Little Badhusha - A testing time

Its nearing Deepavali, and I am being forced to prepare Badhusha for my dearest hubby. It is his favorite.

I know beforehand that its a mere sweet with maida, was not interested earlier. But for this time, I could not turn down his request. With tips from my aunty, I had the recipe in hand. With some time googling, I found out that most of the recipes was similar. To add a small twist, I made the size of Badusha tiny, to the size of a 10 Rupee coin. A one biter was the intend.

The ingredients are listed below: (Serves 3-4) (Coin sized 20 numbers)

• For Badhusha
• Maida (All purpose flour) - 1 1/4 Cup
• Ghee, Butter (in room temperature) and Oil - 1/4 Cup
• Baking powder - 1/4 tsp
• Cooking soda - small pinch (optional)
• Curd - 1 tbsp
• Powdered Sugar - 1 tsp
• Water - As required
• For Syrup
• Sugar - 1/2 Cup
• Water - To immerse the sugar
• Cardamom powder - if required

Preparation steps:

• Sieve Maida, Baking powder and Cooking soda.
• Add liquid Ghee, Butter, Oil, Curd and Sugar to the above.
• 
• If required add water and make it a smooth dough.
• Cover it for 30 minutes and knead the dough again for 5-6 minutes.
• Hand roll into small balls (size of gooseberry) and hand press to make like a coin.
• Make the Sugar syrup, till it becomes string consistent. Leave it in slim flame. Otherwise it crystallizes.
• 
• You may give the shape of a doughnut, for the pressed dough. Let your imagination fly here.
• Deep fry till it gets golden brown colour, keep it aside till oil is evaporated.
• 
• Add the all the roasted Badusha's in the sugar syrup and mix with the syrup. The Badhusha should get a fine coat of sugar syrup.
• Keep the sugar coated Bhadhusha in a different plate, without touching each other.
• Once cooled down, the white coating of sugar will be visible. Serve after this.
• Shelf life is about 2-3 days.

Little Badhusha, ready to serve

Vella Avil - Gud Poha - Beatened Rice in Jaggery

Vella Avil - Sweet Variety prepared on Sri Krishna Jayanthi

Ingredients: (Serves 2)

• Beaten Rice/Aval/Avil/Poha - 1 cup
• Jaggery Powder - 3/4 cup
• Water - 1/4 cup
• Cocunut - 1/4 cup
• Powdered Cardamom - 4
• Ghee - 2 to 3 tbsp 

Preparation Steps:

• Wash the Beaten Rice and keep it aside. It should become soft.
• Boil the Jaggery in water and strain the impurities from it.
• Make it into string consistency and add the grated coconut into it.
• Then add the beaten rice, and stir till the syrup evaporates.
• While stirring add ghee so that it does not get sticky.
• Add cardamom powder to it and serve.

Vella Avil, ready for serving

Vella Cheedai - Jaggery Cheedai

Vella Cheedai - Snack Variety prepared on Sri Krishna Jayanthi

Also Known as:

• Vella Seedai
• Vella Cheeda

A small story behind:
First time when I prepared this, it was not a perfect one. It broke into smaller pieces, while frying. I learned some good lessons from that. It was my mother-in-law who taught me the exact measures this time. I also fine tuned the preparations with my earlier experience to make it near perfect one.
Preparation Steps:

Ingredients: (Serves 3-4)

• Jaggery - 3/4 Cup 
• Water - 1/2 Cup
• Rice Flour - 1 Cup
• Grated Coconut - 1 tbsp
• Black Gram (Urad Daal) Powder - 1/2 tbsp
• Sesame (Till/Ellu) - 1/2 tbsp
• Cardamom Powder - Small pinch
• Oil - For Deep frying

Preparation Steps:

• Roast rice flour and Black Gram flour. Do not over roast.
• Boil Jaggery in water and filter the impurities out. Do not make a thick syrup of this. Leave it to cool.
• Mix Rice Flour, Black Gram powder, Grated Coconut, Sesame seeds, Cardamom powder. Add Jaggery syrup prepared in first step to this mix.
• Hand roll into gooseberry size balls.
• Deep fry this in oil till it turns to golden brown colour. Do not put too much Cheedai in oil at the same time while frying. Put about 4-5 Cheedai only at a time.

