Beetroot Halwa

Ingredients:
beetroot- 2 big
milk- 1/2 litre
Sugar- 3 cups
ghee- 5 tbsp
minutemaid/condensed milk - 4tbsp (optional)
dry fruits for garnish

Procedure:

Peel the beetroot and grate it.

boil the milk and add grated beetroot in the milk. boil it for 15-20 mins with closed lid till they are cooked.

Once they are cooked add sugar and keep mixing and keep in flame for 10 mins until the milk evaporates.you can add more sugar if you have a sweet tooth.
mix till it becomes a thick mixture and add ghee and condensed milk for additional flavour.

saute the dryfruits in ghee. you can use almonds,cashenuts and raisins
add the dryfruits into the halwa and mix it well.

It can be had hot and also cold. One combination to have it is with icecream. better a vanilla or plain flavours .

Bread Halwa

Bread Halwa is the quickest and yummiest of all the dessert recipes I've made till date.. I've fallen in love with it. Here is the recipe for u all...

Ingredients :

Bread loaves - 2

Milk - 2 cups

Sugar - 1 cup

Ghee - 3 tb spoon

Vanilla essence, elaichi (cardamom)
PROCEDURE :

Break the bread into small bits and roast them till golden brown in ghee.

Boil milk in the pan and add sugar to it. Add a hint of Vanilla essence and cardamom powder to it.

Now add the roasted bread and let it cook for 5 mins on low flame.

Yummy Bread halwa is ready. Garnish it with cashews and you can serve it hot or cold.

kobbari bellam appam

Ingredients:

Rice - 2 cups or rice flour for instant
jaggery shaved- 1 cup
coconut grated - 1/2 cup
banana big - 1 whole

Procedure:

Soak 2 cups of rice for 3-4 hours.
In a mixie jar add the soaked rice without water and blend it . Adding jaggery will make the dough runny later so drain the water from rice.
add grated coconut, banana and jaggery and blend smooth.
Pour the dough into a bowl and keep aside for 15 mins.

Take punganalu /paniyaram pan and add drop of oil .
take a dollop of dough and add till half the paniyaram ball in the pan.
close with lid and cook for 3 mins.
reverse the ball and cook for 2 mins with close lid.

Take out the balls and add another drop of oil and repeat the procedure.

This is used as prasadam and can also be made for a snack.

For the instant version use rice flour instead of rice

Instant Version

Put banana coconut and jaggery in a blender and make smooth paste.
add this to rice flour and mix well.
Add water as needed for dosa dough consistency.
Use this dough to make boorelu.

Pineapple kesari

Pineapple is one such fruit which can be made into many dishes across the meal course. You can make main course /roti/rice /tandoori starters and desserts.
dessert on pineapple is here but its our most loved traditional indian sweet Kesari.


Ingredients:

1 cup semolina
2 cup water
1/2 pineapple – diced
7-8 strands of saffron – soaked in 2 tbsp water
1/2 cup sugar (adjust based on sweetness)
Pinch of salt
10 cashew nuts
5 raisins
4 cardamom pods – seeds crushed
Ghee

Sukhi

My mother makes these especially on festivals and we look forward to hogging on these everytime. Simple and delicious Sukhi (sweet dish) recipe is here for you all.

Ingredients:

Jaggery - 1 cup
channna dal (Chickpeas) - 1 cup
oil - to fry

batter:
Rice 3 cups
Urad dal 1/2 cup

Procedure::

To Prepare batter:

Soak Rice and Urad dal for 3-4 hours. Wet grind it. Can be used after grinding instantly or can be fermented for 3-4 hours for better taste.
(As dosa batter but dont add water to make it runny)

boil the channa dal till almost done. remove the excess water and dry it for 5 mins.
Mash the jaggery to fine paste.
Put the channa dal into blender to get fine powder.Since we removed excess water it will not become a paste.
 Mix the jaggery and channa dal powder well. Too much jaggery might make the mixture runny. The mixture should be solid enough to make balls.

Once its mixed well,make small balls out of the  mixture and keep aside
Take a wok and add oil.
Add little salt to the dosa batter. Make sure the batter is thick enough.

dip the balls in the batter and fry it in oil till golden brown.

Some people make this with maida or besan..but I think this dosa batter will make it interesting as it'll be crispy outside and soft filling inside.

Vermicelli Payasam / Kheer

The first sweet most of the children in India ate would be Kheer/Payasam. In Hindu tradition we have a ceremony the first time child eats something apart from milk.On this occasion the father/uncle/grandfather would feed the kid with some sweet.Payasam/Kheer is made especially for the kid.
When we were kids the sure dish we know for any festival is kheer.Any auspicious occasion or festival Kheer is made and we used to wait for the next festival to eat this. There are different ways Kheer is made with different ingredients too. My favourite among them is Vermicelli Kheer its easy to make and delicious to eat.Herz a sweet recipe to all.

