DEEPAVALI DELICACIES

[NOV]

Munthiri Koththu
aka Sitturundai

Ingredients 1

Roasted green gram flour (paasipayir maavu) - 500 gm
Roasted coconut flakes or Desicated coconut - 50 gm
Vellam / Brown sugar - 250 gm
Water - 2 glasses
Elakkaa/sukku - ground finely

Ingredients 2

Rice flour - 1 portion
Corn flour - 1/4 portion
Salt to taste
Yellow colouring

Method

Make syrum with vellam/sugar and water. Drain out particles.
Add elakkaa, sukku, coconut and sprinkle green gram flour (We use salladai)
Use low flame.
If necessary add hot water.
Paste is ready when it is like raw adhirasam dough. Roll using your fingers to determine this. You should get a smooth ball.
After it has cooled, make marble like balls.

Next mix rice flour, corn flour, salt with water and add colouring. Consistency should be that as for aappam (Malaysian appam).

Now take three of the above marble shaped balls and coat with the batter and deep fry.

Your munthiri koththu is ready!

[nirosha sen]

Enna rujee, enna rujee!! Just imagining it alone is enough!! Reminds me of the days I use to sit and burn the midnight oil with my late mother, making those round balls. It was always my favourite from the bygone days

[annamalaifan]

Laddu

Ingredients :
Bengal Gram flour : 500 gms
Raw Rice flour: 2 tbsp
Sugar : 625 gms
Ghee : 1 tsp
Salt : A pinch
Cashewnuts: 100 gms
Raisins : 25 gms
Cardomoms : 10 No
Kalkandu(cubed sugar) : 25 gms


Method of Preparation :

To Prepare boondi :
In a wide mouth mixing bowl, mix bengal gram flour, rice flour, a pinch of salt, ghee and with required amt of water, make a thick liquid to the consistency of dosa batter.

Heat oil in a frying pan, holding the boondi plate (a plate with lot of holes), above the oil spread the batter so that very small pieces are dropped into the oil. Stir the boondis until fully cooked. Drain the excess oil.


To prepare Laddu :
Make sugar syrup by boiling 1:1 sugar and water for about 5 minutes. Add a pinch of kesari powder to this syrup. Drop the boondis into the sugar syrup and mix well. Roast cashewnuts and raisins in ghee and add it to the mix.

Also add cardamoms and kalkandu and mix well. Wait until the mixture cools down to a temperature until your hand can with stand the heat. Now make into even balls by pressing lightly with hand. Spread and allow to cool.

[annamalaifan]

Rava Laddu

Ingredients :
Rawa / Sooji : 2 cups
Sugar : 2 cups
Ghee : 1 cup
Cardamom powder : 1 tsp
Cashewnuts : 2 tbsp
Raisins : 2 tbsp
Fresh milk : 1/2 cup

Method of Preparation :

Roast Rawa in a deep heavy bottom vessel with 2 tbsp of ghee till it turns light golden brown in colour.

Clean and dry the mixie. Grind sugar to a coarse, add the roasted rawa, cardomom powder and now grind to a fine powder.

Boil the milk and keep it warm. Heat the remaining ghee, fry the cashewnuts and raisins. Add to the ground rawa sugar mixture. Grease your hands and shape into firm balls of desired size when the mixture is still warm. If the resultant mixture is too dry, add milk accordingly and make laddus.

Store in an air tight container.

[annamalaifan]

Guys and gurls, anybody now about deepavali legiyam. Indian homes that following the old tradition will prepare the this bitter "sweet" for the deepavali day. On the deepavali day we must take this legiyam after pooja before we start to eat other foods. This legiyam will improve our digestion especially oily foods. some may even suffer vayir uppsusam and vanthi. so lets start a helthy deepavali with this legiyam.

Deepavali Legiyam

Ingredients :
Omam 100 g
sukku 10 g
kandathippili 10g
black pepper 10g
siddharathai 10g
cardomom 5g
jaadhikkai 1/2
adimadhuram 10g
jaggery 250g
ghee 100g
honey 50g

Method of Preparation :

Powder each of the above except ghee and honey separately and mix it using a blender. Add heated ghee and honey and mix well.

[annamalaifan]

Carrot Halwa

finely grated carrots - 1 1/2 cups, sugar - 1 cup, mixture of milk and water - 1 cup (the proportion may be as you like), cashews- 6, cardomoms - 4, ghee 3 tsp
Peel all the carrots and grate them finely. Pour 3 teaspoons of ghee in a frying pan. Add 6 cashews and powdered cardomoms (4).Fry till you get the smell of roasted cashews.Pour the mixture of milk and water. Add sugar. When the water comes to boil, add 1 1/2 cups of grated carrot and stir slowly and constantly in low heat until the mixture turns into a soft paste. After adding sugar, you may have to cook around 7 - 10 minutes to get the desired consistency for halwa. Do not heat the mixture too long, so as to prevent it from getting hardened.

[annamalaifan]

Potato Halwa

Potatoes - 2, Sugar - the same quantity as the smashed potatoes, Ghee - 1/2 cup.
Boil and peel the potatoes. Smash them and measure equal quantity of sugar. Place a non-stick pan on the gas. Pour half a cup of water and when it starts boiling add sugar to it. Let the sugar dissolve completely. Then add the smashed potatoes and saute it till it comes to a halwa consistency. Now, add ghee and remove it from fire once the halwa leaves the sides of the pan. Add cardamom powder. Garnish it with cashew nuts.

[NOV]

Enna rujee, enna rujee!! Just imagining it alone is enough!! Reminds me of the days I use to sit and burn the midnight oil with my late mother, making those round balls. It was always my favourite from the bygone days

Why so sad Nirosha? What is stopping you from doing them this year.
BTW, forgot to tell you that this version is with reduced sweetness. For the really sweet-toothed, you need to increase the amount.

[NOV]

Coconut Candy

Ingredients (A)

115ml evaporated milk(4oz tin)
2 tbsp condensed milk
325g granulated sugar
375g grated coconut
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp butter
A few drops food colouring

Method

Combine ingredients (A) in a saucepan and cook, stirring constantly, over a very low heat until sugar has dissolved completely.
Stir in grated coconut and cook until almost dry, about 30 minutes.

Remove saucepan from heat, add essence and butter, and mix well to blend.
Divide into three portions and add a few drops of different colouring to each portion. Grease three trays lightly with corn oil and fill with coloured portions.

Press candy down firmly with a clean piece of plastic wrap, then set aside to cool slightly.

Turn candy out and cut before it dries completely and hardens.

[nirosha sen]

Nov - I got to hand it to you! You're spoiling us just by teasing our taste-buds by all these recipes alone! The general mood in the country maybe a quiet affair this Diwali, but your thread alone keeps the mood going with fire-works and a gastronomic spread too good to pass, Pa!! I come in here just to "virtually" savour the fare, if nothing else!

God Bless and have a wonderful Deepavali!