Happy's Cook: Diwali Special Recipes

Showing posts with label Diwali Special Recipes. Show all posts

Thursday, November 12, 2020

Bread Halwa Recipe | Diwali Special Sweet

Wishing all my dear readers and family a great Diwali. May this festival of joy brings more happiness in your life. Today I am presenting a delicious sweet which you can make in a jiffy without much planning. Every year during Eid, my Muslim friend here in Sydney gives us delicious Biryani and Sweet. Two years back, she gave me this bread halwa and I tasted it for the first time. It tasted so yummy and I was planning to make it at home since then. Also, she told me that this sweet is very common in Muslim Wedding Menu along with biryani. When I was planning to make some Diwali sweet, this came to my mind and I got the recipe from her. I tried it yesterday with few changes and it came out so well. Traditionally, the bread pieces are deep-fried in ghee and I have followed the same. You can also deep fry it in any oil or shallow fry it with little ghee. Please read the notes section for other options. Do check out my diwali special collection too.

Ingredients:

Bread Slices - 6 (250 grams)

Full Cream Milk - 1 Cup(250 ml)

Water - 1 Cup(250 ml)

Milkmaid(condensed milk) - 1/2 Cup
Sugar - 1/4 Cup(more or less as per need)
Ghee - 1/2 Cup
Cardamom - 1 tsp(crushed)
Nut & Seeds - as required

(I used cashews & sunflower seeds)

Method:

1. Measure and keep the ingredients ready. Chop the bread slices into small pieces. Reserve two tablespoons of ghee for later use and heat the rest of the ghee for deep frying the bread pieces. You can also deep fry it in oil or shallow fry the bread with little ghee.

2. Fry the bread pieces until crispy and golden brown. Remove it and keep it aside.

3. Now, in a pan heat the milk, water, condensed milk and sugar. Stir it well until the sugar and condensed milk dissolves. Bring it to a rolling boil and add the crushed cardamom pods.

4. Add the fried bread pieces at this stage. The bread pieces will observe the liquid and becomes soft. Reduce the flame and cook until the bread pieces are soft and mushy. When everything starts to come together, add a tablespoon of ghee and mix it all together.

5. In a tablespoon of ghee, fry the cashew nuts and pour it over the halwa. Mix and cook until the ghee starts oozing out. Switch of the flame and the yummy halwa is ready to be served.

Like carrot halwa, the bread halwa also goes well with vanilla icecream. Serve it warm or cold based on your preference.

Points to remember:

Instead of deep-frying the bread pieces completely in ghee, you can use half oil and half ghee or you can fry completely in oil.
If you want to use less ghee, you can toast the bread pieces in little ghee and add a few teaspoons of ghee at the later stage.
Bread pieces will drink lots of ghee/oil. Few days old stale bread slices left in room temperature is ideal for this recipe. You can sundry or fan dry the bread pieces for a few minutes before deep frying. You can also stale the bread in the oven.
Since we are adding ghee and milkmaid the halwa will be very rich and hence I have added only one cup of full cream milk. If using light milk, you can go up to 2 cups(500 ml) of milk and skip the water.
Adjust the sugar based on your preference and you can increase it up to 1/2 cup.
I have used big sized wheat bread slices along with the sides. I have mentioned the bread quantity in grams as well and following this will give you a better idea to adjust the sugar quantity.
White bread can also be used for this recipe. I prefer wheat bread for the dark colour halwa.
If you need really smooth halwa, you can ignore the sides of the bread slices. Powdered rusk can also be used for this recipe.
Compromising the ghee quantity will surely give a difference in the texture of the halwa.
Almonds, Raisins, Tutti Frutti and any melon seeds can be used as toppings.

Warm Regards,
Happy's Cook - Divya

Inippu Sev Recipe | Sweet Sev | Cheeni Sev | Diwali Special Recipes

Hope everyone is busy thinking about Diwali snacks and if you are looking for more recipe ideas, please visit my collection of Diwali sweets & snacks. Today I am sharing yet another interesting recipe, Sweet Sev. This was one of my childhood favourite snacks that I lost interest when I grow up. However, Jany likes this and he prefers to eat it along with Spicy Karasev. Since he doesn't show much interest in payasam or sweets, I made sweet sev and kara sev for his birthday last year. That was the first time I made this sweet sev and it came out super delicious. From that time I was planning to click it for the blog and finally did it yesterday. Let's see the steps involved in making this yummy snack:

Agra Petha Recipe | Ash Gourd Candy | Kumbalanga Sweet | Diwali Special Recipe

The exciting part of being a food blogger is to learn new recipes based on upcoming festivals. This year too I have planned new recipes and already started trying some, which I will be posting in the coming days. Today's recipe is from the drafts that I tried during the last Diwali and missed to post it here. I am very much fond of this sweet during my childhood and we call it Kumbalanga (Ash gourd) Sweet. We buy this from Tirunelveli Arasan Bakery or Nagercoil Agarwal sweets. Once, my mama tried this Agra petha and shared a photo on WhatsApp, I was super tempted to try that immediately. However, finding Limestone/Sunnambu in Sydney is really hard and I never thought that I could find. I started looking for it in all the Indian shops around me and luckily I found it in a shop. When I tried the first time, it was a big disaster. I didn't lose hope and again tried it the next day. It came out really well and I am here with the recipe. Check out my already existing Diwali Sweets/Snacks from the blog. Let's see the preparation:

Pepper Karasev Recipe | Diwali Special Recipes

Karasev is a simple and easy to make snack for Diwali. I have posted spicy garlic karasev earlier and the recipe calls for red chilli powder. Today I am sharing pepper karasev that is one of my favourites. This snack is very addictive and since we are using besan flour it may cause digestion problem. So, I advise you to add either garlic or asafoetida without fail. Even beginners can try this recipe and it will not lead you into trouble. Make sure to fry in medium flame and you will get crispy karasev. Check out my other Diwali special recipes too. Off to the recipe:

Coconut Milk Murukku Recipe | Thengaipal Murukku | Diwali Special Snacks

I am really excited about this year's Diwali since I was able to make so many sweets and snacks successfully. I face many failures when it comes to snacks and I lose confidence every year. This time I have not faced any challenge with the recipes I tried so far and I am really happy about that. After Potato murukku, I tried this coconut milk murukku and it was so delicious. Jany and Happy liked it very much. I was very tired after trying three new recipes in a row and hence I don't have patience in shaping the murukku. Finally, I made it like this broken (uthiri) murukku and it was super easy to press directly to oil. Do check out my Potato Murukku, Butter Murukku, Pottukadalai Murukku, Thenkuzhal Murukku, Mullu Murukku and Coconut Murukku too. Also, visit the entire Diwali snacks and sweets collection. Let us move on to the recipe:

Pachai Payaru Ladoo Recipe | Whole Green Gram Ladoo | Pasi Payaru Ladoo | Payatha Maavu Ladoo | Diwali Special Recipes

As mentioned in the yesterday's Suzhiyam post, I am here with another Diwali snack using green gram. This ladoo is very easy to make with minimum ingredients and less time. The same ladoo can be made using yellow split moong dal too. Green grams are always healthy and do give it a try this Diwali. To make it more healthy replace the sugar with jaggery. Check out my other ladoo recipes like Motichoor Ladoo, Maa Ladoo, Til(Sesame Ladoo), Poha(Aval) Ladoo, Besan Ladoo and Rava Ladoo. Check out my entire Diwali collection of Sweets and Savoury snacks too. Let us move on to the recipe:

Suzhiyam Recipe | Pachaipayaru Suzhiyam | Mothagam with Green Gram Filling | Diwali Special Recipes

Suzhiyam is one of my childhood favorite snacks and I have posted a version of Suzhiyam with Channa dal filling earlier in the blog that was based on my mom's recipe. Recently, I was asked to create few recipes using green gram for an event and I had created 13 recipes for that. I will be posting all those recipes here one by one. One among them is Suzhiyam with green gram filling. Instead of the outer layer with maida, I tried the healthier version with Idly/Dosa batter. It turned out super awesome and we all loved it. Let us see the preparation steps. Also, please checkout my collection of Diwali recipes.

Diwali Special Recipes | Diwali Sweets, Payasams & Savoury Snacks Recipes

Rasgulla Recipe/ Bengali Rasgulla | Diwali Special Recipes

I am back to the blog with diwali special recipes. Today I am presenting the yummy Rasgulla. My first two attempts in making rasagulla was a disaster. It was very hard and flat. So last year I skipped posting this. This is the first diwali recipe I clicked this year after learning some tricks and it came out very well. It was spongy and juicy. I am satisfied with the texture and shape as well.

Diwali Special Recipes | Diwali Sweets & Savoury Snacks

Maa Ladoo /Pottukadalai Urundai |Diwali Special Recipes

Mom has made this Maa Ladoo once or twice in my childhood. Since I don't show much interest, she stopped making it. After a long gap I tasted this ladoo, that too from my preparation :). It tasted awesome and it is also a recipe which can be made in a jiffy with very few ingredients. Since roasted gram is healthy, you can try this yummy ladoos for your kids sake. Here, we go for the recipe.

Gulab Jamun Recipe(with Khoya) |Diwali Special Recipes

Gulab Jamun is a yummy dessert which makes us drool, just by hearing its name. This is the easiest and minimal ingredient recipe which we can prepare for any celebrations. Until now I have prepared Gulab Jamun with the ready-made mix. This is the first time I am trying it with Khoya and it turned out perfectly well. I will be sharing the milk powder version soon and let's move t the recipe:

Mysore Pak Recipe | Ghee Mysore Pak | Sri Krishna Sweets Style | Soft Mysore Pak | Diwali Special Recipes

Today we enjoyed my first ever mutton biriyani for lunch along with chicken fry and Paal payasam. This time I haven't clicked mutton biriyani since it was the first time. I will be trying it again to post it here soon :). Met my friends after a long time and we had a great weekend. And, coming to today's Diwali special recipe, Mysore Pak. It was a dream come true after trying this recipe. It tasted really like the one we get in shops as soft Mysore Pak. I tried this long back but it was waiting in my drafts this long.We will see the steps involved in the preparation:

Final pictures updated on 29/09/2017

Mullu Murukku Recipe| Boiled Rice Murukku | Puzhungal Arisi Murukku | Parboiled Rice Murukku | Diwali Special Recipes

Yet, another traditional recipe from my mom. She makes mullu murukku often since it is one of her favourites😜. Until I started this blog, I never bothered to know the recipe of this addictive murukku. Last month when I was planning for Diwali recipes, I asked my mom about this recipe. She came to Chennai before Diwali during her school vacation and taught me the recipe. It was fun making murukku with her, we thoroughly enjoyed it. She was pressing the murukku and I was frying it. Since this recipe calls for grinding the rice, it is time-consuming. However, it is worth trying and we cannot stop with one after we start munching. Off to the recipe:

Final Pictures updated on 28/09/2017.

Carrot Halwa Recipe/Gajar ka halwa| Diwali Special Recipes

This is the dessert I often order, whenever I visit a restaurant. I love to have the warm carrot halwa with a scoop of vanilla icecream on top. It is a yumm combo. When I was thinking about diwali sweets, the first thing that comes to mind is Gajar ka halwa. Since I had a pack of icecream in my freezer, I readily started to prepare it two days back. We enjoyed the carrot halwa with icecream. Do give it a try this diwali.

Adhirasam Recipe | Diwali Special Recipes

My maternal grandmother stock loads of Adhirasam and murukku whenever we (grandchildren) visit her for the vacation. We love the adhirasam very much and my cousin brother, pronounces it as "Address" when he was young. When I think about this traditional snack of our hometown, so many incidents and lovely memories comes to my mind. Coming back to today's post, I got this recipe from my mom and mom in law. To my surprise, it turned out really well.

Corn Flour Halwa Recipe| Karachi Halwa | Bombay Karachi Halwa | Diwali Special Recipes

I was searching for a very simple and easy to make Halwa as one of the diwali special recipes. When I saw this in most of the blogs, I wanted to give a try. Last weekend I tried this and it came out well. You won't believe me, but it took exactly 10 mins for me to finish preparing this halwa. So whenever you have any surprise guests in your home, you can try to win their hearts with this yummy Halwa. Check my points to remember section for the microwave version of this halwa.

Paruppu Poli Recipe | Puran Poli | Diwali Special Recipes

Whenever I travel in train, I prefer to buy the Poli's they sell there. I am not sure about the quality of the Poli they make, but it tastes awesome. I too love the rich ghee version of coconut and Paruppu poli they serve in the Adyar Anandha Bhavan. I always wanted to try it at home and recently when I made Suzhiyam, I reserved some Channa dal filling for making this poli and it came out really well. I am planning to try the coconut poli too. Let us learn to make the divine Dal Poli's.

Thenkuzhal Murukku Recipe| Diwali Special Recipes | Murukku Recipes

Munching homemade murukku is a pure bliss and I am really excited about the outcome. My murukku press does not have the expected thenkuzhal pattern(with 3 or 4 holes), so it looks little different from the normal thenkuzhal murukku. But taste wise there is no compensation :) I will be updating the pictures, as soon as I get the exact pattern for the press.

Omapodi Recipe/Plain Sev |Diwali Special Recipes

I was really excited in making this Omapodi, which is one of my all time favorite. My maternal grandmother still remembers this and ask my uncle to get it for me whenever I go to meet her. It came out really well and wherever I go, Omapodi is there on my floor because of Happy :) (Cleaning is a tough job these days :P) She enjoys having this snack being not spicy and brittle, which is very much suitable for kids. I enjoy learning and preparing this snack. Off to the recipe.