Paal poli recipe || how to make paal poli | diwali sweets

                                    Paal poli recipe

   Paal poli or paal poori is a simple milk based sweet with poori made with rava/sooji/ semolina, deep  fried and dunked in sweetened milk. As a kid we used to eat chapati soaked in milk or even the regular  wheat flour poori soaked in milk. When ever chapathi or poori is left over, mom soaks in milk and we have it as snack. Even my MIL does the same but only with poori. It’s their family favorite. I like the flavour of  wheat poori soaked in milk. Paal poli is a fancy name given to this simple idea also a few more  ingredients to make it special. We add cardamom, some nuts to the milk and the poori is either made  with maida or with rava. I made this paal poli with rava. I saw this in my old cook book I am having, as  paal poori. I have never made this fully with rava, this is the first time I am making. The cookbook  suggested adding orangefood colour. But I used saffron as these days afraid of using food colour. Since Vj is  not a big fan of nuts and cardamom in anything, I used nuts just for click sake. This recipe can be altered  by making the milk more flavourful with cloves and even edible camphor.

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Recipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Sweet
Prep Time: 1 Hr dough resting time + 30 mins  |  Cook time: 20 mins   |  Serves: 4

 Click here for cup measurements

 Ingredients 

Semolina / Rava/ sooji – 1 cup

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Ghee – 1 tsp

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Salt – 1/4 tsp

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Milk – 2 cups

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Cardamom – 1, powdered

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Saffron – A pinch

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Sugar – 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp or as needed

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Almonds  or pistachios, chopped – 1 tbsp

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Oil – to deep fry

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Method

1. In a bowl, mix rava, ghee and salt. Add lukewarm water as needed and make a dough. Knead well and keep aside for an hour  minimum.

2. Mean while prepare milk by boiling it, add sugar and mix well.

3. Soak saffron in warm milk and add it to the milk. Mix well and boil in low flame for 2 minutes. Add cardamom at this stage.

4. After an hour, knead the dough again for 5 minutes to make it smooth. Divide into equal sized balls.

5. Dust with maida and roll into pooris.

6. Heat oil and deep fry the pooris, both sides.

7. Press the excess oil in kitchen towels. Arrange the pooris in a shallow plate. Add the boiled milk, it should be hot and soak the pooris.

Notes

• You can deep fry the pooris in ghee if you want to make it more rich.
• Make sure to absorb the excess oil in kitchen towels.
• You can make the milk more flavourful with cloves and even edible camphor.

Let the pooris are fully immersed in milk and gets soaked well for atleast 30 mins before serving. Garnish with chopped nuts if desired. 

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Sweet potato poli recipe| how to make sweet potato poli | south indian | diwali sweets

                                 Sweet potato poli recipe

Recipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Sweet
Prep Time:  3 Hr Dough resting time    |  Cook time: 30 mins     |  Makes: 12

Ingredients

Sweet potato – 3

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Jaggery – 1 cup

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Coconut, grated – 1/4 cup

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Cardamom – 1, powdered

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For dough

All purpose flour/ Maida – 1 cup

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Turmeric – A pinch (optional)

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Ghee or oil – 1/4 cup

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Salt – As needed

Method

1. First prepare dough prior atleast 1 hr to 3 hrs before making poli. In a mixing bowl add flour, salt, turmeric, ghee or oil and required water.

2. Knead well to make a loose dough.  Keep aside for minimum 3 – 4 hrs.

3. Mean while you can prepare the puran / stuffing. Keep sweet potato in a container, inside pressure cooker. You can add little water as usual in the pressure cooker, but no need to add water to sweet potato. Idea is to steam it. You can add water and cook, but it could retain water and take bit longer to get puran done. So I opted steaming without water. Pressure cook for 4-5 whistles.

4. Peel the skin once cold and mash it well without any lumps.

5. Melt jaggery with little water just to immerse it. Filter it to remove any impurities.

6. Add it to the sweet potato and heat over medium flame. Mix well.

7. Once mixed, add grated coconut and cardamom. Keep stirring until it becomes thick.

8. On cooling, it gets non sticky. So switch off accordingly. Once cold enough to handle, roll into equal sized balls.

9. After 5 hrs, the oil or ghee would have slightly oozed out. Knead again to make it smooth and pliable. Divide into equal lemon sized balls.

