Sweet Potato Kheer

I prepared this Sweet Potato Kheer to celebrate Mahashivratree. It can be eaten otherwise as well.

Ingredients

1. ¼ kg sweet potato
2. 1½  cup milk
3. 2 tsp sugar
4. pinch of cardamon powder
5. few strands of saffron
6. 2 pinches of almond & pistachio powder for garnishing

method

1. Pressure cook the sweet potato, de-skin, chop for later use
2. Bring the milk to a boil, add sugar. When the milk starts boiling add the sweet potato, cook until the milk turns thick. Add cardamon powder. 
3. Garnish with almond & pistachio powder
4. I like the thick kheer, you can always prepare it as per your liking.

Batata cha kiss

Ingredients
½  kg potato (grated)
½  cup roasted groundnut powder (Danyacha kut)

2 tbsp ghee
1 tsp cumin seeds
Salt as needed
4-5 green chillies (chopped)
chopped coriander leaves as needed
Method
Wash, peel & grate the potato. In a pan add the ghee, add the cumin seeds, let it splutter then add the green chillies & grated potato. Stir for a minute. Add salt.
Cover the pan and cook until the potatoes become soft. Add the roasted groundnut powder. garnish with coriander & serve immediately.

Please note- peeling the potato is optional you may grate the potato with the skin on but wash the potatoes before using them to remove all the mud.

More recipes for (Upavas)Fast

SabudanaKhichadi

 Sabudana Vada

 Spiced Buttermilk

Ghee (Clarified Butter)

Ghee (Clarified Butter) has always been of great importance in Indian cuisine. Not a single Indian sweet/dessert is completed without the use of ghee. It plays a major role during rituals like pooja, festivals & also offered as food for Gods. Traditionally it is made from cows milk. Ghee is used in everyday meal for making chappati's, tadka's, dosa's, Indian sweets. I've been preparing it for last 8 yrs now. After coming to muscat I started preparing it with unsalted butter (Ready-made). In India people make it from homemade butter by churning it freshly from milk cream. Its a very easy recipe which needs to be cooked carefully with lots of patience because it may get burnt easily. I am sure many of you love the fragrance of the freshly made ghee, its heavenly!
[Let me share a secret with you] I'm very particular about the look, feel, taste & aroma of ghee - It should have a peculiar golden color with a heavenly aromatic smell, & should be रवाळ  (form semolina-like granules) when cooled. I don't eat ghee if the smell, color turns me off.

Sharing my secret recipe of making "Liquid Gold" used in every Indian kitchen.

Ingredients

1. 400 gms of unsalted butter

Method

1. Make small cubes of unsalted butter. In a non stick heavy bottom sauce pan add the cubes of unsalted butter. 
2. On a medium heat melt the butter, it may splutter after a while & resemble a froth, turn down the heat to simmer until ghee separates from the froth & it will develop a brown colored crust at the bottom of the pan.
3. At this point carefully shake the pan to prevent the ghee from burning further & switch off the gas. 
4. The ghee will also have the heavenly aroma of the freshly made homemade ghee (yummm). Keep aside the ghee to cool. 
5. Strain the ghee with the fine strainer into a ghee vessel or a glass jar. ghee is best stored in a silverware but of course it is optional.
6.  ghee can be stored for a month at room temperature. I can almost smell the aromatic ghee from the picture below. (ummm slurp)

Sabudana Vada

Sabudana wada- Delicious snack eaten during fast, mostly popular as a road side snack. Sabudana Wada has a crunchy coating which melt in the mouth & leaves you craving for more. It can be eaten with a simple yoghurt dip. It goes well with a hot cup of tea.
Sabudana Wada is traditionally made during fasts like Ashadi Ekadashi or Shivratree. Elders in the family often used to follow these fast and me including all my cousins used to gorge on the delicacies made on that special day. I've grown up eating these wada's not only during fast but also during the rainy season sitting in the balcony looking at the rains with a hot cup of tea, chatting with my dear friends, cousins & family. These wada's brings back my memories of my P.G. days when my non- marathi friends used to call up mom and ask her to make her special treat while we completed our projects, feasting on the wada's.
 

