If there is a way to make a vegetable taste heavenly this has to be it. It’s been  long overdue to publish this recipe. Everytime I make it somehow Ialways missed to take pics of it. This time my MIL made it and I finally took the pics. It was really delicious.

Gajar (Carrot) Halwa is a traditional Punjabi dish made with carrots and milk.  The perfect way to eat this halwa is with some of your favorite ice cream. It taste absolutely delicious. I am already drooling here. Try this recipe and let me know how it came out for you.

Preparation Time : 45 minutes
No Of servings : 4-5

Ingredients:

• Carrots : 2 cups ( grated and shredded)
• Milk : 2 cups
• Butter(unsalted) or Ghee : 1/4 cup
• Granulated Sugar : 1/4 cup
• Cardamom Powder : 1/2 tsp
• Roasted Cashews nuts : 10 (for garnishing)
• Raisins : 6 (roasted)(for garnishing)

Method Of Preparation :

1. Heat a tbsp ghee in a small pan and roast cashews and raisins and keep it aside.
2. Now boil milk in a heavy bottomed pan in medium heat and stir often until the 2 cups milk become 1 cup. Keep stirring that way you will avoid burn in the bottom of the pan.
3. Now in a separate pan add the ghee or melt the butter.
4. And add shredded carrot and stir fry it  for about 10 minutes in medium heat or until the carrots become soft, tender,cooked and slightly change in color.
5. Now add the boiled milk and keep stirring it until the mixture becomes dry, cook for about 10-12 minutes in medium heat or until it dries out completely.
6. Finally add the sugar, cardamom powder, roasted cashews and raisins.
7. Mix it all together and stir fry for about 3 minutes until the ghee starts to leave on top of halwa.
8. Remove from heat and serve it hot.
9. You can refrigerate this halwa for up to 2 weeks.

© admin for Spicy Tasty, 2011. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: desserts, sweets

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

If you have a  sweet tooth try this recipe you will love it.
Prepration Time : 30 minutes
No of servings : 7-8

Method Of Preparation:

1. First to prepare jaggery syrup boil water in a pan and add jaggery to it. Bring to boil and simmer for 10 minutes. After that remove from heat and let it cool. No need for thicker consistency.
2. Now roast the coconut pieces in ghee until they turn golden brown. Keep this aside.
3. If you are using rice flour roast it  in medium heat for 5 minutes if not skip this step.
4. Blend the bananas into smooth paste. Add the jaggery mixture to the banana blend and pulse it again till it get mixed well.
5. Now take the maida or rice flour in a bowl and add the banana jaggery mix to this and combine well without any lumps.
6. After that add roasted coconut, cardamom powder and mix well.
7. The consistency should be loose not to thick. And you can increase your sweet level according to your taste.
8. Now heat the pancake pan/ paniyara chatti and add oil or ghee into it.
9. And pour the batter with a cashew inside of it in the pancake pan. The batter should be 3/4th full in each mould.
10. Turn on other side to evenly cooked. Remove from heat once its done or till it gets golden brown.
11. Serve it hot.
12. And if you don’t have pancake pan just deep fry spoonful of batter in oil.  (when you do this make sure the consistency should be little thick)

© admin for Spicy Tasty, 2011. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: appetizers, breakfast, Breakfast Menu, festival-snacks

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

For this Thanksgiving we are planning to visit my sister-in-law. I want to try lots of cookies and chocolates for the two sweet little kids. Today I tried making simple chocolate truffles. It took just 5 minutes for the preparation and they are really yummy.

Time of Preparation : 5 minutes and 2 hours for refrigeration
No of truffles : 24

1. Take a wide pan and melt the chocolate chips with sweetened condensed milk.
2. Remove from heat, add the vanilla extract and stir it.
3. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours or until they become firm.
4. Take it out and roll them to 24 equal sized balls.
5. Roll them over the desired coating.

© arthi for Spicy Tasty, 2011. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: desserts, sweets

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Adhirasam is a traditional South Indian Sweet which is usually made in Diwali times. It’s very popular sweet which is almost made in every single south Indian home during diwali festival. And adhirasam is popular as an offering to God for Diwali nonmbhu (prayer) time.

