1. Take a heavy bottomed pan, this helps with avoiding pan burn. Always use either a non stick or heavy bottomed pan while making any milk based sweets.

2. Pour 4 cup of thick milk and let it boil and reduce half its size. It will be thick like cream. This stage will take 20 mins. Now to this add condensed milk and keep stirring now and then, otherwise the pan might get burnt at the bottom. Do not add more condensed milk than mentioned, otherwise it will be very sweet. Check the sweet and add sugar if needed at the end.

3. Now add Saffron, stir the milk. It will change into mild yellow color and you can smell the aroma. At this stage add elachi powder and all the nuts and keep stirring for 3 more mins. I don't like it too thick. I like it semi thick, stop according to the texture you need.


4. Let it cool. Serve it warm or refrigerate and serve it chilled. This base is used to prepare sweets like Rasmalai, Malpua, Shahi Tukda, Basundhi and Kulfi. I love having this rabri just plain. Its super rich and very tasty.

1. Take 1 cup of  Sambha Godhumai / Wheat in a bowl. Wash it well and let it soak for nearly 12 hrs( This is how its traditionally soaked, it has to soak at least 10-12 hrs). Now blend them in mixie and extract thick milk out of them. I have maximum used 1/2 of water to extract this thick milk. Now filter it using a cloth strainer.




2. Throw the wheat dough part that you get as residue after extracting the milk. Now pour this milk in a bowl and let it rest for 3-4 hrs. The milk has to stay idle for few hours to get that perfect taste you get in FAMOUS SHOPS like IRUTTUKADAI halwa.

3. Now if you notice the milk, you will see little water floating on top and thick milk . Slowly pour out that little water that's floating and keep the thick milk safe. Now take a glass and measure it. I got 1 cup of thick milk. Now to this add 2 more cup of water and mix it well.


4. Now heat pan, add 1/4 cup of water and when it's boiling add  1 cup of sugar. Let it caramelize to golden brown in color.

How to camamelize?

• Add 1/4 up water to pan and let it boil. Now add 1 cup sugar and srir until the sugar completely dissolves. Then stop stirring. With in a min or 2 it will start to get mild to dark  brown in color that's caramelizing. If you keep srirring then the sugar will get hard. (Stop stirring once the sugar is completely dissolved)

This step is very important since this will be the color of the halwa once done. So caramelize to whatever colour you need say like mild brown or golden brown. Tirunelveli halwa is usually dark brown or honey brown in color it's never yellow or orange. Don't ever use food coloring for this. By caramelizing the sugar correctly you will automatically achieve the perfect color and texture.



5. Okay now off to recipe, once you have caramelized the sugar, add the milk and start stirring. From here all you will be doing is stirring. After 20 mins of stirring the halwa will start to thicken. Now add the remaining 1 and half cup of sugar and keep stirring. Always keep the flame in low to medium. This process will take time so you need lots of patience. Never stop stirring, this is a very important thing to remember. Now when the halwa gets even little more thicker and changes the color to dark brown say after 30 mins, slowly add the ghee little by little. I add 1/4 cup every 15 mins.

6. Keep stirring , once the halwa gets little more thicker and starts to get that glossy shine, I got it after 45 mins add cashews and keep stirring. Now after this you will see halwa ever thicker and the cashew will be nicely blended inside the halwa. You will start to get that halwa smell aroma in you house.

7. When the ghee starts to ooze out or when the halwa doesn't stick to pan anymore slowly you should be ready to switch of the flame. My ghee was completely observed so I slowly transferred it to a glass bowl and let it sit for few mins. {When the halwa gets that shiny look and starts to ooze ghee and doesn't stick to pan anymore is the indication time to remove the halwa from pan)

8. Halwa is ready. Serve it hot or serve it little warm. This will stay good for many days. I keep it in fridge after 2 days and will reheat it before serving to others. Little time consuming but def worth trying. Let me know how it turned out after trying this method.

1. Heat Rava in a pan for 3-4 mins until a nice aroma comes from it. Keep it separate. If you have fresh ripe mangoes, peel the skin and cut the mangoes and make a pulp out of them using a blender. If you don't get fresh mangoes then use store bought Mango pulp.

2. Heat pan, add ghee and slightly roast raisins first. Then to the same pan add cashews, let them turn golden brown in color. Keep it Separate in a bowl.

3. Now to the same pan, add water and let it boil. To this add sugar and once it completely dissolves, add elachi powder, salt and mango puree. Let it boil for 2 mins.  Slow the flame. Now add rava /Sooji and mix it slowly without forming lumps. Now add ghee, this will help with smooth finish without lumps. Keep stirring until the rava is properly cooked.

4. Now add raisins, cashews and mix everything well. One all done and reaches that non- sticky consistency switch off the flame.

1. In a bowl bash the ripe banana to pulp. To this add cinnamon powder,vanilla essence,soda,sugar,butter and mix everything  well.

2. Now add the flour to the mix and slowly start adding milk little by little and blend them all together. No lumps, make it to smooth pouring consistency.

3. Heat pan, spread some butter and pour the batter. Don't make it flat, give a round shape and let it have thick base. Keep the flame in medium to low. Once the batter starts to bubble up on top,flip it to next side.(Never keep the flame high,it will turn black)

4. Now both sides are golden brown. Serve them on a plate with generous amount of maple syrup on top. Arrange some chopped fruits like banana, strawberry, cherry or any fruits of your choice and serve it hot. I forgot to mention, just before serving add dollop of butter on top and serve along with maple syrup or any spread of your choice.

