Recipe for the delicious traditional sweet, Sevian

Ingredients needed for the delicious sweet sevian
100 grams Sevian
1 tsp. Ghee
1 1/2 liter milk
100 grams sugar
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1/4 cup sliced pistachios

How to prepare the traditional sweet Sevain
Heat ghee in a fry pan and roast the sevian until they are golden.
Add boiled and cooled milk, stir well.
Cook till the mixture is thick and it is reduced to less than half.
Add the sugar to the boiling mix.
Stir till the sugar gets dissolved and blends well with the sevian.
Add almonds and pistachios as a garnish on top of the Sevian.
Serve either warm or chilled, both will be as tasty and delicious as the other.

Ilaneer Payasam / Tender Coconut Payasam

Ilaneer is nothing but the water inside the tender coconut.  Coconut is used in many ways in Kerala.  Ilaneer or the tender coconut water is very good for health. It is a very nutritious thirst quencher and the tender pulp inside satisfies your hunger.

We can make many dishes with this tender coconut, I am giving one of such recipe here. 

Ilaneer Payasam

Ingredients needed for Ilaneer Payasam:

Water from 2 tender coconuts

1 litre milk

3/4 cup sugar

How to prepare Ilaneer Payasam?:

Mix sugar and milk together so that they blend well. 

In a thick bottommed pan, boil the mixture well till it gets about half the amount.  Let cool.

Scrape out the pulp from the tender coconut . Blend the water and the pulp together till smooth. 

Till you get ready to serve keep thickened milk and the tender coconut mixture  separately.

Just before serving mix them together and serve as required. 

Points to Note;

You can use a tin of condensed milk instead of thickeing milk and sugar mentioned in the above recipe. As it is an traditional recipe I have given it to you  just like that. 

Vanilla Custard and Walnut Pudding

Ingredients needed for Vanilla custard and walnut Pudding
1 cup maida
1/2 cup walnut
2 eggs
1/2 spoon brown and Polson Vanilla Essence
1/2 spoon raisins
1 cup ground sugar

How to prepare Vanilla custard and walnut pudding :
Beat a mixture of egg oil and sugar thoroughly till it thickens. Add brown and Polson vanilla Essencefollowed by baking powder , walnut and raisins.Mix well, add maida and prepare a smooth paste
bake in a preheated oven at 200degrees c for 20 - 25 minutes
In one cup of milk mix mrown and Polson custard and warm remaining milkAdd custard in it and cook till it gets thick.Add Essence and Brown & Polson Custard milk.
Serve  - Pour hot or cold custard over the baked cake placed over the serving dish.

Sakkarai Pongal / Sweet Pongal

Ingredients needed for making Sakkarai Pongal / Sweet Pongal:  
1 cup Raw Rice
1/4 cup Siru Paruppu / Moong Dal / Green Gram Dal
1 cup Milk
Water as needed to cook the rice and dal soft about 4-5  cups
3 cups Jaggery (grated)
10 Cashewnuts split or broken into bits
10-15 Kismis
1/2 cup Ghee
4-5  Cardamoms, Powdered

How to prepare Sakkarai Pongal:
Roast moong dhal / green gram dal in a fry pan without oil or ghee.
Then add rice and dal together with milk and water in a pressure cooker.
Cook for one whistle and then simmer for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile,  add half a  cup of water to the jaggery in a fry pan and heat it.
When the jaggery melts completely in water, remove from fire.
Strain the jaggery to clear it of the dirt and then add to the cooked rice.
Simmer for 5 minutes so that the rice and the jaggery blend well  together.
Heat ghee in a pan and add cashewnuts and kismis to it.
Fry till they become golden and add to the pongal along with the ghee.
Finally either put in split cardamom pods or powdered cardamom, mix well.
Cover and keep aside till all the flavours blend together.
Serve hot or cold .

Points to Note: 
The rice and dal mix should be cooked very soft.
you need not make a syrup of jaggery if you don't want to, you can just add grated jaggery directly if you are in a hurry. But then you will not be able to clear the dirt.
Do not add jaggery without checking if the rice and dal has cooked very soft. If you add jaggery before the rice gets cooked , the rice will not be soft.
It is preferred to add cardamom powdered since you will not have to bite in tothe seeds unknowingly.

Aravana Payasam Recipe

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Aravana Payasam at The Homekeeper's Guide

Rava Laadu

Ingredients needed for rava laadu:
1 cup Rava / Semolina
1 cup Sugar, powdered
1/2 cup Ghee 
1 tsp Cardamom powder
2 tbsps Chopped cashews


How to prepare rava laadu:
Roast rava on a with a tablespoon ful ghee in a  fry pan, till the rava gets pale pink in colour.
Cool and powder in a mixie.
Roast cashews in 1 tsp ghee.
Mix powdered rava, sugar and cashews together.
Take the mix in a wide plate and  make a well  in the centre.
Heat ghee to smoking point and pour into the centre.
Mix them with hands and immediately roll them into small balls.
If needed, a little more hot ghee can be added.
Let it cool.

Points to Note:
It takes a little practice to roll the mixture into round balls. Don't worry, pracrice makes a person perfect. First make the balls roughly before the mixture cools.
Then slowly roll each balls between both palms very softly without breaking  them till they form perfect balls.

