Creamy Quinoa Kheer

Hello everyone,

Quinoa payasam or kheer is the delicious and simple dessert made with milk and quinoa. 

I eat quinoa almost everyday for rasam rice and curd rice. Also, I use it in burrito as substitute to rice. It was my son's star birthday and I wanted to make some payasam/kheer to offer god. Why not prepare quinoa payasam rather than regular vermisili or rice payasam. Yes, I decided to make it and it was delicious.

We can pressure cook the quinoa in milk to speed up the process but I slow cooked on stove top to get creamy consistency. 

Serving size - 3-4  

Ingredients:

Quinoa - 1/2 cup

Whole Milk - 3.5 Cups

Jaggery - 3/4 to 1 cup

Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp

Ghee - 2 tbsp

Cashews - 10

Raisins - 10

Pre-preparation:

1. Wash quinoa with water, drain and keep it aside to dry.

2. Grate or powder the jaggery.

3. In a small pan, melt ghee. Add cashews, raisins and fry till cashew turns golden brown. 

Method:

1. In a heavy bottomed vessel, melt ghee and roast the quinoa for few seconds. 

2. Add 3.5 cups of milk and boil the milk on a medium heat until the quinoa is cooked. It takes about 10 mins. 

3. Lower the heat further and keep stirring the milk. When you see the creamy layer, stir and mix it. 

4. Stir until the quinoa and milk reduces to half the quantity. This process takes around 30 mins. 

5. Add powdered jaggery, cardamom powder. Mix well and switch off the stove. 

5. Finally garnish with roasted cashews and raisins. Quinoa payasam is ready to serve. 

Note:

1. Do not burn the quinoa while roasting.

2. Put a ladle in the vessel so that milk do not overflow. 

3. Make sure to add jaggery at the end to void curdling. 

Poha Ladoo

Hello everyone,

Poha ladoo or Aval ladoo is an easy to make traditional sweet which is made by grinding poha/aval with jaggery, some cardamom, dry coconut and rolled into balls. 

This is usually made for gokulastami/krishnar jayanthi as Aval is Krishna's favorite. I do not want to prepare deep fried bakshanams with my one year old kiddo. So, I made aval ladoo for this year krishnar jayanthi. Aval ladoo is a healthy snack for kids. My older one likes it a lot. Here is the recipe. 

Ingredients:

Poha/Aval/Beaten Rice - 1 Cup

Jaggery - 3/4 Cup

Cardamom - 5-6

Desiccated dry coconut - 1/4 Cup

Ghee - 2 tbsp

Cashews - few broken

Method:

1. Dry roast Aval/Poha until it is crunchy. Allow it to cool down. 

2. Grate the jaggery. 

3. Transfer roasted poha and jaggery to a mixer. Add cardamom, desiccated dry coconut and grind it to a fine powder.

4.Heat ghee in a pan, add cashews and fry until it turns golden brown. Turn off the stove. 

5. Add the ghee and cashews to the grinded Aval/Poha powder. Knead well and make gooseberry sized balls with palm. 

6. Store ladoo in a air tight container. 

Notes:

1. Adding coconut is optional. 

2. If using fresh grated coconut, dry roast it without burning before grinding. 

3. Poha is a dry ingredient so use required quantity ghee to combine it. Add extra ghee if it breaks while making balls.

Cashew Burfi/Kaju Burfi

Hello Everyone,

My mom used to make this often during my childhood days. I must say she is expert in making this delicious sweet. Everyone in our family love this especially my son. Whenever my mom visits my place, she used to make this for him. We moved to USA and my son asked me to make this.. phew, I don't know how to make. My mom gave me this recipe and I started making this. This has become fav for my friends here.

