Papaya Halwa

Yesterday my relatives came for lunch. Instead of making payasam for a change I made Papaya Halwa for a dessert. Halwa in any form is a inviting and mouthwatering one .The halwa was damn good and my guest eat it first time and get surprised to know that it's made up of papaya. It gives me much pleasure. I didn’t add any food color.The papaya itself will give natural color. This Papaya Halwa is delicious, nutritious and easy to prepare! So try this recipe and enjoy!

Ingredients:

Papaya pureed: 1 cup

Sugar: 1/2 cup

Ghee: 3 tablespoons

Cashew nuts: 1 tablespoon

 

Method:

1.Wash,peel and remove the outer thick skin of papaya. De-seed and cube into pieces

2.Cut into small cubes and grind it in a blender without adding water

3. Heat 1 tsp of ghee in a pan and fry the cashews and keep it aside

 4.In the same pan heat 1 tablespoon of ghee and add 1 cup of papaya puree and fry for a couple of minutes

5.Now add 1/2 cup of sugar and stir well  in medium flame.

6. Then Add ghee little by little and Keep stirring until most of the liquid content evaporates and all the content form a single mass and comes of the sides of the pan then switch off the flame.

7.Garnish with fried cashews and serve hot .

Note:There is no need to add any food color.The papaya itself will give natural color

Increase or decrease the sugar based on the sweetness of the papaya.

Bread Upma

Bread Upma:

Today I am home alone and everyone left home early so  no mood to cook for me. So In leftover bread I made very simple, easy and yummy upma for myself... This is a very tasty and it can be made in a jiffy. I tweaked it a bit to include more veggies and made healthy & colorful with seasonal vegetables.

Ingredients -

Bread - 1/2 packet

Onion - 1 medium chopped

Capsicum - 1/2cup cut into small cubes

 Beans - 5 chopped

Green peas - 1/4 cup

 Tomato - 2 medium chopped

 Green chilies - 3

  Salt asper taste

  Ginger - 1/2 inch

  Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp

  urad dal - 1/2 tsp

  Cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp

  Curry leaves - 5

  Oil - 3 tsp

  Lemon- 1tsp

  Cilantro 1 tbsp to garnish

Method:

 1.Cut the bread slices into cubes. (Remove the brown part) .

 2. In a pan heat oil, add mustard seeds,urad dhal let them splutter and add curry leaves, green chilli. 

3. Add  chopped onion pieces and saute them till they are transparent .

 4.Then Add chopped  tomato  and saute till they well cooked and mushy . Then add veggies and saute  for   few min.Then Add salt , Red chilli, turmeric pd, cumin, coriande powder  and mix well.

5. If the mixture is too dry you can add few tbsp's of water.

6.Add the bread slices and stir till it is nicely covered with all the masala's.  

7.Add lemon Juice-garnish bread upma with coriander leaves to garnish and serve hot.

Pal Payasam

Pal Payasam is a traditional dessert .It is prepared on special occasions and festivals. This recipe of the pal payasam or the kheer is very simple to prepare and  very tasty recipe The best  taste for Pal Payasam is when the raw rice is cooked in milk on slow heat in heavy bottomed vessel or in pressure cooker which turns out very light pinkish in color finally. I usually prepares it by boiling the rice in milk over stove top which is very time consuming but it adds a nice creamy taste .There are two ways of making it. First, one where you reduce the milk to half by heating it and then adding sugar.The second one is where you reduce the milk a little and then adding condensed milk which makes it thicker and tastier.When you are using condensed milk there is no need to add sugar. . But now a days I prepare PalPayasam in Pressure cooker.

Ingredients

Milk    -   1lr/ 6 Cups

Rice     -   1⁄4 Cup

Sugar   -  1 Cup

Method:

 Pour the milk into cooker and bring it to boiling be sure that the cooker is only 1/2 or little more than 1/2 filled and not fully filled.

Add washed rice into this and stir well.

Now close the cooker with the whistle! And leave the flame in Simmer for exactly 20 min and turn the gas off. (Don’t have to worry about the number of whistles.)

Open the cooker after the steam is released completely.

Keep it on stove with full flame and allow boiling for 5 min.

 Once rice gets cooked now add sugar and mix for 2 mins till the sugar is dissolved stir it well.

 Delicious palpayasam is ready to be served .Garnish with aromatic spices.

  

Note: Adjust the quantity of milk and sugar given here as per your taste.. You can add sugar anytime if you feel the sweet is less.