Happy Deepavali - Malai Peda and Seedai

I wanted to add a nutritious recipe, but here is Deepavali, So I made many goodies for Deepavali. First, I would like to wish all readers, bloggers, web community and their families a Happy and Prosperous Deepavali. And here is what I made - Seedai and Malai Peda. The recipe follows:



Malai Peda

This is my mom's favourite sweet so I sent her in India Malai peda and thought of making too :-) It's a famous north indian sweet and is made in Gujarat lots. This is a short method so it needs very less time.


Ingredients:

Condensed Milk - 1 tin
Butter - 4 table spoons
Milk Powder - 8 Tablespoons
Almond/Pista - For Decoration [Almond soaked, peeled and cut into pieces]
Saffron - 8 to 10 strands


Preparation:

1. Heat a pan, add butter.
2. After butter is melted, add milk. Put the heat in sim and add milk powder slowly little by little and keep stirring.
3. Add Saffron powder and keep stirring until the mix has become a little brownish and lot thicker. You can wait until the mixture does not stick on the pan. The consistency should be as little less than halwa... ;-)
4. Remove from heat and let it cool.
5. After it is cold, make small balls out of it and press a little bit on top. Decorate it with Almond or Pistachios.
And thatz it, the making time is just 10 minutes.... So Enjoy!!


Seedai

This is a very popular festive snack in Tamil Nadu. Its tasty and an all time favourite snack.

Here it comes:




Ingredients:

Rice flour - 2 cups
Rava/Semolina - 3/4 cup
Butter - 2 table spoons
Jeera - 5 tsps
Asafoetifa/Perungayam - 2 tsps
Oil- For frying
Salt - 2 tsps or As Required


Preparation:

1. Dry Roast rice flour and Rava together(in low flame) in a pan until the raw smell goes. Once done, remove from heat, let it cool.
2. Heat the butter in a pan and when it is hot, add it to the flour rava mixture. PS: This would make sure that less oil is being used up for frying. This is my mom's super trick.
3. Add Jeera and asafoetida and mix this with some water and make sure the miture is dry such that you can make small ball of it.
4. Heat oil in a pan for frying. Now add the seedai in the oil and fry in low flame.

And Voila, here is some crunchy, crispy and tasty seedai.

I hope you liked the sweet as well as the savoury. Let me know!

This is my contribution for JFI Nov '08 Festival Treat. This is my first contribution to these round ups. I am happy that I made it this time. Thanks for hosting Srivalli.

Is it Krazzy Kesar Kulfi Or Baasundi??

Kesar Kulfi...hmmm Yummmyyyy thatz what comes first when anybody would think about it. And I wanted to publish the recipe finally (Couldn't quite manage to do in the summer thanks to my super busy schedule) at least before the last week of change in the day light saving time...

This recipe is also about a different Basundi too... So this is two in one...Basundi and Kesar Kulfi...

Here it comes melting in your eyes....



Ingredients:

Milk - 2 Litres
Cardomom powder - 1 tsp
Saffron - 10 to 15 Strands
Sugar - 4 Table spoons and as per taste (I usually put medium sugar)
Almond - 2 table spoons (soaked, peeled and broken)



Preparation:

1. Boil milk in a heavy nonstick pan and reduce heat to sim and keep on stirring the pan. Reduce the milk to almost 3/4 litre.
2. Add Cardomom powder, Saffron strands & sugar and mix it.
3. Add almond and reduce the milk further
4. When it is quite thick, in the way that you see semisolid milk with more almonds and saffron strings, remove from heat.
5. Ok here comes a break :-) You can serve this as Basundi. It tastes Yummy and awesome... Yesss Cool it before you serve.


6. Now we move on for the Kesar Kulfi! Make ready the kulfi moulds (or matkas if you are lucky to get them). Dip these moulds in cool water, remove dripping water, pour the milk mixture or Basundi into the moulds.
7. Let it cool in the room temperature first and then freeze it. Cover the mould or matkas with silver foil.
8. When it is done, remove foil and serve. You can eat from the moulds with the kulfi sticks and if you are using matkas, then use a spoon to eat.

I made it with a mountain mould I bought. I am sure it is quite impressive!!



Just Enjoy!! Next time with a nutritious recipe...Wait for it!

Rrrready Rava Laddoo

Wish all of you a Happy and Prosperous Deepavali. I made Rave laddoo for this Deepavali. Here is how I made it...



Ingredients:

Semoulina/Rava - 1 cup
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Green Cardomom powder- 1 tsp
Cashewnuts - 10
Raisins - 10
Ghee/Clarified Butter - 6 table spoon

Preparation:

1. Add ghee to a pan and fry the cashew and raisins to golden brown.
2. Then fry the rava in a pan, add 2 table spoons of ghee after some time and then keep stirring. Remove from heat when you get the rava smell and when the rava is a little brown. Keep it to become cool.
3. Put the fried rava after cooling in a mixie and make a rough powder.
4. Now add the fried cashew nuts and raisins and cardamom powder to the rava and mix.
5. Add sugar and water in a vessel and make sugar syrup of 1 string consistency. (When you press the syrup between your index finger and thumb, one string should attach the two fingers when you remove the fingers apart)
6. Add the sugar syrup to the rava little by little and add 4 table spoons of ghee such that to make sure it is a very thick consistency such that you can make laddoos.
7. Let the mixture cool a little bit and then make laddoos out of it.

And ready is rava laddoo....Simple and quick to make! Enjoy and Happy Deepavali once again. :-)