Pearl millet candy (Kambu urundai)

This candy might have been the power bar / cereal bar for the farmers of  India before this commercial era. Not only Indian farmers, each and every working community all over the world would have had their own recipe before industrialization. While growing up I never cared much for these village recipes as they were readily available to me on daily basis. But after tasting all kinds of store bought power bars and realizing the benefits of home-cooking, I wanted to try my own using the traditional recipe. In my native we used to make a lot of this kind of candies / cereal bars using various combinations. These candies have loads of fiber and nutrition , hence they can be served as after work-out food, evening snack, break fast with milk, dessert etc. We can adjust and make them within 150 K Cal (each).

I have heard people calling it as Kambu kozhukkattai, but I tell it as kambu urundai (candy) as it is prepared without steaming.
Kambu - pearl millet (bajira - Hindi), kolukkattai / kozhukkattai - steamed sweet dumbling, urundai - ball (here it means candy).

Ingredients:

Kambu (bajira) - 1 cup
sesame - 1/4 cup
groundnut - 1/2 cup
dry ginger powder - 1/2 tsp
cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp
jaggery - 1 cup
rice flour - 2 tbsp

Method:

Dry roast the kambu till it smells good and powder it.
(If we can't get whole kambu, then use the powdered version here after roasting).
Dry roast the sesame and groundnut separately.
Remove the skin of groundnut by scrubbing gently.
Coarsely grind the sesame and groundnut, so that groundnut remains as big pieces.
Melt the jaggery and remove any impurities. Bring it to rolling boil (2 string consistency).
Mix the powdered kambu, crushed sesame, crushed groundnut, dry ginger powder, cardamom powder and make small spherical balls (palm size). If needed add a tbsp rice flour to facilitate the rolling process.

Kambu urundai is ready!

Serving suggestions:

Serve just like protein bars
It can be had as healthy snack, after work-out meal, breakfast etc.

Batham palkova (Almond kova)

Other names: Almond milk halwa, Bathaam palkova, almond fudge.

I don't know , if there exists a sweet dish in this name. But it will be a good choice when we want to make something similar to almond halwa with very little almonds and lesser time. With all these sweet ingredients, we will definitely arrive at a wonderful result.  As expected, this newer sweet was so delicious and became our comfort zone for that weekend. Enjoy this sweet on a special occasion and let me know how it turned out:)

Batham paal kova.

Ingredients:

Almond - 15
milk - 1/2 cup
milk powder - 4 tbsp
Sweetened Condensed Milk – 1 can (14 oz / 396 gm)
Butter – 2 tbsp
cardamom powder - a pinch
Saffron – few strands

Method:

Bring 1 cup water to boil and put the almonds. Let them be in that heat till they swell and show wrinkles. Switch off and put them in cold water for 10 minutes. The skin will come off. (We can soak them overnight too). Peel the skin and grind them to a coarse paste along with the milk.

Now put everything above on a thick bottom wok and start heating in a medium flame. Stir continuously. Don't leave it unattended for a second. If necessary reduce the flame to the lowest. After 5 minutes bubbles will start appearing all over. It will be very hot, so take care. If doing in a big bulk, wear a gloves for safety.

Within 8 - 10 minutes, the kova will thicken and start leaving the sides. It is the best stage. If we want to make slices, then go ahead and stir for few more minutes. Add cardamom powder before switching off.
I wanted mine in halwa stage and so stopped there.

Almond kova is ready!

Another version: (updated 2011, Oct 25)

Almond - 1 1/4 cup
sweetened condensed milk - 300 gm (12 oz / 80 % of a 386 gm tin / 3/4 cup )
milk powder - 3/4 cup
(instead of condensed milk and milk powder we can use equal weight of sweetened milk khova - says the old recipe )
cardamom - 5
saffron - few strands
yellow color
ghee - 2 tbsp

Soak almond overnight. Remove skin and grind coarsely with 1/4 cup milk.
Fry the almond paste in ghee in medium heat for 10 minutes.
Add the milk khova and stir well. Do this in medium heat for another 10 minutes,
Add color, cardamom.
Garnish with finely chopped alomond, saffron.

Serving suggestions:

Serve hot or cold as dessert.