10. Flatten the rolled dough into thick disc. Keep the stuffing inside and cover it with the dough.

11. Seal and flatten to thin polis. Oil will be oozing from the dough, so you may not need any oil for greasing, if needed use accordingly. You can check the video for better understanding.

12. Carefully transfer to hot tawa and cook over medium flame. Drizzle sesame oil or ghee.

13. Cook by gently pressing the poli with ladle so that golden spots appear. Repeat to finish and stack the poli.

Notes

• The mashed sweet potato I took  gave exactly one cup, when mashed. So use this a guidance. 
• Since we use oil, you may be getting a non sticky dough with little water itself, but make sure to add more water to make a loose dough, not a dough like the regular chapati dough, this should be really soft and loose to handle. 
• You can use sesame oil as vegan option for ghee. 
• You can use half maida, half wheat flour too. 
• You can use more coconut or less, but increase or decrease jaggery as needed. 
• You can use sugar instead of jaggery.

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Double Roti ka Halwa recipe (Indian bread pudding/Bread Halwa) - diwali sweets and desserts

Double Roti ka Halwa recipe (Indian bread pudding/Bread Halwa)

Double ka Meeta

 Prep Time : 15 mins
 Cook Time : 20 mins
 Serves: 2
 Recipe Category: Dessert
 Recipe Cuisine: Indian-Hyderabad
 Author:kusuma

   Ingredients needed

   Bread - 9 slices
   Milk - 2 1/2 cups
   Sugar- 3/4 - 1 cup (as per your taste)
   Kesari color - a pinch (mix it with a little milk)
   Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp
   Oil for frying
   Ghee - 1 tbsp for frying nuts

   Nuts and dry fruits

   Raisins - 10
   Cashew nuts - few
   Pistachio - few
   Toasted almonds - few

Preparation

Remove the edges of the bread, cut it diagonally and sun dry it or air dry it (under the fan) so that it does not absorb much oil.

Deep fry the bread in oil until brown on low flames to prevent the bread from getting burnt. Keep it aside. Traditionally it is deep fried in ghee but I have used oil.

Fry raisins, cashew nuts in ghee separately. Keep it aside.

Boil milk and add kesari color to it.

Method

Take just enough water to soak the sugar. Add cardamom powder and boil the sugar water. Prepare sugar syrup. The sugar syrup should neither be thin nor thick.

Add the fried bread to the sugar syrup and cook for a few minutes.

Then add milk, simmer and cook uncovered till it reaches a semi solid state. It should not be dry.

Garnish with cashew nuts, pistachio, raisins and toasted almonds.

Enjoy it warm or cold as it tastes great both ways. I prefer to have it warm.

Note - Both the milk and the sugar syrup should not be hot as there are chances of the milk curdling. So make sure, the milk is at room temperature while adding to the sugar syrup or the sugar syrup should be at room temperature.

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Apple halwa | how to make apple halwa | diwali sweets

 Apple Halwa is a scrumptious dessert. We all know a famous saying "An Apple a day keeps Doctor Away". Such a nutrition rich fruit is apple. But I have seen many kids running away from it. So this dish is one way of making the kids eat Apple. I wont say that this is a healthier way to eat apple, but instead of fully ignoring apples, we could try this way of including apples atleast once in a while. This Apple Halwa is absolutely calorie rich dish only. I would strongly suggest to make this dish for the kids!!! Now... Lets see how to make this yummy and tasty Apple Halwa.
Apple Halwa, tastes much similar to our famous and popular "Irutukadai Halwa " (Tirnunelveli Halwa / Wheat Halwa). The texture, color and taste are much similar to Tirunelveli Halwa.  . So, if you plan to surprise your family and friends with a yummy dessert, you should plan to make this delicious halwa.

