Shahi Coconut modak, Easy Ganesh chaturthi recipes

Shahi coconut modak is an easy to make Prasadh for Ganesh chaturthi. Generally many people keep the Ganesha at home for a week after Ganesh chaturthi. They offer Prasadh for Ganpathi everyday. We used to celebrate this in one of our friend's house and we all will make prasadh everyday for Lord Ganesha. Even kids love to cut eggless cake for Ganesha too. This shahi coconut modak is a similar to the easy coconut ladoo recipe, shaped in modak shape. I have added some nuts to make it more rich. I used modak mould to shape this shahi coconut modak. Thanks to my friend Sonali for sharing the modak mould with me. Check out my Chocolate peda modak recipe too. Wish all my a very happy Ganesh Chaturthi. May Lord Ganesha shower his blessing on you always.
Check out my full collection of Ganesh chaturthi recipes.

Modagam using Desiccated coconut , Ganesh chaturthi recipes

Modakam | modagam | Kozhakattai, the traditional modakam is made using coconut and jaggery stuffing. Generally we use fresh coconut to make the coconut jaggery poornam. But some people may not have access to fresh coconut in their country. We can easily make poornam with desiccated coconut. The taste is almost the same and even you can replace jaggery with brown sugar also. Celebrate this Ganesh chaturthi with varieties of modak and other recipes from Jeyashri's kitchen.
Stay tuned for one more delicious Mahatrastrian style modak using desiccated coconut.

Modagam using desiccated coconut

  Preparation Time : 20 mins | Cooking Time : 20 Mins |Makes: 16

     For the outer cover
Idiyappam flour  1 cup
Water as needed
Sesame oil  few drops
   For the poornam| stuffing 
Desiccated coconut  1/2 cup
Powdered jaggery  1/4 cup
Cardamom powder  a pinch
Water 1-2 tblp

Sesame oil   to grease idli plate and grease hands

Method:

• In a pan add the desiccated coconut, jaggery and cardamom powder.
• Add 1-2 tblsp of water and mix well.
• Cook for 2-3 minutes till the jaggery melts and it gets incorporated with the desiccated coconut.
• Poornam | stuffing for modak is ready.
• Let's make the outer cover.
•  We can make the outer cover in 4 ways. 
• Add idiyapam flour or home rice flour in a wide bowl. 
• Boil water with few drops of sesame oil.
• Once it comes to a nice rolling boil, add the water to the flour. If using home made or store bought rice flour,add a pinch of salt to the water.
• Mix well with a spoon and keep it covered for few minutes.
• Once it is warm, grease hands with sesame oil and knead into a soft dough, without any cracks.
• Keep it covered all the time.
• Make it into equal lemon sized balls.
• Take one portion of the dough, using fingers make a small cup.
• Place 1/2 tblsp of filling into this.
• Gently close it and make it into modak shape. 
• You can check my video on how to shape modak 
• Repeat this for the rest of the dough .
• The dough and the stuffing is just perfect for the outer cover.
• I finished both the dough and the stuffing for making 16 modakams.
• Grease an idli plate and place the modakams.
• Steam for 10 minutes. You will see the shine in the modaks and it is the right time to switch off the flame.
• Let this cool for 2 minutes.
• Take out the modaks from the pan and the desiccated modaks are ready for neivedyam.

     
     

Method:

• In a pan add the desiccated coconut, jaggery and cardamom powder.

• Add 1-2 tblsp of water and mix well.
• Cook for 2-3 minutes till the jaggery melts and it gets incorporated with the desiccated coconut.

• Poornam | stuffing for modak is ready.
• Let's make the outer cover.
•  We can make the outer cover in 4 ways. 
• Add idiyapam flour or home rice flour in a wide bowl. 
• Boil water with few drops of sesame oil.
• Once it comes to a nice rolling boil, add the water to the flour. If using home made or store bought rice flour,add a pinch of salt to the water.
• Mix well with a spoon and keep it covered for few minutes.

• Once it is warm, grease hands with sesame oil and knead into a soft dough, without any cracks.
• Keep it covered all the time.
• Make it into equal lemon sized balls.

