7 cup sweet

While at times you really wish to cook, there are times when you wish you could 'get away'. Diwali time is cooking time and this sweet will be your saviour when you 'have to' but you 'don't really want to'. You know those times when you want to present home-made sweets to your guests instead of store bought ones.

7 cups sweets is not all that easy, but comparatively it is very easy.

The name "7-cups" explains about the basic ingredients quantity - which is 7 cups; and that includes 3 cups of sugar. This make the sweet unbearably sweet and almost impossible to eat. (Atleast in my house!) So I have reduced the quantity of sugar and made it 2 cups; thereby changing the name of the sweet to "6 CUPS"!

Feel free to add 3 cups of sugar.

Ingredients:

Kadalamav / Besan / Chick pea flour - 1 cup

Coconut - 1 cup , grated fine

Ghee - 3/4 cup + 1/4 cup

Milk - 1 cup

Sugar - 2 cups (originally 3 cups)

Cardamom - 2 pods, powdered

Slivered Almonds for Garnish

Method:

Grease a thali / plate with sides with 1 tbsp ghee and keep aside.

Heat a heavy bottomed pan and add the besan.

Fry on a low flame till good smell comes , but be careful the colour of the powder does not change.

Now add the coconut and continue frying for 1 minute. If the coconut is very fresh, it might clump up with the besan as it might leave out it's oil. Not to worry, just sieve this besan -coconut clump through the wide holes of the sieve.

Now add the milk, cardamom powder and sugar. Mix well.

Place back on the fire and add 1/4 cup ghee.

Keep adding more ghee, keep stirring and keep cooking on a low-medium flame until the mixture gets cooked and starts leaving the side of the pan , or until a line drawn in the middle takes time to close in.

Now pour this hot sweet on the greased thali and pour 1 tbsp ghee on top. Using this ghee as the grease, flatten and leaven the top of the sweet.

Garnish with the almond slivers.

Press down these while still warm.

Cool a bit and cut into shape. 

Unmould on reaching room temperature.

Diwali marundu / Deepavali Lehyam / homemade medicine for digestion

ONLY on Diwali / Deepavali day are you forced to get up much before the sun rises (read 3 am) and eat a 'medicine' and not a sweet before having an oil bath!

This medicine or marundu or lehyam is made at home and tastes great initially, but seares the throat towards the end. But my grandmother and mother-in-law would rather swear by it than Digene or any other digestive.
Made on a low fire with constant stirring, a large quantity is made in a cauldron and the house gets a pharmacy smell. It is packed away for travelling bachelors and is given as a quick remedy to any one with digestion problems. Newly delivered mothers are given evil, sadistically large balls as 'gumman' (local name for the gas monster) which has entered the empty womb, needs to be thrown out.

This medicine is not made in my household anymore, but after reading an article, I got reminded of it and my old recipe book + mother-in-law's brain and some vague memories of my grandmom's recipe from my aunts helped me revive this dying medicine. All the usual anti-gas home remedial stuff (ginger, omam / ayamodakam/ ajwain, jeera) are used to make this.
I would ask all of you to make this and keep it stored.
Hope my children don't hate me for making them eat this on an empty stomach this early on Diwali morning!
But if they want to eat all those sweets and deep-fried stuff, they better have this!

P.S. - If you have very young kids at home, you can add a little honey before feeding them.

Ingredients:
Fresh Young Ginger - 1 cup
Jaggery - nearly 3/4 cup
Cloves - 11
Cinnamon stick - 1 1/2 inch
Jeera - 1/2 tsp
Pepper - 1 tsp
Cardamom - 2
Ayamodakam / Omam / ajwain - 1 tbsp
Ghee - 2 tsp (optional)

Method:
Dry fry all the spices in a hot pan for a minute and cool to room temperature.
Now powder this and add the ginger.
Grind into a smooth paste.
Measure the ground quantity and take 75% of this quantity jaggery. (Meaning, I got 1 cup of ground spices, so I used 3/4 cup.)
Melt the jaggery in little water and sieve to remove all the dirt.
Into this add the ground spices and start cooking on a low flame.
In the beginning you will not have to stir much, but after it thickens, the stirring has to be continuous.
Once it cooks down to a thick paste, you may add the ghee if you wish.
Heat through and mix well.
Cool and store in a glass vessel / bharani.

Youtube video link: https://youtu.be/n7vRsWSdsMM

Pictorial:

Dry fry the spices

Powder the spices

Powdered spices

Add the fresh ginger. Use young ones, which have lesser fibre.

Finely ground spice paste

After adding the spice mix to the jaggery syrup

45 minutes later, it has thickened enough to add ghee.

How it looks on Diwali day!

Butter Murukku / Crispy rice flour savory

Diwali time is high calorie time.
Sweets and savouries are churned out of the kitchen in kilos. Buying from outside is scorned upon. But I am guilty of this until recently. This year I am going to recreate my mother's and mother-in-law's recipes here for you to try.
And trust me, I am NOT going to go overboard and do something tough.

