A Celebration, a wonderful occasion, a life time commitment, a very special and unforgettable moment in a person's life, that is marriage. Marriage is such an occasion a vow for life, with love, understanding, sharing and faith.  A complete celebration with fun and food with relatives and friends, but we are not left are we ? We bloggers from the Blogging Marathon Group by Valli, decided to have a small virtual gift to this blogger friend who is getting married next week, A wonderful blogger with wonderful recipes and has a huge fan Arathi of Yummy tummy.., is getting married to Satheesh.
Arathi and Satheesh wishing you all the best and a very Happy married life to you both. with lots and lots of love from me and family.
I always change recipes, but today I didn't, I just made this burfi without any modifications and My H and FIL loved it so much, me who doesn't like sweets fell for it because I love milk and milk based sweets that is why I like bengali sweets, have I said this everytime I post a sweet, I wonder..., Anyways totally the whole family loved it. You try this out and tell arathi... how much you liked it 🙂

MILK POWDER BURFI
RECIPE SOURCE: Arathi of yummy tummy

INGREDIENTS:
200 grams Milk Powder
1/4 cup water
1 and 3/4th Cup (200 grams)  Sugar
50 grams Ghee
1/4 cup of Chopped Pistachios for topping

METHOD:
Take a plate or a pan grease ghee to it and leave aside until needed.
Take a deep pan / wok melt ghee, Add milk powder and fry in a low flame for few minutes.
Then in the same wok or a deep pan add 1/4 cup water or add water until the sugar is immersed completely.
Let it boil for few minutes around 8 to 10 minutes, that is until it reaches one string consistency, you can check this by first dipping  your finger in water and immediately into the syrup, be very careful as it will be very hot.
when you stretch the syrup between thumb and forefinger a string is formed from the sticky syrup this is one string consistency.
Bring it to low flame and Immediately add the roasted milk powder, mix well together so it is completely incorporated into the syrup and fry for few minutes add a little bit more ghee if you need.
Be careful so it won't get stuck to the pan.
pour this into the pan and flatten it and chop few pistachios topping it to decorate.
Leave for few minutes, cut into desired shape and serve.

Here is a lovely photograph from Art Royale photography, who have a collection of wedding of photos.., beautiful clicks.... Enjoy....

To Arathi and Satheesh for a wonderful life ahead......
with lots of love and wishes....

I belong to a community called Iyengars (Vaishnavites), as we all know that we follow calendars according to Lunar or Solar, Tamilians follow the Solar calendar and so they call their month in different names and follow a Tamil Panchangam for auspicious events like Marriages, Upanayanam etc., So accordingly this month is Maargazhi Maasam (December 15th to January 14th), This month is very Important to us as People get up very early in the Morning and Pray to God for Moksha (Salvation).  So, why is this in this month....
It's a little story which I will not be able to write it down here as it will take a lot of space!, Godai or Andal as she is called is one of the 12 Alvars, She Devoted her whole life in trying to reach God! as a small girl and in the end she marries him that's how she at last reaches his abode If you click on to the link on her name you can read the story of her, She Prays to Lord Vishnu in the month of Maargazhi, as it is the coldest month and her penance is nothing concerned to religious rites but she says as the month is so cold getting up so early in the morning and following these simple things in her life she tries to please the Lord It is kind of Tapas (Penance) in her own way and yearns for the everlasting Service to the Lord , she has a written a Poem of 30 Stanzas which is called Thirupaavai, also called Paasurams in Tamil in praise of Lord vishnu and it is a part of the Divya Prabandham, a work of the Alvars.
Each song is sung each day during this month, and unmarried girls try to follow the little things she describes as kind of penance to the Lord to get Good Husbands!!, Vishnavas sing these songs to bring Peace, Prosperity and Divine Grace towards reaching Moksha (Salvation).
In the 27th stanza, she comes out of her Penance and Dresses up nicely and makes this sweet Porridge offering to the Lord, she even describes how this sweet should be...
She says '' Today is the day she will come out of her Vratham and adornes herself with beautiful jewels and clothes and will make Ksheeranam with milk and Jaggery and lots of ghee, wherein the ghee will flow down to her elbow when offering it to the Lord'', So that is how this Shakkarai Pongal should be made with lots of Ghee!!.
Well, as the days went by and People became health consicous, nobody wants to make Pongal that way!, but still we do get Sweet Pongal as Prasadam in temples the way she describes :)).

So here is my version of Sakkarai Pongal....