Preparation and Yield:
Preparation time 10 mins
Cooking Time 40 mins
Yield 200gms

Ingredients:
Apple 3
Sugar 1 Cup*
Cardamom Powder 1/4 teaspoon
Orange Food Color a Pinch
Ghee 2 tablespoon
Cashew nuts 5-6
Almonds 5

* 1 Cup = 250ml

Method:
Wash and peel the apples and chop it into small cubes. Soak it in water to avoid decolouring. Add the apple pieces to the mixer and grind it to a nice and smooth paste

Heat a teaspoon of ghee in a pan and add broken cashews and almonds and fry till they are slightly golden brown color. Take these out and set it aside. To the pan, now add the ground apple pulp and saute it in ghee

Keep stirring the apple pulp till the water is absorbed. Then add sugar to the pan. Adding sugar again dilutes the apple halwa. Keep stirring to avoid halwa getting burnt.

Add food color and mix well. Then add cardamom powder also and continue stirring the halwa

Add rest of the ghee and keep stirring, till the halwa becomes thick and starts to roll like a ball without sticking to the sides of the pan. Finally add roasted cashews and almonds and mix well. Switch off the flame and keep stirring the halwa for couple more minutes.

Mouth-watering Apple halwa is now ready to serve!

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dates and nut ladoo | diwali sweets

Dates Ladoo, a very healthy dry fruits and nuts ladoo. Sometimes many of our kids even the grown ups, show no interest to nuts and dry fruits which are very healthy for us. Consuming dry fruits especially dates, raisins are very good for blood circulation and has other medical benefits too. Also nuts such as almonds, walnuts are also good for health.

Here I have given a very simple and healthy ladoo recipe with dates and other nuts and raisins. We are not going to add any sweetener and also not going to add more ghee/butter to prepare this yummy ladoo and hence making it a healthier recipe.


Preparation Time 5 mins
Cooking Time 10 mins
Yield 12-15

Ingredients:

Dates 1 Cup **
Raisins 2 tablespoon
Mixed nuts * 2 tablespoon
Dry Coconut 1/4 Cup
Vanilla Essence 1/2 teaspoon
Ghee 1 tablespoon


** 1 Cup = 250ml
* Mixed Nuts - I have added peanuts, almonds, hazelnuts and some walnuts

Method:

We can use store bought seedless dates. I bought the  dates with seeds, hence I need to  de-seed them. Take half of the deseed dates in the mixer

Grind the dates in the mixer to a coarse mixture. Take the ground dates in a bowl along with rest of the whole dates. Heat a pan and add the dry nuts and roast them for 2 minutes.

Take the roasted nuts to the mixer and give a single pulse and crumble them. Add the crumbled nuts, dry coconut and ghee in a bowl.

Add vanilla essence and mix well to make like a dough. Make small lemon sized balls out of the dates dough and keep it in plate.

The yummy and healthy Dates Ladoos are ready to munch!!!
Dates Ladoo

Dates Ladoo

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Boondi Ladoo Recipe-Boondi Laddu-Boondi ka Ladoo for diwali

Boondi Ladoo Recipe-Boondi Laddu-Boondi ka Ladoo

Boondi Laddu is a delicious Indian sweet make for special occasions and for festivals like Diwali. Many people think that making laddu/ladoo at home is very difficult but it is not so. I have made the recipe very simpler with step by step cooking instructions and pictures. These home made laddus make excellent gifts for Diwali for your friends and dear ones. Today let us learn how to make Boondi Laddu using this easy boondi laddu recipe-

Boondi Ladoo-Boondi Laddu
 Prep Time : 20 mins
 Cook Time : 50 mins
 Yields: 47 Laddus
 Recipe Category: Indian Sweet-Diwali Recipes
 Recipe Cuisine: South Indian
 Author:kusuma

   Ingredients needed

   Kadalai mavu /Bengal gram flour - 1/2 kg (500 grams)
   Rice flour - 1/4 cup
   Cooking soda - 1/4 tsp and a pinch
   Lemon Yellow food color - a pinch
   Ghee - 1 1/2 tbsp

   For the sugar syrup

   Sugar - 3/4 kg ( 750 grams )
   Water - 2 cups
   Milk - 1/4 cup to remove impurities from sugar

   Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp
   Pachai karpuram/Edible camphor- a generous pinch
   Cashew nuts -25 grams (break it )
   Raisins -50 grams
   Cloves - 5-6


Preparation

Sieve both bengal gram flour and rice flour separately.

