How to prepare Hayagriva - Bengal gram / channa dal / kadalebele halwa

Hayagriva is a sweet recipe from Udupi (part of Mangalore - India). This is mostly served as prasadam in temples or made on festivals specially for the deity. My mind is still afresh with the memories of the very first time I had this sweet when I was still very young and my father had done this sweet on a festival day. It was beaming with the robust smell of ghee, mixed with dal, coconuts and jaggery. Recently on Varamahalksmi festival - the festival of Goddesses Laksmi I prepared Hayagriva, overwhelmed with the turn out thought I should blog this traditional recipe. I'm still wondering why the sweet I loved so much since childhood took so many years for me to try?. Never mind, now we shall proceed towards the ingredients required to make Hayagriva.

                               

Ingredients:

1 cup - Channa dal / Bengal gram dal / kadalebele soaked in water for at least 2-3 hours

1 cup - jiggery

1/2 cup - freshly grated coconut or you can use dry copra both works well

5-6 tsp ghee

Handful of nuts - cahews, badam, raisins

1/2 tsp - fresh cardamom powder

                                                  

                                       

      

Method:

Pressure cook the dal up to 3 whistles. The dal should become soft into mashable consistency

Once the cooker cools, strain the water and mash the dal. Don't make a fine paste, just mash it lightly

 In a thick bottom pan, heat 1 tsp ghee and fry all the dry fruits separately and set them aside

In the same pan, heat the remaining ghee, once hot pour the mashed dal and stir continuously.

 Allow it boil and thicken

 Once you see the dal getting thick, add jaggery. This recipe needs 1 cup of jaggery for 1 cup of dal. You can alter the sweetness as per your taste

 Keep stirring, else it will get burnt. After the jaggery gets fully mixed with the dal add in the grated coconut. You can use grated copra / kobbari which works fine too.

Stir it for about 2-3 minutes until there is not much of liquid as you see in the below pic. Then add cardamom powder and all fried dry nuts. 

 Hayagriva is ready to serve. Tastes best when served hot. 

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How to prepare Fruits salad with custard

Fruits salad with custard is one such dessert which is relished by people of all ages. But the reason I made this is different, it is a season of festivals in the month of August in India. Since we are supposed to offer at least 5 varieties of fruits to God, we will obviously have a huge stock of it. In order to make good use of fresh fruits at one shot without any nagging about eating fruits, I make this thick, luscious and creamy salad with custard which is loved by all in the family. 

  

Note: Do not use fruits such as jackfruit, mango and muskmelon since their strong smell will over power the salad. In case you love them make a salad with single fruit.  

Also do not use watery fruits like watermelons, their watery extract will leave the salad tasteless.

The best combination would be apples, bananas, pears and pomegranate. But you are free to use fruits of your choice which are mild.

 

Ingredients : 

 A mix of freshly chopped fruits 

1/2 litre of milk 

4-5 tsp of custard powder 

8-10 tsp of sugar. 

Handful of glazed cherries to garnish

 

Method: 

Put about 5 spoons of custard powder in a bowl.

 

Add 1/4 cup of milk and whisk it to a thick paste

 

 

Boil the remaining milk

 

Once it starts to boil, switch off the flame and pour the custard mix by stirring continuously. Custard should be smooth without any lumps.

 

 

Put it on low fire and add sugar. custard is bland so you might want to taste for your sugar preference

Form a smooth paste like consistency and switch off the flame

 

Custard is ready. You can serve this as a desert in itself hot / chilled.

 

To add it to fruits salad, custard needs to be cooled / chilled according to your preference. Add desired amount of custard and give it a nice mix. If you feel it to be thick you can adjust it by adding milk and sugar. 

Tastes best when chilled

 

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Carrot halwa

 One fine day I saw lot of milk at my kitchen and wondered for a while to make good use of it, then it striked that it was long since I made this comforting dessert. So with readily available ingredients I churned out a yummy dish "carrot halwa" which I suppose is the favourite dessert of Indians ofcourse the first according to me would be Jamoon:) but the favourite lists never ends though ;)

 

Ingredients:   

Grated carrots 5-6 

Sugar 100 gms 

Milk 1/2 ltr  

Ghee  5 tsp

Dry nuts ( cashews, badam and raisins ) as per taste required 

Elaichi powder

 

Method: 

In a thick bottom Kadai heat a tsp of ghee and lightly roast the dry nuts one by one and set it aside.

 

In the same Kadai add the remaining ghee and allow it to melt

 

Add the grated carrots and fry in the ghee for about 10 - 15 minutes. This will give nice flavour to the carrots

 

Cook the carrot fully by adding milk

 

Keep stirring constantly after adding milk, else it will get burnt. It is very important to use a thick bottom pan. 

 

Keep storing until the carrots absorb all the milk you have added 

 

This is the consistency we are aiming for

 

Once it is thick, it's time to add sugar  (please taste if necessary and alter the sweetness at this stage)

 

Stir constantly again, since adding sugar will release water in the halwa and the carrots needs to absorb the sweetness. Switch off the flame once the halwa is thick and sticky but moist. So it need not be very hard.

 

Garnish with roasted nuts and elaichi powder

 

Can be served hot /cold. But we love it hot hot ! 

Tastes great with vanilla ice cream too

Variation:  

You can also add khova to get slightly different thick dessert form. 

Add khova after cooking the carrots in milk.

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