It’s really very tricky to make adhirasam, because you need to know the correct proportions. My mother-in-law showed me how to make this recipe. It came out really well.

From wikipedia:

Adhirasam  is a type of Indian sweet from Tamil cuisine. The doughnut like pastry has a long history of popularity in Tamil civilization. They are similar in shape to vadai, but are not savoury and are eaten as a dessert.

Adhirasam is a popular as an offering to the gods during puja prayers, both at home and in temples in Tamil Nadu.  According to inscriptions from Krishnadevaraya’s time, the sweet was made from rice flour, jaggery, butter and pepper.  At the annual festival at the Panchavarnesvar Temple in Nallur (located near Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu), an offering of 6000 Adhirasams along with 6000 vadas is made to the Gods; the entire lot is cooked in the temple kitchen between sunrise and 11 pm, for the prayers that take place at midnight.

1. Soak the raw rice for 40 minutes. After that drain the rice and spread it in a clean cloth or a tissue for about 10- 15 minutes.
2. Once you know the rice is dry ( not too dry but with little moist) and the excess water content is absorbed from the rice then it’s ready to grind.
3. Now grind the rice using a blender or an Indian Mixie  to a very fine powder.
4. Now sift this rice mixture and keep it aside.
5. In a wide pan add jaggery and 1/2 cup of water.  Once the jaggery powder is dissolved completely, remove from heat and strain the water. Keep it aside.
6. Now boil that jaggery and keep stirring it in til it comes to a thick consistency.
7. To check the right consistency if you take that melted jaggery and put in to a little water, it should roll up into a soft ball.
8. Once you get the right consistency just remove from heat immediately and pour it into the rice mixture. And also add the cardamom powder.
9. Mix everything together to form a soft dough.
10. You can put this dough in an air tight container and keep it in the fridge and make adhirasam out of it even after two  or three weeks later.
11. Now make the flat patties out of that mixture. deep fry that patties.
12. Make sure to fry it in low heat.

© admin for Spicy Tasty, 2011. | Permalink | 15 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags:

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Paal Peda or Doodh Peda is a popular milk sweet in India. It is semi soft and rich in milk protein. Making paneer and resting period may take a little more time. But the procedure is really simple. Kids will love it. It will be perfect for the Diwali. Have a safe and wonderful Diwali…

Preparation time: 60 minutes

No. of servings: 25 to 28 pieces

1. Prepare paneer from 4 cups of milk. Check How to make Paneer?.
2. In a non stick pan or a thick bottomed melt butter over medium heat.
3. Add milk, evaporated milk, milk powder and paneer.
4. Break paneer and combine all the ingredients well. Keep stirring.
5. Press the mixture and stir well.
6. Everything will come together and become a thick like a soft dough.
7. Remove from heat and transfer it to a bowl and let it cool.
8. Add powdered cardamom and mix well. Add sugar little by little and check and add the rest.
9. If there are small crumbs and not so fine like you expected, just pulse the mixture 3 to 4 times in a mixer grinder or food processor.
10. Grease your palm with ghee or clarified butter and remove the mixture from the mixer.
11. Grease a plate with ghee.
12. Make small balls and flatten it a bit and make a small dent.
13. Place it in the greased plate and cover it with wet cloth or paper towel and leave it over night.
14. It will become firm and perfect. Garnish with pistachios, broken cashew nut and raisins. Store it in an air tight container and refrigerate it.

© Nithu for Spicy Tasty, 2011. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags:

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Kaju katli is a popular Indian sweet made of powdered cashew nut and sugar syrup, spiced with cardamom powder. It is Diwali time and I have been waiting to make this wonderful sweet dish. Getting the right consistency of sugar syrup is the key. Make this dish at home and enjoy the Diwali.

Ingredients:

• Cashew powder – 3 cups
• Sugar – 1 and 1/2 cups
• Ghee or clarified butter – 2 tbsp
• Cardamom powder – 1/4 tsp
• Saffron – a big pinch

© Nithu for Spicy Tasty, 2011. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags:

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

I was thinking about some easy recipes and I got idea of making this seven cup cake recipe. One of friends told about this sweet. When someone needs to make something real fast this is the recipe. It is really easy to make yet very tasty.