Other Sweets 
Pista Burfi
Dry Fruit Chikki
Gajar halwa / Carrot Halwa

Gajar Ka Halwa / Carrot Halwa

Ingredients

2 cups freshly grated carrots
1/3 cup milk powder
1 cup sugar
1/4 tsp cardamom powder
1/4 cup thickeneed cream
Raisins, cashews and almonds  as needed
a little ghee for frying the nuts to a golden brown colour

Method
Spread the freshly grated carrot in a microwave casserole and cook it on high for 7-8 minutes. If the carrot is not tender cook it a little more Microwaves and their cooking power differs from brand to brand.
Remove it from the microwave and now add milk powder, sugar, thickened cream and cardamom powder. Mix well.
Again return it to the microwave and cook on high for another 7-8 minutes.
Remove it from the microwave
Garsnish the dish with fried raisins, cashews and almonds.
Serve either hot or cold

Gulab Jamuns

Ingredients:
3 Cups of Dry Milk Powder
1 Cup of Self Raising Flour
1/2 cup waterThickened Cream
200 gramsOil for Deep Frying
3 Cups of White Sugar
3 Cups of Water
2 Green Cardamoms

How to get the Sugar syrup:
Put a vessel on fire with 3 cups of water and 3 cups of Sugar.Add the Green Cardamoms in the water and bring to boil.Let it boil for 15 minutes.Keep the pot covered with a lid , just leave a bit of a room for steam to escape.The sugar shoud have completely dissolved and the syrup slightly thickened removefrom fire and let cool.

How To fry the Gulab Jamuns to Golden colour
Take a mixing bowl and add the Milk Powder, Self Raising Flour ( or Add the Plain Flour and the baking Soda), milk, cream and knead the mixture into a dough.
Adjust the quantity of cream to get a tight dough.
Heat a pan on very low fire with the oil for deep frying. The oil should not come to the boiling point.Make small balls of the dough and use some oil on your hands to make a smooth and shiny ball of the size of a cherry.
Remember that it will swell up while frying and while in the syrup , it will get 2-3 times larger in size, so make the balls very small.
Once the balls have turned dark brown then transfer them in the sugar syrup.

Dos and Don'ts while making Gulab Jamuns:
Do not use the low fat options of the milk.
If you do not have Self raising flour you can use maida or the plain refined flour and you can add 3 Pinches of Baking Soda to get the needed texture.
While you are frying the jamun balls the oil should not get very hot since the insides will not get cooked and the outside will turn brown soon. The centre portion of the Jamuns will be hard.
Be, be careful while frying the balls for you to get delicious jamuns.

Note:
The easiest way of getting the correct mixture is to get ready made mixes available over the counter and prepare the dough as given in the reverse side of the packets Just follow the method if you do not want to spend more time using the traditional recipe.

Dry Fruit Chikki, a diwali sweet

Ingredients needed for the Dry Fruit Chikki
1/2 cup almonds (sliced into 2-3 pieces)
1/2 cup pistachios broken
1/2 Cashewnuts split or broken
½ tbsp Ghee = to grease the tray
3/4ths cup Sugar
a pinch Green cardamom powder
a few strands Saffron
1/2 cup Dried rose petals for garnish

How to prepare dry fruit chikki:
Take a baking tray and place almonds, pistachios and cashewnuts in it. Microwave for 2-3 minutes till they are crispy.
Take a heavy rolling pin and grease it with ghee. Similarly grease the board on which you are going to roll the chikki.
Heat thick-bottomed pan and add ghee, sugar, cardamom powder and saffron strands. Cook till it forms a thick syrup and turns light brown in colour. Remove from heat.
Add roasted nuts, mix and immediately transfer onto the greased worktop.
Sprinkle dried rose petals and roll out lightly with the rolling pin to about one centimetre thickness.
Make marks with knife even while it is slightly warm.
When cool, scrape with knife and cut into marked pieces.
Store in an air-tight container.

Points to Note:
If you do not have a Microwave, just preheat the oven and then roast the dry fruits for 7-8 minutes.
If you have cut the dry fruits into small pieces even  a minute or two should be enough .
The timing should be adjusted according to your microwave.

Other Diwali Sweets
Kalakand
Chandrakala

Chandrakala - a Sweet Recipe for Diwali

Ingredients needed for the sweet Chandrakala:
1 cup mawa
1 cup powdered cashewnuts
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 Kesar paste
1/4 tsp cinnamon powder

How to prepare Chandrakala, a sweet recipe for Diwali?
Mix together,awa, powdered cashews and sugar nicely. Cook in a heavy bottommed pan like a pressure pan for about 5 minutes.
Cool completely. Add Kesar and cardamom powder and mix well.
Divide the mixture into equal portions.
Shape them into balls of uniform size.
Cover the top of each ball with a silver foil piece.

Easy Kalakand ( Microwave recipe )

Ingredients needed for Easy Kalakand

1/2cup milk

1/2 cup sugar
1 cup milk powder
1 cup grated paneer
1/2 cup fresh cream
1/2 tsp cardamom powder

How to  prepare easy Kalakand:
Mix milk and sugar and  micriwave it for 2 minutes.
Remove and mix in milk powder and grated paneer. Mix well and microwave for 2 more minutes.
Remove from th microwave and mix in Cardamom powder
Microwave for 2 more minutes
Remove from the microwave and stir well.
Again microwave for 2 more minutes. Stir once inbetween  after 1 minute.
Remove from the microwave. Mix the contents properly.
Spread the mixture in a tray evenly.
After an hopur unmould and apply silver foil.
Sprinkle broken pieces of Badam and pista on top. Cut into square pieces and serve.

Other Sweets
Pista Burfi
Chandrakala

Palada Pradhaman

The recipe has been transferred to

Latha's Recipe Collections