Thinai Sarkarai Pongal | Millet Sweet Pongal | Pongal Recipes | Millet Recipes

At times all you need is something healthy. At times all you need is something comforting and at times all you need is some sarkarai pongal. Sarkarai pongal to me is simply home... Amma's sarkarai pongal is the best. It hits every note right, not overpoweringly sweet, the right amount of ghee, correct consistency and is perfection in every aspect. My son loves sarkarai pongal and I make it a point to make it for him once every two weeks and sometimes I sneak in healthiness like this, by subbing the rice for millet. He never finds a difference and its a win-win for both of us. You can use any kind of millet here - kodo, jowar, barnyard or anything.

~*What U Need*~ Fox millet / Thinai - 1/2 cup Moongdal - 1/4 cup Jaggery - 1/2 - 3/4 cup Saffron - 4 to 5 strands Cardamom - 2 to 3 crushed Cashewnuts - a handful Raisins - 1 tbsp Ghee - 2 to 3 tbsp Water - as needed How I Made it: Wash and soak the millet and set aside. Heat 1/2 tsp ghee in the pressure cooker and fry the moongdhal till it turns light brown. Add the soaked and drained millet to this, add 2 1/2 cups of water and pressure cook for 2 whistles. Meanwhile, heat the jaggery with 2-3 tbsps of water till the jaggery melts. Strain the syrup and set aside. Once the pressure subsides, remove the lid, add the strained jaggery syrup and heat the mixture in medium heat for 3 - 4 mins. Remove from the flame. Roast the nuts and raisins in ghee. Add the nuts, ghee, saffron and cardamom to the pongal and mix well.

Serve warm.

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With Love,
Vimitha
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Rasmalai | Diwali Sweet Recipes

First let me share a very exciting news. I ordered a Kitchen-aid Professional stand mixer yesterday. Yessss, a brand new one, a shining empire red one, one which I have been longing to own ever since I started baking. Its due to arrive between Dec 3 and Dec 6 and the wait is just killing me. I will share photos as soon as I get it.

Now lets talk about the diwali sweet recipes that I have been posting decades late. Okay here's the deal, I swear that this is the last of my diwali posts. Well, I still have one more but that is a guest post for a loved one but that is the end of the series. Finally, right?? I am sorry, truly for dragging it so long but I have been left with no other option. Blogging is just not what my son and I want rite now which leaves me to the fact that I have to sit late nights, which is not what I want. 2 hours is all that I can spend for the blog these days and that just doesn't seem enough.

But then you don't need it to be Diwali to indulge in sweets right? And when it is a rich juicy one like this rasmalai, all you need is a simple reason to pop one in your mouth, like the day is bright and sunny, why don't I have a rasmalai. Atleast that was our case (where our = me+pappu). Since it was my first time, I tried it using half a litre. That is me, I always use the smallest possible quantity for the first test batch that I run. But the recipe could be easily doubled or tripled as per convenience.

~*What U Need*~ Whole Milk - 2 cups Lemon Juice - 1 tbsp Ice cubes - few To Make syrup: Water - 1 3/4 cups Sugar - 3/4 cup Cardamom powder - 1/8 tsp Pistachios/Cashews - to garnish For Rabdi: Milk - 1/2 litre or 2 cups Condensed milk - 1/4 cup Cardamom powder - a pinch Saffron threads - 1/8 tsp soaked in warm milk Pistachios, almonds, cashews - chopped, 2 tbsp Ghee - 1 tsp How I Made it: Bring milk to a boil and then set to medium flame. Add lemon juice and stir well. Keep stirring till the milk solids separate and the whey water is clear. Remove from heat, add the icecubes or place this in a cold water bath. I added icecubes. Take a clean cotton cloth, pour the curdled milk and collect the whey water. Wash the chhena in running water to remove the lemon smell. Squeeze the excess water and hang it for 30 mins. After 30 mins, the chhena should be crumbly in texture. Knead well till it forms a smooth dough, say 5-10 mins. Make flattened discs or balls of desired size. I made small balls for pappu's sake. Heat water in a deep wide bottomed vessel, add sugar, cardamom powder and keep stirring till sugar dissolves completely. When it starts boiling, put it to medium heat, and slowly add the balls. Place the lid and cook for 10-12 mins till the balls are doubled in size. Immediately remove the balls and place them in a pan with cold water. This is done to stop the balls from cooking more. Cool both the rasgullas and the sugar syrup completely, add the rasgullas to the syrup and chill in the refrigerator overnight. Now lets make the rabdi. In a small saucepan, add 1 tsp ghee and fry the nuts till brown. Once brown, add the milk and boil. Add the crushed cardamom and boil till reduced to half. Add the saffron soaked milk and boil. Now add the condensed milk and boil till the milk is thick and syrupy. Squeeze the rasgullas gently to remove excess sugar syrup and then drop into the rabdi. Give it a boil and then remove from heat. Chill overnight.

