Sweet Toffees

Ingredients

Sugar -1 cup
Salted butter -1 cup
Crushed roasted nuts – ½ cup
Chocolate chips(optional) – 1 cup

Preparation

Melt sugar and butter in medium flame.
Stir slowly with a wooden spoon.
When it turns amber in colour, spread
on a butter paper and sprinkle
crushed roasted nuts.
Draw squares on the toffee
with a knife to break into desired shape.
Store air-tight.

Can add semi –sweet chocolate chips on the toffee
before cooling and spread it .

Sweet Rice( pachoru)

This recipe may be known to everyone.
I just wanted to share it .
A nostalgia that connects to the nercha
Of our Tripunitura st. Mary’s feast.
Tamuku nercha or pachoru nercha (payasa choru).
After long hours of service on the feast day,
A dollop of pachoru was an instant energy
Packed with sweetness helped us to walk back home.


Rice -3cups
Coconut grated -1cup
Milk -1cup
Jaggery (molasses) -1 ½ cup
Cardamom powder -1tsp
Clarified butter(ghee) -1tsp
Thinly sliced coconut -1tsp

Preparation

Cook rice. When it is well cooked, add milk and
Grated coconut. Stir continuously. In quarter glass of water
melt and strain jaggery(molasses). Pour this syrup into
the rice mixture. Stir till it is almost dry. Turn off the flame.
Fry thinly sliced coconut and add to this sweet rice.
Sprinkle powdered cardamom and serve cold.





One of my friends wo visit me daily. Three squirrels,two pigeons
and two bulbuls are regulars. Morning 7 ‘o’ clock is breakfast time
for them. Sharp 6.30 a.m the bulbuls will be calling for me.
Others will be impatiently walking up and down for
fresh water and food.

Thank You for the birds that sing,
Thank You ,God,……….

Easy Prawn Biriyani

Prawns -1 cup
Onions -2
Green chilli -3
Ginger -3inch
Garlic -7
Chilli powder -1 tsp
Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
Corriander leaves -3 tbsp
Mint leaves – 2 tbsp
Lemon juice - 1 tbsp
Curd -1 cup

Oil to fry
Ghee -2tbsp optional
Bay leaves -1
Cardamom -10
Cinnamon sticks -1 tbsp
Cloves - 6
Cashew nuts -10
Raisins -1 tbsp
Biriyani rice -3 cups

Preparation

Keep a vessel on low flame. Pour oil ,bay leaves
And half of the given cloves ,cardamom and cinnamon.
Pour enough water and put thoroughly washed rice.
When the rice is ¾ cooked drain the water.
When you break a single rice , you can see a
White spot in the middle. That is where you have
to stop cooking.

In a wok sauté the remaining cardamom, cinnamon,cloves,
Cashew and raisins , scoop it out and fry thinly sliced onions.
Keep aside fried onions and remaining oil separately to use later.

Make a fine paste of ginger and garlic.Chop finely mint and coriander leaves.
In the wok add 2 tbsp of the remaining oil and 1tbsp ghee, half
of the fried onions, spices and nuts.
Mix in it chopped mint and coriander leaves,
ginger ,garlic paste, turmeric and chilli powder,lime juice and curd,
salt and prawns. Top it with cooked rice, remaining fried
onions, spices and nuts.
Pour on this , 2 tbsp of oil and 1 tbsp of ghee.
Cover it with a lid and keep on
low flame for about 8 minutes.
See that the gravy has not dried out fully.
Serve it with fresh salad in curd ,lime pickles and papad.

Butter Cookies (Nankatai)

Diwali is a festival of lights and sweets.
This Nankatai will surely add a distinct flavour to your
Diwali this year.
Many times my friends call up and ask for some easy recipes;
Here is an easy one…..

Ingredients

Flour (maida) – 1 ½ cups
Unsalted butter - 1 cup
Sugar _ 1 cup
Crushed Cardamom - ½ tsp
Pistachios to garnish

Preparation

Powder sugar and keep aside.
Take out butter from the fridge.
See that the butter does not melt.
As the butter reaches the correct
temperature to kneed with the flour,
mix well all the ingredients
into a smooth dough.
Roll this into small lemon size balls.
Press these balls gently one by one
in your palm; do not press it flat.
Keep a pista piece on each cookie.

In hot and humid climate ,
if you keep butter for long in
room temperature it melts and
you will have to add more flour.
which will make your cookies more hard.

Pre-heat oven at 180 degrees C for 10 minutes.
Place the nankatai in a pan; no need to grease the pan;
There shall be space between two cookies as it tends to
expand while baking.

Now, keep the pan with the butter cookies in the oven
for 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes, take out the pan and slowly overturn the
Cookies to cool.
Store the cookies air-tight in a cookie jar.