A healthy Recipe that is a good source of Vitamin C and Fiber and good for all ages.

(நெல்லிக்காய் அல்வா)

INGREDIENTS:

• Gooseberry (Fresh or Frozen) – 6 numbers
• Grated Jaggery – ½ cup
• Cardamon powder – 1 pinch
• Ghee (optional) – ¼ tsp

PREPARATION:

• Add the Gooseberries in the boiling water, until its soft enough that it can split open. Let it cool for some time.
• Remove the seed and grind it in to the paste using Mixie.
• Take a vessel add the Jaggery and little water, leave it for some time, until it melts. Filter the impurities.
• Take a Heavy bottom pan, add the Jaggery water and let it boil for some time. And add the ground Gooseberry paste and cardamom powder. Cook until it becomes thick Alwa consistency. Cook it in the low flame.
• Add the ghee and mix it well.

• Serve it at room temperature.
• You can keep it for couple of days and enjoy the recipe.
• Remember that eating 1 Gooseberry is equivalent to eating 12 Apples .

Note:

• Adjust the amount of Jaggery depending on your diet need and/or quality of the Jaggery.

A simple Sweet Recipe that is very easy to make and will be loved by all and good for any occasion.

SERVING SIZE – 6

INGREDIENTS:

• Milk – 3 cups
• Bread – 4 slices
• Sugar – ½ cup
• Water – ½ cup
• Saffron – ¼ tsp
• Cardamom powder – 2 pinches
• Ghee – for frying
• Nuts (Cashews, raising, almonds and pista) – for garnishing.

PREPARATION:

• Boil the milk in the heavy bottom pan, add few saffron and 1 pinch of cardamom powder and mix it well. Let it boil until till it reduces to half of its original volume. Cook it the slow flame.
• Occasionally stir the milk until its thick and gets the nice creamy texture. This is called Rabdi.
• Take the pan and add water, sugar, few saffron and 1 pinch of cardamom powder. Mix it well and let it boil until sugar melts and becomes a Sugar Syrup.
• Heat the kadai, add the ghee and fry the sliced bread until golden color. Keep it aside.
• In the remaining ghee fry all the nuts and raisins and keep it aside.

• Dip the fried bread in the sugar syrup for few second and keep in the serving plate/bowl.
• Pour the Rabdi on top of the Bread and garnish the fried nuts and raisins on top of it.
• Sweet Shahi Tukda / Double Ka Mitha is now ready. Serve it immediately and enjoy the sweet.

Note:

• You can make the Rabdi and Sugar Syrup side by side to save.
• You can adjust the sweetness, by adding/reducing the amount of sugar while making the Syrup.
• If you prefer not to take Ghee(aka Diet conscious), you can substitute Ghee with regular cooking oil to fry the Bread. Doing so, will undo the natural taste of the Dish.

SERVING SIZE –  6 Parathas

Special thanks to my Mother-in-Law, I learnt this wonderful sweet recipe during my trip to India.

SERVING SIZE – 40 to 50 Laddu

Ingredients:

• Channa Dal Powder/Gram flour – ½ kg
• Oil – 1 Litre
• Sugar – 1Kg
• Cashew Nut – 100g
• Raisins – 50g
• Elachi Powder – 4 tbsp / as needed
• Cloves – 4
• Water – as needed
• Kesari Powder – ½ tsp
• Baking Soda – 1tsp
• Ghee – 100g
• Crystal Sugar (Kalkandu) – 50 g

Preparing the Molasses (Pagu):

• Take a heavy bottom pan. Add the Sugar and fill it with water until the sugar is fully soaked. Heat it.
• Once the sugar is melted and starting to boil, the impurities will start to float. Using a ladle take the impurities out.
• Keep boiling until the Molasses (Pagu) is formed. Consistency – If you take a drop in your thumb and touch it with the index finger and expand, it should form like a thread string between the fingers and sticky. Once it reaches the mentioned consistency, switch off and take the pan and keep it aside.
• Once the Molasses(Pagu) is cooled, add the Kesari powder to it and mix it.

