Sweet Chana Dal Khichdi

Hope everyone had a wonderful Diwali festival week. During the Diwali pooja this year I made chana khichdi as offering for the Gods. Chana khichdi is another sweet dish prepared at Konkani homes. I have heard of broken wheat and dal khichdi, but in my house we make it with rice. Moong or moong dal khichdi is also prepared in a similar manner and is a very healthy dessert. We also add sliced banana slices as topping on this khichidi.


Ingredients 
1 cup chana dal
2 cups basmati rice
2 teaspoon cardamom powder or elaichi powder
2 cups grated coconut
2 cups powdered jaggery (or use 50% jaggery 50% sugar)
cashew nuts and raisins for garnishing
3 tablespoon ghee for garnishing


Method 
Roast the chana dal till light brown and keep aside. Wash the basmati rice well. Cook both the chana dal and basmati rice with 2 1/2 cups water till rice is half done. Keep aside till it cools down completely. Mix jaggery or jaggery+sugar, which ever combination is used, grated coconut in a heavy bottomed pan. Cook it on very low flame till till the jaggery melts and mixes with the coconut. Mix in cardamom powder. Mix the cooked rice and dal into the coconut mixture and heat on low flame for 5-10 minutes till   sweetness of the jaggery is absorbed by the rice. Heat ghee in a pan and fry cashew nuts and raisins. Top the khichdi with the dry fruits. Sliced banana slices can be placed on top as topping. Serve hot. 

Narla Khadi / Coconut Khadi / Coconut Barfi / Nariyal Barfi / Coconut Fudge

My grandmom was an expert cook and sweets and snacks were her speciality. She would always make special items when we would visit her during the holidays. She also made various kinds of khadi's (burfi's)- rava, coconut, cashew nut, only milk burfi, banana and wheat khadi. This is one of her recipes passed on by my mom to me. This year I decided to leave behind all the rules of healthy diet and decided to make this coconut burfi. Though this takes a little longer than wheat and rava burfi, it is far more superior in taste that the other two. The verdict- the burfi just melts in mouth with the sweet and nutty flavor of the coconut.


Ingredients
2 cups grated coconut
1 cup besan or chick pea flour
1 1/2 cup whole milk (I used 1 cup whole milk and 1 cup milk powder as I had some on hand)
4 cups sugar
10-15 cardamom
1 cup ghee

Method
Roast the besan on low heat till it gives out a sweet smell. Let it cool down. Mix the grated coconut, milk, sugar and ghee.

Cook on a low flame till it leaves from the sides and almost solidifies. I take a pea sized sample of it and check if it solidifies upon cooling.

Pour immediately on a plate greased well with solid ghee (if liquid ghee is applied to the plate then the burfi sticks to the plate). Flatten it with the back of a glass so that it is smooth on the top. Cut into squares when hot. Cool it down and then separate the squares. Store in air tight container.


The above measurement makes around 75 burfi's.

Chooda / Chuda / Chiwda

Chooda is one of the popularly made festival food at my home. My mom would start making Diwali goodies a week before the festival. She would make Phenori, chooda, tukudi (shankarpali), chakkuli (chakli), churmundo (rava laddu), sev, fried masala peanuts and khadi (barfi). Every time my mom started to make a new delicacy I and my sister would wait eagerly wait for the first batch to devour. Narakchaturdasi and Lakshmi puja are the most important days for us. We worship water and then take oil bath. The legend behind this is that when Lord Krishna killed the demon Narakasura, he took oil bath after returning home and then worshiped Goddess Lakshmi. To mark this event everyone has bath before sunrise and take oil bath. In India people also burst crackers early in the morning to mark this event. But here in US with all the work deadlines placed right after Diwali (read 19th Oct), I could make Chooda and Khadi for Diwali this year. Here is the recipe for the chooda and it goes to Priya's event Diwali 2009. and Sunday Snacks - Festive snacks of Navratri & Diwali .


