Kamarket

My mom had given some country- jaggery when we started the family in the new home at Chennai.I was not using big portions in any recipe and suddenly, what came to my mind was “Kamarket” which is most of our childhood favorite.

Ingredients:

• Jaggery scrapped– 2 cups
• Coconut grated – 1 cup
• Ghee – 2 spoons
• Water – ½ cup

Method:

1. Roast the grated coconut in a spoon of ghee
2. Dissolve the jaggery in the water and filter it to remove any mud like particles in the jaggery
3. Now bring it to boil and keep stirring until it reaches a stage when the boiling jaggery sets firm while dropped in cold water; you’ll be able to shape it like kid’s play-clay
4. At this stage add the roasted coconut and keep stirring until it rolls together with the ladle; this would take some 15 min.
5. Pour it on a plate greased with ghee.
6. While it is still hot, with the ladle pull a small portion and roll into gooseberry or marble sized balls. Apply a drop of ghee on palms and fingers as necessary.
7. Let the kamarkets cool before popping them

TIPS:

 Store only when the kamarkets are completely cool, otherwise they will stick with each other
 While rolling into balls if the mixture sets hard in the plate due to cooling down, just boil water in a vessel in stove and keep this plate on top to loosen it.
 Some people like it chewy and some like it brittle and hard. For chewy type add more coconut and for brittle & hard ones, boil for a little longer. I’ve heard they add about a spoon of rice flour to make biteable kamarkets
 It’s seems such a simple recipe, but most people don’t get it right at all. That’s because, the recipe depends on parameters such as the type of jaggery and the stage to which it has to be boiled.
Yes, it is a little tricky and slightly messy recipe but you can still do it for the joy of lingering in nostalgic thoughts of school days when you pop one into your mouth and keep relishing it.

Pottukadalai Urundai

Pottukadalai or roasted Bengal gram is more prevalent in south Indian cooking especially in the inevitable coconut chutneys. So all of us have this all the time at home which means this sweet can be prepared instantly with things at home within the time taken for preparing a hot cup of tea. My granny used to give me powder pottukadalai and sugar when she ran short of snacks at home while I come from school, this is an extended version of that snack. Once my sister-in-law had sent some pottukadalai ladoos that her mom prepared; I can say this is also an inspiration from that.

Ingredients:

1. Roasted bengalgram - 1 cup
2. Sugar - 1/2 cup
3. Ghee - 1/4 cup
4. Cardamom - 4
5. Cashew nuts - 6

Method:

Step 1: Powder the roasted bengal gram and then sugar with cardamoms in a dry mixer and put them in a bowl.

Step 2: Heat a spoon of ghee and roast the broken cashew nuts in it and take them out; melt the rest of the ghee in the same pan.

Step 3: Now to the bowl with flour and sugar, add cashews and ghee.
Step 4: Mix well with a spoon.

Step 5: Roll into small balls and store in an airtight container.

Ragi Laddu

This is another instant sweet for surprise guests particularly if they are health freaks. Even for a diabetes patient, this can be prepared with sugar-free substitutes. We at home are used to eating more ragi dishes as our grand-dad had diabetes; so, I generally like the color and flavor of ragi if not for health reasons also.

Ingredients:

1. Ragi powder or finger millet flour - 2 cups
2. Ghee - 3/4 cup
3. Powdered sugar - 1 cup
4. Cashew nuts - 2 tbsp
5. Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp


Method:

Step 1: Heat a spoon of ghee and roast broken cashew nuts in it.
Step 2: Drain the cashews out and in same pan melt the rest of the ghee and fry the ragi flour till brown and aroma fill the room.
Step 3: Sprinkle the cardamom powder, mix well and remove from heat and transfer to a bowl.
Step 4: When the heat of the flour lowers a bit add the powdered sugar, roasted cashew nuts and mix well.
Step 5: Roll into laddu of required size and store in an airtight container.

Ragi Halwa

Suddenly from somewhere I got this ragi-o-mania, I started trialling with ragi flour. Once I had tried this gooey halwa which tasted very good. With generous ghee this slid into the throat like wheat halwa, even with less ghee it should’ve tasted equally good but little sticky.

Ingredients:

1. Ragi Flour - 1 cup
2. Sugar - 1 cup
3. Crushed Cardamom - 2
4. Ghee - 1/2 cup
5. Fried cashew nuts - 2 tbsp

Method:

Step 1: First mix the ragi flour with 2 cups of water in a pan and keep aside for 10 mins.
Step 2: Heat the pan, add sugar,stir it well continuously. Add ghee and stir until it thicken as halwa.
Step 3: After it get thicken add cardamom,fried cashews and mix it well.

Pista Kulfi

Kulfis are Indian ice-creams; they are harder, creamier, sweeter, dense in flavour compared to ice creams. As it is hard to scoop, kulfi is frozen in small serving-sized molds traditionally madka molds (earthen molds),  but in modern kitchen aluminium and plastic tumbler shaped molds are used for convenience. For the tropical climate of India kulfi are very apt as they melt down slowly. However, kulfi is a self descriptor of the phrase "No pain, no gain"; the effort of making kulfis is felt in its taste; one can definitely feel the difference between instant kulfis and those kulfis made the hard way.

