Cashew Murukku

Cashew Murukku is a rich, crunchy and delicious murukku prepared with rice flour and cashew paste. Compared to all other murukku’s this one is extra delicious with the addition of the cashew makes  this murukku so flavorful and crunchy.. This cashew murukku is perfectly crispy and love to have it as an evening snack along with a cup of hot chai/coffee.

Ingredients:

  Rice flour - 1 Cup

  Cashew - 20

 Jeera- 1 tsp

 Ghee - 1 Tbsp

 Salt - 1tsp (adjust per taste)

Water - as needed

 Asafoetida - small pinch

 Oil - for frying

 

METHOD:

1.Soak the cashew nuts in a little water for 15 mins and then grind it to a smooth paste along with the water. In a mixing bowl, add all the ingredients-flour, jeera, asafoetida, salt and ghee.

2.Mix thoroughly and crumble everything well. Then Add the ground cashew paste to the mixing bowl. Mix well. Then sprinkle a little bit of water, as needed, to make a soft and smooth dough. The dough should not be too thick or too thin.

3.Take a little portion of the dough into a greased murukku press. Press and form the murukku shapes onto a butter  paper. Now press the murukku batter on butter paper in a circular motion

4.Heat oil in a deep frying pan over medium flame.. Now gently drop the murukku into the oil. Deep fry 2 to 3 murukku at a time. Do not overcrowd.

5.Let it cook on low flame till it turns crispy. Then gently turn to the other side and let it cook till bubbling stops. Now remove and place it on a kitchen towel to remove excess oil.

6.Repeat the process with remaining murukku batter. Let it cool and store it in an airtight container. Enjoy with a cup of hot tea/coffee

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

Karasev

Karasev is a a South Indian snack made with besan flour, rice flour and some spices like chilli powder and pepper corns. There are lot of variations in this karasev, like spicy karasev, garlic karasev, motasev, pepper karasev, sattur karasev etc.  I made Garlic karasev in a tradition way by rubbing the dough through Karasev ladle bought from Madurai during my last visit. Now I made karasev to send it to my daughter through her friend who is staying in abroad.It is a crunchy evening tea time snack and an easy diwali snacks recipe to prepare for this festive occasion

 

Ingredients:

Bengal gram flour – 2 1/2 cups

Rice flour – 1 cup

Pure Ghee or butter –1 1/2 tblsp

Cooking soda – a pinch

Powdered salt – as needed

water- as needed

Oil for deep frying

Grind to smooth paste:

Long red chillies – 5 or red chilli powder 1 tsp

Garlic – 4 to 5 flakes

Black pepper – 1 tsp

 

Method:

1.Peel the skin of garlic cloves and grind it to a paste . Crush whole pepper in a mixer or hand motor coarsely.

2.Sieve Bengal gram flour/ besan, rice flour together. Rub ghee and soda together till frothy on a flat plate.

3.Add this to the flour and mix well till it blends properly. To this add salt,pepper powder or red chilli powder,garlic paste and butter or ghee.Mix well to make a crumbly mixture. Then 4.Add water and make a thick dough. (For that perfect crispness and texture, one needs to make sure that the dough is smooth and soft enough to squeeze. In case it is too tightly bound, it is a good idea to sprinkle in some more water and knead again.)

5.Heat enough oil in a pan then place lemon size portion of dough and press onladle for the batter to fall directly into the oil. so that long pieces of dough falls into the hot oil.  Rub continuously by gathering all the excess dough.

6.Stir after a minute and deep fry on medium hot oil till crisp.Transfer to a plate and repeat the process again until all the batter is used up. let it cool & store in an airtight container

Note: wipe the ladle with a wet cloth each time. Otherwise the dough may stick to the holes and when it dries, it will be difficult to rub the dough again on the ladle during next time.

If the dough is too soft, it means there is too much of water, which means, it will absorb more oil and the sev will not be crisp.If the dough is too hard then the sev will be hard too.
To make long strands of the sev, press the batter slowly but hard on the ladle and not too fast.

Paal Kesari/Milk kesari

Kesari  is a is a simple sweet recipe prepared with basic ingredients like semolina, sugar and ghee. it is topped with dry fruits like chopped cashews, and some raisins and is flavoured with the exquisite spice 'kesar' or saffron. Kesari is usually prepared with water, and for Paal kesari is  cooks with milk gives a good taste and it is offered as neivedyam

Ingredients :

  Rava (sooji/semolina) -1 cup

  Milk - 21/2 cups

 Sugar - 1 cup

 Cashews - 5

 Raisins - 5

Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp

Saffron strands -5

Ghee - 2 to 3 tbsp

Method:

1.To prepare Milk Kesari first soak crushed saffron strands in a tablespoon of warm milk for 15-20 minutes

2. In a non stick kadai, heat 1 tbsp ghee and roast the cashews and raisins. When the cashews are golden and the raisins are puffed up, remove them to a plate.

3. Add the remaining ghee and add the rava and roast for 2 minutes. Switch off and allow it to cool completely

4. Now slowly add the milk, whisking all the while to avoid clumps.

5. When you've completely mixed in the milk, cover and cook for 3 minutes in medium flame until the milk is absorbed.

6. Now add the sugar and mix well. This will loosen the rava mixture.

7. Add the saffron milk and if needed add food color, and cardamom powder and mix well.

8. Keep mixing and stirring until it's thick for about 5-7 minutes and remove from flame

9.Garnish the milk kesari with nuts and raisins.Your delicious Milk /Paal Kesari is ready to be served immediately.