Ingredients
3 cups thick pova or beaten rice
1/2 cup groundnuts or peanuts
1 cup putana dal or dalia or split and roasted bengal gram
15-20 broken cashew nuts
15-20 curry leaves
3 tablespoon mustard seeds
1/2 cup coriander seeds
3 tablespoons jeera or cumin seeds
2 tablespoon saunf or fennel seed
1/4 cup red chili powder or as desired (I used byadgi chilli powder)
2 tablespoon turmeric powder
1/4 cup sugar
salt for taste

Method
Roast the coriander seeds, cumin seeds and fennel seeds till crisp and grind it into a fine powder. Mix in sugar, salt, turmeric and chili powder as per taste and mix it with the ground spice powder. I just mix it in grinder and give it a pulse or two so that all the powders are integrated well.
Fry the pova, ground nuts and dalia in a fryer. I have a steel fryer in which I put the pova or dalia and dip it in a pan of hot oil. In this way the pova does not spill into the pan and is easy to remove from the oil. Optionally fried dry coconut slices or copra slices can also be added. As soon as one batch of pova, dalia or peanuts is fried, add a teaspoon of masala powder and mix well. The masala powder mixes well when the ingredients are hot. Let the oil cool a little bit and then fry the curry leaves ( the curry leaves will burn if fried on high heat). Add 2-3 tablespoon oil and fry the mustard till it starts to splutter. Mix the mustard and curry leaves well with the chooda. Store in airtight container.

Panchkadai / Panchkadayi

Panchkadayi is the the sweet made with 5 items. It is very tasty sweet dish to satisfy any sweet cravings and filling at the same time. It is usually make it as an offering during puja to Lord Krishna, Lord Ganesha, Goddess Tulsi and Goddess Gowri and also during Dushera. Panch means 5; in short it is made with 5 or more items.

Ingredients
1 cup brown chana
1 cup shredded coconut
2 cups jaggery or gur
8-10 cardamom pods
1 1/2 cup thin pova (beaten rice-thin ) or lai (puffed paddy)
black sesame seeds or til

Method
Toast the chana in a kadai or pan on a low-medium flame for around 15-20 minutes till it is crisp. Take care not to burn it. Toast the sesame seeds for 3-5 minutes or till crisp. Cool the chana and coarsely powder it. Melt jaggery in a thick bottomed pan with around 1 cup water. The melted jaggery should not be very sticky like when making ladoo's or chiki's. Heat it to make a thin paank or mixture. Powder the cardamom seeds and add to the jaggery along with the coconut. When the jaggery mixture cools down completely, add chana powder, sesame seeds and pova or lai to the jaggery mixture and mix well. It keeps good at room temperature for 1-2 days or around a week in the refrigerator.

Sheera / Sooji Ka Halwa

Sheera is one of a delicious sweet which can be prepared in matter of minutes. When people celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi in Pune, they make this sheera as it is considered a favorite of Lord Ganesha. This sheera can be made with or without banana. It is usually served with spicy chana sabzi.

Ingredients
1 cup coarse semolina or rava
2 cups whole milk
1 cup sugar
1 banana (optional)
8 cardamom pods
pinch of kesar
2 tablespoon ghee or clarified butter
dry fruits (raisins, almonds, cashewnuts)

Method

Fry semolina on a low flame in a pan till light brown and smells good. Boil or heat milk in microwave milk and keep aside. Separate the cardamom from pods and powder it with a tablespoon of sugar and mix with the semolina. Heat 2 tablespoon milk and add kesar and keep aside. Heat ghee in a pan and add the chopped nuts and fry till golden brown. Keep the heat at medium-low or medium. Add the semolina and fry for a minute. Add milk and stir continuously till no lumps are formed. Add sugar to the sheera. Addwell mashed banana to the sheera. Keep flame on low and cook covered for 5 minutes till the semolina is soft. Add keshar and stir well. Cook till the milk has evaporated. Stir well with a wooden ladle till the sheer turns into a big lump. Serve hot.
If you want a round shape as in the photo, grease a small bowl with ghee and press the sheera into the bowl. Then tilt the bowl upside down to gently slide the sheera into a plate.

Tips: The secret of making sheera without lumps is to keep the heat low when adding milk to the semolina. and stirring it continuously. Stirring it well with a ladle once it is cooked gives it a smooth consistency.

Nankhatai / Nankatai / Narayankatar

Nankatai or Narayankatar(in Konkani) is another of the recipes passed on by my grandmom. My grandmom did not have a conventional oven. So she would spread sand(collected from beach and washed thoroughly) evenly in a pressure cooker and keep the narayankatar tray on an elevated vessel inside the oven. The narayankatar would be perfect in shape and taste. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups flour (makes around 25-30 namkatai)
3/4 cup ghee or clarified butter
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup sugar (1/2 cup if you want it less sweet)
2 teaspoon cardamom powder

Method
Powder the sugar and mix it well with the ghee. Add cardamom powder and baking powder and mix well. Now stir in flour and knead the flour well into the ghee with your fingers. It is not possible to make a stiff dough like chappati atta, but ensure that the ghee is well assimilated into the flour.

