Double Ka Meeta January 17, 2010

 Thanks to Sai for introducing this dish to me.

Prep Time

45 min – 1 hour (a bit steep for a weekday)

Serving

Serves 5

Ingredients

•  Bread – 1  loaf
• Oil – Enough to fry bread
• Sugar – 150 gms
• Cream- Spray Can

Preparation Steps

  1) Slice bread as a triangle or into small squares as illustrated

  2) Fry the bread in oil (although usage of ghee is traditional, best to stick to oil as ghee is heavy in cholesterol). Leave the fried bread in kitchen tissue to drain any excess oil

  3) Add sugar to a pan and add water. Wait till the syrup is of a string like consistency. To test take some syrup between thumb and index finger

4) Soak the fried bread in the sugar syrup. Set aside it for 15 mins

5) Garnish with Cream, Cashews and serve hot or cold tastes grand both ways!

Modak/ Kozhakattai September 13, 2009

This Ganesh Chathurthi, I dedcided to get a bit adventurous and I made modaks. It was quite simple as long as you had the time for it.

Prep Time

60 mins

Serving

Serves 4 as a snack

Ingredients

Rice Flour – 200 gms

Coconut – 1 grated

Jaggery – 150 gms

A pinch of salt

Oil – 5 tsp

Cinnamon Powder – 2 tsp

One Steamer

Preparation Steps

1. Rice Flour to preparared by soaking raw rice in water for an hour. Draining the water and drying it, grinding it to make the flour.  Easier method is to use store bought rice flour. There will definitely be a difference in the taste but if you plan to consume it on the same day, rice flour that is store bought is definitely a sensible decision

2. To 200 gms of rice flour add 120 ml of water and the pinch of salt. Add couple of tsp of oil while preparing the dough

3. Roll the dough to medium sized balls. 

4. To the jagerry add water and filter the impurities in it. Heat the jaggery in low flame to form a gluey paste. To this add the grated coconut. Stir till a dough like paste is formed. Add 2 tsp of cinnamon powder to this.

5.  Transform the balls into cups by pressing them in. Look at the pictures to understand how this is done. Add some of the cocunut- jaggery paste and seal the cups

6. Steam in a idli or rice cooker. Prepare the containers in the steamers by greasing them in oil before placing the modaks

7. Once steaming is done for 7-10 mins, serve the snack…Yummy!

Therati Paal-Khoa December 28, 2008

Therati Paal/ Khoa

I have had my mom prepare this often at home. It is a very simple recipe but like most dishes involves two main ingredients patience and the right timing in adding the ingredients.

Prep Time

45 mins

Serving

Difficult to be specific for a sweet dish

Ingredients

• Milk – 1 litre
• Carnations (Optional)
• Sugar – 50 gms
• Cardomom – 2 gms
• Saffron

Preparation Steps

1 Add the milk to a wide mouthed pan and keep stirring till it turns off-white. Use a non-stick vessel if possible considering the perils of washing it after cooking. Always cook in simmer

2 When the milk reduces to about 1/2 the original amount add sugar. The timing of adding the sugar is very critical if added too soon it will not let the milk thicken. When sugar has been added the mixture may get a bit watery but don’t lose hope ! Keep Stirring!

3 Finally the mixture arrives to the consistency of a Khoa

4 Take it off the gas/stove and garnish with cardamom and saffron

Serve hot when done or cold after refrigeration. Tastes great both ways!