The Best Of Samaithu Paar (11 page)

Fry cashewnuts in 2 tsp ghee till golden brown and keep aside. Powder the cardamom. Fry the semolina in 2 tbsp ghee till golden brown. Add 2½ to 3 cups of water (i.e., as much as necessary depending on the quality of the semolina used). Stir well and cook. When the semolina is soft and has thickened slightly, add the sugar. The mixture will turn watery on adding sugar and will thicken on further cooking. After it thickens, add the rest of the ghee. Cook till the halwa forms a ball and leaves the sides of the pan. Remove from fire. Add cardamom powder and borneal flakes. Mix saffron soaked in 1-2 tbsp milk. Serve hot.

Ingredients

Cashewnuts
7-8

Ghee
1-1½ cups

Green cardamoms
7-8

Semolina
2 cups

Water
2½-3 cups

Sugar
2½ cups

Borneal flakes
¼ tsp

Saffron
¼-½ tsp

To serve
4 persons

Soak wheat in 5-6 cups water overnight. Grind the next morning, adding water little by little. Squeeze out milk at least three times. Filter through a sieve. Allow to stand without disturbing and decant and discard the clear water that rises to the top.

Soak almonds and peel. Grind roughly. Break cashewnuts into bits and fry in a little ghee till they turn reddish brown. In a vessel, add 2 to 2½ cups of sugar and ½ to ¾ cup of water. Stir over heat till sugar has dissolved. Boil rapidly until the syrup attains thread consistency.

Add the ground almonds to the wheat milk. Pour into the sugar syrup and continue stirring. Dissolve saffron in 1 tsp milk. When the milk and sugar mixture begins to thicken, add the saffron to the halwa. Add the ghee, little by little. Add fried cashewnuts. Go on stirring till the halwa hardens and forms a ball, leaving the sides of the vessel. Add cardamom powder and borneal flakes and mix. Remove from fire and serve hot.

Ingredients

White (or round) wheat
2 cups

Almonds
(Shelled) 100 gms

Cashewnuts
30

Ghee
2 cups

Sugar
2-2½ cups

Saffron
½-¾ tsp

Green cardamom powder
½-1 tsp

Borneal flakes
¼-½ tsp

To serve
4 persons

To make mango pulp, take well-ripe mangoes that are sweet as well as slightly sour and fibreless. Peel and squeeze out enough mangoes to prepare 4 cups of pulp. Mix the pulp well till there are no lumps. Put the mango pulp in a wide mouth heavy (e.g., bronze) vessel and place on fire. Mash it well with a ladle and stir. As soon as the pulp starts boiling, add the sugar and stir continuously. Fry the cashewnuts (broken into bits) in a little ghee. Add the fried cashewnuts to the boiling mango pulp and stir.

When the mango pulp has become thick, add the ghee little by little, stirring continuously. When the halwa starts leaving the sides of the vessel, remove from fire. Powder the cardamoms. Add cardamom powder and borneal flakes and mix well. Pour the halwa on a greased plate and when it cools, cut into pieces and serve.

Ingredients

Mango pulp
4 cups

Sugar
2 cups

Cashewnuts
35 gms

Ghee
200 gms

Green cardamoms
8

Borneal flakes
A pinch

To serve
4 persons

Clean the rice and black gram dhal and soak together in 3-4 cups water for half an hour to 1 hour. Wash well. Grind into a paste. The paste should be somewhat rough. Take the rough paste, little by little, and grind once again till smooth, sprinkling a little water while grinding.

Mix the water and sugar. Heat to prepare syrup. When the syrup begins to boil, add the milk to remove the scum. When the syrup reaches thread consistency, add rose essence. Mix saffron. Remove from fire and keep aside.

Take a wide frying pan. Heat the ghee or vanaspati. Let it not smoke. Place a lump of the black gram dhal paste in a ‘jilebi ret’. Keep the dough in the middle. Gather the ends and press the dough through the hole, holding the cloth over the fat. Make a complete circle. Make scallops in the anti-clockwise direction over the first circle. Then make another circle and end at the starting point itself. Make four to five such jangiris at a time. Cook till golden on both sides. Remove from fire.