Time of Preparation : 30 to 40 minutes
No of Pieces : 16 to 20

Ingredients:

• Besan flour / Chickpea flour – 1 cup
• Coconut (grated) – 1 cup
• Sugar – 3 cups
• Milk – 1 cup
• Ghee – 1 cup

Method of Preparation:

1. Mix all the ingredients in a vessel.
2. Heat a nonstick pan and transfer the mixture and stir it.
3. Stir it in a low to medium flame continuously till it leaves the sides of the pan.
4. Grease a tray with butter or ghee and transfer the mixture.
5. After 10 to 15 minutes, cut to pieces when it is still hot.
6. Let it cool and remove the pieces.

Note:

• The actual recipe is, we have to add 3 cups of sugar. But those who like to have less sugar, 2 1/2 cups of sugar is enough.

© arthi for Spicy Tasty, 2011. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: sweets

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

I wanted to make some sweet which we don’t make often. Suddenly I got an idea of making this Badam puri. My sister-in-law makes this delicious sweet for special occasions. Everyone in our family like this a lot. This is my first time of making Badam Puris and they came out really well. Thanks to Anusha anni for this awesome recipe . I have explained the step by step procedure of this sweet.

Time of Preparation : 1 1/2 hrs (excluding the dough preparation time)
No of Pieces : 30

Ingredients:
For Puri:

• Maida / All purpose flour – 2 cups
• Almonds – 30
• Rice flour – 3 tbsp
• Ghee – 6 tbsp
• Orange food color – a pinch
• Saffron strands – a few

For Sugar Syrup:

• Sugar – 2 cups
• Water – 1 1/2 cups

Method of Preparation:

1. Mix the rice flour and mix with 4 tbsp of ghee and keep it aside.
2. Soak the almonds for 2 hours in hot water and remove the skin.
3. Grind the almonds to a very smooth paste.
4. Mix the almond paste to the all purpose flour.
5. Add very little water to the orange food color and add to the flour almond mixture.
6. Mix well to get a soft dough (poori dough consistency).
7. We may need only a few tablespoon of water for the dough and add 1 tbsp of ghee.
8. Cover the dough for 1 hour (minimum).
9. Divide the dough to around 25 equal parts (small balls).
10. Roll them like puris. If needed, touch some ghee to make puris.
11. Apply the rice flour and ghee paste on the puriand stack one on the top of the other with 5 puris in each stack.
12. Roll the stacks like how we roll for parottas.
13. Cut the roll to 5 to 6 pieces.
14. Again press each piece slightly and make small puris.
15. Heat oil in a thick bottomed vessel and make the sugar syrup simultaneously.
16. The sugar syrup should be little thick and it should be sticky. We should be able to see strings when we touch between the fingers.
17. The sugar syrup should be hot so that the puris will absorb the syrup.
18. Now fry the puris till golden brown and dip them in the sugar syrup immediately for just 30 seconds to 1 minute.
19. strain them in a wide vessel and sprinkle some saffron strands.
20. Keep the puris seperate from each other until they are hot so that they wont stick with each other.
21. Delicious Badam Puris are ready.

Note:

• The sugar syrup should be in correct consistency so that the puris will be little crispy.
• If the syrup is little watery the puris will become soggy and if we over boil the syrup too much sugar crystals will be formed.
• When the sugar got ready I just put it in a very low flame until all the puris are done.
• One small tip is finish rolling all the puris and start frying so that the sugar syrup will be warm throughout.

© arthi for Spicy Tasty, 2011. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: sweets

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

I think recently I am posting a lot of besan recipes. But you know what I love the flavor of besan. I had planned to make ladoos for diwali. But I wanted to cook something different so I ended up making this besan rava ladoo.

It’s really easy and simple to make for lot of us when we don’t have the time or patience to make something elaborate. This will make a great festival sweet.

