Mysore Pak - Ghee Mysore Pak - Diwali Sweets - Easy Foolproof Recipe

Mysore Pak is a very popular South Indian Sweet made with Chickpea Flour. It just has 3 ingredients - Chickpea Flour, Sugar and Ghee. Growing up I always saw my mum make mysore pak with such ease that I thought it was the easiest sweet ever. When I first moved out of my house for work, I made Mysore Pak for my first Diwali. I had my mom on phone all the while :-)



There are 2 kinds of Mysore Pak. One is called the Ghee Mysore Pak which as the name suggests will be soft and dripping with Ghee. The other kind is the Porous Mysore Pak also called Honeycomb Mysore Pak. It has a beautiful porous texture cause of the tiny air bubbles trapped inside. There is no argument as to which one is better. There are people who love both. I will post recipe for Porous kind some other day.



Now coming to this Mysore Pak recipe. Most people find making mysore pak very daunting. You have to know about the 1 string, multi string etc. (need to know more about what it is, read here). This recipe calls for none of that. I learned it a few years ago from a colleague's wife. I have been making it this way for years now and never had a bad lot.



Ingredients (Makes 16 pieces)

Chickpea flour (Besan) 1 Cup
Sugar 1.5 Cups
Ghee 1 Cup (Use upto 2 cups if you like. for me 1 was good enough. i have made with 2 cups and it will be wet with ghee and awesome. you can try that as well sometime!)

Method of Preparation

1. Melt the ghee in a pan and keep it warm and ready. Grease a 7*7 square cake tin (or any plate) ready.

2. Sieve the chickpea flour well. In a heavy bottomed pan, add the besan and roast it till the raw smell is gone. It will take around 3-5 min. Keep aside in a bowl.

3. Add 1/2 cup of ghee to the besan. Mix well till there are no lumps. You can optionally cool the besan and then sieve it one more time before adding ghee.

4. In the same pan, wipe with a cloth and add the sugar along with 3/4 cup of water. Mix well.

5. Let the sugar mix come to a rolling boil. Switch off.

6. Add the besan-ghee mix to the sugar and mix well.

7. Put the mix back on the stove and start stirring.

8. Add the rest of the ghee a little at a time mixing well. Cook in a medium low flame.

9. Mix till the whole thing starts to come together. If you work your spatula thru the middle of the pan, you can see the line clearly before the sweet joins up together. :-) It will start to collect at the base and change colour.

10. That is your cue. Pour the sweet into the greased plate. It will be quite liquid like at this stage. Don't worry. It will set.

11. After about 10-15 min, cut the pieces (draw lines). Do not separate or try to take it out of the plate.

12. Once it is completely cooled, take the pieces out.

Store in an airtight container. Enjoy!

Carrot Kosambari - Carrot and Moong Dal Salad

I had not tasted Kosambari until a friend of mine made it for our get together. I would never have made it cause of the raw moong dal in it. But after tasting what she made, I wanted to make it. But completely forgot about it. When Kalyani announced Magic Mingle with Moong Dal and Pepper, I decided to give this a shot. Usually Green Chillies are used to spice this dish. The problem with using green chillies in salads is that my little one will decide it is spicy. Mind you, he eats a lot of spicy dishes if he likes it. So the pepper was an excellent idea to add some spice to it without him complaining and it goes well with our Magic Mingle theme as well.



Ingredients

Carrots Shredded 1.5 cups
Split Yellow Moong Dal 1/4 cup
Pepper Powder 1/4 tsp
Lemon Juice 1 tsp
Coriander Leaves to garnish
Salt to taste

Method of Preparation

1. Soak the Moong Dal for atleast 1 hour. Drain and add to the bowl.

2. Grate carrots and add to the bowl.

3. Add pepper powder, lemon juice, salt and coriander leaves. Mix well and serve

Linking this to Magic Mingle #7
Linking this to Show me your hits - lentils and legumes. Event by Sangee, hosted by Nalini

Bisi Bela Bath

Bisi Bela Bath is one of our family favourites. As I have told you guys before, we are both from South India. But we eat rotis almost everyday. Weekends are mostly the only time I make rice.