Take the hot jangiris out of the fat and dip in warm syrup. Keep dipped in the syrup till the next batch is cooked. Before dipping the next batch in the syrup, take out the earlier batch on to a plate. Continue till all the dough is used up.

Ingredients

Rice
¼ cup

Black gram dhal
2 cups

Sugar
10 cups

Water
4 cups

Milk
¼ cup

Rose essence
10-12 drops

Saffron
¼-½ tsp

Ghee or vanaspati
5 cups

To make
50-60 jangiri

Mix the water and sugar. Heat to prepare syrup. When the syrup attains a thread consistency add 1 to 1
½
cups of ghee.

Sift the Bengal gram flour, removing all the lumps. Sprinkle the flour little by little into the syrup while stirring continuously with a flat spoon. When the flour and syrup mix well, add the remaining ghee little by little, stirring all the while. Keep stirring till the preparation gives an appetising aroma and the Mysore pak froths up.

Pour it on to a plate greased with ghee and spread evenly by gently shaking the plate. Let it cool. When it is three-fourths cooled (i.e., when the ghee is absorbed and small holes appear on the surface), cut into convenient sized squares or diamonds with a greased knife. Remove the pieces from the plate and keep in an airtight container after cooling.

Ingredients

Sugar
4½ cups

Water
2 cups

Ghee
4-4½ cups

Bengal gram flour
1½ cups

To make
40-50 pieces

Photograph

Break cashewnuts into bits. Fry in a little ghee till golden. Powder cardamom. Grate the coconut into soft, fine bits.

Mix water and sugar. Heat to prepare a thick syrup. Add grated coconut and stir. When coconut and sugar mix well and become hard, add fried cashewnuts and ghee, turning continuously with a flat spoon, till the mixture swells up. Mix in cardamom powder and continue to stir for a few more minutes. Remove from fire and pour on to a greased plate. Tap the surface evenly with a plantain leaf. Cut into square or diamond shaped pieces with a knife. Cool and keep in airtight containers.

Ingredients

Cashewnuts
20

Ghee
¼ cup

Green cardamoms
7-8

Coconut
2 (Large)

Water
1 cup

Sugar
3½ cups

To make
40-50 pieces

Photograph

Grate coconut and grind nicely. Break cashewnuts into bits and fry in a little ghee till golden. Mix ⅕ cup water and sugar in a vessel. Heat to prepare a thick syrup. When the syrup attains a two thread consistency, add coconut paste and cook till the mixture turns smoothly leaving the sides. Add cardamom powder and fried cashewnuts. Mix well. Roll into small balls. Keep aside.

Mix the salt and refined wheat flour. Knead into a dough, with enough water and 5-6 tbsp ghee.

Grease a small bit of plantain leaf with ghee. Take a little dough and flatten out into a thin circular shape. Place a ball of the coconut ‘fillings’ in the centre, draw the edges together to completely cover it. Invert this on the plantain leaf. Flatten it out with your palms. The appams are now ready to be fried.

Heat the ghee or vanaspati over a slow fire. Fry the appams, cooking both sides. (Do not let the appams turn reddish.) Remove from fire. Drain out the oil and serve.

Ingredients

Coconut
1 (Large)

Cashewnuts
12

Ghee or vanaspati
2 cups

Sugar
1 cup

Green cardamom powder
½ tbsp

Salt ¼
tsp

Refined wheat flour
(Maida) 2 cups

To make
20-25 appam

Grate coconut and grind nicely. Break cashewnuts into bits and fry in a little ghee till golden. Mix ⅕ cup water and sugar in a vessel. Heat to prepare a thick syrup. When the syrup attains a two thread consistency, add coconut paste and cook till the mixture turns smoothly leaving the sides. Add cardamom powder and fried cashewnuts. Mix well. Roll into small balls. Keep aside.

Mix the salt and refined wheat flour. Knead into a dough, with enough water and 5-6 tbsp ghee.

Heat a flat pan used for pancakes. Grease a plantain leaf with oil. Take a little of the dough and flatten it out to the size of your palm like a thick poori. Place a ball of the coconut ‘fillings’ in the centre, draw the edges together to completely cover it. Flatten it out again by pressing the filled dough twice with your hand. The edges can be rolled evenly with a rolling pin. Invert the flattened ‘poli’ with the leaf over the pan. Gently lift the leaf, leaving the ‘poli’ on the pan. Dribble ½ tsp of ghee round the ‘poli’ and another ½ tsp over it. Cook one side. Turn and cook the other side. Remove from pan and serve.