Ingredients:

1. Whole milk - 1 lt
2. Sugar - 5 tbsp
3. Cardamom powder - 1 tsp
4. Pistachios - 2 tbsp

Method:

Step 1: Boil the milk with sugar in a wide pan in low to medium flame, continously stirring to avoid burning at the bottom.
Step 2: After about 45 minutes, a thick consistency of milk (almost of the thickness of beaten whole curd) is obtained. Now switch off the stove and add cardamom powder and crushed nuts.

Step 3: Let it cool down to room temperature. Stir occasionally to avoid layer formation at the top surface.

Step 4: Mix well and pour into kulti moulds and put in freezer.

Step 5: After an hour take out and stir the kulfi mix once when is partially frozen; put in freezer back. Repeat if the kulfi had not started to freeze.

Step 6: Let the kulfi set in freezer for 8 hours or better overnight.
Step 7: Before serving, take out the molds, wash in the running water with the lid closed, give it a couple of minutes to melt in the edges. Slide into serving bowls or slice them as required.
Step 8:  Garnish with more crushed nuts.

TIPS:
* You can add sweet condensed milk as a sweetner, this enhances taste and quickens the cooking.
* Some people add white bread in kulfis to give it texture and prevent icicles.
* Instant kulfis are made by adding corn starch to thicken the consistency of milk.
* Madka molds absorb the residual moisture in the kulfis and hence are rich and creamy; the material forms an insulator that slows the freezing as well as melting, price of which is a wonderful heavenly kulfi.

Coconut Barfi

Coconut barfi is one of my few favourite sweets but I had not learnt preparing it. I tried this recipe from internet and it did come out well; it is in fact a simpler recipe of coconut barfi. Some people like it flaky while some like it fudgy; some like it very sweet that it melts in mouth while some like it chewy; this worked well from both of our preferences.

Ingredients:

1. Grated coconut - 3 cups
2. Condense milk - 1 can
3. Sugar - 1/2 cup
4. Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp
5. Ghee - 2 tbsp
6. Chopped almonds - 2 tbsp

Method:

Step 1: Mix grated coconut, condensed milk, sugar in a pan and keep on low heat
Step 2: When thickens add ghee and roll for few min
Step 3: Switch off and add cardamom powder and mix well.
Step 4: Pour on a greased plate and let it cool a bit
Step 5: Sprinkle almonds and cut into squares when warm and take out only when completely cool.

Vanila/ Chocolate Eggless Cake

I have seen Urmila aunty preparing eggless cakes at home for birthdays but this is not the exact version of her's. I got this from a cookery show and tried it; this surprisingly turned out great at the very first go. It is such a straight forward recipe.

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup maida (all-purpose flour)
2. ½ can condensed milk (I used Nestle Milkmaid)
3. ¼ cup ghee (unsalted butter)
4. 1 tsp vanilla essence or 4 spoons of cocoa powder
5. 2 tblsp baking powder
6. ½ cup milk
7. Edible food colors (optional)
8. Candied cherries (Tutti-frutti optional)

Method:

• Sieve flour with baking powder and cocoa powder (In case you want chjocolate flavour)
• Mix condensed milk and butter seperately.
• Roll the flour in the butter mix. Add milk to make the batter thin.
• Mix the cherries and vanilla essence. Put three teaspoonfuls of the coloring on the batter and give it one single swirl with the rolling pin.
• Heat the pressure cooker for 5 mins. Grease and dust the baking dish. Pour the batter in it and place the baking dish in the cooker. Keep the cooker on low flame (sim).
• Insert a toothpick in the cake after half an hour to check if it is done. If the toothpick comes out clean, take out the cake. Cool on a wire rack before serving. The cake should be spongy and spring back on pressing.
* Decorate with icing or nuts or gems as per your imagination and resource availability

TIPS:

* Keep all necessary ingredients handy and then prepare the cake mix immediately; because baking powder would lose its effect after it gets moist
* Let the cake cool a bit before taking it out; hot cake top would stick to the vessel when toppled

1 2 3 4 . . .

Lemme start it sweet. 1 2 3 4... yeah, the sweet's name is 1234 Cake. This is one of the easiest sweets one can prepare as a learner and I learnt this recipe from my sister, Viju. The name of the sweet explains the portions of ingredients that go in it.

INGREDIENTS:

1. Ghee - 1 Cup
2. Coconut - 2 Cups
3. Sugar - 3 Cups
4. Milk - 4 Cups

METHOD:


• Take all the four ingredients in a deep pan and mix well
• Place it on the stove and close with a lid to avoid spluttering out
• Occasionally take off the lid and stir until the consistency is thick. This will take quite some time say, an hour
• Then take out the lid and stir continuously until the ghee seeps out and the sweet leaves pan
• Take a tray and grease with ghee and pour over the sweet
• Garnish with nuts/ saffron/ rake as required
• Cut into squares/ diamonds once it cools a bit.

TIPS:

* There is no particular order for adding the ingredients. Mix them all at once.
* Keep lid closed until sweet solidifies; else it will splutter on hands and around pan
* Be patient; the moisture in the mixture should completely evaporate to get required consistency
* Cut after few minutes of pouring in the tray when warm, but separate the pieces from tray after it cools down completely