Ingredients
1 Cup Cashew
1 Cup Besan flour
1 Cup Milk
1 Cup Fresh Grated Coconut
1 Cup Ghee + 2 tbsp ghee in case needed while stirring
3 Cups Sugar

Method
1. Soak cashew in cup of milk for 1-1.5 hrs. Grind soaked cashew, milk and coconut to smooth paate. Keep it aside.
2. Heat and melt Ghee in a large pan/ non stick pan. Add Besan to ghee and mix well without any lumps. Switch off the flame.
3. Add ground cashew, milk, coconut paste and 3 Cups of sugar to ghee and besan. Mix well thoroughly without lumps.
4. Switch on the flame. Start stirring.
5. Stir continuously on low flame.
6. Mixture starts to thicken. Stir until it is thick paste. The mixture should separate from the pan.
7. Add 1 or 2 tbsp ghee if needed so that mixture doesn't stick it the pan.
8. Switch of the flame. Grease large plate with ghee.
9. Transfer cashew mixture to the plate. Let it cool down for 5-10 mins. Cut it to diamond shaped pieces.

Beetroot Halwa with Paneer

Hello Everyone,

I have tried carrot halwa earlier but never tried beetroot halwa. I had tasted beetroot halwa once at a wedding and at a homestay in Sakleshpur. I have made carrot halwa with paneer so i wanted to try adding paneer with beetroot halwa as well. It came out really well. 

Ingredients:

Beetroot - 3 cups grated

Milk - 1 1/2 cups

Brown Sugar/White - 1 Cup

Paneer - 1/2 Cup grated

Cardamom powder -  1 tsp

Ghee - 3tbsp

Cashew and Pistachios - 10

Method:

1. In a heavy bottom pan heat 1tbsp ghee and fry grated beetroot for 3-4mins.
2. Add milk and bring it to boil. Simmer the stove and let the beetroot cook in milk until it gets slightly thick.
3. In the mean time heat 2tbsp ghee, fry cashew and pistachios. Keep this aside.
4. Add grated paneer to the beetroot and give a stir. When the mixture is think add sugar(I used brown sugar).
5. Cook in medium flame until it is glossy. Switch of the stove.  
6. Finally add fried cashew,  pistachios and cardamom powder to the halwa. Mix well.

Tender Coconut Payasm

Hello everyone,

I fell in love with tender coconut payasam when i had for the first time in Crimson Chakra Restaurant,Adayar,Chennai. I wanted to prepare this since long time. Finally, i prepared delicious tender coconut payasam on Tamil New Year. My husband and Mother-in-law loves sweet. They liked it very much.

Tender Coconut Payasam

Time Taken: 30 minutes
Serves 6-8 ppl

Ingredients:

• Tender Coconut - 2 (Both water and pulp)
• Sweetened Condensed Milk (Milkmaid) - 150ml
• Milk (Boiled and Cooloed) - 200ml
• Elachi/ Cardomom (Powdered) - 1
• Ghee - 1/4 tsp
• Chashews - 6
• Raisins - 6

Method:

• Grind the tender coconut water along with some pulp. Keep rest of the pulp aside. Grind it smoothly.
• Mix the condensed milk with chilled milk.
• Now mix the grinded pulp with tender coconut water to the Chilled milk + condensed milk. Mix well.
• Cut the remaining pulp into small pieces and add to mixed content.
• Heat a pan, add 1/4 tsp ghee, roast the cashews and raisins and add to the Payasam.
• Add powdered cardomom powder to Payasam
• Chill them in fridge for about 30mins and serve.

Bread Kheer

Tasty and Yummy Bread Kheer

Time Taken:1hr and 30 mins

Ingredients:

• Milk – 1.5litre
• Sugar – 150 – 200gms
• Almond – 12(Grated)
• Cashew -10(Grated)
• Bread – 4 slices
• Ghee - 3tbsp

Preparation Method:

•  Boil milk in a pan with medium flame.
• Give it an occasional stir. Remove cream (paal aadai) from the sides of vessel and add to boiling milk.
• Add grated almonds and cashews.
• Add sugar and give it a stir.
• Reduce the heat and cook until the milk has reduced to less than half.
• Remove edge of bread slice and make it to small pieces.
• Toast bread slices with ghee to make it roast.
• Add toasted bread slice before serving.