Note:

• Black Gram and Rice flour must be sieved thoroughly otherwise there are chances of bursting while frying Cheedai.
• If the Cheedai breaks apart while frying, Jaggery syrup could be more. This is where I failed the first time.

Vella Cheedai, ready for serving

Uppu Cheedai - Salt Cheedai

Uppu Cheeda - Snack Variety prepared on Sri Krishna Jayanthi

Also Known as:

• Uppu Seedai
• Uppu Cheeda

Ingredients: (Serves 3 to 4)

• Rice Flour - 1 cup
• Black Gram (Urad Daal) Powder - 1 1/2 tbsp
• Pepper - 1/2 tsp
• Roasted Cumin Seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Butter - 1/2 tbsp
• Salt - As required
• Oil - For Deep frying

Preparation Steps:

• Roast rice flour and Black Gram flour. Do not over roast.
• powder Cumin seeds and Pepper
• Mix the above with other listed ingredients well and make a dough like Chapathi.
• Roll into small balls, about size of small gooseberries.
• Keep it aside for 10 minutes to remove moisture.
• Deep fry in oil (slim fire) till it gets a golden brown colour. Do not put too much Cheedai in oil at the same time while frying.

Note:

• 1cup is 200ml here.
• Black Gram and Rice flour must be sieved thoroughly otherwise there are chances of bursting while frying Cheedai.
• If the quantity of Black gram powder is less the colour of Cheedai may become light brown.

Uppu Cheedai, ready for serving

Kaavathu Kootu (Puzhukku)

Ingredients:

• Kavathu / Kachil (Greater Yam, Pind Aaluk, Peruvalli/Vettilavalli Kilangu) - 1/2 Cup
• Avarakkai (Broad Beans) - 1/2 Cup
• Plantain - 1/4 Cup (Optional)
• Shredded Cocunut - 1/2 Cup
• Green Chillies - as required
• Cocunut oil - 2 tablespoon

Preparation:
Cook Kaavathu and Avarakkai together and Plantain separately with salt and turmeric powder.

Grind shredded coconut with green chillies without water.

Add this to cooked vegetables. Add raw coconut oil and curry leaves. Serve with Thiruvathira Kali.

* If you want you can add water for pouring consistency.

Thiruvathirai Kali

Today is Thiruvathira (Thiruvathira Star in Malayalam month of Dhanu, Tamil month of Margazhi). This day is dedicated to Lord Shiva. Married Women prays to Lord Shiva for welfare of their husbands and Unmarried Women to get good husband.

This day, it is believed that women were praying to Lord Shiva to bring Kamadeva to life. Kamadeva was burnt to ashes (while trying to help Parvathi to marry Lord Shiva) by Lord Shiva for obstructing his thapasya.

Palakkad Brahmins on this day prepare a special dish called Tiruvathirai Kali along with Kaavath Kootu (Puzhukku).

Thivathirai Kali
Ingredients:

• Raw Rice - 1 Cup
• Moong Dal - 4 tea spoon
• Jaggery - 1 Cup
• Ghee - 2 table spoon
• Cardamom Powder - 1/2 tea spoon
• Shredded coconut - 1/4 cup
• Water - 3 Cups

Preparation:
Wash and soak the rice and moong dal for 2 hours. Allow it to dry by spreading it in a dry cotton cloth. Once ready, dry roast till the color changes to brown. Powder it coarsely into rava consistency.

Mix Jaggery in water while heating and filter out impurities. While boiling, mix the powdered combination of Rice and Dal along with Cardamom Powder.

Stir well, and add Ghee. Serve it hot with Kaavathu Kootu.