Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Rava kesari (Semolina Sweet)

While all known to me will vouch for my preference for spicy food (spice-toothed ;), times I do feel like having something sweet. O ya, not to forget all those sweet-toothed lovelies around me!

So, after a real long time, I started my experimentation with making a very simple sweet dish "Semolina / Rava Kesari".
Ingredients
  • Semolina / Sooji / Rava : 2 cups
  • Sugar                              : 1.25 - 1.5 cups 
  • Ghee                               : 4-5 tbs (1 cup)
  • Cashew                           : 10 pieces (broken)
  • Raisins                            : 10 pieces
  • Kesari Color (food color) : a few pinch (as dark as you prefer, this gives the orange tinge)
  • Water                               : 3 cups (or more as required to boil semolina)
  • Cardamom powder          : 2 pieces of cardamom powdered
Method:
  1. Dry roast semolina / sooji in a kadai till it starts turning slightly brown. Remove to a steel plate or bowl 
  2. To this, add a tbspn of ghee and roast the cashew nuts and raisins till golden brown. 
  3. To this, add the dry roasted semolina. Add one or two tspn of ghee and roast this to golden brown
  4. In parallel to steps 2 and 3, bring the water to boil in a separate container. To this, add the Kesari color powder. 
  5. Add the hot water slowly to the semolina mix with continuous stirring to ensure no lumps are formed. Semolina should dissolve smoothly in the water and form a juicy mix
  6. To this, add sugar and stir it well. 
  7. Close the kadai and allow it to cook in a low flame (we could also switch off the fire and cook it for a few minutes. Then, light the stove and cook it on low flame)
  8. Cook till semolina is well cooked and starts leaving the sides of the kadai 
  9. Add cardamom powder, and top it with some ghee
  10. Remove from fire and serve hot
Note: From my attempt, I realized a few things to improvise:
  • Can use a little more water to make the kesari a bit juicy than dry
  • Can powder the roasted semolina to give it a better texture
  • Add more sugar if you are sweet-toothed
  • Add more color to have a good orange tinge
Try having some hot kesari with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It tastes yummmm :)