Pineapple Kesari, Pineapple Sheera

          Kesari is a favorite at home and since we all like pineapple, we love this Pineapple Kesari very much. It's been a long time since I made it at home, and now since pineapples are in season, I made this kesari. It's a very easy dish, we can use both fresh and canned pineapple, and the pineapple flavor takes the regular kesari to the next level..

Nungu Payasam, Palm Fruit Kheer, Ice Apple Payasam

          Last week I had bought this Palm Fruit, known as nungu in Tamil and also as Ice Apple. While waiting for the guy to remove them from the shell, I was talking to him, he asked me whether I needed the small tender ones or the thick matured ones. We like the tender ones at home, but then I asked the guy, whether someone asked for the matured ones. I was surprised to hear when he told that people actually asked for them and the guy didn't stop there, he also told me about this Payasam/ Kheer that they made with it. After coming home, I made this payasam, this is one of the most easy and delicious payasam that I had ever made..

Bread Halwa Recipe

          The first and perhaps the only time that I had tasted Bread Halwa is some 20 years back. My knowledge about cooking was negative back then, but I can still remember the rich taste and texture of it. After that, I had wanted to try it so many times and finally got to make it only now. I am not exaggerating, when I say that it's one of the easiest sweets you can make, and you just need some bread and the other basic ingredients in a sweet. Try it out the next time you have some extra slices of bread and you have the sudden craving for something sweet..

Motichoor Ladoo Parathas

          I had some leftover motichoor ladoos ( store bought ones ), and I wanted to make something with it,other than eating it as such. I have already tried a pudding with ladoo and bread, it tasted really good, this time I saw a couple of other dishes that we can make with them and I decided to make these Motichoor Ladoo Parathas. The parathas turned out so flavorful and very delicious, you can have it as such, or dust it with some powdered sugar and enjoy..

Akkaravadisal (Akkara Adisal), Sweet Milk Pongal

          Akkaravadisal, I have come across this name so many times, but never got to taste it and when going through the recipe for it, I found it to be similar to Sakkarai Pongal, but with a slight variation. It's a Tamil Iyengar recipe and it's made as a 'naivedyam' especially on Koodaravalli which is an auspicious day observed on the 27th day of the Tamil month Margazhi . This year it happens to fall on today and also, Pongal being just around the corner, I thought of making and posting it today. Taste wise, it is more like Sakkarai Pongal, but with a milky flavor, since we cook the rice in lots of milk and ghee. Since it's a rich dish with lots of milk and ghee, have a small serving and enjoy..

Avarekalu Poli (Holige, Obattu)

          This is my first post in the New Year, so let me first wish everyone a very Happy And Healthy New Year and then go to today's post. Also, let's start the year on a sweet note, so today's dish is going to be Avarekalu Poli. Last year during the Avarekalu season, I got to taste many dishes made with these beans and Avarekalu Poli/Holige/Obattu was one of them. As usual, I wanted to make it at home, I made it the same way as regular Poli and I used avarekalu/field beans in the filling. Usually I flatten the Poli after closing it with the filling on a banana leaf or plastic sheet, but this time, after watching the guys ( at VV Puram street food ) patting the Poli between parchment paper ( we get Obattu paper here ), I followed the same technique at home. The polis came out super thin and super soft too and the taste was simply too good, do try out this method the next time you make polis..

Eggless Chocolate Blueberry Cake With Blueberry Sauce

          I had made this Chocolate Blueberry Cake long time back, but because of the many sweets and snacks that I had to post during the festival season, this cake had to wait. After posting some cookies for Christmas, I would have loved to try out the fruit cake, but I think, it has to wait for some more time to appear in this space. This Blueberry Cake With Chocolate is very moist, rich and delicious and perfect for this holiday season, if you love chocolate and blueberries, then this is for you..