Keep aside for 30 minutes. Now make small circles flattening the dough in your palm. Press it well to shape it into a ball and then a disc.
Bake it in oven at 300 degrees for 20-25 minutes. If you want more brown color, bake for 5-10 minutes longer, but keep checking to see that the bottom of the nankatai does not burn. Let it then rest for one hour on the oven rack till it cools down completely, otherwise the nankatai will crumble. Store in air tight container.

Rice And Sago Kheer / Dudhpak

Dudhpak is a very easy to make dessert. I just adore the saffron flavor and the dry fruits in dudhpak. It can be made with a combination of rice and sabudana (sago) or just rice. Basmati rice imparts a great flavor to the dudhpak, however you can also use ordinary rice. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients
1/2 cup basmati rice (if sabudana is not available use 1 cup rice)
1/2 cup sabudana (soaked for around 3-4 hours)
2 pinches of keshar or saffron
1 tablespoon powdered cardamom
2 tablespoon ghee or clarified butter
1/2 cup chopped nuts(cashewnut, non-salted almonds, dried raisins)
1 cup sugar or as per taste
4 cups of whole milk

Method
Boil the milk and let it reduce on slow flame for 15 minutes. Ensure that you sit it occasionally to avoid sticking to the bottom of the pan. Keep the milk aside to cool it down to room temperature. Take 2 tablespoons of this hot milk and add keshar to it and keep it aside. Chop the nuts into desired sized pieces and fry them in 2 tablespoon ghee or clarified butter. Wash the basmati rice. Boil around 3 cups of water add the rice to it. Cook the rice till it is 3/4 done and drain the remaining water. The rice grains should not stick to each other and it should not be overcooked. Spread the rice on a plate to cool it. Meanwhile boil 2 cups of water and add the sabudana to it. Cook for around 4-5 minutes and drain the water. Mix the sabudana, rice, sugar, cardamom, milk with saffron and dry fruits. Stir it gently to fold in the rest of the ingredients with sabudana and rice. Now add the cooled milk and stir well. Keep the dudhpak in the refrigerator for at least 3-4 hours before serving.

If you want to serve the dudhpak hot, use the same procedure above, but add hot milk to the rice and sabudana mixture and serve immediately.

Preparation time: 40 minutes
Serves: 5-6

Bottlegourd Barfi or Gardudde Khadi

Last week I got a bottlegourd and I thought of trying this burfi instead of the regular halwa. This sweet has the taste of the bottlegourd and also a nutty flavor of milk. This is my grandmom's recipe. She specialized in making sweets and used to make lot of sweets and fried savories during festivals and birthday's. The whole house would smell divine with the aroma of ghee, cardamom and other foodstuff. She also specialized in making rava burfi, coconut barfi, rava ladoo, cashew nut barfi, mysore pak, shrikhand, sanjeera, phenori or chiroti (fried crisp flour circles rolled in sugar), til ladoo and plantain halwa and I will post these recipes subsequently.


Ingredients
around 3 cups grated bottlegourd (The grated bottle gourd should not be exposed to air for along time as it gets oxidized and turns brown. So grate the bottle gourd only when you are ready to add into the pan.)
1 1/2 cup whole milk or 1 cup condensed milk
3 cups sugar
6 tablespoons ghee
1 teaspoon powdered cardamom

Method
Add 4 tablespoon ghee in a wide bottomed pan and add milk. If you are using whole milk, get the milk to a boil and leave it for around 10 minutes until the milk reduces to 1 cup. If you are using condensed milk, there is no need to boil it. Add the grated bottle gourd and mix well. This dish should be cooked throughout on a very low flame with constant stirring or else it could be burnt. Cook uncovered till the bottle gourd is soft. Add 2 (not 3) cups of sugar and mix well. Now comes the tricky part. Once the burfi is semisolid, you need to periodically check it. Put around 1/4 teaspoon of this mixture on a plate and check if it hardens like burfi. If it doesn't then you need to add around 3 tablespoon more sugar and mix well and check again. Once done, spread it on a plate greased with the remaining ghee.

Cut immediately into squares with a greased knife or cutter as if it cools down, it is hard to cut it.


Preparation time: 2 hours
Servings: makes around 30 burfis