Preparing the Boondi:

• Take a kadai, add the oil and heat it in medium flame.
• While it’s heating, take a bowl, add the Channa Dal powder, Baking Soda and add water. Make a batter to the consistency of Dosa Batter.
• Take a Boondi ladle, add one cup of Channa Dal Batter with the heating oil underneath it. Beat it with hand/small laddle from the top gently to form the boondi droplings on to the heating oil.
• When the droplings hit the oil, it makes the cooking noise. When the noise subsides, take the Boondi out and keep it aside and filter the excess oil. Once the oil is filtered add it to the Molasses/Pagu. Repeat the process until all the batter is finished. Also make sure the Molasses becomes fully mixed with the Boondi and no excess molasses left (Make extra batter if necessary).

Preparing the Laddu:

• Take a kadai, fry the Cashew Nut in Ghee until it becomes slightly golden color. Add the Cashew Nut to the mixed Boondi Molasses.
• In the same Ghee, add the Raisins and fry them (it will bulge) and then add it to the Boondi Molasses.
• Add the Cloves to the Ghee and fry it. Once it’s fried, crush it and add to the Boondi Molasses.
• Add the Crystal Sugar to the Boondi Molasses.
• Now mix all the contents well and keep it aside and let it cool (approx. 1 hr).
• Once it’s cooled, make Laddu balls using hand.
• Enjoy the sweet Laddu.

SERVING SIZE – 18 to 20 Boli

Boli Dough

Ingredients:

• Maida Flour – ¼ Kg
• Kesary Powder – 1 tsp.
• Gingely Oil- 100g
• Ghee – 2 Spoons
• Water – as needed

Preparation:

• Take a bowl and add the Kesari Powder, Maida, Ghee, Oil (50g) and little water and knee it into dough. Add water along, but make sure not to make is watery. Make the dough into a loose consistency as in the picture below.  Once the dough is made, pour the remaining oil (50g) on top of it and let it soak for 4-5 hrs.

Boli Poornam

Ingredients:

• Channa Dal – 200g
• Medium Coconut – 1 (grate it finely)
• Elachi Powder – 1 tsp.
• Jaggery – 200g

Preparation:

• Take a Kadai, heat it and dry roast the Channa dal until it becomes hot (make sure not to burn it).
• Mix the roasted Channa dal into a bowl of water and let it soak for 2 hrs.
• After 2 hrs, wash the Soaked Channa dal and half boil it. Once half boiled, drain the water and let the Channa dal cool.
• Fine grind the Channa Dal in a mixie without adding water.

• Take a Kadai, add the Jaggery. Add water so as the Jaggery is wet enough. Keep it low to medium heat and let the Jaggery melt. Once melted, take the jiggery out and filter it to remove the mud particles.
• Add the filtered Jaggery back to the Kadai and let it heat. Once it reaches fluid consistency, keep the flame to low heat.

• Add the ground Channa dal, grated coconut, Elachi Powder to the jiggery. Keep mixing it as you add these along. Once it mixed well, remove the Kadai from the flame, keep it aside and let it cool. This mix is called Poornam.

• Once cooled, make small size balls from the poornam (as shown in the picture below).

Preparing the Sweet Boli:

• Take a banana leaf (or parchment paper). Take oil from the soaked dough and spread it on the banana leaf. Take a small sized ball from the dough and spread it on the banana leaf using hand by gently tapping.
• Take one poornam ball and keep it in the center of the above spread dough and close it  as shown. Now, gently tap from the top and spread the mix using hand. Make sure not to make it too thin or too thick. It should also be spread evenly. This is called the Boli spread.
• Take a Tawa (Dosa pan/stone – Do not use non-stick) and heat it in low flame. Take the above spread along with the banana leaf and tilt it upside down from the top of the pan and slowly remove the spread from the banana leaf on to the pan using a thin handle.
• Add 1 tsp. of ghee to the edges of the Boli spread and cook it. Flip it to the other side and cook as well. Make sure not to burn it.

• Awesome tasty Boli is now ready.
• Serve it hot with ghee topping (optional).
• You can also serve it at room temperature. You can keep the Boli for 2 days and serve it. (Heat it in microwave/Tawa if needed).