Butter murukku is a so crispy - it melts in the mouth!!

Ingredients:
White Rice flour - 1 cup
(find how to make this below)
Besan / kadala mav / chick pea flour - 1/4 cup
Pottu kadala / Roasted gram dal - little more than 1/4 cup
(find how to make this below)
Butter - 1 heaped tablespoon
Salt - 1 tsp
(if you have used salted butter, omit or use less)
Jeera - 1 tsp
Asafoetida powder / kayam - 1 1/2 tsp
Oil for deep frying

Method for preparing rice flour:
Wash and soak the rice in water for 10 minutes.
Spread the drained rice on a clean white cotton towel and place under the fan for 10 minutes.
Powder well and sieve through the smallest hole of your arippai / chalni.
Powder and keep sieving until all the rice gets used up.
Throw away the non-fine particles.
Heat a heavy bottomed vessel and add the flour to this.
Stir for 2 minutes and turn off flame.
Keep stirring till the vessel reaches room temperature.
Measure 1 cup of rice flour for this recipe.

Method to make Pottu kadala flour:

(image source : google images)

Dry roast the pottu kadala in a heavy bottomed vessel on a low flame till it gets heated through , but does not lose colour.
Cool, powder and sieve.
Use 1/4 cup of this in this recipe.

Method to make Butter murukku:
Mix together the rice flour, kadalamav, pottu kadala flour, salt, jeera, asafoetida.
Add the butter and using your fingers, mix it in well.

Now add enough water (by the tablespoon) to make a dough which is nether too thick, but surely not loose.

Use any shape you desire in your press to shape your dough. (I used the star shape.)

Heat oil and once it heats up, but is not TOO hot, deep fry in batches.
The dough will fall in broken pieces into the hot oil.
Do not disturb for a minute and then flip it.

Keep the oil temperature low or the murukku will get brown on the outside, but will remain uncooked inside.
The trick is to maintain the oil temperature at a constant.
Notice how the bubbling stops?
That is your signal to remove the murukku from the oil.
Cool and store in an air tight container.

Akaaravadisil / Kalkanda saadam

Rice and dal cooked in milk and sweetened with sugar candy.

Recipe source : My athai / aunt, Mrs. Jaya Vaidyanathan.

Ingredients:

Rice - 1 cup

Cheruparippu / green gram dal - 1/8th cup

Milk - 3 cups + 1 cup

Kalkandam / sugar candy - 2 cups

Ghee - 1/2 cup

Cashew nuts - 10 to 15

Saffron - 1 pinch

Cardamom powder - 4, powdered

Method:

Fry the rice in a hot thick bottomed pan for 1 minute. Keep aside.

Fry the dal in the same pan till good smell comes. Add to the rice.

Now wash these 2 together and soak in water for 10- 15 minutes.

Pressure cook the drained rice - dal with 3 cups of milk for 5 whistles.

Please ensure that you take a deep vessel and fill only half way up and place this vessel covered inside the cooker. The milk will spill out otherwise.

When the pressure releases, check to see if the rice and dal are cooked well. Mash with a ladle. 

Add more milk and make it a thick pudding consistency.

Keep it back on the stove and bring to a boil.

Add the sugar candy and mix well.

Once the sugar melts, add the saffron and elaichi powder.

Mix well and turn off  flame.

Fry the cashewnuts in the ghee and add to the sweetened rice.

Kadamba rice / Sambar Rice

Kadamba rice is sambar rice , but not bisi bela bath. This is served in temples during navartri as prasadam. therefore, no onions are added, no garam masala items are used. The rice is cooked separately as is the sambar and then both are mixed together.

The sambar used in this recipe is the similar to the one I had posted earlier, with just a few differences. I have noted down the recipe of the temple sambar below. The smell and taste of the temple sambar is purely heavenly!

Ingredients for making 1-1/2 cups of kadamba rice:

Kovil / temple Sambar (find recipe below) - 1 cup
Cooked Rice - 3/4 cup
Ghee - 2 tbsp
Til oil - 1 tsp
Asafoetida powder - 1 pinch
Chundakka (dried) / thai brinjal - 6

 Fresh Chundakka /thai brinjal. We sun dry this and store for later use.

Method:
Mix the rice with the sambar.
Heat the ghee and fry the chundakka in it.
Add this to the mixed rice.
Next heat the til oil and once it heats up, turn off flame and add the asafoetida powder.
Add this also to the rice and mix well.
Your Kadamba rice is ready.

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Method of making kovil / temple Sambar:

Ingredients:

Vegetables - 3 cups

(The vegetables used are VERY regional. Pumpkin, ash gourd / cooking cucumber, brinjal, ladies finger, drumstick, roots like colacasia (chembu / cheppamkizhangu), sweet potato and some greens like amarakka (lima beans / mocchai) are only used. No carrot, onion, radish, potato.)

