Sweet Potato and Jaggery Relish

I just love sweet potatoes in any form! The best is………….smoked sweet potatoes. When we were kids, it was my grandfather/grandmother’s duty to boil hot water for bath daily. It was done in the backyard with all those wood/stick/coal. We used to throw in these huge sweet potatoes inside and they would come out wonderfully baked with a nice smokey smell! And man….that taste you can never get it by baking them in an oven! And there are more versions… sweet potato curry, vatha kuzhambu, sambar, poli and this quick and easy jaggery relish that I got to make it yesterday. Just for me! 🙂

1 medium sweet potato, cubed into bite size
3/4 cup jaggery
1-1/2 cup water
Just a pinch of salt
A pinch of elaichi

Method:
1. Wash and boil the sweet potatoes with skin on and a pinch of salt. Do not pressure cook them as it will turn mushy. We still need chunks and not mashed ones. Drain and keep aside.
2. Boil jaggery with water. Once it dissolves completely, strain them to remove any dirt. Boil this clean jaggery water to a “paagu” consistency. On a low flame, first it will boil over the pan and keep stirring. After sometime, you will see nice thick bubbles forming inside the pan and it will start turning sticky and thick. Switch off the flame, add the potato chunks, pinch of elaichi and stir well to coat and cook covered for few minutes until potato absorbs the liquid.
3. Its best when eaten just like that. Or mash them well to add as a topping to your favorite dessert.

Payatha maavu urundai

Last week my mother sent some (or exactly 14!!) rava urundai. There was a friend of ours who had come from India and he was kind enough to get some of our stuff, which included this yummy rava urundai. Until now, I didn’t know they tasted so well!! We both were actually counting and finishing it off! It was all over today! 😦 😦 Mom…please send some more!!! plssssssss………… Ok! I have to replace them with something else, so baked another batch of choc chip cookies, and tried some payatha maavu urundai. Frankly, I have never made any of the “bakshanams” ever till date, however simple it is. So, I take this free time right now to try and learn things. So today, started with something very simple, yet tasty.

1 cup raw payatham paruppu/pasi paruppu
1 cup powdered sugar
2-3 elachi
10 cashews, 10 almonds
About 1/2 cup melted ghee

Method:
1. Add about 2 teaspoon of ghee, and when hot fry the dal along with cashews and almonds until raw smell leaves. Roast them continuously for 5-7 mins until brown, but not burning them.
2. Cool it completely and dry grind them along with elaichi to a fine powder. Add sugar powder and just run in the blender, to mix well.
3. Take into a big bowl, add ghee little by little, mix well and make balls.

Beetroot Halwa

Two big poor beetroot crept into my refrigerator couple of weeks ago. One was lucky enough to be made as a curry for chapathi. But beets are such a sweet vegetable (pun intended), they were never to be eaten again as a curry…This was my hub’s oath. So now, I have to make something to make this poor beet become more sweeter, and I decided to make beetroot halwa yesterday….:D and they turned out very well…Now the beet halwa is more preferred than beet curry 😀 so success!

2 cup grated beetroot
1/2 cup whole milk
1/4 cup sugar
Pinch of cardamom powder

Method:
1. In a microwave proof dish, mix the grated beets and milk and keep on medium power with constant stirring for about 25 mins or until beets have been cooked completely and milk is absorbed. If on a gas top, cook in a heavy bottom non-stick pan with constant stirring on medium flame until same consistency.
2. Add the sugar and keep on medium power, stirring occasionally for about 15 mins until sugar is completely dissolved and the required consistency for the beet is achieved.
3. Sprinkle cardamom, and toasted cashews.
4. Serve hot or cold 🙂

Basundi

Basundi….Ahhh!! A divine mouth-watering sweet dish made of milk…. I remember my mom making this when we were kids….for about 7 of us…now I know how much patience and energy she must have had then. Today I wanted to try this for just the 2 of us…which itself took almost 1hr of constant stirring and collecting. Though the end result was just yummy creamy and was so good.

1 Lt whole milk (no reduced fat milk…it just won’t work out well)
4 teaspoon sugar
pinch of cardamom

Method:
1. Pour milk into a thick heavy bottom non-stick pan. Thick and heavy bottom ensures milk doesn’t get burnt. Non-stick makes life easier to collect the residual milk and cream from the bottom of the pan.
2. Bring milk to a boil and simmer it. Milk will start letting out the cream or what is called the “Paal Aadai”. Take another bowl and start collecting this paal aadai.
3. After every collection ensure to stir the milk from the bottom. This will make those tiny little cream to blend with the milk nicely.
4. For about a litre of milk, you will be able to collect the paal aadai for about 15-20 times. Depending on how good your milk is.
5. After about 40-45 mins, you will see the milk has reduced to a considerable amount and the colour has changed from bright white to pale yellow.
6. Now add the sugar and let this melt. Then add the collected paal aadai and give it a stir and boil for another 15-20 mins until sugar melts and basundi comes to a thick consistency.
7. Garnish with cardamom, chopped nuts if desired. Serve hot or cold.

