Peni (Crispy Noodles Soaked in Badam Milk)

Satisfy your sweet cravings with this delicious Peni in 5 minutes! This is usually served in weddings.
Peni is available readymade in stores which makes this dish super easy to prepare.

Serves 1

Ingredients:
Haldirams Peni/Pheni/Feni - 1
1/2 cup Badam Milk
Saffron and pistachios to garnish

Method:
For badam milk, mix 1/2 cup milk, 2 tsp MTR Badam milk powder, 1-2 tsp sweetened condensed milk, saffron and heat for 5 minutes.
Take one piece of peni in a bowl, pour the warm badam milk and garnish with pistachios or sliced almonds.
Your dessert is ready in 5 minutes!

Aval Puttu (Poha Sweet)

I love puttu. But I have never tried making it because I don't have a puttu maker. I tried with poha and it tasted just like regular puttu. This is a great evening snack for kids.

Ingredients:
Thick Poha - 1 cup
Jaggery - 1/3 to 1/2 cup
Cardamom - 3
Cashews - a few
Coconut - 1/4 cup
Ghee - 3 tsp

Method:
Dry grind poha in a mixer to a coarse powder.
Heat ghee in a pan, roast cashews to golden brown.
Add poha powder, crushed cardamom and fry on low flame for 5 minutes.
Add frozen or fresh grated coconut and fry for couple of minutes.
In another pan, add jaggery pieces and little water just enough to wet the jaggery and boil till it dissolves completely in water.
Add this syrup and mix well.
Take half cup of water in a bowl and sprinkle little by little and keep stirring until poha is fully cooked.
Do not add all the water at once as the mixture will turn mushy. Adjust the quantity of water to get the right consistency.
It takes about 10 minutes for poha to get cooked and soft.
Adding coconut is optional.

Nombu Kozhakattai (Steamed Rice/jaggery balls)

This kozhakattai is made on a special occasion called - "nombu". If you are interested in knowing more about this festival, click here.



Ingredients:

Rice flour - 1 cup
Jaggery - 1/2 cup
Cardamom - 1/4 tsp
Coconut - 1/4 cup
Water - 1 tbsp

Method:

Step 1: Dry roast rice flour on medium flame till it turns light golden color. Stir continuously so that it doesn't burn. Allow it to cool.



Step 2: Add fresh grated coconut and cardamom



Step 3: Add very little water (1 or 2 tbsp) to jaggery and heat till it melts (about 5 minutes). Filter the syrup and allow it to cool.



Step 4: Add this syrup to the rice flour/coconut mixture and make a soft dough.



Step 5: Grease your palm with ghee and make even sized balls and steam in pressure cooker for 10 to 12 minutes.



Enjoy it with some butter!

Dry Fruits Bar for "Show me your breakfast" event

I bought a pack of assorted dry fruits and nuts and thought of trying breakfast bars with it. It turned out very tasty.

Today's breakfast is Dry fruits bar, chopped strawberries and a glass of milk!

Ingredients:
Assorted dry fruits(cashews, almonds, walnuts, pistachio, hazel nuts, roasted chick peas, raisins, dry figs, dried apricots, banana chips, dried cranberries and/or any other nuts/dry fruits you like)-1 cup(approximately 1.5 tbs each dry fruit)
Dates(Seedless)-10
Cardamom-1/2 tsp

Method:
Blend all the ingredients together till the mixture becomes slightly wet from the natural oil present in the nuts. Shape them into bars.

Sending this to Show me your Breakfast! - July 10th event.

Sweet Appam

Ingredients:
Wheat flour-2 cups
Shredded Coconut - 1/2 cup
Jaggery - as required
Cardamom - a pinch
Rice flour- 2 tsp
Oil or ghee to shallow fry

Method:
Add little water to jaggery and heat for 5 minutes till jaggery dissolves in water. Mix in rest of the ingredients except oil/ghee to make a thick paste. The mixture should be thicker than dosa batter. Heat kuzhipaniyaram vessel with a drop of oil or ghee in each hole. Drop the mixture with laddle and drizzle oil on top and cook on both sides till golden brown.