• Take one portion of the dough, using fingers make a small cup.
• Place 1/2 tblsp of filling into this.
• Gently close it and make it into modak shape. 

• You can check my video on how to shape modak 
• Repeat this for the rest of the dough .
• The dough and the stuffing is just perfect for the outer cover.
• I finished both the dough and the stuffing for making 16 modakams.
• Grease an idli plate and place the modakams.
• Steam for 10 minutes. You will see the shine in the modaks and it is the right time to switch off the flame.

• Let this cool for 2 minutes.
• Take out the modaks from the pan and the desiccated modaks are ready for neivedyam.

Notes:

1. Adding water is necessary while making the poornam but do not add too much. First add 1 tblsp and if needed add 1 more.
2. The sweet is just perfect for the stuffing, if needed more add 1-2 tblsp of extra jaggery powder.
3. Always keep the dough and the prepared modak covered. 
4. If using modak mould check out my video on how to shape modak using mould. 
5. If using brown sugar, add water only if needed.

     

Sweet potato modakam, Ganesh Chaturthi recipes

Sweet potato modakam, Ganesh Chaturthi 2017 is coming up on august 25. I have posted many varieties of modak recipes including our traditional Modakam with thengai poornam. Last year itself i wanted to post this Sweet potato modakam but couldn't post as i had posted other kozhukattai varieties. It turned out so well and we all loved the taste of sweet potato in modakam. If you want to make a different variety of modakam try out this one and also my jackfruit modakam too.
Check out my full collection of Ganesh Chaturthi recipes 

Wheat flour sweet seedai, Gokulashtami recipes

Sweet seedai is a very simple seedai made with wheat flour, sugar and few other easy available ingredients. I have posted Vella seedai recipe where we add jaggery for sweetness. For beginners if you are still not confident  of the consistency of vella paagu for vella paagu, you can make this sweet seedai. This is a no fail, no burst seedai recipe. I saw this recipe of sweet seedai in a youtube video and made few changes in that. We all loved the sweet seedai.
Actually my plan was to post Milagu seedai but unfortunately it popped. I think the home made pepper powder is not so fine and thus this disaster. So found this recipe so easy and attempted it. Check out my full collection of Gokulashtami recipes.

Coconut Badam ladoo ,easy laddu recipe

Coconut Badam ladoo is an easy sweet recipe, made with almond(badam) powder, desiccated coconut, sugar and ghee as the main ingredients. During our India trip in June, my brother in law passed me a packet of almond powder to me and told to try some recipes with that. This week i thought i will post some Janmashtami | Krishna jayanthi recipes, also realised that today is Raksha bandan too. I first wanted to post Rava coconut ladoo. Then when i opened my freezer,saw this almond powder and tried this badam coconut laddu. It turned out very well and got ready in 20 minutes. Check out my full collection of Janmastami| Krishna jayanthi recipes and Raksha bandan recipes.
Scroll down till the end for tips and badam coconut laddu with step wise pictures.

Chakka unniyappam | Jackfruit uniappam recipe

Chakka unniappam with video
Chakka unniyappam or jackfruit neiappam, is generally made using chakka varati.  We make unniappam | nei appam for aavani avittam, Gokulashtami and Karthigai deepam. After making jackfruit modagam, i wanted to try jackfruit poli and ela adai this year. Ela adai , few days back my friend's mom taught me while she was making it. But today due to some urgent work, i didn't have time to make poli or ela adai.  During our India trip in June, we attended a wedding in Kerala and came to know that they make nei appam with jackfruit. So i thought i will give it a try. It tasted so awesome, if you are a jackfruit lover then you will love it for sure. The nei appams were crispy outside and soft inside. Check out my

• Karthigai appam
• Wheat flour appam

Panchamirtham recipe

Panchamirtham is a mix of banana and other dry fruits generally made as a prasadh | neivedhyam for many festivals like janmashtami, Ganesha chathurthi, navaratri or any other pooja we do at home. Even for house warming ceremony and ganapathi homam at home we do this panchamirtham. During our childhood days, we get regular supply of Pazhani panjamirtham from Palani. Also we get the same pazhani panchamirtham in thiruparankundram temple too. But i never liked that as do not like any jaggery based sweets. But now everything has changed. In my sister's house they make this during the time they visit their anscestoral temple. They make it there in the temple and offer as a neivedyam to the God. This recipe, my sister's brother in law passed on to me, the way he explained made me to try this immediately.  As janmashatmi | krishna jayanthi 2016 is on aug 25th, i am posting the this recipe of panchamirtham.  Check out the video of the recipe too.

