Coconut Barfi Recipe

I am stealing some time very quickly as my little one sleeps to do this post. I am going to post recipes without ranting too much about them, I don't think I can afford that kind of time anymore :).

I had a lot of coconuts remaining from a pooja and had to finish them up and this was the quickest and easiest sweet that I could make. So here it is :)


Ingredients

Makes about 20 pieces

Grated coconut - 3 cups
Sugar - 2.5 cups
Water - 3/4 cups
Broken cashews - 4-5 Tbsp
Ghee - few tbsp
Cardamom powder - 1 tsp

How do you make it


1. Heat a pan with a spoon of ghee in it and fry the cashews until golden brown. Keep aside

2. Take a wide bottom non-stick pan and add water and sugar and mix well. The sugar will start to bubble at one point. Keep mixing now and then and wait until sugar reaches single thread consistency.

3. This can be checked when you take a drop of sugar water between your thumb and forefinger and see if it forms a single thread. This step is of importance and has to be noted properly. Otherwise it could spoil the consistency of the barfi.

4. At this stage add the grated coconut and mix well.

5. The coconut and sugar water will form a mass, at this stage add cardamom powder, cashews and 3 tbsp of ghee and mix well.

6. Keep mixing well until everything comes together and forms a big lump without sticking to the sides of the pan, like halwa. This stage is important as well - if you take the barfi earlier, it wont set and a little later - they will turn out hard

7. Meanwhile grease a cookie sheet with some ghee to transfer the barfi.

8. Once the barfi comes to the right consistency, remove and transfer to greased cookie sheet and pat with spatula to form a smooth surface.

9. After 5 min, while the barfi is still warm, cut squares with a knife and leave it for a few more minutes to cool them. Transfer to an air-tight container.

Enjoy these yummy barfis :)

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Cocont Barfi Ladoo | Easy Diwali Recipe

Happy Diwali wishes to all of you readers of Food over IP :-). I love diwali, and for most of us it is the most favorite festival - full of life, lights and colors, not to mention the yummy sweets, snacks and super shopping.

I wanted to post here much earlier, but managed to squeeze some time only yesterday to make Diwali palakaram [food] which started off with Coconut barfi. This Diwali my palakaram set consists of coconut barfi, rasagollas, tomato pickle, Masal Paniyaram and Paal Paniyaram. All the posts will appear here as soon as I finish making them ;). So what sweets and snacks do you plan to make this Diwali? 

I am not fond of heavy coconut based sweets, but S loves coconut barfi when warm and I also had to finish the grated coconut from Ayudha pooja festival that has been sitting in my freezer for a while now, so decided to go ahead and make coconut barfi for Diwali. S had this brilliant idea of using mini muffin pan to set the coconut barfi which dint work :|, so we had remove it from there and reset it the usual way on a plate. While doing that, I completely forgot about greasing the plate and hence couldn't take out the pieces in the desired square shape. So I removed all of them again and made them into a ladoo shape and hence the name coconut barfi ladoo :).

Btw which click looks better the first one or second? I clicked the one above and S the one below, but I like his better and vice versa ;)

Ingredients

Serves - Makes - 12 pieces
Prep Time - 15 min
Cook time - 15 min

Grated Coconut - 1 1/3 cup
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Cardamom powder - 1/2 Tsp
Cashew nuts - 10 pieces, broken
Water - 1/4 cup
Ghee - 2 Tsp little for greasing

How do you do it

1. Give the grated coconut a couple of pulses in your mixie/food processor to get a much finer texture of the coconut and keep aside. Grease a plate with little ghee , to which you will transfer the barfi mix later.

2. Heat 1 Tsp ghee in a wide bottom pan, and roast the cashews to a golden brown and transfer to a bowl.

3. In the same pan as above, add the sugar and water and let them boil, the sugar will dissolve and wil froth up. At about 6-7 min, you will get a single string consistency of the sugar syrup, this is when you add the coconut.

4. Mix the coconut well and keep stirring. After a few minutes it will bubble at the sides, then add a tsp ghee , cashews and cardamom powder and mix well.

5. Keep mixing, after 5-6 minutes, the mixture will form a lump mass at the center of the pan, and start to leave the sides of the pan easily. Switch off flame and transfer immediately to the greased plate. Smooth the top with a spatula and let it set. You are now free to have a few spoons full of this yummy coconut mix while warm which taste absolutely heavenly :)

6. After 15 minutes, while its a little warm, mark the pieces on barfi and cool it. Once completely cooled, return to fridge. After a couple of hours, remove the marked pieces and store in air-tight container. Keeps well for a week.

Notes

1. The consistency at which you switch off flame is very important, a minute later - the barfis will be hard, a minute sooner - they will not set well.

2. Mark pieces when warm, otherwise it will be difficult to do it later once it sets completely.

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Kumbakonam Kaddapa

Kadappa is very famous kumbakonam side dish for idli/dosai. Its a cross between sambar and kurma and a combination that I normally wouldn't think of putting together.

I was really bored of the usual idli-dosai side dishes and wanted to cook up something entirely different. I googled immediately and this kadappa recipe came up. I quickly searched the ingredients list and saw moong dal, potato and a coconut paste. This combination sounded quite weird. And then i thought- I like moong dal, potato - yum, and coconut paste - mm-mm, so whats not to like right? ;). So decided to give this recipe a shot and I was pleasantly surprised at its different yet yum taste. Sometimes certain combinations don't strike a good chord immediately but this one did :). I was happy at discovering this authentic kumbakonam recipe! For me, from now on kadappa goes into my usual list of dosai accompaniments :-).