Preparation Time: 45 mins
No of Ladoos : 15-20

Ingredients:

• Besan/Chickpeas Flour : 1 1/2 cup
• Sooji/Semolina coarse : 4 tbsp
• Ghee/Clarified Butter : 1/2 cup
• Cardamom Powder : 1/4 tsp
• Almonds : 3 tbsp (chopped finely)
• Raisins: 1 tbsp

Method Of Preparation:

1. Dry roast the besan for 10 minutes in simmer flame till you smell a nice aromatic flavor(make sure you don’t burn the besan)
2. And also dry roast sooji for 10 minutes.
3. And just fry the raisins and almonds in a tbsp of ghee separately.
4. Now sift the chickpeas flour/besan in a separate wide bowl.
   
5. Add roasted sooji and ghee into sifted besan. Combine everything well.
6. Now heat a pan and add the above mixture into it. Stir it in simmer flame. You have to roast the whole mixture for upto  15 – 20 minutes in low heat. Don’t adjust the heat just maintain the same heat. That way you don’t overcook the besan flour.
7. You will see  the ghee starts to melt and a nice aroma comes from the mixture. Once the raw smell of the besan is gone you can remove it from heat and let it cool. Make sure the besan flour is warm and not completely cool.
8. After that add the sugar, cardamom powder, almonds and dry grapes.
9. Mix it all together gently, combine well.
10. Take a small amount of mixture in your hands and just clump it to make a round shaped ball as shown in pic.
11. You will get about 15-20 ladoos out of this mixture.

© admin for Spicy Tasty, 2011. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags:

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Cham Cham is a popular Bengali dessert or sweet in India. It is a pure delight and melts in your mouth. It comes in different colors such as yellow, pink or white. It is prepared from fresh paneer (Indian cheese) and cooked in sugar syrup. The procedure is very simple and perfect for the Diwali festival. Kids will love it. Prepare this at home and enjoy.

Ingredients I:

• Paneer(made from 8 cups of milk)
• Yellow food color: a pinch
• Sugar: 2 cups
• Water : 5 cups
• Cardamom pods: 4
• Saffron: a big pinch
• Rose essence : 1/2 tsp

Ingrediens II (for malai):

• Evaporated milk : 1/4 cup
• 2% milk: 1/2 cup
• Sugar: 2 tsp
• Saffron : 4 strands
• Cardamom powder : a small pinch

For Garnishing:

• Slivered Pistachios and almond: 2 tbsp
• Milk powder:  1/4 cup (or dessicated coconut)
• Saffron

Method of Preparation:

1.  Follow the instruction given in How to make Paneer? and prepare paneer.
2. Once the paneer is ready, cover the cloth that is holding the paneer with a kitchen towel and press it. This removes the remaining moisture from paneer.
3. Now take it out of the cloth and place it on a clean surface.
4. Knead it into a smooth, soft dough using your palm. This may take 5 minutes.
5. In between, mix the food color with 1 tbsp of water and add a little and knead. Add some more if you need more color and continue kneading.
6. Heat 5 cups of water in a wide deep pan and add sugar. Let the sugar dissolve.
7. Once the required consistency of the dough is obtained, make small round or oval shaped balls.
8. When the sugar water starts boiling, add ground cardamom, saffron and rose essence.
9. Leave it for a minute and add the paneer balls and close the pan with a lid and leave it for 5 minutes over medium heat.
10. After five minutes, remove the lid and check the paneer balls which has doubled in size.
11. Remove from heat and set it aside.  It will be spongy when hot. Let it cool.
12. Cham cham is ready.

Preparation of malai or sweet cream:

1. In a thick bottomed pan, add milk and evaporated milk and let it boil at medium temperature.
2. Stir continuously till it becomes creamy and a little thick. Now add saffron, sugar and cardamom. Mix well.
3. Remove from heat.

Presentation:

1. Remove the paneer balls or cham cham from sugar syrup and let it rest for 15 minutes.
2. Roll them in milk powder or dessicated coconut and garnish with almonds.
3. Or you can add some malai or sweet cream over the cham cham and let it absorb it for a few minutes and then add the cream over it again and garnish with pistachios and saffron.
4. Or you can just serve them with pistachios.

I would like to enter the recipe to Krithi’s Serve it Festival Potluck.

© Nithu for Spicy Tasty, 2011. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags:

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh