Kadalaiparuppu Payasam

It is a traditional south indian sweet dish.

Ingredients:

1. Kadalaiparuppu.(channa dhal)       -half a cup
2. Pasiparuppu(moong dhal)              - 1 cup
3. Vellam(jaggery)                               - half a kg
4. Coconut  scrap                                - 2 tbsp
5. Elachi powder(cardomom powder) - 1 tbsp
6. Cashew nuts,Raisins                       - few
7. Ghee                                                 - 2 tbsps

Cooking Method:

1. Take both the dals and fry in a thick bottomed vessel or khadai till it doesn’t smell raw,do not add any gee or oil while frying. Just fry well .
2. Now pressure cook fried dhals by adding water. For 1 cup dhal,3 ½ water for pressure cooking.
3. Pressure cook well up to 4 whistles.
4. Now take thick bottomed vessel,add jaggery ,puor 1 cup water on it,place it on the stove.Keep it in a low flame,stir well till the jaggery melts.A foam like thing will appear in the jaggery pulp.Now add cooked dhal to the molten jaggery.
5. COOk well till the jaggery and dhal blend together.
6. Now add smoothly ground coconut paste and let it also blend together with dal and jaggery.
7. Now take a small khadai,put some ghee then add few raisins,cashew nuts,fry till they turn golden  and add to the payasam.
8. powder cardomom seeds and add to give aroma.
9. serve hot or cold.
10. TIPS: Instead of coconut scrap paste ,we can also add coconut milk.

Adai

"Adai" is a very good food. It is made out of soaked pulses. It is rich in protein.

The proportion to soak dal varaities for adai is as follows:
1. Boiled Rice- 2 cups
2.Channa dal  - 1 cup
3.Thoor dal    - 1/2 cup
4. Urad dal      -  1 tablespoon full.

ALL THE CUPS SHOULD BE IN SAME SIZE.

Soak all the above said items for 3hours. Grind all the dals and rice with red chillies or green chillies. Salt to taste.

METHOD
1 Take a thick bottomed tava, heat it; apply cooking oil on the tava and spread evenly.
2 Take a big spoon full of adai batter , spread evenly in the tava, put few drops of oil and roast well on both the sides .
3.Serve hot with coconut chutney / jaggery/ butter.

Chakkarai Pongal a.k.a Sweet Pongal a.k.a Sakkarai Pongal

Let us Start Sweet and make a simple Delicious Sweet Pongal.

Needed Ingredients:

Raw Rice 200 grams

Moong Dhal (Dhal means the split bean variety) 50 grams(general ratio of 4 measures of rice and 1 measure of Dhal can be tried),

Jaggery 350grams(you can get other names for Jaggery in the link).

Ghee 150grams

Cashew 50grams

Cardamom Powder 2 tablespoons

Method:

Separately and Slightly Roast Rice and Moong Dhal in a dry Kadai(thick bottomed vessel) and mix both.

Add 4 measures of water(relative to the rice measure) to the Roasted-Rice-and-Dhal mixture and pressure cook(if you are used to the number of pressure cooker sounds, leave for 6 sounds). Leave it till pressure subsides. Follow the next step only when this is ready.

Take Jaggery and break into small pieces. Keep your stove on low flame. Take another Kadai(thick bottomed vessel preferably a large volume one) and put Jaggery and pour half measure of water to it and boil it. When you see the froth on the Jaggery syrup, switch off the stove.  You can filter the Jaggery syrup for contaminants depending on the Jaggery.

Take the cooked mixture of Rice-and-Dhal and Smash it well using a Karandi(Large suitable Spoon). Now get the Kadai with the Jaggery syrup back on low-flamed stove and add the smashed Rice-Dhal mixture slowly and mix it well.  Add Ghee slowly while you do the mixing. Add the cardamom powder to the mixture.

Use another small vessel and get the Cashews Roasted in 2 spoonfuls of Ghee. You can add this to the Rice-Dhal-Jagerry mixture and mix well. Now let us start calling it Chakkarai Pongal or Sweet Pongal made by us.

Ready to Serve, hot or cold, as such or with more toppings of Roasted Cashews.

Let me know if you have feedback/comments.