Mango Shrikand recipe | Mango recipes

Shrikand is an Indian sweet made with strained yogurt. I have already posted kesar shrikand recipe. I wanted to try out Mango shrikand recipe this time. Few days back when i was talking to a Maharastrian friend she was talking about this Mango shrikand and also told me about Aam Piyush a mango drink. Both the recipes sounded so interesting and today i am posting the recipe of Mango shrikand. It is a no cook recipe, only the yogurt should be hung in a muslin cloth or keep it in a tea strainer as i did. Check out my full collection of Mango recipes.

Mango kesari recipe | Mango sheera recipe

Mango kesari recipe|mango sheera| Mango halwa is a delicious sweet|dessert made with mangoes. As mangoes are in season now i wanted to make mango kesari with fresh mango pulp. I wanted to make like South Indian kesari, but wanted to make it with the addition of milk. So i adapted my paal kesari and followed the same method by adding fresh mango pulp to this. The mango kesari tasted very nice. The vibrant colour of the mango kesari from the fresh alphonso mango pulp complimented the kesari. Check out my full collection of Mango recipes. 
Check out my other kesari recipe with video

• Rava kesari
• Pineapple kesari
• Aval kesari

Milk masala powder | Home made milk masala

Milk masala is a blend of nuts and aromatic spices, we used to get Everest Milk masala in mustafa center here in Singapore. I have used this in many of my sweet recipes like rasmalai, motichoor ladoo, malpua.. But last time when i went and checked in mustafa it was not there. So i decided to do it at home. I know from the package the ingredients they used so it is quite easy for me to do it. I have made this in one of my cookery class which i did at my home here in Singapore. I wanted to share this recipe of milk masala with you all. You can also add this to milk and drink it as masala milk too.
Stay tuned for few sweet recipes coming up using milk masala powder.

Caramel payasam recipe | Payasam recipes

Caramel payasam recipe with video

Caramel payasam | caramel kheer, is similar to the paal payasam recipe, with 3 major ingredients, but with a variation of caramelising the sugar. I have this payasam tried few times but i chose to post it today to celebrate a special event. Yes, my in laws are celebrating their 50th Wedding anniversary today. Yesterday they had a small get together in Chennai. As things were planned in the last minute i couldn't join the event. But my husband and his 2 brothers were there with them on this special occasion. So this caramel payasam comes as a virtual treat for them.
Check out my rice kheer recipe.

Caramel payasam recipe

  Preparation Time : 10 mins | Cooking Time : 35 Mins |Serves: 5-6

    Full cream Milk  4 cups
     Sugar  1/2 cup
     Nuts  to garnish (optional)
     Raw rice or millets or basmati rice  3 tbslp
     Salt  a pinch
                                        Video of how to make caramel payasam

          

     

Method:
  For this recipe pressure cooker works out well. If needed grease a pressure cooker with ghee. Though i don't do it i have seen my mami doing this.

• Wash and soak the rice for 20 minutes. You can use millets or basmati rice. Even seeraga samba rice works out well.
• Add 1/4 cup of sugar into the cooker. Do not add water. Keep the flame medium.

• Let the sugar caramalise and turn into golden brown, amber colour. 
• Do not stir it often. Just keep a close eye on this. 
• Once the sugar starts turning out golden colour, immediately pour the milk. 

• Better switch off the flame and pour the milk. You can add the raw milk. Be careful as it may splutter.
• Stir it once. You may find some sugar sticking to the bottom but do not worry, it will be ok once it is done.
• Drain the water from soaked rice and add it to the milk.

