Hope you all had a happy Ganesha Chaturthi. We had a small pooja at home this year too. We got a beautiful 10 inch Ganesha from local Indian store here. Ishaan also enjoyed looking at the decorations. We could not do much decorations this year as V did everything at the last moment, but still it was lovely pooja.
I made a small spread for the offering. It had idlis, dali thoy , muga randayi , tandla paays, baje , taushe hulel , modak . I wanted to make some paays/kheer with jaggery. So I called up aayi and she suggested this. It was a nice change from the usual sugar based paays/kheer I usually make.
Some other versions of this – paal payasam , kheer , tandla-chane dali paays
Ingredients: 1/2 cup rice (I used basmati rice, any rice can be used) 1 cup thick coconut milk 1/2 cup (approx) jaggery 1 tbl spn raisins 1 tbl spn cashews 1/4 tea spn cardamom powder
Method: Cook rice in enough water along with cashews and raisins, till it is done, take care not to make it too mushy. Add jaggery and cook till it is all melted. Now add coconut milk and bring it to boil. Switch off the heat and add cardamom powder. Serve hot or cold.
PS: – Sugar can be used in place of jaggery. – If you do not like coconut milk, use normal milk. – Depending on the color of jaggery, the color of paays changes. I had very light colored jaggery, so it came out very light.
Home made coconut milk: Grind fresh/frozen coconut with a cup of water to a coarse paste. Sieve the paste and squeeze all the liquid off the particles. Again add little more water and repeat.
Pineapple is one of my favorite fruits. I like to eat it as it is or topped with some salt and pepper or cook some delicious dishes with it, use as topping on pizza. I am too lazy to cut it, but once that hurdle is passed, it gets consumed in no time.
My recent way of eating it is by grilling it. I had seen pineapple being grilled many times on TV. But I fell in love with it once I actually tasted it. I add some pepper, salt and red chilli powder to give a nice kick to it. Salt really brings out a unique taste. I grill it only few minutes on each side to get it slightly cooked. Use sweet pineapple for a great taste. A pinch of brown sugar sprinkled on it while grilling also tastes great.
Ingredients: 2 pineapple slices A pinch red chilli powder A pinch pepper Salt
Method: Heat grill pan. Spray some non stick cooking spray. Keep pineapple slices on the grill. After 3-4mins, flip the pieces upside down and sprinkle chilli powder, salt and pepper (brown sugar if using). Grill for 3-4 mins and flip again. Sprinkle on this side. Flip again so that both the spiced sides get few minutes on the grill. Eat it while it is still warm.