Kumbakonam Kadappa

Ingredients

Modified from here

Serves - 3
Spice Level - Moderately spicy
Prep Time - 20 min
Cook time - 15 min

Moong dal - 1/4 cup
Potato - 1 Large
Green chilli - 1, sliced thinly
Onion - 2 , sliced thinly lengthwise
Tomato  - 1 , chopped or juice of 1/2 lemon
Coriander Leaves - 1 Tbsp , to garnish
Turmeric - a pinch
Salt - as needed

To Temper

Oil - 1 Tbsp
Hing - a pinch
Jeera - 1 Tsp
Bay Leaf - 1
Cinnamon - 1 inch piece
Mustard - 1 Tsp
Curry Leaves - to sprig

To grind to a paste

Coconut - 1/4 cup
Green chilli - 2
Fennel - 1 Tsp
Jeera/Cumin - 1 Tsp
Poppy seeds [ khas khas ] - 1 Tsp
Garlic cloves - 2
water - few tbsp to grind with

How do you do it

1. Firstly pressure cook the moong dal with a pinch of turmeric and mash and keep aside. Also pressure cook the potatoes and mash roughly and keep aside.

2. Grind the items under " To grind to a paste".

3. Heat oil in a kadai. Add hing,bay leaf, cinnamon and mustard , jeera - let them roast. Add curry leaves and onion, green chilli and saute till onions are translucent. Add in the tomato pieces, little salt and saute till they are soft and mushy. They should let the juice out.

4. Add the mashed dal and potatoes and stir well. Simmer flame now, as you don't want the dal and potato mix to get burnt. Add in 2 cups of water, remaining salt and mix well. Let them come to a slow boil.

5. Maintain low flame. Add in the coconut paste now and mix well and bring to a slow boil. Let it boil on low flame for 2 minutes. Adjust consistency of the curry at this stage.

6. Switch off flame and garnish with coriander leaves. Serve hot with crispy dosai.

Notes

You can skip the tomato and add juice of half a lemon, but you need to add lemon juice at the end after switching off the flame.

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Potato-Peas-cauliflower Kurma

This vegetable kurma is a great side dish for chapathis or Kerala coin parathas. It is a coconut based white gravy flavored with mild spices.Its a quick one if you have grated coconut ready in your pantry.

Aloo-Mattar Kurma

Ingredients

Serves - 4
Spice Level - Moderate

Grated coconut - 1/2 cup
Badams/Almonds - 6
Jeera - 2 Tspn
Saunf - 1 Tspn
Ginger-Garlic Paste - 1 Tbspn
Green chilli - 4
cloves - 2
Onion - 1 finely chopped
Tomato - 1 Finely chopped
1 cup of chopped mix veggies, - I used potato,peas and cauliflower.
Oil - 2 Tbspn
Jeera - 1 Tspn
Salt -  as per taste
Turmeric - 1/4 Tspn


Method

First grind the first 7 ingredients with 1/2 cup water to a fine paste. Keep aside. Boil the chopped veggies till its half-cooked. Keep aside.

Heat oil in a kadai. Add jeera and let it roast. Add in the chopped onions and saute it till translucent. Add chopped tomatoes salt and turmeric. Cook till the tomatoes are soft and juicy. Now add in the ground paste , and saute for a couple of minutes. Add about 1 cup water and let it simmer in low heat for about five minutes.Now throw in the half-cooked veggies and let them cook through in the gravy. Add more salt if needed. Also add in water if needed to get desired consistency.Switch off flame. Serve with hot chapathis :). Simple NO?



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Authentic ChettinaduTherrakal/Coconut Gravy with brinjal and potato

This is another authentic Chettinadu dish . The coconut based gravy is used as a side dish for dosais and Idlis. It is super yum and this preparation never fails to impress. This curry has been a super hit in all parties that I have hosted until now:).

Therakkal

Ingredients

Brinjal - 2 medium sized, chopped into small pieces
Potato - 1 Medium sized , chopped into small pieces
Tomato - 1 Medium sized, chopped.
Onion - 1 Large , chopped finely
Ginger-garlic paste - 1 Tspn
Curry Leaves - 1 Sprig

To Temper

Mustard - 1 tspn
Jeera - 1 Tbspn

To dry roast and Grind

Mustard - 1 Tbpn
Jeera - 1 Tbpn
Raw Rice - 2 Tbspn
Fenugreek - 1 Tspn
Saunf - 1 Tspn
Khus Khus - 1 Tspn
Dry red chilli - 4
Grated Coconut - 1/2 cup


Method

Heat a pan and dry roast the following - throw in mustard, jeera,raw rice, fenugreek,khus-khus,saunf one after the other. Let them roast for a minute or two.Then add in the grated coconut and dry red chilli. Roast for couple of more minutes and switch off flame. Cool and blend in a mixer with 1/2 cup water to a smooth paste.

Now in the same pan , heat 2 Tbsp of oil. Add mustard and when it splutters, add jeera ,let it roast.Add in the onions,curry leaves and ginger-garlic paste. Saute till onions are translucent.Add the tomatoes and saute till its soft and juicy.Add the brinjal pieces and saute till soft. Now add the ground paste and 1.5 cups of water, and let it boil. When it boils, toss in the potato pieces, and cook till they are half done. Add salt and cook on low flame till the potatoes are fully done and all the flavors in the curry come together. Add more water if you would like to loosen the gravy.

Serve with hot idli, or freshly done dosais. Awesome combination I tell you!.


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