• Cover the lid of the cooker and give one whistle. Sometimes it may flow. 
• After one whistle, keep the flame in the lowest possible flame.
•  If your stove do not have this  option, heat a dosa pan and put the cooker on the top of the pan.  Keep in low flame and let it sit for 30 minutes.
• Switch off the flame. Once the pressure completely subsides open the cooker.
• Add 1/4 cup of sugar, If you need the caramel payasam more sweeter add few more tblsp of  extra sugar.

• Stir it well.
• Add a pinch of salt. This balances the sweetness and the slight bitterness of the caramel. Thank you raji for giving me this tip. 
• Garnish with nuts. I used almonds and pistachios.

• We generally don't add cardamom in paal payasam. I feel the overpowering flavour of cardamom suppress the caramel flavour. 

Notes:

1. When you add sugar in the beginning for caramelisation, keep the flame medium. Once you see the light golden brown colour, be alert and it will immediately turn amber /honey colour. 
2. If you feel the basmati rice is big pulse it once in a mixie  and then soak it and add.
3. For me 1/2 cup sugar was just perfect but if you want some more sugar add it some more.
4. The entire payasam can be made on a heavy bottomed vessel. Cook for 45 minutes to 1 hour on a low flame like how we make the kerala payasam. 
5. Enjoy the caramel payasam | caramel kheer, hot or chilled. Both ways it taste yum.

    

Kadala paruppu payasam | Chana dal kheer

Kadala paruppu payasam | chana dal payasam made with coconut milk and jaggery is used for sweetness. Generally in most of the Tamil brahmin homes we make paruppu payasam for all occasions. We make it using paasi paruppu and jaggery. Some people add little chana dal to that. Recently one of my friend shared this kadala paruppu payasam, in kerala they call it as kadala parippu pradaman. Generally Keralites make it in traditional uruli(a heavy bottomed brass vessel), as the kheer needs to boil for a long time. I don't claim this as authentic kerala pradaman but we all loved it a lot. I was about to post caramel payasam today but the video didn't turn out well. Will post it soon. Since tomorrow is Tamil new year | Vishu, make this kadala paruppu payasam and celebrate the New year.

Check out my other Tamil new year recipes

Mango Payasam recipe | Mango semiya kheer

Ugadi special

Wish all readers a Happy Gudipadwa and Ugadi. Ugadi (Telugu new year) and Tamil new year are around the corner. Generally we make a menu which has all the six tastes,sweet, sour, salt, spice, astringent and  bitter with naturally available ingredients. I have posted neem flower rasam, mango pachadi, raw mango rice, mango pickle and obbatu |poli recipes. Since mangoes started coming in the market i decided to make mango payasam. I love vermicelli payasam so i decided to make mango vermicelli payasam.   

Donut mug cake recipe | Easy eggless desserts

Donut mug cake is an easy microwave mug cake recipe topped with chocolate ganache. This is perfect dessert for a valentines day celebrations. Valentines day is more special to us as it is out little Prince Varun's birthday too. I have planned to make eggless doughnuts for him but i had to attend to few other work, which was not planned before. So made this donut mug cake for valentines day and an eggless double chocolate chip cake for his birthday. I decorated the cake with whipped cream icing and m and m candies. Will surely post the recipe of doughnuts soon. On this occasion of Valentines day, i extend my love to all my dear readers, who all make this journey so complete. Celebrate love.

Aval puttu recipe | aval vella puttu

Aval vella puttu is a traditional dish made with poha and jaggery as a main ingredient. I have already posted arisi vella puttu recipe with video, this is even more easier on made using aval. Though i have tried this few years back, i didn't get the consistency right that time. But now after asking tips on making puttu from one of our close family friend , I tried at home yesterday. It turned out well and was too soft too. As today being thai velli and pournami (full moon day) i thought i will post the recipe of aval vella puttu, as we call in tamil. If you are a sweet lover just make this easy recipe at home and enjoy the puttu.