Ingredients

Coconut
1 (Large)

Cashewnuts
12

Ghee or vanaspati
2 cups-

Sugar
1 cup

Green cardamom powder
1 tsp

Salt ¼
tsp

Refined wheat flour
(Maida) 2 cups

To make
10 poli

Take a heavy vessel. Pour the milk in it. Place on a low flame and heat well. Stir continuously as the milk heats and reduces in quantity. When it starts reducing, keep turning till the milk attains a semi-solid consistency. Add the sugar and stir again. Mix well till the milk thickens. If the ‘thirattuppal’ does not ooze fat, add the ghee and stir again. Remove from fire. Add cardamom powder and borneal flakes (if used).

While the ‘thirattuppal’ is being prepared, it will stick to the sides of the vessel often. Scrape the sides of the vessel with a ladle, otherwise the ‘thirattuppal’ will get a scorched smell. Cook on a low flame, even after the milk starts hardening.

Ingredients

Full cream milk
4 litres or

Ordinary milk
12 litres

Sugar
2-3 cups

Ghee
50 gms (Optional)

Green cardamom powder
½-1 tsp

Borneal flakes
¼ tsp (Optional)

Wash rice at least three times. Soak for 2 hours. Wash again twice and drain. Spread the rice on a white cloth and dry in the shade. Turn rice once or twice. Grind into rice flour in a mill or mixie/food processor the next day. Sift through a fine sieve. Alternatively, after washing the rice, pound in a stone mortar with an iron pestle, sift through a fine sieve and dry in the shade. The flour should be completely dry to avoid lumps at the time of using. In case the flour is not quite dry, or if the rice is new, reduce the quantity of water to be used. Ready-made rice flour can also be used.

Boil 3½-4 cups water with salt and oil. Add the rice flour. Keep turning with a spoon for about 5 minutes. Do not allow lumps to form. Soak a white cloth in water and rinse out. Spread it over a plate. Empty the hot, cooked flour over the cloth. Tie the cloth into a bundle and keep aside. (This will keep the flour free from lumps.) When cold, untie the bundle and knead well. Make it into three equal parts and keep covered with a cloth. Take a little of the flour and knead well into dough with a little water, if necessary. Grease your palms with a little oil. Take a small lump of the kneaded dough and shape it in your palms into a cup. Fill the cup with the prepared filling and close all the sides well to prepare the ‘kozhukattai’. Make ‘kozhukattais’ with all the dough and fillings.

Ingredients

Rice
2 cups

Salt
1 tsp

Gingelly oil
1 tsp

For the filling

Coconut
1 (large)

Powdered jaggery or sugar
¾ cup

Green cardamoms
6-10

Place a single idli tray in a vessel with water in the bottom. Cover the vessel and bring the water to boil. Spread a white cloth over the tray and place a greased plantain leaf over it. Arrange a few ‘kozhukattais’ on it. Close the vessel and steam them over a high flame for about 10 minutes till the ‘kozhikattais’ are cooked. Wait till the steam condenses and drips out. This is an indication that the ‘kozhukattais’ are cooked. (The colour would have changed and they will not stick.) Open the lid. Take the tray out and pull out the leaf with the ‘kozhukattais’ on to another plate. Sprinkle a little water over the plate. Spread another greased leaf on the tray and arrange a few more ‘kozhukattais’. Steam as before. Repeat till all the ‘kozhukattais’ are cooked.

For the filling:
Grate the coconut finely. Add a little water to the powdered jaggery and place on fire. Wait till the jaggery melts and the water begins to boil. The syrup will thicken and froth up, giving a nice aroma. Add coconut gratings. Go on stirring over a slow fire. Cook till water is fully absorbed and the filling becomes sticky. Remove from fire. Powder the cardamom and add. Cover the mixture and let it cool. If sugar has been used, add a little water and boil till the syrup thickens and froths up. Add coconut gratings. Go on turning till the water is fully absorbed. Remove. Mix cardamom powder. Keep covered and let it cool.