Thiripagam (Forgotten traditional Sweet of Tirunelveli)

Over the years some of the traditional special dishes have gone out of fashion that are no longer found in our homes Tirunelveli is known for the delicious sweet "Halwa". But there are many forgotten recipe of sweets which was prominent in Tirunelveli, which is my native. I remember enjoying this special sweet called 'Thiripagam' during my teenage days. It used to be available in LALA sweet shops wrapped in a butter paper. This is one of the old forgotten recipes from Tirunelveli kitchen. but I wasn't clear about this recipe. while surfing I got this recipe from here and here. I tried this traditional sweet  which is simply divine and scrumptious is a treat for your tastebuds!  

This sweet Thiripagam, – which means three parts, where the name must have come from the three main ingredients – bengal gram flour, ghee and milk. This sweet has an additional inclusion of milk to the besan with oozing Ghee which melts in your mouth within seconds. In addition to that Saffron  and edible camphor that gives flavour  and has an amazing aroma and makes this sweet unique. This  dessert is shaped in rectangles or squares and wrapped in butter paper make this sweet elegant and graceful looking. This traditional sweet I bet these have to be everyone's favourite! Every spoonful of this yummy delicacy is a sheer delight for Diwali occasion!

 

Ingredients for making Thiripagam:

  Besan Flour 1 cup

  Milk -2 cups

  Sugar -1  1/2 cups

  Ghee 3/4 cup

  Saffron strings 6 to 8 soaked in 1/4 cup of warm milk 
 Edible Camphor / Pachai Karpooram a small pinch

 

Method:

1.Sieve kadalai maavu/bengal gram flour and keep ready.Warm milk and mix the saffron strands

2. In a bowl, mix the sieved flour, sugar, 1/2 cup clarified butter and milk with saffron – without lumps.

3.Heat a heavy bottomed pan and keep in mild flame. Pour the milk mixer in to it and stir continuously breaking the lumps

4.Keep stirring till all sugar is dissolved and when it starts boiling, simmer the burner The batter would reach a thicker consistency

5.Add the soaked saffron milk. Start adding the ghee right from now at intervals.

6.Keep stirring till the stuff becomes thick like paste again. OnceIt will reach the right consistency and not sticking to the pan add the edible camphor and switch off the pan.

7.Spread the Thribagam in a greased plate and cut into rectangular/square piece when warm

8.Take cookie sheets and cut into squares enough to fold the thiripagam pieces

Place the piece inside the cookie sheet and fold into beautiful squares. Thiripagam is ready

Soft Mysore Pak

Soft Mysore Pak- Krishna sweet style

Mysore Pak is Known as the king of sweets and it  is a very popular south Indian sweet made during special occasions. Already I tried Coconut Mysore Pak and DatesMysorepak My daughter always brought me Krishna sweet Mysore pak from Chennai  in her official visit. the Krishna sweet mysore pak; it just melts in mouth and tastes so heavenly! .So This time I tried soft version of Mysore pak for my son's birthday. / Gram flour, sugar and ghee are the ingredients which yields this melting magic .This version is very soft same as KS as the ghee doesnt ooze out,. They looked so tempting , so soft The taste was also awesome ! melt in your mouth and they are too irresistible! 

Ingredients:

Besan - 1 cup Sugar - 1 cup
Hot ghee- 1 cup (1/4 cup in flour + 3/4 cup while stirring) Water - 1/2 cup Just to immerse insugar(½ to ¾ cups)

Method:

1.Sieve the besan without lumps .Then In a heavy bottomed pan on medium heat, roast the gram flour in 1/4 cup hot ghee until it begins to turn golden brown and gives a roasted aroma.

2.In the same pan; add sugar and 1/2 cup water and bring to a boil. Stir the sugar in water until it dissolves, and allow it to come to boil until you get a one string consistency – it should feel sticky between your fingers.

3.When the one string consistency of sugar is reached, add besan slowly and now keep the flame in low. Stir until besan is fully dissolved in sugar syrup and the lumps are gone almost.

 

4.Then add ghee little by little with medium flame until it absorbs all the ghee. Look out till the mixture leaves the sides of the wok Add more hot ghee and keep stirring until the ghee absorbs in the mixture.

 

5.Once the entire mass comes together and looks smooth, add the last portion of ghee and continue to stir till the whole masses rises up like froth. Once it comes to this consistency, remove from the heat and pour the gram flour mysore pak mixture into a greased tray.

6.Sprinkle a little of granulated sugar over the top and allow the Mysore Pak to set and cool completely until set .

7.Cut the Mysore Pak into desired shapes.You will get very soft  Mysore-Pak and certainly delicious.

Pori Urundai for Karthigai Deepam

It is a custom in our home to make Pori for Karthikai. We usually made pori urundai  along with Athirasam, Vella seedai,&  Appam on that day. While many make these balls using Arisi pori. But in my both side my mom and MIL is not making balls, they just mix and make it as crumbles. So  I too followed their way. But this time I made Pori Urundai As per my husband’s wish. Here I am sharing the recipe of PORI URUNDAI.

Ingredients:

Pori (Puffed rice flakes) –3 cups

Jaggery powdered –1cup

Coconut (cut into small pieces) – 2 tbsp

Cardamom Powder – 1 teaspoon

Dry ginger powder (Sukku podi) – 1/2 teaspoon

Ghee- 1 tbsp

Water- ½ cup

 

Method:

1. Put the cleaned Pori in a large plate.Add jaggery in a pan with 1/2 cup of water and when it dissolves it water take it and strain the jaggery water to avoid sand.

2. Again boil the jaggery water and keep stirring it .When it became  thick, check the consistency by pouring a drop of syrup in a cup of water. The syrup should not melt in water and when touched by finger it should roll into a soft ball. It should not be hard. This is the right consistency. (To test: Put little syrup in cold water. It should mould into ball when rolled with fingers the jaggery comes to stone consistency)

3. On this consistency Add cardamom powder, dry ginger powder and coconuts pieces and stir well.

4. Now remove the jaggery from flame and add the Pori and mix it thoroughly using a big flat spoon.

5. When it is warm enough to hold by hand Grease hands well with ghee take the mixture and make balls using both your palm.

6. Press the ball by giving pressure from both your palm so that the syrup could bind the pori to remain as a ball. It will harden further when the syrup cools down

7. Now the Aval/Nell Pori Urundai is ready.Store it in Airtight container