Almond Snowball Cookies

          Snowball Cookies, also known as Russian Tea Cakes or Italian Wedding Cookies, these have been on my do list for a long time, somehow I bake more breads and cakes than cookies, so it got missed out every time and I have always thought it to be a difficult recipe too. But when I saw how simple this Almond Snowball Cookies was, I decided to make it the same day, just in time for this Christmas. As the name suggests, these cookies have some almond meal ( almond powder, either store bought or homemade ) along with the all purpose flour/maida. This gives such a nice texture and taste to these cookies, they just melt in the mouth. The lemon zest added gives the most delicious flavor to these cookies and we just loved them..

Nei Appam, Ghee Appam

          Happy Karthigai Deepam, Festival Of Lights, it falls on 12th December this year, we light our houses with lots of mud lamps and as with any other festival, we make some yummy food too. I have already posted the traditional Pori Urundai that we make on that day, Nei Appam is also another sweet dish that is made on this day. The main ingredient for this is rice and sugar and of course as the name suggests 'nei' or ghee is used for frying these appams and they smell and taste very delicious..

Suzhiyam, Suyam, Seeyam Recipe

          Suzhiyam/Suyam is one sweet that my mother never misses to make on Diwali, but for some reason, I never made it at all till now. This year, I made it for Diwali, but of course, I didn't get a chance to post it then, since I made it on the festival day, but I managed to take some pictures. This is an easy dish, and if you like sweets made with jaggery, then you will definitely like this..

Whole Wheat Chocolate Burfi

          Happy Diwali, today's post is the last sweet I made for this Diwali, Whole Wheat Flour Choclate Burfi. While doing the Maida Burfi, I was thinking that I should try the same recipe with whole wheat flour. and since my daughter would have it, if it had some chocolate in it, I decided to make this Whole Wheat Flour Chocolate Burfi. Instead of making the entire sweet with chocolate, I decided to do it as two layers, one plain and the other one with chocolate. It's a simple sweet, the only thing that is a bit tricky, is removing the sweet at the right consistency and spreading it out before it solidifies, especially with 2 layers, you have to be really fast and alert. The burfi turned out good and tasted great especially because of the chocolate..

Kasi Halwa, Pusinikkai (White Pumpkin) Halwa

          Today's post is going to be another sweet recipe, Kasi Halwa, made with Pusinikkai/White Pumpkin. I love halwas, especially the ones made with vegetables, like the carrot halwa, bottle gourd halwa and beetroot halwa and they are all easy to make. Apart from the vegetable, we need the very basic ingredients like sugar and some cardamom for flavor and of course some food color and it's an easy recipe, even a beginner can try this out, so make and enjoy Kasi Halwa for this Diwali..

Motichoor Ladoo Recipe, Motichur Laddu

          Motichoor Ladoo, another sweet that I had wanted to try for a long time, but kept putting it off until now. The main difference between Motichoor Ladoo and the Boondi Ladoo, is the size of the boondis ( fried gram flour balls ), it is very small in size in Motichur Ladoos. Also, we add cardamom and rose essence for flavor in Motichoor Ladoos, whereas in Boondi Ladoo, we add cardamom, cloves and edible camphor for flavor, and also Motichoor Ladoos are softer than Boondi Ladoos. There is a special ladle, Boondi Karandi ( karandi meaning ladle) for making the boondis for the ladoos, and in that also we have differnt ones for making the different sizes of boondis. I had with me, only the regular Boondi Karandi, not the one for making tiny boondis, but we can still make them, they may not be 100% perfect but we can still get close enough results and taste wise there will not be any difference. Even if you don't have a Boondi Karandi, you can still make it using the regular Jali Karandi ( the one with small holes) that we have in our kitchen for deep frying, so do try out this delicious and traditional sweet for this Diwali..

Badushah Recipe

          Badushah is one of my favorite sweets, I have tried this once long time back, before blogging days, and it had turned out good back then. after that I made it only now. I again followed the same recipe from Mallika Badrinath's cookbook, except, after checking many blogs, I added a little curd while making the dough. For those of you who don't know the taste of this delicious sweet, Badushah tastes a lot similar like doughnuts/ donuts, with a subtle sweetness. At the start, making badushahs might look like a big task, but once you get a hang of it, you'll agree with me that it's one of the easiest sweets, and also, making those beautiful swirls is actually very easy..

