Mango Kesari

AKA Mango Sujji Halwa / Mango Rawa Kesari
Can't believe its December already and we have less than a month to start another new year. December brings the sweet memories of preparing and celebrating Christmas back home..oh how I miss home especially this season. Thought it would be nice to post a sweet dish to kick start this festive month.

Regular readers of my blog would have followed my desserts with semolina. Its like I started making kesari with different fruit flavours..pineapple, banana and now mango..yea blog hopping one day lead me to Mango kesari..and boy it was simply delicious, though i was not welcoming the idea in the beginning, this turned out to be a really flavourful fudge like dessert. Choose ripe sweet mangoes or good quality sweet mango puree for better results.

Ingredients :
3 to 4 Tbsp - Ghee
1 cup - Semolina/Suji/Rawa
3 cups - Pureed Alfonso Mango pulp (I prefer Kesar brand)
1 cup Sugar
1/4 Tsp Cardamom powder
Few Saffron strands
2 Tbsp - Choice of nuts and dry fruits( I used cashew and raisin)

Method :
In a wide pan, melt ghee and fry cashew and raisin till color change, strain and remove. Keep aside.
In the same pan, add one more tbsp of ghee and add rawa to roast evenly till semolina turns the color slightly.
Now add mango pulp, slowly and mix thoroughly into the rawa. Keep adding and mixing till all the mango puree is incorporated into the semolina.
Add sugar and saffron milk and mix till sugar caramelizes and dissolves into the mango rawa mixture.
Add salt and cardamom powder.
Add the remaining ghee and continue mixing till the kesari leaves the surface.
Add half of the nuts and raisins. Remove from heat.
Pour into a greased tray. Cut into desired shapes or just scoop into serving dessert bowls and garnish with remaining cashew and raisins.

Banana Sujji Halwa

Toronto was under heat alert this week..Thank God we are getting some showers to bring down the temperatures. It has been a severe summer this year. Kids will return to school next week. They did have a good vacation. My kids are not so fond of Indian sweets, infact they don't like goodies if they too sweet. Good for them..They enjoy the roasted rava more whenever I make any sweet with semolina..And with deserts like these being loaded with sugar its a no-no for parents too.. Thanks to get togethers, pinics and some special events, which inspire us to venture into making of sweets too.

I saw this Banana Kesari one time when I was blog hopping. Had some ripe bananas at hand too..so likely whipped out a dessert for my after church fellowship time.


Ingredients :
1 Cup Rava or Semonlina
1 Ripe Banana thoroughly mashed
1/2 Cup Sugar
4 Tblsp Ghee or Butter
1 Tsp Banana Essence if available
1/2 Tsp Cardamom powder
1 Cup Water
2 Tbsp Cashew and Raisins
Green food coloring(optional)

Method
Heat one tbsp of ghee in a deep pan or kadai and fry the cashew and raisins till cashew turn golden brown and raisins pop up.
Remove and set aside.
In the same kadai add one more tbsp of ghee add rava and fry till all the ghee is absorbed by the rava.
Add sugar and mix well.
Now add the mashed banana to the rava and keep mixing.
Now keep adding water little by little till the rava is fully cooked.
If adding color mix it with the water as you are adding it.
Add the caradamom powder and mix well.
Add the remianing two tbsp of ghee and mix nice till the mixture leaves the surface of the pan.
Add cashew raisins and empty it in a wide plate greased with ghee.
Let it cool and cut into desired shaped or just serve in desert bowls.

Pineapple Kesari Bath

Pineapple is one of my favorite fruits. I just luv the smell of it. Though I like it so much, I eat very less of the plain fruit, be it in Fruit salads, Faloodas etc. Some how it always spoils my thraught, if I don't stop with 1 slice of it. But I relish it most in the form of Juice. Again juices have so many grams of sugar in them. So have to limit them too. Still to satisfy my longing for this fruit I try to add plenty of it in the home baked frozen pizzas, or sweet and sour chicken etc.
One such preparation in which pineapple doesn't hurt my thraught is the Pineapple Kesari. I normally like any type of kesari. But Pineapple rawa kesari is my fav. Though kesari is quiet famous dessert in all over India, especially in South India. I really enjoy the Pineapple kesari Bath in one of the restaurant's in Bangalore, Karnataka. I guess this is one of the specialties of the Karanataka cuisine. When I saw the RCI - event for this month was Karanataka Cuisine, I decided to publish this post. I know most of our blogs have the Kesari recipe already. But here is my version of Pineapple kesari Bath.(PKB)


When ever I used to visit Bangalore on a business trip I would have this as a dessert after my breakfast in this restaurant. I don't even remember the name of that restaurant now. The thing is, I like it so much in this particular restaurant, that I would travel any distance to come to this restaurant for breakfast just to have this PKB( Cause this dessert was available in the menu only for Breakfast) . They never used to add any color to it. And they used a very fine quality of Rava(Semolina). And off course the generous amount of ghee would make all the difference. Though it was a very rich dessert, the quantity served was little. So that would compensate the calorie content. Again all desserts are rich in calories, so we have to really limit the quantity we consume.

People follow many different ways in making Kesari. Some add milk instead of water, some add both in different ratios, some boil the sugar in water till it gets the syrup texture, some add little ghee, and some add plenty of it. Same with the amount of sugar too. I think depending on what we want as an end result the quantities can be adjusted. I tried to make a balance here.

Ingredients:
1 cup Rawa/Semolina/Suji
3/4 - 1 cup sugar
1/2-3/4 cup Ghee or butter
(Again these three main ingredients can go in the ratio of 1:1:1 for best results, I try to reduce the sugar and ghee for Calories and fat sakes)
2 cups Water, or 1 cup each of milk and water
1 - 1&1/2 cup Canned Pineapple Cubes with juice from the can.
1/4 tsp cardamom powder
A pinch of salt
1/8 tsp of kesari food color dissolved in 2 Tbsps of water or milk(optional)
1/4 cup cashew and raisins in fried in ghee

Procedure:

In a kadai fry the rawa with 1 - 2 tsp of ghee until you smell the fried rawa's aroma and all the rawa is well coated with the ghee, slightly turning brown.
Empty into a plate and keep aside.
Add the sugar, water, pineapple pieces with juice, cardamom powder, salt along with 1 tsp of ghee and bring it to boil on a high flame
I boil till the sugar water has a mild syrupy texture.
Add the Kesar color dissolved in water
Now simmer and slide the fried rawa little by little into the boiling Sugar syrup water taking care that no lumps of rawa are formed.
Stir thoroughly while adding simultaneously half of the fried nuts and raisins and half of the remaining ghee.
Allow to cook for 3-5 minutes till all the water is absorbed and the rawa is fully cooked.
Now add rest of the ghee and mix well to infuse the ghee thru the rawa kesari. Remove from heat and let it cool from hot to warm.
Serve and garnish with the remaining fried cashew and raisins.


This is my entry for the RCI - Karanataka Cuisine hosted by Asha of foodie's Hope