Serve chilled.!!!

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(Amma Cooks) Chicken Dum Biryani

Tell me one non-vegetarian who doesn't like Chicken dum biryani. I am yet to find one. Am no exception too. I love this biryani or let me put it this way, I have a love-hate relationship with this biryani. Love it cos it is mind-blowingly delicious, hate it cos it is outrageously painstaking and labor-intensive... All with its chopping, sauteing, frying and more chopping, it gives you one hell of a time. But end of the day, I can assure you that you will be getting a plate of pure bliss that will leave you wanting for more. That is "the fruit of labor" that you are left with.

I can never stand in the kitchen for hours, chopping onions, frying 'em in one burner of the stove and sauteing 'em in the other, making the masala, fluffing the rice and finally putting them together. I am not that kind and so I never think about trying my hands on the ever famous Chicken Dum Biryani. Moreover hubby prefers the one-pot pressure cooker biryani to this and that makes things easy. Also when you have an SME at home you never have to worry about it.

Amma makes the best dum biryanis and when it is dum biryani at home, appa dons the chef's hat too. He helps her (BTW he is so good at chopping onions), chopping onions like a breeze, cleaning chicken with such skill, following her instructions to the 'T'. So whenever I have that craving for home amma-cooked dum biryani, I call them down and enjoy it to the fullest. Its that simple, so now you know why I never bothered to give it a shot.

This time when she made it, I was there with my camera to click step by step pics but having a kid on his toes never helps with things going the planned way. Finally I had to abandon the camera and the task too. But I did take decent shots of the dum biryani and I so wanted to share it with you. I will update the post with the tutorial soon.

~*What U Need*~ Servings - 6 to 8 Chicken - 1/2 kg Oil, Salt For the Rice: Basmati rice - 2 1/2 cups Water - 5 cups Ghee - 2 tbsp Cardamom - 2 Cloves - 3 Cinnamon - 2 1" piece Bay leaf - 1 Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp Salt For the masala Onion - 1/2 kg Tomato - 200 g Ginger garlic paste - 2 tsp Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp Coriander powder - 1 1/2 tsp Garam masala - 1/4 tsp Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp For frying Sliced onions - 1 cup Cashew - a handful Raisins - a handful Ghee/oil - to fry To grind Coriander leaves - half a bunch/a handful Mint leaves - half a bunch/ a handful Grated coconut - 1/4 cup Green chilli - 4 Sour curd - 1/4 cup Saffron - 1/4 tsp soaked in warm milk

How I She Made it:
Prep work:
Grind coconut into a smooth mixture. Grind mint leaves, coriander leaves, green chilli and curd into a coarse mixture. Set aside. Soak the rice for 10 mins. Lets prep it up next. Heat oil in a big kadai, add ghee, fry the crushed cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, bayleaf. Add the rice and fry foir 5 mins till the water evaporates. Add the water, salt and cook till 75% done. Remove and fluff with work. Set aside to cool down. Heat oil to fry the onions. Deep fry the sliced onions till brown. Remove and set aside. Similarly fry the cashews and raisins.