I can now imagine the life of a farmer. How he looks forward to the rain. How those poor guys after plowing the fields, sowing the seeds waiting for the sun. Can you imagine the guy squatting on the floor looking up at the sky?

Now just replace the image of that farmer with that of  an urban girl. Squatting in her garden looking up at the sky with a plate of food. The sun was there a little bit as I was finishing my dish. When I was done, he was no where to be seen. Sigh! The long wait begins. My son was sure his amma has lost her mind. He kept asking - Are you ok Amma? Enna Panra? (What are you doing?). But the wait paid off.... I did get a peak of sun for a minute or two.

I think not getting enough sunshine is my biggest gripe about living in UK.

Now off to the recipe

Ingredients

Rice 1.5 cups
Toor Dal 3/4 cup
Potato 1
Carrots 2
Shallots 10-15

Coriander Seeds 1.5 tbsp
Fenugreek seeds 1/2 tsp
Red Chilli 2
Coconut 3/4 cup

Mustard 1/2 tsp
Curry Leaves few

Tamarind 1/2 tsp
Sambar Powder 1 tsp
Hing a little





Method of Preparation

1. Cook the rice with water in the ratio 1:3.

2. Cook the toor dal also separately with water in the ratio 1:3

3. Cut the carrots and potatoes.

4. Heat oil in a big pot. Add some mustard. When it sputters, add some curry leaves.

5. The add the carrots, potatoes and shallots. Saute for a little bit and then add some water and salt. Let the vegetables cook.

6. In the mean time, heat a small pan. Add the coriander seeds, fenugreek seeds and red chilli. Saute till they start to brown. Add to a mixie.

7. Add the coconut to the pan and saute till it turns reddish brown. I use non stick pan for this roasting. Otherwise the coconut will stick to the pan.

8. Add the coconut as well to the mixie and powder well.

9. Once the vegetables, rice and dal are cooked, it is mixing time. Add the tamarind paste and the roasted powder to the vegetable pot. Mix well.

10. Add the rice and toor dal along with any remaining water to the pot. Mix well.  You can add some ghee as well at this stage if you prefer.

Serve with Vegetables of your choice or enjoy as is with some chips or vadam.






Linking this to Kerala Kitchen Event hosted by Ramya

Set Dosa

Set Dosa is a kind of thick spongy dosa. It is one of my fav dosas. I like to eat these dosas with Kerala Chammandi or with spicy curries like kurma or kadala curry.

I have never made it before and tried to make it for the first time. I tried the combination I found on the internet. The dosa did come out well, it was spongy as well. The only issue was, it kind was difficult to turn (it stuck to the pan). Set dosas are not supposed to get crisp. If I allowed it to get crisp, these did come off the pan easily.

In hotels it is always served as a set of dosas and hence the name. :-)



Ingredients

Idli Rice 3 cups
Urad dal 1/4 cup
Poha 1 cup
Fenugreek seeds 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Baking soda 1/4 tsp

Method of Preparation

1. Soak the rice and dal along with the fenugreek seeds for 5 hours.

2. Soak the poha for 2 hours separately.

3. Drain the water and Grind all of them together in a grinder adding water as required. Do not add too much water.

4. Once done, add salt and baking soda and mix well.

5. Let it ferment for 12-24 hours. It takes longer here as it is very cold in winter.

6. To make dosa, pour in a pan and gently spread. Do not flatten it too much. Do not go in circles like you would for normal dosa.

7. Cook on one side. Do not let it roast ( or become crispy). Bubbles will form on the dosa.

8. Turn and cook the other side for a few seconds.

Serve with chutney of your choice or side dish.





Linking this to Lets Cook - Rice event hosted by Radhika