Peda (Indian milk sweet) Quick version

Pedas.. A yummiest Indian sweet prepared during festival times. Pedas have always been my favorite sweet & I make sure I buy them when I visit the sweet shop in Chennai.

Today, I had invited my friends for dinner & decided to prepare something special for dinner dessert section. Suddenly I remembered pedas, but I wanted to prepare quick version pedas rather than the authentic one to save time. When I searched the Internet I came through plenty of recipes for quick version. Here I'm going to tell you my own combined recipe of pedas, of course it did taste like the authentic pedas.

Ingredients:

Milk powder - 2 cups
Butter - 110 gms
Sweetened Condensed Milk - 1 can
Paneer - crumbled 1/4 cup
Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp
Saffron - 1 pinch
Silvered sugar balls for decoration
Yellow food colour - 1/4 tsp (optional)

Method:

1. Melt butter in a microwave safe dish in microwave oven.
2. Mix the butter, fold in milk powder and condensed milk. Stir until all the ingredients are combined well.
3. Cook for one minute in microwave, take it out & stir well for more than a minute.
4. Repeat step-3 for 2 more times.
5. Now add cardamom powder, saffron & yellow food colour. Mix well again for 2 mins.
6. Again cook it in the microwave for 1 min.
7. Take it out, mix well and let it cool down to room temperature for about 15 - 20 mins.
8. Now take a spoonful of peda dough onto your greased palm & flatten it. Keep the shaped pedas in a greased plate.
Decorate & store it a cool dry place. If storing in refrigerator take the pedas out 30 mins before serving.

Sakkarai Pongal/Sweet Pongal

Wish you all a very Happy Pongal!

Thai Thirunaal Nal Vazhthukkal!

Thai Pongal (Thai is the 10^th month of the 12 tamil months). The 1^st day of the Thai month is the harvest festival (Thai Pongal) celebrated by hindu tamil people all over TamilNadu, India.

Pongal is usually cooked at sun rise by boiling newly harvested rice in the milk and when it boils, folks shout "Pongalo Pongal" and the boiled rice is lately topped with jaggery, cashewnuts, & raisins.

Here I am going to present my own version of sakkarai pongal or sweet pongal.

Ingredients:

Raw rice – ½ cup

Moong dal – ¼ cup

Jaggery – 2 cups

Milk – 1 ltr

Cashew nuts – few

Raisins – few

Cardamom – 1 tsp

Ghee/clarified butter – 1 tbsp

Water – ¾ cup

Method:

Dry roast moong dal and rice, wash and soak it in water for few minutes.

Heat 2 cups of jaggery and ½ cup of water in a bowl until jaggery is all dissolved, distil and keep it aside.

Heat a medium sized pot, or a wide pan add moong dal and ¾ cup water, cook until moong dal ½ done.

Heat ghee in a pan; fry cashews & raisins until golden brown;

Add rice and milk, and let it boil (when the milk bubbles out it's time to say "Pongalo Pongal").

Cook until dal and rice are very soft.

Now add distilled jaggery and mix well, let it boil.

When it thickens season it with cardamom, fried cashews & raisins, mix well.

Serve hot with a dollop of ghee (I prefer it that way).