Badam Halwa

Ingredients:
Badam(Almonds) - 1 cup;
Sugar - 1 cup;
Kesari colour - a pinch;
Ghee - 1/2 cup;
Saffron - little;
Milk- 1/2 cup.

Preparation:

• Soak the almonds in a hot water.
• Remove the skin, add the milk and grind into a fine paste.
• Add little water to the sugar and mix and prepare a sugar syrup in a kadai (prepare the sugar syrup into a single line consistency)
• Then add the almond paste, stir the contents well, till it becomes thick,
• Add the kesari colour and the saffron soaked in a little milk, and mix well.
• When the mixture starts to stick into the kadai, add the ghee little by little and stir well.
• When it reaches the halwa consistency, switch off the stove.
• Badam Halwa is ready

Another method:
Directly add the sugar to the badam paste, and cook the contents in a kadai. Add the ghee when it starts to stick on the kadai. (Actually this method consumes more ghee). I usualluy prefer this method because, this is very tasty then the other one.

Paal Payasam (Sweet milk poridge)

Ingredients:-
Milk - 1 ltr
Basmathi rice - 50 gms
Sugar - 1 cup
Cashewnut - 1 tbsp
Almonds - 1 tbsp
Raisins - 1 tbsp
Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp
Ghee - 1 tbsp

Preparation:-

Wash the rice, add a cup of water, place it in a pressure cooker. After a whistle, cook this under low flame for 15 minutes. Mash the rice with a ladle, add milk, keep it in a low flame by stirring non-stop. When the mixture thickens and turns slight yellowish in color (this stage comes in 20 minutes) , add sugar and keep stirring for another 10 minutes. In another pan, fry the finely chopped cashews , almonds and raisins separately in ghee. Add this to the Payasam. When done, add Cardamom powder and serve hot.

Ah, the mouth watering payasam is ready. This is my daughter's favorite dish.

Bread & Nuts kozhukattai

Ingredients:

• Bread slices - 5
• Cashewnuts - 15
• Almonds - 10
• Dry grapes - 1 tbsp
• Black dates - 4 to 5 (seed removed !)
• Sugar - 1 tbsp (to be powdered)
• Ghee - 1 1/2 tbsp.

Preparation:

• Cut the bread edges and put it in a blender to make them crumbs.
• Roast cashews and almonds in ghee and grind coarsely.
• Slightly fry the grapes and dates in ghee and also grind to make them bits and pieces.
• Mix all the grinded ingredients with sugar and bread crumbs.
• Heat a tbsp of ghee and pour it over the mixture and mix well. (use hands to mix well (:-)
• Make them into a desired shapes (like kozhukattai )

See, this is a instant dish and here there is no steaming business. Indeed it is very tasty and rich diet, especially for kids

Paal Paniyaram

Ingredients:

• Raw rice - 1 cup
• Urad dal - 1 cup
• Coconut - 1
• Sugar - 3 cup
• Cardamom powder - 1tsp
• Oil for deep frying.

Preparation:

• Soak urad dal and rice for about 3 hours.
• Add little salt and grind to make paste.
• Extract coconut milk and add cardamom and sugar.
• Heat oil and fry one tsp of the above paste in it. It should form round balls.
• Add them to the coconut mixture.
• Paal paniyaram is ready to serve.

Apple-Bread Halwa

Ingredients:

• 1 cup peeled and finely chopped apples;
• 3/4 cup sugar;
• 1/2 cup ghee;
• 1 tbsp of black raisins;
• 3 slices of bread;
• a few drops of vanilla essence.

Preparation:

• Add sugar, apples and the black grapes in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave covered at 100% power for 5 min.

• Blend softened apple mixture and bread slices(soak it in water and then squeeze of the extra water) in a blender.

• Microwave (covered) this mixture at 60% power for 7-8 min.Stir in between.
• Add the ghee and the essence and microwave it for about 2 min.
• Your apple-bread halwa is ready.

Tickle your tongue kids! It's Apple Jam

I would like to present a favorite recipe of my kids. It goes very well with bread, cookies and cakes. It is a microwave recipe

Ingredients: 1 cup peeled and finely chopped apples, 3/4 cup sugar and 2 tbsp lemon juice.
Method:

• 1. Add sugar and apples in a microwave safe bowl and microwave at 100% power for 4-5 min.

• 2. Blend the softened apple and sugar mixture in a blender.
• 3. Microwave (covered) this mixture at 60% power for 6-8 min. Stir in between.
• 4. Stir in lemon juice, fill in prepared jars.
This recipe could also be done without a microwave oven. Just, we have to pressure cook the apples, blend it and then cook the apple mixture and sugar till it thickens and then we can add the lemon juice.

I think this recipe would be liked by all, especially the kids.