Method:
In the same pan, add the remaining chopped onions and fry till golden brown. Add the ginger garlic paste and fry till the raw smell goes off. Add the chopped tomatoes and fry till oil separates. Add the masala powders and fry well. Add the chicken and cook till the water separates and half done. Add the coconut mixture and fry well. Once the sauce starts thickening up, add the coriander-mint paste and cook till you get a semi-gravy. Season with salt.

Take a large cooker and grease with ghee. Add a layer of rice followed by a layer of gravy. Sprinkle fried onion, cashews, raisins, chopped mint leaves and a pinch of garam masala. Repeat till you are out of rice and gravy finishing with rice, fried onions and mint leaves and saffron milk. Close with the pressure cooker lid with the whistle on. Place this setup on top of a dosa tawa filled with sand and cook in low flame for 15-20 mins or till the mint leaves on the top get cooked.

Serve hot with raitha and boiled egg!!!

** My Notes:
** The cooking time of the rice is very important so be careful.
** When cooking on dosa tawa, do it on very low flame.
** Also add a dollop of ghee on the top for more flavor.

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Kashmiri Pulao/Pilaf ~ a royal treat

Yes, you read it right. This pilaf is fit for a king, fit to be in the kitchen of kings and queens and fit for everyone out there. Its sweet from the crunch of the fruits, mildly spiced and rich from those ghee roasted cashew bits. Is that enough reason for you to try this dish atleast once. Yes, try it once and you will be hooked to it or else you would want to try it atleast once every month, a change from the regular spicy and masala-y biryanis. Atleast that's what has happened in our case.

I love to try new dishes much to the huss's annoyance. He always sticks to the tried and tested recipes. Once during a common friend's treat, we ordered an Indian bread basket. It had naans, tandoori rotis, stuffed phulkas and a heavily buttered Kashmiri naan which was totally ignored by everyone. It sat there beautifully studded with red and green tutti frutties and that made me grab the naan. I totally loved it ~ the slight hint of sweetness worked out great for me and since then its been Kashmiri naan for me.

But Kashmiri pilaf has never made it to my plate till date. Whenever I imagined Kashmiri pilaf, all I got was an overdose of sweetness. And so when the question of weekend lunch was thrown during the weekday dinner, I thought of giving this a go mainly because I was in control of what went into the pressure cooker. I browsed for recipes but was not satisfied with what came up and hence went by my instincts. It came out good and I am sure I will be making this often. I made a simple potato masala to go with it and the two teamed up great.

~*What U Need*~ Basmati rice - 1 1/2 cups Water - 1 cup Milk - 2 cups Cinnamon - 1" stick Cloves - 2 Cardamom pods - 2 Bay leaf - 1 Onions - 2 + 1/2, sliced Green chilli - 1 Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp Tutti frutti - 1/4 cup Fruits, chopped - 1 cup(apple, pineapple, pomegranate) Raisins - 2 tbsp Broken cashews - 2 tbsp Ghee - 1+2 tbsp Oil - 2 tbsp Warm milk - 1 tbsp Saffron - 1/2 tsp

How I Made it:
Clean and soak basmati rice for 15 mins. Add the saffron to the warm milk and set aside for 10 mins. Chop the fruits and set aside. Fry the raisins and cashews in 1 tbsp ghee till golden and puffy.

Heat the remaining ghee in a pressure cooker. Add the cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and bay-leaf and fry. Add the slit green chilli and fry.

Add the sliced onions (from 2 onions) and saute till golden and soft. Add the ginger garlic paste and saute. Once done, add the water, milk and soaked basmati rice and pressure cook for 2 whistles. Meanwhile deep fry the remaining sliced onions till brown.

Once the rice is done, fluff with a fork. Sprinkle the soaked saffron mixture onto the rice and fluff. Add the frutis, half of the fried onions, fried raisins and cashews and mix carefully not to break the rice.

Serve warm with the remaining fried onions!!!

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Cold Kesar Badam Dhoodh /Saffron Almond Milk

Almonds are one of the most nutritious of all nuts. There are lots of good things about these nuts that you can keep going on and on. They are low in saturated fats, a good source of Vitamin E, contain more magnesium than oatmeal or even spinach, a good source of calcium and hence recommended to women for osteoporosis etc. Wat did I say, the list is endless.