Maida Burfi, Sweet With All Purpose Flour

          After a savory recipe, here comes another easy and delicious sweet that we can make for this Diwali, Maida Burfi, a simple sweet made with maida/all purpose flour. It just requires a few basic ingredients, it's such an easy dish and it comes out perfect if you are careful about a few things. I have adapted this recipe again from a cookbook and have made a few changes according to our taste, try out this easy sweet for this Diwali..

Sweet Somas Recipe, Karanji

          Today, it's going to be a traditional sweet recipe that we make for Diwali, Sweet Somas or Karanji/Kajjikayalu. This is one of my favorites, but I never gave it a try till now because the husband is not a big fan of it. While making it in my kitchen, all alone, my mind was flooded with so many memories. Whenever my mom made this, I would always be a part of it along with my grandmother and aunt. We would be doing such a huge quantity, that we would be spending at least 3 to 4 hours on it, and the whole time would just fly away with so many stories and gossips, missing those days. Coming to the recipe, it's not a very difficult one, the filling is very simple and can be done in minutes, and if you know to roll the dough out thinly, then you can do this sweet. Try it out with a small quantity, especially if you are doing it alone..

Ragi Sheera, Finger Millet Halwa

          Today's post is going to be an easy sheera/halwa recipe using ragi flour (finger millet, kezhvaragu ). I followed the same method as we do for atta ( wheat flour ) sheera, except I have made this a little healthier, have used half the ghee and also, I have used jaggery instead of sugar. I have made a very small quantity, using just 1/4 cup flour, just enough for 2 to 3 people, so it got done in minutes. The halwa/sheera tasted great and even my daughter who's a little picky when it comes to Indian sweets loved it, and also another good thing, the sheera/halwa is also gluten free..

Kerala Style Paal Payasam, Milk Kheer

          Today is the last post on the Onam Sadya recipes and I thought I'll end it with a sweet. Since I have already posted the Chakka Pradaman and Cherupayar Paruppu Pradaman, I decided on this Kerala Style Paal Payasam. This is similar to the Paal Payasam we make but the special Chemba Pachari ( Kerala Red Raw Rice ) gives a unique taste and beautiful color to this payasam/kheer. The first day, I had bought broken matta rice, then I realized that it's not the rice used for the payasam. Then again the second day, with some help from the store guy ( he's from Kerala ), my husband bought me the rice. I have adapted the recipe from here and the Paal Payasam came out really good. I used the pressure cooker to save some time, but still the dish takes anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour to be done, depending on the quantity. But, at the end, it's worth all the time and effort, it tastes absolutely delicious and before going to the recipe, Onam Ashamsakal! to all my friends and readers from Kerala..

Jowar (Cholam) Pidi Kozhukattai (Sweet), Jowar Modaks

          Tomorrow is Vinayagar Chathurthi, and here is another healthy Kozhukattai recipe that you can try out, Jowar/Cholam/Sorghum Pidi Kozhukattai. This is such an easy dish, so if you don't have time to make the Stuffed Kozhukattais/Modaks, you can make these simple ones and they would also make for an healthy evening snack for kids. I made it just like the regular rice flour ones and they tasted very good both warm and cold..

Millet Kozhukattai With Date Almond Filling, Millet Modaks With Date Badam Filling

          Ganesh/Vinayagar Chaturthi is just 3 days away and I see so many varieties of Kozhukattais in many blogs. Usually I make kozhukattais with paruppu-thengai-vellam pooranam/filling and sundal on Vinayagar Chathurthi, but this time I wanted to try out a different filling. For today's kozhukattais, I have use date-almond-coconut filling and I have also used millet flour instead of rice flour for the outer layer. Also, there is no added sugar in the filling, so this is very healthy too. I have used varagu flour/kodo millet flour, the outer layer came out really good, do give this a try and enjoy these healthy and delicious kozhukattais..