Ingredients:

vermicelli/ semiya - 1 cups
milk - 2 cups
sugar - 1/4 cup
cardammom - 2 pods
cashewnuts - 8
kismis - 4
ghee - 1 tspn

Procedure:

Boil milk . add sugar, cardammom and vermicelli and cook with closed lid for 10 mins. If vermicelli not cooked keep for another 5 mins. If you are a sweet person can add more sugar. fry cashews and kismis in ghee. Add these to the kheer.

Can be had either hot or keep in fridge for 30 mins and serve cold.

Sunnundalu (Urad dal Laddus)

Another recipe from mom's recipe treasury.. The very tasty sweet dish, quick and easy to make - Sunnundalu. The authentic Andhra sweet which is very healthy - very good to cure back pain because of the protien and iron content in the ingredients used. These can be made quickly when there are guests at home, or for evening snacks for kids, or for any special occasion at home which demands something sweet :)

INGREDIENTS
Urad dal (Minappappu) - 1 cup
Jaggery - 200 gms
Ghee (as required)
elaichi (2 pods)

PROCEDURE
Dry roast the urad dal on a pan until they turn brown and nice aroma is felt. Grind it to fine powder after it cools down.
Crush the jaggery to coarse powder and add it to the mixer with the urad dal powder. Add 2 pods of elaichi for taste. Grind it together to get a fine mixture.
Now heat the ghee (liquid state) to form the Laddus. Take the powder into a bowl and make space in the middle. Add some ghee and start slowly mixing the powder with ghee and form laddus such that it stays (will be easy to make).
Tasty and healthy Sunnundalu are ready !!!

Double ka Meetha

Ingredients:

Bread pieces - 6
ghee - 1/2 cup
sugar - 1 cup
water - 1 cup
milk - 1 cup
cardamom - 3
cashew nut pieces - 1 tbspn

Mango Halwa

Best thing about summer is having lots and lots of mangoes. Having a large box of mangoes at home been trying different dishes to complete them and also eat it in a different way one was mango crepes. I absolutely love halwas esp Carrot so why not a mango halwa.. tried this out came out awesome.. so for all those with tons of mangoes at home and searching for dish this is the best…

Ingredients:

Mangoes – 2
Sugar – 3 cups
cashews – 6
ghee – 1 cup
cardamom – 3

Procedure:

Squeeze out the pulp from the mangoes . Take a flat botton vessel pour out the pulp and sugar . keep in medium flame for 15 mins stir occasionally. fry the cashews in ghee. powder the cardamom. add the cashews and cardamom once the mangoes start to thicken. add ghee slowly while stirring . mix the ghee completely with mangoes and keep it in low flame for 5 mins. Once the ghee starts coming out remove from flame . Eat it hot.

Apple Halwa

Another diamond from my moms recipe book. The interesting thing is my mom had few apples left and she started making this recipe without knowledge that such dish really exists and she made the perfect recipe which matched the recipes from renowned chefs. Experience in cooking does speak.Tried out the recipe to dot and resulted in a delicious happiness.

Ingredients:
Apples – 4
Sugar – 1 cup (can vary on degree of sweetness)
Ghee – 4 tbspn
Cashew nuts- 4 tbspn

Procedure:

Clean the apples and peel the skin off

Cut them into small pieces.

Take a flat bottom pan and add 1 tbspn ghee and fry the cashewnuts till golden color.
Keep the cashews aside and add the apple pieces to the pan.
Close the lid and cook them for 15 mins on low flame.

Once the apples are cooked well mash it using a masher. If need to cook more keep for another 10 mins.

Add the sugar and mix well till the sugar melts and mixes with the apple mixture.
Close the lid and cook it for 10 mins.

Add the remaining ghee and cook it for 5 mins.

If you want to add some food coloring , mix the food color in 1 tbspn of water and add it after mixing it with sugar. Mix well so the color is adapted well.

Ive added cherry red food color here. If no color is added then it takes yellowish color.

The halwa can be had in a bowl or can be spread on a flat plate and cut into cubes.

ATUKULA PAYASAM (POHA KA KHEER)

Janmashtami special : atukula payasam ...kheer made of beaten rice... the most favorite food of Lord Krishna. Very simple to make and very delicious :)

Ingredients:

Milk : 2 cups

Beaten rice : 1 cup

Sugar : 1 cup (or more according to your sweet tooth)

Cashews (handful) + ghee

Amul Mithai mate (or kova) : 2 tb spoons

fresh cream  : 2 tb spoons

Procedure:

1. Heat the milk in a deep bottom vessel and let it stay on low flame until it becomes into 1&1/2 cups

2. Add sugar and cardamom powder 

3. Meanwhile sprinkle some water on the poha such that it becomes wet, so that it becomes soft

4. Put the poha into the milk and let it stay on low flame for 5 mins.

5. Now switch off the stove. Add the Mithai mate and cream.

6. Garnish with cashews (roasted in ghee) and delicious kheer is ready :)

Mysore pak

Ingredients:

Gram flour (Besan) - 1 cup
Sugar - 11/4 cup
Ghee - 1 cup
oil - 3 tbspn
water - 1/4  cup