Coconut Burfi

Happy Vinayaka Chavithi to all the readers. Well, no indian festival is complete without offering coconut to the god. But there is also a belief that only sweets have to be prepared with the offered coconut. I was thinking of some easy and preservable sweet with coconut, coconut burfi came to mind and thus the recipe follows:

Ingredients:

Fresh grated coconut - 2 Cups

Sugar - 2 Cups ( Or As per your taste)

Cardamom Powder - A pinch

Water - Enough to immerse the sugar

Ghee - To grease the pan

Procedure:

1. In a heavy bottom pan add the sugar and water just enough to immerse the sugar and bring to a boil keeping the heat on medium low.

2. Keep stirring the sugar syrup occasionally until a one string consistency is achieved.

3. Add the fresh grated coconut and cardomom powder to the sugar syrup and mix well. Keep stirring frequently so that the mixture doesn't stick to the bottom. Be careful while stirring as the hot bubbles may splatter.

4. Meanwhile grease a plate or baking pan with enough ghee and keep aside

5. Once the mixture starts to leave the sides of the pan( it may take about 15 min on medium heat), pour the mixture onto the greased plate and cut into squares and decorate with dry fruits.

6. Once cool, store it in an airtight container. The sweet is preservable and stays fresh for upto 10 days.

Basic Eggless Sponge Cake

Ingredients:

All Purpose Flour(Maida) 1 cup
Unsalted Melted Butter 1 cup
Sugar powder 1 cup(u can increase if u want more sweet).
condensed milk 1 cup
Baking powder 1/2 tsp
Vanilla Extract 1 tsp




Method:

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

2.Mix All purpose flour,Baking powder,sugar powder in a container.

3.Mix the flour with condensed milk by pouring little by little with out forming lumps.

4.Then add Melted Butter and vanilla extract and mix throughly with out forming lumps.

5.Take a BakingPan and dust it with little flour or spray non-stick spray and pour the batter into the pan.

6. Bake it for 20 min in Pre-heated oven. or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool.

Variation:

Instead of vanilla extract you can add lemon/orange zest

Rava Laddoo (Contributed by Fareeda from Dubai)

Ingredients:

Rava – 1 cup

Grated dry coconut – 1 ¼ th  cup

Sugar – 1 cup

Badam (optional) – 2 tsp

Kaju – 2 tsp (or as required)

Pista (optional) – 2 tsp

Milk – 1/4th cup (as needed)

Ghee – 50gms

Procedure:

1. Cut badam, pista and kaju into smal pieces or grind them coarsely and keep aside.

2. Take a pan and roast rava on low flame till the rava turns light brown color. (approximately 10 min.) stir in between.

3. Add grated coconut, sugar and badam, pista & kaju pieces to rava and fry on low flame for abt 10-15 min. Stir occasionally.

 

4. Add ghee and mix.

5. Now add milk till the mixture is thick enough to make laddu.

6. Cook for 1-2 min and remove from flame before the sugar starts melting. (be careful about this).

 

7. Make laddu as soon as possible before the mixture gets completely cool.

8. Take dry grated coconut in a small cup and roll the laddu over it. See that the coconut coats laddu all over.

 

9. Garnish laddu with a kaju on top. To keep the laddu fresh for few days keep it in an air tight container.

 

Carrot Halwa

Ingredients

Shredded Carrot : 2 cups 

Milk- 2 Cups

Sugar- Half cup or as per taste

Cardamom Powder -  A pinch

raisins - 6-7 

Ghee - 3-4 tbsp

Cashews  pieces - 1/4 cup

Cashew halves(for garnishing) - 7-8

Procedure:

Heat ghee in a pan on medium heat. Add the shredded carrot and cook for some time( it shouldn't smell raw).Now add the milk,raisins and allow it to cook until all the milk is absorbed by the carrots ,drain any excess milk. Add sugar and cardamom powder and see to it that it turns into golden brown texture( should not be watery/milky). Once it attains the desired texture, remove from flame. Allow it cool and refrigerate it(do not freeze). Fry the cashew halves in ghee. Finally garnish the halwa with cashew halves( in addition you can add pistachio halves too)

Badam Burfi

Ingredients:

Almonds - 1 cup

Sugar - 1 cup

Milk - 1/2 cup or sufficient to blend

Ghee/ Clarified butter - 2-3 tbsp

Cardamom powder- a pinch.

Procedure:

Soak the almonds in water for about half an hour. Meanwhile grease a plate with ghee and keep aside. Now peel off the skin from soaked almonds and blend them with sugar and milk. Now, take a pan, add 2-3 tbsp of ghee and let it melt on medium low heat. Add the blended mixture and keep stirring continuosly until the ghee leaves the sides of the pan. Add cardomom powder and turn off the heat and take the pan off the heat but keep stirring it for a couple of more minutes. Now spread the blended mixture on the greased plate ( spreading with hands will give a smooth texture). Once the spread mixture is cooled, cut them into pieces and decorate each with dry fruits. They can be stored for a reasonable period (only if you resist the temptation to eat :)). 

Vanilla Fruit Custard

Ingredients:

Apple Slices -1 Cup

Banana Slices- 1 Cup

Seedless Grapes sliced (Black or Green) - 1 Cup

Strawberries (sliced) - 1 Cup

Cherry slices - Handful

Milk - 1 litre

Vanilla Custard Powder - 4 tbsp

Sugar - 3/4 cup or as needed

Vanilla icecream / Whipping Cream - Optional

Procedure:

Boil milk on low flame. Meanwhile mix the custard powder with cold milk in a cup into a smooth consistency to avoid lumps. Add this mixture to the boiling milk and stir simultaneously to avoid lumps. Add sugar and keep stirring it periodically until desired thickness is attained. Now, remove the custard milk from the flame and allow it to cool. Refrigerate it (Do not freeze).

Just before serving, add either vanilla icecream or whipping cream to the custard milk to make the custard more thick and appealing(it is optional though). Add all the fruits(except cherries) to a bowl, add the custard and finally decorate it with cherry slices. Avoid watery fruits like oranges and water melon.

7 cups

7 cups Sweet:

Ingredients:

3 cups sugar
1 cup grated coconut
1 cup milk (same cup for all)
1 cup besan
1 cup oil

Procedure:

In a very thick pan, mix all the ingredients on very low heat and keep stirring till 20 min (exactly). It becomes like mysore pak mixture.
Add elaichi powder and very lil ghee. Take a plate and apply ghee on it evenly and put the mixture in the plate and spread evenly.
Dip the knife in ghee/oil and cut the mixture in square pieces.