Carrot Poli recipe | Sweet poli recipe

Bogi pandigai is celebrated in Tamilnadu on the last day of the tamil month Margazhi. Lohiri they call it in Maharastra. We South Indians, make poli | obbattu | boli for this festival. We also make poli for avani avittam too. I have already posted puran poli, thengai poli, paal poli (with video)and maharastrian style puran poli recipe. I wanted to make carrot poli, last year itself but finally this year i am coming up with the recipe of carrot poli for bogi pandigai which falls on Jan 13 2017. I have made a video on how to make poli. Though i won't say the video is too perfect but for sure will benefit the beginners. Click here for the collection of pongal festival recipes.

Potato Halwa recipe | Happy New year 2017

Wish you a very HAPPY NEW YEAR 2017
Potato halwa recipe is a very easy and simple halwa recipe using potato and sugar as main ingredients. I have learnt this recipe from a friend's mother in law and made this in 3 of my cookery shows. It was a huge hit among my guests too. This halwa doesn't have a smell or flavour of potato while eating the sweet. This can be made in a jiffy and without stirring much. Let's start the new year 2017 with  a sweet recipe, potato halwa. Stay tuned for many new interesting recipe coming up in the New year.

Check out my other easy halwa recipes

• Kasi halwa
• Moong dal halwa

Filipino fruit salad | Easy dessert recipes

Filipino fruit salad |Buko salad, is similar to the Indian fruit cream recipe. This easy and exotic dessert was introduced to me by my helper Joann, 2 years back. Also the mango float recipe also she only taught me. Most of my guests had tasted this yummy dessert and tried at home too. I made this for the guests who came for my cookery show in London. Everyone was impressed by this surprise dessert and asked me for the recipe. And many guests who tasted this asked me whether i have this recipe of fruit salad in jeyashris kitchen, so finally i have made this one day to make a post . In this recipe i used the tinned fruit cocktail, where as you can replace with fresh fruits like pineapple, pomegranate, grapes, mango and apple. Do not use fruits which are very sour. Also i have used the nata de coco, which i get here in tetra packs in the local Singapore fair price shops. You can chop the tender coconut meat (ilaneer thengai) and add to this. Try out this easy dessert recipe and impress your family and guests. A perfect dessert for potluck parties, where you can make this ahead and keep it in the refrigerator, as it tastes best when chilled.

Nel pori urundai recipe | Karthigai pori urundai recipe with video

Nel pori urundai recipe with video

Nel pori urundai is the traditional recipe we make for Karthigai deepam. Karthigai deepam is celebrated in Tamilnadu and we lit lamps in the houses. Karthigai deepam 2016 is on Dec 12. We make pori urundai and in the traditional brahmin houses,we make paruppu thengai first and then proceed with making of balls. Some houses they do not make urundais, they just mix the pori with jaggery syrup and offer as neivedhyam. Recently in my skype class i took the session on making of pori urundai using nel pori and paruppu thengai too. I have already posted pori urundai recipe but that was made with the puffed rice, which we use for bhel puri. We also make aval pori urundai for karthigai deepam. For all types of pori, we use the same proportion and method, as mentioned in the recipe below. Check out my other karthigai deepam recipes.  

Porivilangai urundai recipe | Porul vilanga urundai | Healthy ladoo

Porivilangai urundai | Porulvilanga urundai (recipe with video) is a healthy multigrain ladoo recipe made with jaggery for sweetness, and generally we don't use ghee for this recipe. This urundai is generally hard and we break with hammer or keep it inside our mouth for a while and it gets softened. I think most of the South Indians have a good memory associated to this porulvilangaai urundai. I have noticed this recipe in amma's hand written cookery notebook. She always keep a note of all recipes she learn through our relatives and tv shows. Whenever i go to there i will have a glimpse of those recipes, but i never find time to note the recipes down. This particular porulvilanga urundai recipe is taught by my athai and she had noted down the recipe too. When i wanted to try this, i called her up and asked her for the measurements. The urundais turned out perfect. If you don't have flour mill nearby, you can try with kanji maavu | sathu maavu too.