I am thinking to start new posts to this blog with some famous Konkani sweets. Though I don’t like sweets, I like to make them, because no food is complete without a sweet. So let me start with a sweet which I like (that means I can eat a little bit of it).
This is prepared using ‘ arraroot ‘ or ‘ Kachra peet’ (I don’t know the English names). I was not having any hopes of finding either of these here. So I asked Aayi for some other alternative. As always, she had an alternative to it. So yesterday I prepared it and it tasted great. Some people do not use chana dal, but I prefer this sweet with dal because it gives a different taste to this sweet.
Ingredients : Rice 1/2 cup Coconut 1/2 cup Milk 1 and 1/2 cups Chana dal 1 tbl spn Cashew nuts 1 tea spn Sugar 1/2 cup Cardamom powder 1/2 tea spn Ghee(optional) 1 tea spn
Method : Soak rice for about 2-3 hours. Then grind coconut and rice to a very smooth paste, use as much water as required. Cook chana dal and cashew in cooker(or microwave). Boil milk and add the ground rice-coconut mixture stirring continuously (be careful to avoid any lumps). Add sugar, chana dal and cashews. Add the ghee(optional). Stir till all the liquid is absorbed and you get a thick paste. Add cardamom powder. Grease a plate and spread the paste on it. Allow it to cool. Cut it into big square pieces. Serve. (I prefer this sweet with pickle).
Serves : 3 Preparation time : 20min
I think this is a universal sweet. Everybody likes one or the other version of it.
Namewise, its called as Sheera/Sanja (Konkani), Kesari Baath (in Bangalore-Kannada, it should be bhath, not Baath though. I wonder why it is called ‘bhath’ because as far as I know ‘bhath’ means rice) and Sooji Halwa.
Recently we went out for lunch at ‘ Ruchi Indian Restaurant ‘ here in Overland park, KS, and I simply loved the food. Then they had this ‘Sooji Halwa’, which had the great aroma of ghee. I couldn’t eat it there because I was already full. So the next day I prepared our own ‘Sheera’. It came out great (except the aroma, because I had used ‘ Crisco Shortening ‘ instead of ‘ghee’), but still the taste was great.
Ingredients: Wheat sooji (wheat rava) 1 cup Sugar 3/4 cup Ghee 1 tbl spn Cloves 2-3 Raisins(Dried grapes) & Cashews 1 tea spn Milk 1/2 cup Water 1/2 cup Cardamom powder 1/2 tea spn Saffron(optional) a pinch
Method: Heat ghee and add cloves, cashews and raisins, fry for sometime. Add wheat sooji and fry on low flame till the nice aroma comes out. Add sugar, milk and water(add the saffron dissolved in water). Close and cook till water is absorbed. Add cardamom powder and mix well. Serve hot.
Serves : 2 Preparation time : 10min