1. Take Aval / Poha in a bowl and rinse them well in water. Then drain the water completely and keep it separately in a bowl.

2. Now heat pan and add ghee and fry cashews & raisins till they are golden in color. Now remove them from pan and keep it separate.

3. To the same pan add 3/4 cup of water and let it boil. To this add jaggery and let it boil for 3-5 mins, until the jaggery is completely melted and reach a little thick consistency(No need single string consistency,just little thickness) Now add little elachi powder and mix. Reduce the flame now.

5. Then add Poha/ Aval and mix them well. To this start adding cashew,raisins and ghee(little bit). Switch off the flame. Make sure everything is nicely blended and mixed. Finally add some grated coconut on top and serve it hot.

6. Yummy tasty Aval sweet recipe is ready to serve.

1. Soak brown rice for 2 hrs in a bowl. Usually white rice is added but I like kozhukattai in brown or red rice.

2. Now grind rice and coconut together. Add oil in hot pan and do the seasoning mentioned above. Then add the ground coconut and rice mix together and keep stirring in low flame for few mins,till the mix becomes non-sticky like dough in texture.

3. Dry fry moong dal and keep it separate. This is optional but it gives nice crunchy taste to kozhukattai.

4. Now switch off the flame and let the dough cool off. Shape them inside your hand as shown in pic and steam them in Idly cooker for 10 mins. Now serve it hot and enjoy.

1. In a  large bowl add mango pulp, to this add milk,cream,sugar and whip them well with a hand blender for ten mins. To this add elachi and mix it well again.

2. Now the ice cream will me smooth and fluffy then freeze them for an hr and half. Make sure that ur freezer is not tightly packed with other things,then it will take time to freeze.

3. After 1 1/2 hr take the mango ice cream out and whip it again in a blender or with a hand whipper. Then once done keep it back in freezer for 6-7 hrs. This is done to eliminate the ice that forms in ice cream and makes the ice cream hard instead of smooth.


6. Later serve it in a waffle bowl stylishly and eat the whole ice cream as well as the bowl,simple right??? Best for summer so yumm...lip smashing mango ice cream is ready.

7. Serve it with brownies or on top of cake or use it for milkshakes too. It serves many purpose. yumm just yumm now I ma going to dig into my ice cream.

1. In a bowl add softened butter and sugar and whip them soft and fluffy to this add condensed milk and beat for few sec till they are well mixed. To this add baking powder,salt,vanilla essence and whisk for few more mins. To this slowly add the flour little by little and let it blend.


2. Now transfer the mix 60% to another bowl and add food color to the 40% mix. I added pink color since it was valentine day. You can add any color of your choice.



3. Now pre heat oven to 350 deg F and I took cake tin and sprayed with oil. On top of it I placed parchment paper and poured the pink batter mix to this(parchment paper is used so that the bottom part is not burnt)

4. Now place it for 20-30 min in oven and bake it. Prick with a stick in center to check if its done. If the stick comes out clean its done perfectly. Then remove from oven and let it cool. Once cooled using cookie cutter(heart shaped) cut the cake and keep it separate.

5. With the remaining 60% dough, take cupcake pan and place the liners and spray it little bit with oil and add 2 tsp of dough on each liner, then place the cut heart shape cake pieces in center of the cupcake. Press it till the bottom and cover it up with 3 tsp of batter. Don't over fill it just till the heart is covered.

6. Bake it again at 350 deg F for 20-25 min,prick at sides to see if they are well cooked. When done remove from oven and cool it off.



FOR ICING:
1. In a bowl whisk unsalted butter and icing sugar/ Confectioners sugar till smooth. Add vanilla essence and 3 tsp of milk. If the dough is still tight you can add more milk and it should be perfect enough to ice the cake. Using the icing pipe cover up the cupcake and add sprinklers on top of it and serve it to your loved one. To see the hidden heart inside cut the cupcake in center so cute isn't it???? I love valentine day.

1.In a kadai fry yellow pasi paruppu for a minute.Then remove them from fire.

2.Add 2 glass of water for 1/2 cup of rice and 3 tsp of moon dal.Let it cook for 4 whistles.

3.Now in a kadai/pan add some ghee and fry cashew nuts and raisins,let raisins puff.Keep them separate.

4.Now mash the cooked rice with a ladle and if you find it dry add some milk and boil it for a min.Now in a cup of water dilute jaggery and filter it well then transfer it to the boiling rice and mix it well.The pongal must be little loose because when we add ghee it will tend to absorb the moisture and will become hard so add little more milk and keep the pongal loose.Add elachi powder and mix it again.To this add the roasted cashew nuts and raisins and then add 1/4 cup of ghee and mix it well. More ghee gives more flavor to it. I personally prefer to serve it hot. Enjoy the sakkara pongal.

1. Cut paneer to small pieces and in blender crumble them well as shown in pic . If its thick the sweet wont taste good,so it is important that the paneer is crumbled fine.

2. In a pan,add this crumbled paneer and mix it with condensed milk and stir it for few mins. To this add elachi powder,milk powder  and little bit of nuts and mix them well. Let it cook for ten mins or till they stop sticking to the pan. Once they start to thicken up,switch the fire off.

3. Now transfer them in to a bowl greased with little ghee or butter. Then transfer the paneer mix to this and let it stay for few mins. Now add the rest of the nuts on top of this as shown in pic. Then slice them to cubes for serving them easy.

4. Now refrigerate them for few hrs in fridge and serve them later. Before serving leave it in room temperature. It will stay for 4 days if stored in cool temperature.