Sooji Halwa / Sajjige / Sheera is the most important Prasad for SathyaNarayan Pooja,Kanya Pooja during Navratri also known as Kanjak pooja .
In North India Halwa Poori and Channa are offered as Bhog to Devi Maa on Durgashtami .Little girls who haven't attained puberty are invited and offered this Prasad .These little girls are called Kanjaks or Kanya and are seen as Devi roopam.(form of Devi).
(Redoing my old posts - 20/10/2020)
This time for Blogging Marathon we are exploring "Puddings" and this is my humble attempt to promote the famous Indian dessert which falls under the Pudding category..read below to know more about Puddings
When we hear the name pudding,the first thing that strikes us is some complex International cuisine..doesn't it? and immediately we take a back stand thinking about the unknown ingredients that we will need to use,some new cooking techniques etc etc.
Donot worry my friends,initially when I started cooking ,I also was under the same impression about puddings ,but as I started reading cookbooks,googling for new recipes and surfing the internet to understand the various cooking terms and actual meanings, I realised we Indians have so many mithais that qualify under the pudding category which we call by different names. To name a few the various Payasams/Kheer ,Rabri,Firni,Sheera ,Sheer Korma etc.
You can look up wiki for an exhaustive list that will break your myths about Puddings .
Now coming to our recipe , often Sajjige and Kesari are confused to be the same dish with different names,but there definately is a difference in both even if the main ingredient Rava/Semolina is the same.
Differences in Sheera/Sooji Halwa and Kesari
- Kesari is made only with Rava,sugar and water as main ingredients .
- Sheera/Sajjige is made using Rava,sugar and Milk.
- For Kesari a wee bit of food color is used like orange or yellow.
- Sooji ka halwa gets its light cream color from saffron strands. Adding saffron is purelyyour choice.
- Kesari is very popular in South India and is a special delicacy liked by one and all .
- Kesari Bhaat is very popular breakfast item in Karnataka and is a part of the popular breakfast combo Chow Chow Bhaath.
This is a video post ,that has all the detailing about how to roast the rava perfectly and the consistency,amount of ghee to be added etc etc.
Other flavors of Sheera on my blog
Preparation Time - 5 mins
Cooking Time : 20-25 mins
Serves : 3-4
Ingredients
1/2 cup rava
1 cup milk
1/2 - 3/4 cup sugar
2-3 elaichis powdered
10-15 cashewnuts chopped
2-3 tablespoon ghee
few strands of kesar/saffron/kumkuma poo
Method
- Keep the milk in a sauce pan with the saffron strands for boiling.
- Simultaneously , heat a tablespoon of ghee in a kadai/pan,and roast the rawa nicely until you get a nice aroma of roasted rava and the rava begins to feel light on roasting.
- As the rava is roasted,the milk also begins to boil,slowly pour the milk onto the roasted rava and stir simultaneously to avoid formation of lumps.
- Slowly all the milk gets absorbed into the rava and it feels like a huge mass.
- Now add the sugar and mix well,the mass gets liquified again.Donot worry,it will thicken up as the sugar gets absorbed.
- Keep stirring occasionally and when you see all the sugar is melted and mixed well,add the cardamom powder and a tablespoon of ghee and mix well.
- Slowly the sheera gets done and you can see it leaving the sides of the pan easily and the ghee starts oozing out from the sides. The entire mixture looks glossy and shiny.Turn off the stove at this stage.
- Roast the cashews in ghee and add it to the sheera and mix well.
- Transfer into a dry container and serve it warm.
- You can warm the sheera in the microwave before serving .The sheera stays good for 3-4 days in fridge if kept away from moisture and wet spoon.
Notes:
- Ratio of Rava to Milk is 1: 2 i.e. for 1 measure of rava you will need 2 measures of milk.
- Ratio of Rava to Sugar is 1:1 or if you like a little more sweet you can use 1 measure rava to 1.25 measures sugar.
- Roast the rava very patiently in medium flame taking care not to burn the rava. Do this step very carefully and utmost attention.
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Simply delicious, semolina pudding is always my favourite.
ReplyDeleteThis looks like paal kesari to me... I love kesari, looks delicious...
ReplyDeleteDelicious sheera!!
ReplyDeleteYeah,you're right,to me still pudding means some international cuisine.BTW, the sheera looks awesome
ReplyDeleteSooji pudding is delicious., Nice simple way doing with semolina. Love it.
ReplyDeleteYes I too took a lot of time to realize that we have tons of puddings in our cuisine. It's just that we have an individual name for the sweet and so it doesn't strike immediately that it's a pudding of sorts. Good call on the theme!
ReplyDeletelove the consistency - must be delicious. and great take on the pudding theme
ReplyDeletePerfect sooji pudding. Like you said, Indian dishes don't usually come to mind when we think of pudding -- but this is just perfect.
ReplyDeleteThat's the idea behind the theme, that one does a research to learn more about cuisines and techniques. So glad to see you have done that.. good dish and the texture looks so good.
ReplyDeleteMy main intention was to showcase our desi mithais which fall under the pudding category. I think I have achieved it with all your encouraging and motivating comments. Thanks once again to all you blogger friends :-)
ReplyDeleteTrue... Our Indian cuisine has lot of recipes similar to pudding, but the moment we hear the term pudding, we think about milk + eggs + corn flour +.... and forget our cuisine. Good research done there. Pudding looks more or less like the kesari done on south side. :)
ReplyDeleteDelicious pudding. Agree with you Indian cuisine does have lot of pudding recipes. very nice.
ReplyDelete