Mysore pa

This was totally unexpected. I got nice north Indian friends recently. One of them, Sutapa was very much interested in mysore pak. My mother in law is a sweet specialist. So I got the recipe from her, dropped tharun at his playschool and went to sutapa's place, She had kept the ingredients ready i.e
Besan(Gram flour) - 1/2 cup
Ghee - 1/2 cup
Oil - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 1 1/4 cup
Water - 1/2 cup


Method:
1.Add 1/2 cup of water to sugar in a thick bottomed pan and heat it.
2. Once the sugar dissolves fully in water, add the gram flour gradually while stirring continuously to avoid lumps.
3. Once all the flour is dissolved, add ghee while continuously stirring it.
4. Add oil also and keep stirring. For a while you might think its too much of oil and ghee. But once in a while its ok.
5. Stirring is the only difficult part of the method, so you can use both hands alternately. Since I did with my friend it was not too much of pain.
6. After it starts hardening and stirring becomes difficult and the whole paste separates out of the pan thoroughly, transfer the contents into a plate greased with butter/ghee.
7. Let it cool for 10 minutes and later cut it into diamonds.
8. Yummy mysore pa is ready. This is another sweet trial which turned successful the first time itself:))

Note: Preparation time is just half an hour.

Kozhukattai - Vinayaka chathurthi special!

From childhood, am very fond of kozhukattais. I like both uppu and vella kozhukattais. So, every vinayaka chathurthi, I helped my mom to make choppu(cups) for the kozhukattais. After marriage, continued to do the same part of work. For the first time I tried this whole process all alone, without any assistance since my mil was out of town. And I was very happy that it came out so well in the first trial. This one goes to the WYF Festive event of EC.
Ingredients:
Sweet Stuffing/Poornam
Jaggery - 1/2 cup
Grated coconut - 1 cup
Powdered Cardamom - 1/2 tsp

Spicy stuffing
Urad dal- 1 Cup
Red Chilli - 3-4 Chillis (to taste)
Salt to taste
Asafoetida - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves- 4-5

Kozhukattai
Raw Rice - 1 Cup
Water as required
Gingelly Oil - 2-3 tsp

Note: You can make the rice flour(made from wet rice, ready made powder from shop won't come out very soft) and the stuffing previous day before you make this. The method seems to be big, but when you do it with interest it will happen in no time.


Method for sweet stuffing:
1. Dissolve jaggery in a cup of water. Transfer the dissolved jaggery water to a griddle leaving behind the dirt.
2. Heat the griddle in low flame. Let the jaggery thicken. The consistency should be such that we should be able to make a small ball out of a drop and it should remain in shape when dropped in water.
3. In the above stage add grated coconut and cardamom powder and stir well for 5 min.
4. Before the poornam becomes too thick, remove the content and place it aside.

Method for the outer layer:
1. Soak raw rice for atleast 3 hours.
2. Spread it in a towel and let it dry.
3. Grind the rice in the mixer once its dry and sieve well to get a very fine flour.
4. Now heat some water in the pan and add a pinch of salt.
5. Add the fine flour gradually while stirring continuously in order to avoid any lumps. After adding some flour initially, wait for sometime for it to dissolve. Later add the rest of the flour gradually. This would avoid lumps better.
6. After you add all the flour, stir continuously for 5 min and let it cool.
7. Now use your hands to make it a big rice ball. Cover it with a cotton cloth and press well. You can feel the softness.

Kozhukattai Method:
(Rub oil onto the hands and do the following)
1. Make small balls from the big rice ball.
2. Make little cups from the balls evenly and stuff the poornam inside and close it well without any gap/holes.
3. Steam the kozhukattais in the pan for about 10 minutes.
4. Sweet/Vella kozhukattai is ready.

Uppu/ Spicy Kozhukattai method:
1. Soak urad dal for about 2 hrs.
2. Grind it coursely with salt, chillis, asafoetida n curry leaves.
3. Make balls and steam it.
4. Use this as another stuffing and make boat shaped kozhukattais.
5. Once again steam them for 10 minutes.
6. Spicy Kozhukattai is ready.