Indian Sweet Recipes : Carrot halwa
Grated Carrots - 2 cups
Warm milk - 2&1/2 cups
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Crushed cardamom - 2
Ghee - 1-2 tbsp
Cashew nuts - a handful
Heat ghee in a pan Add cashew nuts & fry it for a minute,
remove from the pan & keep it aside. Add crushed cardamom & fry it for
a few seconds. Add grated carrots & cook it for a few minutes. Add warm
milk & sugar to this. Let it boil. Reduce the flame & cook till the
carrots are soft & the milk is evaporated. Add fried cashews to this &
mix well. Serve hot or warm with Vanilla ice cream.
Indian Sweet Recipes : Halwa
Onakkalari or Pachari 500 gm
Coconut - 2 nos
Jaggery (Sharkkara) - 1 kg
Ghee - 500 gm
Cardamom (Elakka) - 6 nos(powdered)
Cashewnuts - 50 gm
Vanilla essence 1 tsp (optional)
Soak well the raw rice or pachari in water. Grind it into a
fine powder. Extract first, second and third milk from the grated coconuts. The
thick coconut milk should be 1 glass, while you can extract as much as you can
from the rest to get second and third milk so as to get 9 glasses. In short,
you should have 10 glasses of coconut milk of which the thick milk comes to 1
glass and the rest should come to 9 glasses. Place jaggery in a vessel kept on
flame and dissolve it in very little water and strain it to get rid of the
sediments. Place a large vessel preferably a Urali on fire. Add 9 glasses
(combined) of second and third coconut milk, clear jaggery solution and the
rice powder. Mix well and see to it that no lumps are formed. Stir
continuously. When it starts to thicken, pour ghee and thick or first coconut
milk alternately while stirring continuously. When it really thickens, which
you can test by taking a little of it in your hands and if it doesn’t get
sticky, then, add cashews, powdered cardamoms and vanilla essence. Mix well. Grease
a flat plate with ghee. Pour the above hot mixture into the greased plate. Using
a spoon coated with sufficient ghee (in order to give a glazy look to the
halwa) spread the mixture well in the plate Allow it to cool. Cut it into
desired shapes.
Indian Sweet Recipes : Rava ladoo
Rava (Semolina/Sooji) - 1 cup
Coconut - 1/2 cup
Powdered sugar - 3/4 - 1 cup
Warm milk - 1/4 cup
Cashews and raisins - 15 each
Cardamom powder - a pinch
Ghee - 1.5 tbsp
Heat 1/2 tbsp ghee in a pan and roast the cashews till they
turn golden brown. Transfer this to a deep and wide bowl. Fry the raisins till
they become plump and transfer to the bowl. Add grated coconut and roast it for
2-3 mins, they dont have to change colour, keep it with cashews and raisins.
Add remaining ghee and roast the rava. Roast it for 5 mins, till the roasted
aroma comes. Transfer the roasted rava also to the bowl. Add powdered sugar and
cardamom to the rava coconut mixture. Mix well. Add the milk gradually. Do not
add the whole qty of milk at a time. Add half of the milk and try shaping the
laddus, if it isnt moist enough add the rest of the milk. Shape laddus as per
your preference.
Indian Sweet Recipes : Thean mittai
Idly rice -1/2cup
Urad Dal/Uzhunnu -1 1/2tbsp
Salt-2 pinch
Baking Powder-2 pinch
Sugar-1cup
Water-1/2 cup
Oil -for frying
Sugar to coat-1/2 cup
Red food colour -two pinch
Soak idly rice and urad dal together for 3 hours. Wash well
and grind by adding little water to dosa batter consistency. To that add salt, colour
and baking powder mix well. For preparing sugar syrup, add 1 cup of sugar and 1/2
cup of water and boil well Keep aside (Maintain the hot temperature of the
syrup for soaking the dumplings, if the sugar syrup is cold ,the candies wont
soak ) Heat oil in a kadai Pour 3/4 th tsp of batter into oil Fry the dumplings
and when cooked drain and put into the sugar syrup and allow to soak for 10 to
15 minutes When done remove from the sugar syrup Take sugar in a plate and roll
each thean mittayi in the sugar You can serve it as hot or keep in a tight container
and enjoy Thean mittayi
Indian Sweet Recipes : Chocolate barfi
For White Layer:
Full fat milk powder - 2 cups
Sugar - ½ cup
Cardamom - 3, seeds crushed to fine powder
Saffron - 2 pinches
Ghee - 1 tbsp
Milk - 1/4 cup
For Chocolate Layer
Full fat milk powder - 3/4 cup
Cocoa powder - 1/2 tbsp + 1/4 tsp
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Ghee - 1/2 tbsp
Chopped Pistachio / Almonds - 1 tbsp (optional)
For White Layer:
Add 1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp of water to the sugar and slowly
bring to boil until the sugar has melted. Once the sugar and water mixture
starts to feel sticky (Don't allow it to become stringy or stiff); add the milk
powder to the sugar mixture, stir and add in the milk and ghee. Mix well and
once mixed, turn off the heat. Add the saffron and cardamom powder now. (Soak
the saffron in a tablespoon of hot milk for 5-6 minutes as this gives the barfi
the flavour and the colour). Grease a dish with some ghee and turn the barfi
mixture onto the dish. Spread the mixture using the back of a spoon and smoothen
it. Allow this mixture to cool until it solidifies. It will take 1-2 hrs. Once
the barfi has cooled, it's time to layer it with the Chocolate layer.
For Chocolate Layer:
Combine milk powder and cocoa powder. Sift it. Add 1/4 cup
plus 2 tbsp of water to the sugar and slowly bring to boil until the sugar has
melted. Once the sugar and water mixture starts to feel sticky (Don’t allow it
to become stringy or stiff); add the milk powder to the sugar mixture, stir and
add in ghee. Mix well.The mixture will be of pouring consistency and will be
leaving the sides of the pan.
Pour this mixture over the cooled white layer and let it
set. When the chocolate is half set, sprinkle the nuts on top (if using). The
chocolate layer may take some time to set, mine was set in 6-8 hrs. Once it is
set, cut in desired shape. The barfis will keep well in an airtight container
at room temp for 2-3 days.
Indian Sweet Recipes : Rasamalai
Milk - 1.5 ltr full fat (I used Al Marai brand full fat
milk)
Rasgulla - 1 kg tin/14 pieces (I used Haldiram's)
Sugar - 7-8 tbsp (refer notes)
Pistachios - 10-15
Almonds - 8-10
Saffron - a big pinch
Hot milk - 1/4 cup (to soak the saffron)
Cardamom - 6-7, (discard the skin and use only the seeds)
Soak the pistachios and almonds (if you are using the ones
with skin) in half cup of hot water for 15-20 mins, to Blanche them. Soak
saffron in 1/4 cup of hot milk and keep it aside. Heat the milk in a deep and
wide vessel and bring it to a boil. Reduce the flame and let it simmer, till it
reduces to half the quantity. It took almost 1.5 hours for me on low flame.
Keep stirring in between (refer notes). Place a ladle in the milk pan, so that
it doesnt boil over. When milk is reduced to half the quantity, add the saffron
milk and sugar to this and give a stir. Squeeze the sugar syrup from the
Rasgullas gently and add it to the milk, one by one. Remove the skin of
pistachios and almonds and slice them finely. Do a taste test and add more
sugar if required. Add the sliced pistachios, almonds and crushed cardamom
seeds to the milk and continue cooking for 10-15 mins. Serve it hot or cold.
