Kesari
Happy new year 2021 peeps! With my mom, Priyanka & Athu with us now, things have pretty much been awesome. We get to witness both the love display between Athu & Adya as well as their melt down moments :). Both are adorable to me since Adya doesn’t have siblings on his own and Athu is the only first cousin he has and will ever have (pretty sure Pri will agree to this statement here :D). The NY eve was spent at home (as expected since we didn’t wanna get caught anywhere in traffic) with the kids cycling and playing while I made some yummax doughnuts for them.
1st started with a bang pretty with both kids being up by 8 am the weather being perfect for a beach kinda day. With just 15 minutes notice, Pri & Amma got ready and got the kids ready while I took care of packing and taking whatever was required for the beach. I love this about my family, when I say mine I mean my amma, Prakash & Priyanka. They do not oppose any last minute plans and are totally cool with spontaneous plans (them coming to Dubai was literally one such) and it stands out for me cos D, mil & fil are quite the opposite. I would have never been able to execute this simple beach plan with D/ mil/ fil. Anywho, we were at the beach by 8.30 and were there till noon. The weather was perfect, the water baby Athu was happy just lying down in the water and the non-water baby Adya had his mixer trucks, diggers to keep him happy and ofcourse, we had packed enough food & snacks to keep us all happy :D. Overall, a very nice start to the year and I am very very grateful for it!
Anywho, a few weeks back I wanted to learn making kesari from amma and noted down the measurements. It came out really well and so I thought I will blog it (and update later with stepwise pics). I took this to my cousin Madhu’s house warming and also made some extra for our family friend Siva & Vak who live close to my cousin’s new home. Vak (Aravind) loves kesari and immediately dug into some of it. I realised how old we all have become when we all unanimously agreed that food gifts makes us happier than material gifts :D.
Kesari is one of those basic, easy to make sweets that anyone with very little cooking knowledge can make. One of the reasons why older gen likes this is also cos of the quantity that can be whipped up easily. It’s a perfect dessert accompaniment when you have someone over for breakfast or lunch or an evening snack. Sojji & bhajji is also a very standard affair in a typical Indian match making scenario :D.
- 1 cup rava/ semolina/ sooji
- 2 cups sugar
- 2.5 cups water
- 4 nos cardamom pods
- 15 nos raisins
- 15 nos cashews
- a pinch saffron colour/ kesari powder
- a pin head edible camphor
- 1/2 cup ghee
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In a small pan/ kadai, dry roast 4 cardamom pod seeds. Once cool, remove the skin. Pound it along with a pin head amount edible camphor. Set it aside.
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In the same pan, heat 1T ghee.
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Roast 15 raisins and 15 cashews till the cashews brown and the raisins puff up.
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Transfer to a plate and set it aside.
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In a medium sized pan/ kadai, heat 2T ghee.
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Roast 1c rava/ semolina/ sooji on low flame (big stove) for 2-3 mins till it is aromatic (ensure the rava doesn't change colour/ brown).
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Then, add 2.5c water (increase flame), and bring the mixture to a boil.
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Keep mixing/ stirring so it does not burn nor form lumps.
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When the water evaporates and the rava mixture becomes thick, lower flame and add 2c sugar.
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Keep mixing/ stirring and ensure there are no lumps (If you do find lumps, break them).
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When the mixture thickens once again and starts bubbling, add 1/2 remaining ghee and mix well. Also add kesari powder mixed in 1tsp water.
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Let the mixture cook on low flame for 2-3 minutes so the ghee incorporates well into the mixture.
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Now add the remaining ghee, pounded cardamom and raisins/cashews.
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Mix well till the mixture bubbles up/ gets to a halwa consistency. Turn off heat.
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Transfer to a bowl & serve hot.
- Add 1.5 cups sugar instead of 2 if you don’t want kesari to be too sweet.
- Add less ghee (1/3c) if you don’t want to include lots of ghee.
- You can directly grind the cardamom in a mixer or use store bough cardamom powder. However dry roasting & pounding them increases the flavour profile.
- You can use orange colour (not essence) if you don’t have kesari podi. Or you can skip the colour altogether if you don’t have any colour on hand.
- The whole thing comes together in 30 minutes but you gotta stand next to it mixing/ stirring to ensure there are no lumps.
- If you do find lumps at any stage, take a spoon and scoop the lump and mash with a backside of a ladle.