Green chilly - 1 slit 

(sambar vegetables traditionally used in temples)

(amarakka/ mochai. Pic courtesy: google images)

Tamarind - goose berry size, soaked in warm water and pulped

Salt to taste

Turmeric powder - 1 tsp

Asafoetida - 1 tbsp

Tur dal boiled and mashed - 1 cup

Jaggery - 1 tbsp

oil - 1 tbsp

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Curry leaf - 1 sprig

Sambar powder masala ingredients:

Coriander seeds - 2 tbsp

Channa dal - 3/4 tbsp

Dry Red chilly - 4 or 5

Methi / uluva - 1 tsp

Coconut - 2 tbsp

Fry the spices together without oil, turn off the stove and add the coconut. Stir till the vessel cools. 

Grind this into a smooth paste.

Before frying and adding coconut.

Method:
Start by boiling the roots till they get half cooked. Next add the pumpkin and ash gourd / cooking cumber with the drum stick.
Once these get half cooked, add the tamarind pulp, salt, turmeric powder, asafoetida powder, slit green chilly, brinjal and ladies finger.
When all the vegetables get cooked, add the tur dal and give a boil.
Add the spice / sambar paste and jaggery.
After boiling on low flame for 2 minutes, splutter the mustard in oil and add this to the sambar with the curry leaf.

Curd Rice / Thayir Saadam

Curd Rice or Thayir saadam is eponymous with Tamil Brahmins. Infact, I have been called this name a lot at school.

It is a brilliantly easy recipe which is great to take along while travelling. Light on the stomach and great for health. Cooling and satiating.
Serve curd rice with any pickle, preferably Kanni manga pickle / mavudu and any journey will become easier.

Tender mango pickle

I will write down the basic recipe. 

The additions you can do are mind boggling - fruits like Pomegranate, Grapes; fried dried vegetables like thayir milagai / curd chilly; fresh vegetables like cucumber, ginger, green chilly, carrot, coriander leaf; dry fruits like cashew, raisins. 

Basic Ingredients:

Rice - 1 cup, cooked

Curd - 2 cups + (not too sour)

Salt

Oil (preferably coconut / vegetable / sunflower) - 1 tbsp

Mustard - 1 tsp

Urad dal - 1 tsp

Asafoetida powder - 1 pinch

Curry leaf - 1 sprig

Method:

Mix the rice, salt and curd together either by hand or use a hand mixer. 

If you want the rice to be loose, add more curd. If your curd is sour, add milk.

If you plan to have your curd rice later, then depending on the temperature you are storing the mixed rice in, you can mix the rice with varying ratio of milk and curd. (a mixture of more milk, less curd for lightly sour curd rice 6 hours into the journey). This way, the rice will not taste over-sour.

Splutter the mustard in the oil and then add the urad dal.

Once the dal turns golden brown, add the curry leaf and asafoetida powder.

Add it to the mixed rice.

Garnish with any of the above mentioned additions, if you wish. Tastes great like this too.

Curd rice garnished with coriander leaves, cucumber and fried curd chilly

Chakkarai Pongal / Sweet Pongal / Sweetened rice

There is a festival called Pongal. So need I say how important this dish is to the Tamils?
During Navrathri, Tamil Iyers - Iyengars serve Goddess Mother, this sweet dish made with Jaggery and rice. It is wholesome as it has rice, dal and ghee. It is very famous in Tamil Nadu. The savory variety of this dish is called Ven Pongal.

Ingredients:
Rice - 1/2 cup
Pasiparippu / cheru parippu / green gram dal - 1/8 cup
Jaggery - 1 cup
Ghee - 1/4 cup
Cashewnuts - 10
Raisins / dried grapes - 1 tbsp
Cardamom - 2 pods, powdered

Method:
Heat the rice for a minute in a hot pan and keep aside.
Fry the dal in the same pan on low heat till good smell comes.
Now mix the rice and dal together and wash well.

Cook in a pressure cooker with 2 cups of water for 7 whistles.

Boil the jaggery in 1 cup water and strain to remove impurities.
Boil the strained jaggery for 2-3 minutes.
Mash the cooked rice and dal and add this to the jaggery.

Mix well and bring to a boil.
The mixture should be loose and jiggly like a jelly. Add more water , if necessary.
Take half of the ghee and fry raisins in it.
Add this to the pongal.
In the rest of the ghee, fry the cashewnuts till golden brwon and add to the pongal.
Also add the cardamom powder.
Mix well and serve hot.

Note:
Since my family has settled down in Kerala for centuries (I am the 14th generation), we have a bit of Kerala influence in our cooking. Therefore coconut finds a way into most of the dishes. In this recipe, my mother-in-law adds coconut (4 tsp) to the boiling jaggery, before adding the rice to it. This is NOT there in the original Pongal recipe. Just what we do at home.