Fry cashew nuts, raisin and cloves in ghee separately and keep it aside.

Method

First you have to prepare the sugar syrup and keep it ready.

How to make sugar syrup for boondi laddu

Take a pan, add water and sugar, mix well first. Then bring it to boil.

Add 1/4 cup of milk to it, all the impurities in sugar will come to the surface. Remove it with a ladle.

Boil sugar syrup till you get a one string consistency.

How to find one string consistency?

1.When you pour a little sugar syrup in a cup filled with little water, it should not dissolve.

2.When you touch it between your index finger and thumb and pull it apart, it should form a string.

3.Or just lift the ladle from the sugar syrup and wait for a few seconds- it will form a string. (in the pic above- the string is not clear but hold the ladle like that and see if it forms a string - that is right stage). Switch off the flame.

Add cardamom powder, pachai karpuram, fried cashew nuts, raisins and cloves to the sugar syrup.

For Making boondi

I have already made a detailed post on how to make Kara boondi. The method is the same but the measurements are different.

Boondi laddu recipe
Mix both bengal gram flour and rice flour, add cooking soda and a pinch of yellow color.

Add water and make a batter. I added around 2 cups + 1/3 cup of water and it was perfect for me. You add water little by little carefully to get the batter consistency (see picture above). It should neither be too thin nor thick.

Heat oil and pour a little batter on the boondi ladle and gently tap it. Tiny droplets of batter will fall into the hot oil. Fry till golden brown. Keep aside. Note - Do not fry it too crisp as for South Indian mixture or kara boondi. Remove it from oil a stage before that.

Repeat the process for the rest of the batter.

After the boondi cools a little, add half of it to the sugar syrup.

Laddu recipe
Put the rest of the boondi in a blender and grind it a little. Take a small mixie jar and blend it little by little only for a few seconds. (Do not make it a paste- see the second picture above)

Now add this also to the sugar syrup. Mix both well together.

Making of laddu/ladoo

boondi ka ladoo
Add a tbsp of ghee and make balls out of it. Yummm…. !!!!!!!! Boondi Laddus are ready.

Enjoy your Diwali by making these yummy laddus and also parcel it beautifully and gift to your near and dear ones.

sweets

chocolate fudge receipe for choclate lovers

Chocolate Recipe-No cook Chocolate Fudge Recipe

This is a very easy no cook chocolate (fudge) with nuts and raisins, which even kids can prepare with a little supervision. You can involve your kids this Christmas to make these delicious no cook chocolate and I am sure they will enjoy it to the core.Today we will learn how to make no cook chocolate fudge following our easy no cook chocolate recipe

 Prep Time : 10 mins
 Yields: 15-16 Chocolates
 Recipe Category: No bake Recipes-Chocolate
 Recipe Cuisine: Indian
 Author:kusuma

   Ingredients needed

   Marie Biscuit - 15
   Cashew nuts - 1/4 cup (chopped)
   Raisins - little less than 1/4 cup
   Cocoa Powder - 1 tbsp
   Unsalted Butter - 1 1/2 tbsp (melt it over a bowl of hot water)
   Condensed milk -2 1/2 tbsp
   Sugar -2 tsp
   Milk -1 tbsp (optional)
   Vanilla essence - 1 tsp

Step by step Pictorial recipe

Keep all the ingredients ready. Break the biscuits and powder it coarsely in a blender.

How to make chocolate fudge
Add Cashew nuts and raisins, sugar and vanilla essence.

no cook chocolate recipe
Add cocoa powder, condensed milk and melted butter.

How to prepare chocolate fudge
Make a dough just like chapati dough and shape it into a cylinder. If you are not able to make a smooth dough, you can add little milk, otherwise it is not needed. Wrap it tightly in a butter paper and keep it in the refrigerator for 1 1/2 hours. (not in the freezer)

easy chocolate fudge recipe
After 1 1/2 hours, remove the butter paper and cut the chocolate into rounds as shown above.

Enjoy this Christmas 2016 making this easy chocolate recipe with your kids. Have fun!

I will soon post another chocolate recipe which involves cooking. Stay tuned.

Meet you all again with more interesting recipes, till then, it is bye

click here for more healthy receipes

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