Pudina rice

Rice varieties definitely form a part of any feast in India. I made pudina rice few times, when I had guests for dinner and it turned out to be a safe and yet a tasty option.

Ingredients: (serves two)

             Rice - 1 cup

             Onion - 1 medium sized chopped

             Turmeric powder - 1 pinch

             Cinnamon - 1 stick

             Cloves - 4

             Bay leaf - 1

             Groundnuts - 1 handful

             Ghee - 2 tbsp

             Salt - to taste

For the paste:
             Mint leaves - 3/4 cup (lightly packed)
             Corriander leaves - 1/4 cup
             Coconut grated - 2 tbsp
             Green chillies - 2 (you can add more according to your taste)
             Ginger & garlic paste - 1/2 tbsp

Method: 

• Wash mint leaves and corriander leaves. Make this into a thick paste along with ginger, garlic, chillies and coconut. 
• Heat a pressure pan and add ghee. After it gets heated, add the spices-  cloves, cinnamon and bay leaf. Wait for 30 seconds. 
• Add chopped onion and fry till it gets transparent. Add little sugar (This is a secret!! When ever you fry onions, add 1 spoon sugar. It does help! ). Add 1 pinch of turmeric.
• Now add the green paste and fry for few minutes (till pachai vaasanai goes off)

                                   

• Wash the rice and add it to the mixture with twice the amount of water. Add salt.
• Fry the groundnuts in ghee until golden brown and add. 
• Give it a good mix. Close the lid and keep in simmer for five min then allow it to cook for 2 whistles (vary according to the quantity and type of rice you are using.)
• Tasty pudina rice ready!

Carrot Halwa !

Here goes the first recipe. One of my favorite sweets.

My first post would have been parupu podi or the pudina rice that I tried today, but paati will tell "first sweet a podu di. !". So starting with carrot halwa. :)

All you need is :

Carrot - 2 carrot serves three.

Milk - sufficient enough to boil the carrot. 

Sugar - 1 1/4 cup of sugar for 1 cup of grated carrot.

Ghee, Cashews, Saffron(Kunguma poo) and Cardamom. 

Choose a vessel which has a thick bottom. Grate the Carrot and bake it in sufficient amount of milk (make sure all carrot soaks in milk).  You can use a pressure pan and close the lid for few minutes so that carrot bakes properly. Keep stove in medium flame. Allow the carrot to fully bake. Open the lid and then add sugar (Adding sugar before can slow down the baking process). Stir for few minutes. Let the sugar melt and the mixture will slowly thicken up. Mash the mixture to halwa consistency. Now, add ghee. Keep adding sufficient ghee - at least 5 tbsp for two carrots, so that halwa becomes non sticky at the sides of the vessel. (The halwa will absorb all the ghee and the ghee should start coming out from halwa again. This is a good sign!) Add saffron and cardamom powder. Fry the cashews to golden brown in ghee and add them.

Garnish with cashews. If you serve this with vanilla ice cream, it becomes a great dessert !!