Badam Halwa

Happy Deepavali to all my readers and friends! Hope many are busy preparing Diwali snacks. Here is a recipe from my kitchen for your family.

Badam - Almond ; Halwa - fudge.

Batham halwa is a popular dessert of India. Till our good friend Mr.Kannan and family gave us a box of this Badam halwa, I never knew if it is my hubby's most favorite. Thank you friends! I have always ventured into typical South Indian desserts for festivals, but the way Xav enjoyed this almond halwa, scoop by scoop....made me try immediately:) Basically it is a one line recipe with just soaking, grinding and stirring....but involves some essential tips too. I got the recipe from this website and it was so simple and impeccable. Visit her and you will be definitely tempted by that big tray of Almond halwa. Thank you Chithramma!

Home made Badam halwa.

Ingredients:

Almond - 1 cup
milk - 1 cup
ghee - 1 cup
sugar - 1 cup
saffron - few strands
cardamom - 4

Essential Tools:

Thick bottom broad wok
a long handled stirring spatula.
hand gloves - a pair

Method:

Soak almond in water overnight and peel them (or) put them in boiling water and keep till its skin wrinkles. Then add cold water and peel them.
Grind the almonds to a paste using milk. It should be coarse like idly batter, so that we get a nice almond texture afterwards.
Put 1/2 cup ghee, ground almond and cook in a wok for few minutes. Then add the remaining ghee and sugar and stir continuously at medium heat.
Now we will see bubbles (approximately after 10 minutes), reduce the flame and stir carefully. Hand gloves is a must to remain safe at this stage.
After 5 minutes the bubbles will subdue and the halwa will start leaving the edges and ghee starts showing up.
Add the cardamom powder and saffron. Mix well.
(Yellow food color 1 drop can be added if we need more color.But that won't be essential).
Switch off and carefully transfer to a ghee coated ornamental vessel.
Total cooking time 20 minutes.

Serving suggestions:

Serve hot as dessert.



Happy Deepavali!

Thengai Podi

Thegai podi - dry coconut chutney powder, kopparai thenga podi, instant coconut rice powder.

I prepare this kind of ready to eat podi during festival times, as I will be much occupied with snack making and won't have much time to concentrate on regular cooking. Paruppu podi and thengai podi can make that hot rice heavenly with just a drop of ghee and appalam. Before marriage I packed this podi for hubby dear as a gift(along with paruppu podi and a sweet)and from then on it became his favorite. He saved those 'plastic sunrise coffee bottles' which I used to pack and showed me after marriage and keeps them as a treasure till now:) It may be a small gift from my side, but the way he remembers it makes me enjoy cooking:)

Thengai podi in container.

Ingredients:Shredded coconut - 1 1/2 cup (or) dried coconut / kopparai thengai - 1 (small)
(I used dry unsweetened coconut)
dry red chillies - 10
tamarind - 2 inch
bengal gram (kadalai paruppu / channa dhal) - 2 tbsp
black gram (urad dhal) - 2 tbsp
cumin - 1 tbsp
curry leaf - 2 sprig
salt to taste (1 tbsp)

Method:
Heat a tbsp oil  and fry the dhals, cumin, tamarind, curry leaf separately and keep aside.
With 1 drop of oil fry the red chilles to get a nice red flavor (not black).
In the same pan add  the coconut pieces / shredded coconut and fry to get a mild red color and nice flavor (do it in low heat). If needed add a few drops of oil.
Let them all cool. Then dry grind them to a fine powder.
It can be kept safely for a month without refrigeration.

Serving suggestion:

It can be served over hot rice with little ghee or mixed and served as quick coconut rice.
Its a good side dish for curd rice also.

Tips:

*Coconut chutney podi / thengai podi holds good as a travel food during vacations. Sometimes people require home made foods during long journey or pilgrimage. In that case a rice cooker along with this thengai podi will do the job:)
*This podi can be used as replacement for coconut paste in any dishes.
*Adding little water with a handful of this podi will become a chutney for idly/ dosa / tamarind rice.