SAKKARAI PONGAL (SWEET PONGAL) 

INGREDIENTS:
1 to 1 and 1/2 of Jaggery (use Paaku Jaggery / Unde Bella)
1 Cup of Raw Rice
 1/2 Cup of Green Gram /Hesaru Bele / Paitham Paruppu / Moong dal
1 tsp of Cardamom powder
A Pinch of Pacchai Karpooram (Edible Camphor)
1 and 1/2 Cup Milk
1 and 1/2 Cups of Water + 1/4 cup Water
1/4 tsp of  Nutmeg
2 tbsp of Cashewnuts
2 tbsp of Kishmish/Raisins/Dried Grapes
1/2 Cup of Pure Ghee / Clarified Butter (increase it more if you enjoy eating ghee)

METHOD:
First of all in a wok add a tsp of Ghee and fry Green Gram into Golden colour, which gives a nice aroma around the Kitchen.
Then In a thick bottomed vessel take the washed rice and Moong dal with 1 and 1/2 cup of Milk and 1 cup of Water and either cook it directly on the stove if you are using a thick bottomed vessel (Vangala Paanai) or Mud Pot, I made this in a pressure cooker, Cook dal and Rice with milk and water close a lid to the vessel and pressure cook up to 3 whistles, ( If cooking directly I close a lid to the vessel as we know that when milk boils it froths up and spills out so it is better to close it with a lid and put a ladle in it, which helps the liquid not coming out ).
Meanwhile take Jaggery and 1/4 cup of water (use Jaggery according to your tastebuds) and allow it to completely dissolve it in the water, then leave it for 2 minutes allowing the impurities to settle down,  filter the Jaggery as it usually has impurities, take the filtered Jaggery in a vessel and start to boil it, until it reaches a ball consistency you can test this by dropping a tiny bit into a cup of water, where you can see that it doesn't spread out into the water but you can see it well and where you can bring it into a ball (next time I will try to take a photo tutorial of this).
It is important that you do this even after the cooker cools because when it reaches ball consistency it becomes hard and you have a add a little bit of water to keep in this consistency until your cooker cools, It's just the timing no need to panic, Once the whistle is gone, take the cooker out from the stove and keep it on a table top on a stand (as it will be very hot!), otherwise the heat from the stove keeps the cooker still warm for a bit longer.

Either way you can do it, like I said I cooked the dal and Rice in a vessel, use a thick bottomed vessel for boiling the Jaggery , Now to this add the cooked Rice and mix well, start boiling this whole thing in a medium flame stirring now and then to keep an eye on the cooking mixture so that it doesn't stick to the bottom of the vessel, as it will be a very thick once they all start coming together thick and lovely start adding Ghee it kind of swallows all the ghee, You can add a Cup of Ghee if you want and your Chakkare pongal will be very delicious as we are very health conscious we do not want so much ghee Leave around 2 tbsp of Ghee and add remaining Ghee from the 1/2 cup. I have mentioned add the other Ingredients Cardamom powder, edible camphor, nutmeg powder mix and switch of the stove and close a lid.

Now Garnish Chakkre Pongal, take 2 tbsp of ghee in a small pan once it is warm enough add chopped Raisins and broken cashewnuts fry them, Raisins becomes swollen and cashews turn golden in colour, keep the stove in a low when doing this and don't burn them add this to the Pongal mix well. 

Serve hot and Enjoy....
Notes: It is better to use Round Jaggery (Unde Bella), Check Valli's Blog for Jaggery Varities from this Recipe, she describes each one of them with a lovely click too!!
updated : Adding more ghee will not make the Chakkare pongal hard and keep it more moist, Anyway reheat in the MW for a minute before eating.

INGREDIENTS:

1 Cup Mango Pulp

1/4 Cup Quinoa

4 tbsp of Milk

3/4 th Cup Sugar

3/4 th Cup water

1/4 tsp Cardamom powder

1/4 Cup Raisins

1/4 Cup Ghee

METHOD:

First of all I took around 4 mangoes, peeled the skin and cut them into pieces and blended them into a puree in my mixie, and it came up to 1 cup.

When I was cooking My MW was in high (800W) all the time.  Then  I cooked Quinoa in the Microwave with 3/4th cup of water, I Microwaved it till 7 for 2 times (I have shown a Photograph of my MW timer so you would know where the 7 is!).

Then I added Mango pulp and cooked it one more time till 7 one more time.

Then I added sugar and milk and cooked it 2 more time on 7 again

It became mushy and the whole thing was soggy and I added 2 tbsp of Ghee and mixed it well, and put it on 7 timer again and cooked again.

It started becoming thicker and starting to a halwa consistency after one more time on the 7 timer.

This is my MW timer I just wanted to show where the 7 on my timer was!

