Methods for Preparing Variety of South Indian Sweets

In South India, people have great interest on preparing variety of sweets and snacks which are playing important part on festivals and various occasions like marriages and other functions. We can find variety of sweets like Boondhi, Laddu, Jangri, Mysore Pak, Palkova, Cashewnut Burfi, Coconut Burfi, Groundnut Burfi, Gulab Jamun and Halwa along all the sweet and snack stalls of the country. This is traditional habit of Indians to treat their guests with variety of sweets and snacks. Important ingredients of sweets are sugar, ghee, raisins, channa flour (Bengal gram flour, Besan flour), rice flour, urad flour, spices like cardamom and cloves, nuts like cashew and almond, food colors and essences. Usually sweets and snacks are taken in evening times as evening tiffin. Let us see here how to prepare variety of sweet recipes in our home itself.

Boondhi

Ingredients
Channa flour 1 cup
Ghee 1 tbsp
Cardamom powder
Cashew nuts
Raisins (kismus)
Diamond kalkand
Saffron food color (a pinch)
1.5 cup sugar and 0.5 cup water for preparing syrup

Fry the cashew nuts, raisins and cloves in a little ghee. Take 1.5 cup of sugar and 0.5 cup of water for preparing syrup. Mix sugar and water in a kadai and heat till the sugar dissolves in water. Stir gently while heating the mixture. Allow the mixture to boil until it reaches half string consistency. After two minutes of boiling, you will get the string consistency of sugar and water mixture. Stop the stirring of mixture at once you get the string consistency. Now remove the sugar syrup from fire and mix cardamom powder, fried cashew nuts, cloves, raisins and saffron food color.

After you have prepared sugar syrup, mix besan flour or channa flour, rice flour(little amount) and cooking soda to a paste consistency adding enough water and make sure that the mixture of flour falls down as droplets. Heat the oil in a pan. Hold the boondhi laddle above the oil and spread the flour mixture so that it drops down as small droplets into oil. Stir gently until boondhi cooked well. After you feel it is soft take it away from oil and put it into the sugar syrup which has been already prepared. Don't forget to remove the excess oil from cooked boondhi before putting it into the sugar syrup. Now Boondhi is ready for serving!

Laddu

Ingredients
Channa flour 2 cup
Ghee   0.5 cup
Sugar 2 cup (ground)
Cloves 2 or 3
Cardamom powder as required
Cashewnut fried as required
Raisins (kismis) as required
Diamond kalkand

Take ghee on a pan and place it on low fire. Now add channa flour over it and stirr well. Keep fire low to avoid lumps. When you get golden color of channa flour, remove it from fire and add ground sugar, cardamom powder, clove powder, diamond kalkand, fried cashewnuts.Now you can make ball like laddus and they can be decorated with kismis if you desire.

Jangri

Ingredients
Urad flour 1 cup (Black gram flour) also called as ulundu mavu in tamil.
Rice flour 1 tbsp
Sugar for syrup 1.5 cup
Water for making syrup 0.75 cup
Lemon juice in little quantity

Wash black gram and and soak it for at least 3 hours. In a heavy bottom pan boil the water and add sugar into it and stir well till all the sugar dissolves in the water. Add some lemon juice to avoid forming strings. After two minutes you can get the string consistency of sugar and water mixture and then allow it cool down.

Now drain water from soaked urad and grind it to a very fine paste till the consistency of glue sticking and now add a pinch of saffron or food color. If you feel consistency of ground flour little thin, add some rice flour to get desirable one. Add the flour in a presser and press it into oil. Avoid excess heat of oil to get jangri in shape. After cooking them drain excess oil and put them gently in the sugar syrup. Don't put the jangri into the sugar syrup immediately after cooking.

Mysore Pak

Ingredients

Besan flour (Kadalai Mavu) 1 cup
Sugar for syrup 1.5 cup
Water for making syrup 0.5 cup
Ghee 1 cup

This is a soft and delicious indian sweet enriched with ghee. Gently heat the ghee and pour it into a cup. Take 1.5 cup of sugar and 0.5 cup of water in a pan and heat the mixture gently. At once the sugar dissolves add besan flour and keep stirring the mixture. While stirring add ghee little by little. When you feel the mixture starts to separate out from ghee, pour the mixture of flour on a plate with a little bit of ghee spread on it. Now you can get small rectangular pieces of Mysore Pak.