Chocolate pudding cake

I bought this Nestle evaporated milk can sometimes back and it was still occupying my pantry. I wanted to use this up and found the best recipe to make a warm pudding cake. Actually, when I bought evaporated milk, I assumed it to be similar to the condensed milk, as both are milk boiled and reduced. But yes, I was WRONG! This is no way close to condensed milk…..its not thick…its doesn’t look creamy and it has very less sugar. But still gave a nice texture and flavor to my pudding cake. So lesson learnt..you cannot substitute condensed milk for evaporated milk.

Though you can make your own evaporated milk, by boiling your milk on a medium to low flame, stirring often on a flat big bottom pan for about an hour until it reduces to half in quantity. I haven’t tried it though. Ok.. time for recipe.

1 can (350 ml) Evaporated milk (About 1.5 cups)
1-1/4 cup sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup + an additional 3 tablespoon cocoa powder
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoon water

Method:
Pre-heat oven to 350 deg F.
1. Take a bowl and mix flour, 3/4 cup sugar, 3 tablespoon cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.
2. Whisk in 1/2 cup evaporated milk, oil and vanilla extract just until it blends and no lumps. No beating is required.
3. Grease a baking dish (little deep) and pour this mixture to form the bottom layer.
4. Mix water and remaining 1 cup evaporated milk and microwave on high for 1 minute.
5. Take another clean bowl, mix remaining 1/2 cup sugar, 1/4 cup cocoa powder.
6. Pour milk and whisk continuously until cocoa melts. Pour this as the top layer.
7. Bake for 30-35 mins until you see bubbles forming on the edges. At the beginning, it will look like a cake with center not set at all. But once you see bubbles (takes almost 30 minutes. Keep an eye on the cake after 25 minutes) you know its done.
8. Cool it until its warm. This is not a cake and you cannot let it fall off the dish. As you see in the picture, the center will fall inside once it cools. Use your spoon to scoop out and serve with ice cream or whipped cream or chocolate sauce.

Semiya payasam

Semiya payasam is a very very common sweet dish that can be found in most of the Indian home. I just love the simplicity of this dish, yet has the unique flavors brought by milk, cardamom and saffron. Making this with whole milk gives the best taste..though today I’m making it with 2% reduced fat milk. For the Easter, we had a pot luck lunch at one of our neighbor’s place. And one of the guest Ana, a Mexican has invited us to her house today. So I didn’t want to go empty handed and making my favorite sweet dish and I hope they like it 🙂

1 cup dry semiya
2 cup milk
1/3 cup sugar (Add more if you like it very sweet)
10 cashews split into half and fried in ghee
2-3 cardamom flakes powdered
2 teaspoon ghee

Method:
1. Add ghee to a heavy bottom non-stick pan. Once its hot add the semiya and fry them for a minute.
2. Add 1/2 cup milk initially with 1/4 cup water and cook the semiya.
3. Then add the sugar and let it dissolve completely. Add milk and cook with frequent stirring on a medium flame. It takes about 30 mins on a medium flame to come to a nice thick custard consistency. If you need it little more thin, switch off after 20-25 mins. Using whole milk actually gives out the milk cream on top which is really yummy!!! 🙂
4. Check for consistency as per your liking. I like mine to be of a custard consistency and not very running payasam.
5. Garnish with powdered cardamom, fried cashews and serve hot or cold.

Mysore pak

It was a boring Sunday afternoon, and watching vinnaithaandi varuvaya made it even more worse. It was rainy and gloomy outside and we were thinking what could possible boost our moods. Bam! We decided to make mysore pak. My mom says, Mysore pak is a tricky sweet…You should have the patience, strength (you will know when you make it!! ) and the right padam…OK mom..here I come..lets see if I have all these..(of course with my hub’s help! 😉 )

The ratio we finally decided is 1:2:2 (1 cup besan flour, 2 cup sugar, 2 cup ghee). Though traditionally its 1:2:3 And, they say you have to slightly dry roast the besan flour. This gives the nice dark brown colour. Anyways I did not dry roast. So again, its optional.

Method:
1. Mix just 2-3 teaspoon of ghee with besan flour and just keep it on a heated stove for few seconds and remove.
2. Add 1 cup water to 2 cups sugar and make the syrup. It needs to be a single string, sticky padam. They say pisikku padam.
3. Now add the besan flour in parts and keep stirring it continuously on medium to high flame. Stir until all the flour has been mixed and there are no lumps.
4. Now add the ghee in parts. About 3 parts. Add first and stir without leaving. You will see the dough will gradually form foam kind and again loosen. Add the next part and keep repeating until ghee is completely used.
5. Grease a dish, and after the 3rd addition, rising and loosening, drop the dough into the greased dish. Use a flat bottom of a dish to help in setting. Use a knife to make pieces and keep aside. Once cooled, you could store in a container.

We were very much surprised when it came out so perfect and wonderful.