pistachios

Bread Halwa

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bread halwaHappy Fathers day!!! For every son and daughter out there, Dad is their hero and role model and I am no different. I love my dad. As always, like any other special days, I wanted to make something sweet that personifies my dad. I also wanted it to be something that I haven’t made so far. So after some deliberation and searching, I made Bread Halwa. I have had bread halwa before, my mom’s (yummy!) and from this restaurant (Ananda’s) near (Rajapalayam) my home town in India which is famous for its Bread halwa.

bread halwabread halwaHalwa is a popular Indian sweet which literally means sweetness. There are so many varieties of Halwa, like, Wheat halwa (the original), muscut halwa, semolina halwa, carrot halwa, bread halwa, beetroot halwa, Asoka halwa etc. Halwa is the only sweet that I love to have hot (but not the bread halwa, though :)) Back home, there is this town in my state called Tirunelveli which is famous for its halwa (especially from one particular shop called Iruttukadai). Also, there is another restaurant (Nanban Mess) in Kuttralam, a popular tourist town in Tamilnadu famous for its waterfalls, that makes one of the most delicious halwa out there. Having a bath at the waterfalls and then breakfast and halwa at that restaurant is a ritual which we never forget to follow while there. I simply love it 🙂

bread halwaGenerally, I don’t like fried food or any dish that involves frying. That was one of the main reasons why I did not try making bread halwa for a long time. All the recipes that I came across involved frying the bread. But when I came across a recipe that did not involve frying I tried it at once and the result was extremely tasty :D. The Bread Halwa recipe I have posted here is extremely easy to make and it takes no time at all, infact you can make it in less than 15 minutes tops. Care should be taken while cooking as you don’t want to overcook the halwa else it will get harder because of the bread used. Try out this Bread Halwa and you won’t be disappointed, I guarantee!

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Bread Halwa
Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: Indian
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 4
 
Ingredients
  • White Bread slices – 6 (I used pepperidge sandwich bread)
  • Ghee – ¼ cup
  • Milk – 1 cup
  • Sugar – 1 cup
  • Rose water – ¼ tsp
  • Pistachios, chopped – for garnishing
Instructions
  1. Boil milk and allow it to cool.
  3. Cut the soft crust on all four sides of the bread.
  5. Roughly chop the bread slices and soak them in milk. Mash the bread with clean hand without any lumps.
  7. Heat a thick nonstick pan and add ⅛ cup ghee and add the mashed bread.
  9. Cook in medium flame and stir constantly for few minutes until it doesn’t stick on the sides.
  11. Add sugar in low to medium flame and mix well. Add the remaining ghee at this stage. Stir constantly until the halwa consistency. It only takes a couple of minutes.
  13. Switch off the flame and serve hot or cold garnishing with pistachios. Enjoy! 🙂
Notes
1.Always make this bread halwa in low to medium flame.
2.This dish will be cooked real quick. So do not overcook otherwise you won’t get the desired consistency.
3.I used US measurements for this recipe.

bread halwa

Oats Payasam

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Oats PayasamHappy Tamil New Year, everyone! Missing home :(. It is a tradition all over the world to make special dishes on special occasions like festivals, celebrations etc and Tamilians are no exception to that. Though it is not a big occasion like Deepavali or Pongal, Tamil New Year is still celebrated widely back home. You get to watch lots of programmes in cable television, you get a Government holiday and get to eat scrumptious food:) Now lets concentrate a little bit more on that last word, after all this is a food blog and I am foodie (hope you are too :)) I make it a habit of preparing something new, usually a sweet dessert on all special occasions and holidays. And I try not to make the same dish for two different occasions. This year, I tried a new type of Payasam or Kheer made from oats called the Oats Payasam and am sharing the recipe for it here.

Oats PayasamOats PayasamOats, as you all might know is a popular breakfast food which is rich in nutrients. Most often, you might have had it in the form of porridge (both sweet and savory). We too got in to this breakfast routine of having oats and ended up with buying different varieties of them like steel cut, rolled etc. For Tamil new year, I decided to make use of the oats, come on, how much can you have it as breakfast only :). I came across this Oats Payasam recipe and decided that it is going to be my special dish this year. Oats Payasam is a very simple dish but extremely tasty. It is made using steel cut oats, jaggery, ghee and nuts like cashews, pistachios and almonds.

Oats PayasamOats PayasamThis is my first time making the Oats Payasam and I am very happy with the outcome. It is very tasty and I find it similar to Aravana Payasam in taste, especially that crunchiness, served as prasadham in Sabarimala Temple back home. Try this sweet Payasam in honor of an even sweeter language, Tamil, on this special day and enjoy it with your loved ones 🙂

Also check out my Paal Payasam recipe here

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Oats Payasam
Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: Indian
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 4
 
Ingredients
  • Steel cut oats – ½ cup
  • Water – 1 ½ cup
  • Milk – 3 cups ( I used 2% milk)
  • Jaggery – ½ to ¾th cup
  • Cashews – 7 nos
  • Pistachios and Almonds, roughly chopped, seperated – 1 tsp
  • Cardamom powder, freshly ground – 4 nos
Instructions
  1. Heat 1 and ½ cups water in a pan and add oats. (1:3 ratio – for 1 cup of oats 3 cups water)
  3. Cook in a medium flame until the water dries out completely for 10 minutes and transfer to a bowl.
  5. Meanwhile boil milk in another vessel.
  7. Once the milk is boiled, simmer and add ½ tsp roughly crushed almonds, pistachios and few cashews. Simmer it for couple of minutes stirring occasionally.
  9. Now add in the cooked oats and mix well. Simmer it for another couple of minutes.
  11. Meanwhile, add jaggery with very little water (1 tbsp) in the same pan used to cook oats.
  13. Add cardamom powder to oats.
  15. Cook jaggery until it dissolves completely and forms a syrup.
  17. Switch of the flame and add jaggery syrup to the oats mixture. Mix well until the jaggery syrup is well incorporated to the oats payasam.
  19. Fry cashews with ¼ tsp ghee and add them to the oats payasam. Sprinkle the remaining chopped nuts on top and serve hot or cold according to your taste. Enjoy! 🙂

Oats Payasam