Chilled milk flavored with saffron and ground almonds...

During the initial days of my pregnancy, many asked me to increase my intake of nuts and when googled most of the sites recommended to have 5-6 badams / almonds every day. When I consulted on this with my doctor, even she suggested the same. If you're pregnant, almonds are a great source of the folic acid you need! Ever since I make it a point to grab some almonds every morning till date.

With the increasing temperatures in Chennai, yes.. its shivering cold in the early hours and slowly the sun creeps in and by mid-day its sweating hot. I am always making chilled evening drinks to cool myself and the family. So made some cool almond milk for our evening chill out time and it was a sure thirst quencher filled with wholesome goodness.

~*What U Need*~ Almonds / Badam - 20 Saffron - few strands Milk - 3 cups Sugar - 3 tbsp Cardamom powder - a generous pinch Chaara paruppu / Chironji nuts - 2 tbsp

How I Made it:
Soak Saffron strands in 2 tbsp of hot milk. Soak Almond in warm water for 30 mins. Peel off the skin.
Blend the peeled almonds, saffron soaked milk, cardamom powder and sugar in a blender. Grind to a fine paste. Mix this paste to the remaining milk and stir well.
Dry roast the chironji nuts in a skillet. Mix this to the badam milk and chill.

Serve chilled.

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Instant Kesar Doodh Peda | Diwali Sweet Recipes

Traditionally doodh pedas were done by reducing milk to a solid consistency, sweetening it and then forming desired shapes. Wheeew, that really needs time and most of all patience... Both of which I lack these days. There are many fail-proof recipes that are floating around which uses short cut methods to make these yummies and the main point is that you cannot question the taste too. Some use khoya, some milk powder and condensed milk while some use just condensed milk.

Here I have used milk powder and sugar... I didn't have condensed milk in my pantry and was searching for a recipe which uses only sugar when I landed @ Sangee's space. You can never go wrong with this recipe and the only step where you need to be careful is in melting the sugar. Add the milk powder after the sugar melts completely or else you will get sugary bits when eating 'em. Also once the milk powder has dissolved in the sugar, remove the pan from the flame. Excessive heating will result in hard pedas. I added saffron dissolved in milk and hence the shelf life is less. But I don't think these beauties will last more than a day, alleast not for us!!!

~*What U Need*~ Milk powder - 1 cup Sugar - 1 cup Saffron strands - 1/4 tsp Warm milk - 1 tbsp Butter - 2 tbsp Broken nuts - to garnish

How I Made it:
Soak saffron strands in warm milk for 10 mins. Heat a non stick vessel, add 3 tbsp water and sugar, and stir well. Allow the sugar to dissolve completely. Add the milk powder and stir well.

When done, add the warm milk+saffron and butter and mix well. Allow to cool not fully but hand-bearable**(see notes). Make balls, flatten and garnish with nuts of choice.

Delicious doodh pedas ready.

** My Notes:
** String consistency of the sugar is not necessary.
** You can skip the saffron and add cardamom powder instead.
** Since we have added milk, the shelf life is less. So consume in one day.
** Just when the mixture started to cool, the lil one started wailing and I had to move away. The mixture had cooled fully by the time I was back and had hardened. So added a few more drops of milk, kneaded and then shaped them. So take care that you shape them once you can manage the mixture with your bare hands.
** Grease your hands before shaping.
** I halved the recipe and got nearly 6 medium sized pedas.

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Instant Kesar Badam Kulfi with Bambino's Badam Milk Mix

I got 3 mini packets of Bambino's Badam mix to have a go at the flavor. I emptied one packet for one cup of milk, added a spoon of sugar as suggested and had a sip. It was overly sweet and hence I handed over the cup to the huss. Even he was not satisfied with the flavor and since then the packets have been lying with no one to touch it. With no intention of throwing away the packets, I thought of making instant kulfi out of them and it disappeared the same day. I would not recommend this but in case you are lazy at times like me and have guests at the house then you can try this.

