew in warm water for 2 to 3 hours. Wash them and grind it into smooth paste with milk. Keep aside. Dissolve sugar in ¼ cup water and prepare syrup one string consistency. Now add butter and cashew paste. Cook it on medium flame (medium in MW) stirring continuously. Cool it.

Pistal Roll Ingredients:

Pista nuts 100 gms
Sugar ½ cup
Butter 25 gms
milk for making the paste


Soak the pistachios in warm water for 2 hours. Drain and peel the skin and grind them in fine paste by adding little milk. Keep aside. Dissolve sugar in ¼ cup water and prepare syrup one string consistency. Now add butter and pista paste. Cook it on medium flame (medium in MW) stirring continuously. Cool it.

Preparing the roll:
Make the pista roll and divide into two equal parts and shape each portion into a cylindrical roll of 100 cm. Make the cashew roll as specified above and divide it into two equal parts. Roll our each portion with the help of greased rolling pin on a butter sheet. Place one portion of Pista rolls on one sheet and roll it tightly. Cut into 2” length rolls. Dip the edge on pista powder. You can roll into silver paper for decoration.

 (By:Asha Iyer)