Coconut Rice

Hello Readers,
Hope you all had a great Diwali! Sorry for not being able to post any sweet recipes. I had been busy with some other commitments for the past few days.

Here's a simple rice recipe perfect for lunch box.

Ingredients:
Fresh or frozen grated coconut - 1/2 cup
Cooked Basmati rice - 3 cups
Salt as needed
Hing - a pinch
Cooking Oil - 1 tbsp
Coconut oil - 1 tsp
Ghee - 1 tsp
Red chilli - 1
Roasted peanuts - handful
Green chilli - 1
Mutard seeds - 1 tsp
Urud dal - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - a few
Coriander leaves - to garnish

Method:
Heat oil (regular oil and coconut oil) in a pan. Add mustard seeds, urud dal, hing, red chilli, green chilli, curry leaves. When mustard seeds crackle, add coconut and fry on low flame for 5-7 min.
Add cooked rice, salt, roasted peanuts and ghee.
Mix well and garnish with coriander leaves.
Serve with pappad/yogurt or avial.

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.

Mixed Fruit and Vegetable Halwa

This halwa turned out delicious! Try this for Diwali. I hope to post more sweet recipes in the next few days.

Ingredients:
Mixed vegetables and fruits (Pumpkin, Sweet potato, Carrot, Apple, Dates) - 2 cups
Sugar - as needed
Cardamom - 3 crushed
Roasted cashews - 10
Milk - 1 to 1.5 cups
Ghee - 3 tbsp
Saffron - a few strands

Method:
Peel the skin of pumpkin (pooshanikai), sweet potato, apple and carrot. Grate and set aside. Chop dates (about 4) into small pieces.
Heat 1 tbsp ghee in a pan. Roast Cashews and set aside.
In the same pan, add grated vegetables and fruits. Fry for 5 minutes. Add milk, saffron, crushed cardamom and cook till the milk is absorbed and the mixture turns soft. Add some more milk if the mixture turns out dry and needs to be cooked for some more time.
Add sugar and some more ghee and simmer for 10 min.  
Garnish with roasted cashews and serve warm.

Note: You can adjust the quantity of each veggie and fruit as per your taste and liking.