Makes - 3
~*What U Need*~
Milk - 2 cups
Milkmaid - 2 tbsp
Fresh cream - 4 tbsps
Bambino Badam Milk Mix - 2 packets

How I Made it:
Boil milk till it reduces to half the quantity(1cup). Keep stirring. Add condensed milk and mix till it dissolves. Add the badam milk mix and stir well.

After it cools, add the fresh cream and mix well. Pour it into kulfi moulds and freeze. It will take 6-7 hours to set. To un-mould, show it under running water for a few seconds.

Yummy creamy and instant badam kulfi ready. See how the huss has licked off the drops from the bowl.

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Carrot Almond Kheer / gAjAr bAdAmI Kheer

Its It was Woman's day... and its it was holi too... on the whole it was a very colorful day yesterday. Hope all you guys had a blast celebrating. I wanted to get home early and make something pink as a celebration for the day.. Something elegant and colorful was the plan. The second option was making the authentic Thandai. Thanks to the unannounced arrival of tasks, I turned up late and all my plans were doomed. So made this simple yet flavorful kheer which was wiped clean off the glass after our dinner. Haven't dropped the plan of making Thandai and the elegant dish.. Will try them this weekend. ;)

~*What U Need*~
Carrots - 2
Almonds - 6-8
Sugar - 2 tbsp
Saffron threads - a pinch(optional)
Cardamom powder - a pinch
Milk - 3 cups

How I Made it:
Soak the saffron in warm milk for 15 mins. Discard the saffron threads and reserve the milk. You can skip this step if you need a simple kheer. Blanch the almonds in warm water for 10 mins and remove the skin. Pressure cook the carrots for 2 whistles.
Heat milk in a non-stick pan and reduce to 2/3rd of the original quantity(it should be thick but not too thick so 2/3 rd was the right consistency for me). Bring to room temperature.
In a blender, add the carrots and almonds along with some milk, sugar and cardamom powder. Blend till you get a smooth mixture. Now add the remaining milk and saffron milk and blend till smooth. Chill for 2-3 hours.

Serve chilled.

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Kabsa Rice / Mildly flavored Chicken Rice | S/S Recipe

Kabsa - What is it? A family of rice dishes that are served mostly in Saudi Arabia — where it is commonly regarded as a national dish — and the other Arab states of the Persian Gulf. These dishes are mainly made from a mixture of spices, rice (usually long-grain basmati), meat and vegetables. I first came to know about this dish from Divya's easy recipes. Huss dear saw this and insisted to make this rice on Sunday. And I had no other choice. The rice was flavorful with a spicy aroma.

~*What U Need*~
Basmati rice – 1 cup
Chicken – ½ kg or big potatoes
Chopped Onion - 1 cup
Chopped tomatoes - ½ cup
Small Green chilies - 2
Coriander leaves – a bunch
Garlic (chopped finely) – 3 nos
Red chilli powder – ½ tsp
Lemon juice – 1 tsp
Oil – 2 tbsp
Butter – 2 tsps
Salt to taste

To Grind
Saffron – a pinch
Cardamom – 2
Cinnamon - ½ inch
Garam Masala - ½ tsp
Pepper Corns – ½ tsp

Fried onion for garnishing (optional)

How I Made It:

Add water to the rice and set aside for 15 to 20 min. Grind all the spices mentioned in the ‘To Grind’ section without adding any water.

Heat a pan, add oil / butter.

When hot add the onion and garlic and sauté. Fry till the onions turn brown in colour.

Add the tomatoes and green chilli and sauté

When done, add red chilli powder and coriander leaves and fry.

When done, add the ground spice powder and salt and combine everything. Now add in the chicken pieces and fry… The chicken will start oozing water. Fry well till the water evaporates and the chicken should be half-cooked.

Add the required amount of water and lime juice.

You may then transfer this to the rice cooker or pressure cook for 1 whistle + 2 minutes. When it comes to boil transfer the mixture to rice cooker. When done, transfer to plate and garnish with fried onions. Serve hot with raita / any chicken side dishes.

Mr and Mrs.A plate - ready to devoured in...

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