Palkova

Ingredients
Milk 500 ml
Lemon juice in small quantity
Sugar 4 tbs
Ghee 2 to 3 teaspoon

Pour the milk into a pan and add few drops of lemon juice. Keep the pan on fire for some time. Take 2 to 3 tsps of ghee in another pan and keep it on fire and now pour already heated mixture of milk and lemon juice into it. Now add sugar and stirr well till you get the consistency of Palkova

Cashewnut Burfi

Ingredients
Cashewnut powder 1 cup
Water 0.5 cup
Sugar 1.5 cup
Ghee 4 tbs

Gently heat ghee and pour it into a cup . Take 1.5 cup of sugar and o.5 cup of weater in a pan and heat mixture in low fire. At once the sugar dissolves add cashewnut powder and keep stirring the mixture. While stirring add ghee little by little. When you feel the mixture starts to separate out from ghee, pour the mixture on a plate with a little bit of ghee spread on it. Now you can get small rectangular pieces of cashewnut burfi. When you prepare cashewnut powder you don't need to roast it.

Coconut Burfi

Ingredients
Grated fresh coconut 2 cups
Sugar 1 cup
Cardamom powder as required
Water 0.3 cup
Raisins

Roast the grated coconut for a while until it loses moisture. In another pan add water and sugar and heat them in low fire . When it attains string consistency add with roasted coconut, cardamom powder and kismis. Stirr well and spread out in the mixture on a greased plate. Then cut it to your desirables shapes.

Groundnut Burfi

Ingredients
Groundnuts (reoasted) 1.5 cup
Sugar 1.5 cup

First coarsely powder the roasted groundnuts. Take sugar on a heay bottom pan and heat till it melts. Never add any water to the sugar. Add all of the groundnut powder to the molten sugar and stir well until it becomes thick. Now put the mixture on a greased plate and make it into small pieces. Try to cut it before cooling.

Avul coconut mix

Ingredients
Avul 1 cup
Grated fresh coconut 3 tbs
Cardamom powder as required
Sugar 0.5 cup
Boiled milk 0.5 cup

Mix above said all the things and get delicious avul coconut mix. Here you don't need to cook any thing except boiling milk.

Akkarai Vadisal

Ingredients
Milk 3 cups
Ghee 2 tbs
Raw rice (patchai arisi in Tamil) 1 cup
Moong dhal (pasi paruppu) 0.3 cup
Cardamom powder as required
Kismis

Mix raw rice and moong dhal with milk and boil the mixture in a cooker. After getting boiled add enough ghee, sugar, cardamom powder and kismis. Now the delicious akkarai vadisal is ready for serving.

Gulab Jamun

This is the most delicious ball like shaped sweets soaked in sugar syrup which can be prepared either from readimix or other ingredients. If you buy readimix from the shop, you can prepare it easily as follows. Mix little quantity of milk with the readimix of Gulab Jamun as you can make it into small sperical balls. Then pour vegetable oil into kadai and place it on fire. Now gently drops balls of gulab jamun into the heated oil and cook it until it gets golden color. Now take away the balls and after draining excess oil soak them into the sugar syrup of half string consistency.

If you want to prepare Gulab Jamun in your total effort, following things are required

Ingredients
Sugar 1.5 cup
Water 0.5 cup
Milk 1 litre
Maida (American flour) 0.5 cup
Rose white essence 1 tsp

Pour milk into a kadai and place it on fire. Stir the milk until you get the condensed form. Now add maida and rose essence to it and make it as spherical balls. Take oil in a separate kadai and keep it on fire to cook gulab jamun balls. Then soak them into the sugar syrup which you have already prepared.

Halwa

Ingredients

Maida 3 cup
Sugar 4 cup
Food color a pinch
Ghee 0.5 cup
Cardamom 3 or 4 in no.
Roasted cashewnuts 0.5 cup

Take maida and water in a bowl. Mix both things using hand gently and let it be aside for some time. After one hour add 3 cups of water with maida. Now you will get milk like substance from maida and leave it for some time and thick milk will settle down. Remove the liquid milk on the top. Take thick milk of maida, sugar, food color in a pan and mix them well. Place the pan on fire adding ghee slowly and stir well. Keep stirring until you feel the ghee separates from halwa. After getting glassy halwa consistency remove it from fire. Then add cashewnuts and cardamom. Now halwa is ready for serving.

If you want to make halwa quick, you don't need to separate milk from maida.

Ingredients
Maida 1.5 cup
Water 2 cup
Sugar 3 cup
Ghee 0.5 cup
Cardamom powder
Cashewnuts (roasted) 0.5 cup

Take maida and water in a bowl and mix them well so as to avoid forming lumps. Here you don't need to get milk of maida. Heat some ghee on a pan and add above prepared maida, sugar and water mixture into it and keep fire low as to avoid lumps. When you get glassy mixture, start adding ghee slowly. Stir once for 3 or 4 minutes. When you get the consistency of halwa add roasted cashewnuts and cardamom powder. Now remove it from fire. After some time you can make it into rectangles for serving.