Diwali Special

WISH YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY DIWALI !

It's been a very busy day for me. I am happy the sweets I tried for Diwali turned out awesome. I prepared ABC halwa & bread jamun. My Amma(mother) suggested these recipes. She got these recipes from a tamil weekly.
Here is the recipe for all of you.

ABC Halwa

Ingredients:
Apple: 1cup
Banana: 1cup
Carrot: 1cup
Milk: 1cup
Sugar: 1cup
Ghee: 1/2-3/4cup

Method:
Peel & dice the apple.
Slice the banana.
Peel & grate the carrot.
Blend apple, banana & carrot with the milk.
Add the blended mixture to a thick bottomed pan & place this on medium flame & stir occasionally (be careful it will splatter).
Add ghee in small quantities & stir continuously. Then add sugar & stir again.
Once ghee separates, the halwa is ready.


Bread Jamun

Ingredients:
Bread slices: 10( to make 12-15 jamuns)
Milk
Cardamom powder: 1/2tsp

To make sugar syrup:
Sugar: 1cup
Water: 1cup

Method:
Remove the edges of the bread.
Sprinkle milk on the bread slices, add the cardamom powder & knead into a soft dough.
Make balls with the dough. Use oil if it sticks to your hands.
Deep fry these in oil. Add these to the sugar syrup.
To prepare sugar syrup:-
Dissolve the sugar in water, bring to boil & switch off the hob.

Urad Dal Sweet Dish

This sweet is definitely one of my favorites. I used to pester my amma (mother) to prepare this one whenever I felt like eating something sweet. My dad & my brother are not great fans of sweets, so it was my mom and I who used to enjoy this delicacy till the last bit. Last week, I suddenly thought about this dish & the “sweet” coincidence is that I had soaked urad dal for idli. No brainer! scooped out a small portion to prepare it right away. The recipe follows...


Urad Dal Sweet Dish

Ingredients:
Urad dal: 1/2cup
Milk/Coconut milk: 21/2cups
Sugar: 1cup
Oil:  for deep frying
Cardamom powder: 1/4tsp

Method:
Soak urad dal in water for 2 hours.
Grind it to a smooth dough (it should be idli dough consistency).
Dissolve sugar in milk & boil for a few minutes & simmer (Keep it in sim till you soak all the urad dal balls).
Wet your hands, take a small amount of the dough & drop it in hot oil (alternatively spoon can also be used).  
Fry the urad dal balls in oil & soak them in  hot milk.
Add cardamam powder & switch off the stove.

Cashew Aval Payasam

My son like sweets a lot. I wanted to prepare with flattened rice ( I got 2 packs from the indian stores & it was there for a long time). I wanted to post it,so changed the usual aval payasam a bit. It was awesome. My son had a bowlful. I prepared the same sweet for Saraswathi Puja.

Cashew aval payasam

Ingredients:
Aval/Flattened rice: 1/2 cup
Cashew: 10-12
Sugar: 1/2 cup
Milk: 2 cups
Ghee: 2tbsp
Cardamom powder: 1/4tsp
Raisins: 10-12

Method:
Wash & Soak aval in water for 10 minutes. Drain out the excess water.
Soak the cashews in milk.
Heat 11/2tbsp ghee in a pan & Saute' aval in the ghee for few minutes.
Grind cashew & aval with a little milk to a coarse paste.
Boil milk & add the ground paste & cook till the milk reduces to half  it's quantity. Stir continously to prevent sticking to the pan.
Add sugar & cardamom powder and continue stirring. Switch off the stove.
Garnish with cashew & raisins roasted in remaining ghee.