Then I took my MW pyrex bowl poured the left over ghee and raisins and put the timer on 2, Oh! the Grave mistake I made, but in the half that is when it came in between 0 and 1 I had to switch it of, as the house started getting a burnt smell the Raisins started burning!!, so, I could save some of them and I had to throw some to the bin as they were burnt, then I Garnished Halwa with Raisins and some Almond slices and served it hot. Take an other look at my cute little MW Halwa.

I am sending this to Lubna and Yasmeen's Ramdan event fasting to feasting, as I feel with quinoa it is a healthy diet too. and to Nivedita's MW - fruits event which of course was started by Srivalli of cooking for all seasons. Hope all of them like my MW - Halwa...., bye for now and will come back soon... take care..

INGREDIENTS:

2 tbsp of Poppy seeds/ Ghasa-ghasa/ Khus-khus

10 Almonds*

10 Pistachios*

10 Cahew nuts*

1 Cup Coconut milk

1/2 cup freshly grated coconut

A pinch of edible camphor/ paccha karpooram

2 pods of Cardamom

A fist full of Rice (2 tbsp of Raw Rice)

1 and 1/2 ltr of milk

150-200 gms of Jaggery (use jaggery according to your sweet tooth!!)

You can use coconut milk by extracting it from the fresh coconut or as sometimes I just grind freshly grated coconut with the other ingredients and make the kheer

First of all soak in hot water poppy seeds, all the nuts and rice, leave it an hour or so until they are well soaked.

Remove husk from the seeds.

Next Grind all the above said ingredients into a smooth paste, mix this paste with 1/4 cup of water.

Meanwhile In a 1/4 cup of water boil the grated jaggery until it dissolves then filter and keep it aside.

At the same time Boil 1 and 1/2 litres of milk and set aside.

In a large container boil the filtered Jaggery syrup when it starts boiling add this ground paste and keep on stirring otherwise it will stick to the bottom of the vessel in a few minutes you will see that it  starts forthing up, do not stop as the kheer starts to thicken and if not careful it might start sticking to the bottom.

Then add the boiled milk lower the flame, Then add well powdered cardamom seeds and paccha karpooram/ edible camphor and stir continuously fort few minutes, keep on stirring for around 5 minutes, 

you can see bubbles forming at the edge of the container, then put off the stove other wise it starts curdling and your kheer will be spoiled.

Serve hot or cold

Mum always said Drink Ghasa- Ghasa paayasam and sleep well!!

* You can reduce the quantity of the dried fruits or you can completely omit them and just make it with Khus-khus and coconut.

Just use less than a pinch of edible camphor, very little might be more !!, It has a very strong smell some people do not like it, so you can totally omit if you don't like the smell.

I also like to send this valli's Thanda Mela.

INGREDIENTS:

Raw Rice : 200 gms

Paaku Jaggery: 250 gms

cardamom : a pinch

sesame seeds: 2 tsp

Ghasa Ghasa/Poppy seeds : 1/4 tsp

Soak rice for 6 hours and shade dry it. It should not become dry it should still have some moisture in it., you can either grind this to fine a fine powder using your mixie or give to mill.  The rice flour should have that texture of soft and wet feeling, when you take a handful of rice flour in your fist it should retain your fist shape. (This kind of mav is made for maavillaku ), This is very important because if the flour is very dry it wouldn't come out well.

Get all the things ready when you put the Jaggery for cooking

Take water that is enough to dilute Jaggery. Dissolve the jaggery, Remove any impurities that may be present then again cook till the paakam is ready. The consistency is very important here, paakam should be of  3 thread consistency, for this the paakam to check if the consistency is correct, my aunt told me in her exact words take a small bit and drop in the water it should make ''tan '' sound!!, what she means to say is that you should be able to make a small ball out of it, and it shouldn't spread out not even a little bit. That means you have achieved the 3 thread consistency.

Remove from fire and poppy seeds, cardamom powder and sesame seeds then add Rice flour little by little without any lumps with continuous mixing it should turn into a chapati dough consistency, it is always to have more Rice flour, in case you may need extra flour, or it might be left over too which can used in other ways.

The flour should not stick to your fingers, Take a plastic ready make it into balls and press them flat to a palm size and fry them in hot oil one by one Turn it and cook on both the sides, and drain them on kitchen towel and serve them.

Mmm.., Love it!!, Valli made me do this, thanks valli for this lovely athirasams!!

Take another peek at my athirasams

Can you see the flaky middle and my little pooris!!

Tips:

I am also sending this to Sweet celebrations from Mansi of fun and food cafe, I don't remember how I tumbled into her blog, I still need to explore her blog, just saw it today morning and when I saw the event I wanted to post as I had already done this, hope she accepts mine too..,