Ingredients

1. 1 cup Sabudana (sago)
2. drinking water to soak sabudana.
3. ½ cup roasted peanut powder (Danyacha kut) 
4. 6 finely chopped green chillies
5. 1 big potato (boiled & mashed)
6. ½ tea spoon sugar
7. juice of lemon juice as required
8. Salt for taste 
9.  chopped coriander
10. curd if the mixture becomes too dry.
11. oil for frying

Method

1. Soak the sabudana in  drinking water for 1 hr, water level should be just above the sabudana. After 1 hr press sabudana and see if it has become soft. if not keep it in water for another ½ hr. otherwise drain excess water by transferring it into a strainer. leave aside for 2 hrs or overnight if you want to make it the next day. 
2. In a wide plate mix all the ingredients- the soaked sabudana, along with mashed potato, roasted groundnut powder, chopped green chillies, coriander, juice of a lemon, salt & sugar. 
3. make lemon size balls and flatten them to make vadas by help of your palm, if the mixture is too sticky to make vada's wet your palms.
4. heat oil in a deep kadai and fry the vada's on medium heat until they turn golden brown. remove on a tissue for excess oil to soak.Serve with jeera curd.

Ingredients for Jeera curd

1. curd 2 small bowls
2. ghee 2 tsp
3. jeera ½ tsp
4. 1 very finely chopped green chilli
5. sugar and salt as per taste
6. coriander for garnishing

Method

1. Add jeera & finely chopped chilli to hot ghee, add this to curd and mix well.
2. Add salt and sugar and garnish with coriander.

Note: Over the years, I have noticed each company's sabudana takes different time to soak. One trick for soaking sabudana is when you buy the sabudana from the shop soak a tablespoon of sabudana and note the amount of time it takes to become soft. It may differ from the regular brand you always use. 

Other Recipes for fast

Sabudana Khichadi 

Batata Cha Kiss

 Spiced Buttermilk -मठ्ठा

Spiced Buttermilk

Spicy Buttermilk commonly called as मठ्ठा in Marathi is a summer coolant and good for digestion. One will commonly see it being served at Maharashtrian weddings or thali as a welcome drink. This was one was the few recipes which I cooked as a small kid. My mum used to supervise my sister and me when we made the seasoning.

Ingredients

4 cups of buttermilk (should be watery)

1 tsp cumin seeds

pinch of turmeric powder

pinch of asafoetida

2 stems of coriander leaves chopped

½ green chilli finely chopped

1 tsp clarified butter (ghee)

salt as per need

Method

In a serving bowl add the buttermilk, for the seasoning add the clarified butter in a small pan add the cumin seeds after they splutter add the green chilli, pinch of asafoetida & turmeric powder. Add this to the buttermilk when hot. Mix the coriander leaves & salt

Serve chilled. 

Sabudana Khichadi

Sabudana ( also known as Sago or Pearl Tapioca) Khichadi is a popular Maharashtrian snack eaten during fast like Shivratree, Ashadi Ekadashi or religious functions like pooja or weddings. Many Marathi families like eating sabudana Khichadi for breakfast. It is eaten with curd mixed with cucumber or plain yoghurt. As Sabudana is heavy for digestion it is recommended to have curd along with it.

Ingredients

Sabudana- 2 cups ( raw sabudana)

drinking water to soak sabudana.

Roasted peanut Powder-2 cup

Green Chillies 3-4 or as per liking 

Potato (chopped) - 2 medium

Pure ghee - 5 tablespoon

Cumin seeds (jeera) - 2 teaspoons

Sugar - 1 teaspoon

Lemon juice - 2 tsp or as per liking 

Salt for taste

Grated coconut & Coriander for Garnishing.

Method

Soak the sabudana in  drinking water for 1 hr, water level should be just above the sabudana. 

After 1 hr press sabudana and see if it has become soft. if not keep it in water for another ½ hr. otherwise drain excess water by transferring it into a strainer. leave aside for 2 hrs or overnight if you want to make it the next day.

Boil the potatoes & roughly chop them OR Wash peel and cut potato in cubes

Heat ghee in kadai, add jeera followed by chopped green chillies and potatoes,

Mix it and cover it with lid till potatoes 90% cooked. (if you are using boiled potatoes skip this step)

Meanwhile mix sabudana, groundnut powder, sugar, salt & lemon juice in one large bowl.

Now add this mixture into kadai. 

Mix it well & Put a lid for steam.Cooking the sabudana Khichadi on a very low flame is important otherwise it gets burnt in the bottom. 

Serve hot & garnish with grated coconut and coriander.

you can also mix the coriander & grated coconut after you turn off the gas and mix in the khichadi.

Serve Khichadi with jeera curd. 

Ingredients for Jeera curd 

2 small bowls curd

2 tsp ghee

 ½ tsp jeera

1 very finely chopped green chilli

sugar and salt as per taste

coriander for garnishing

Method

Add jeera & finely chopped chilli to hot ghee, add this to curd and mix well.

Add salt and sugar and garnish with coriander.

Kakdi - for sabudana khichadi 

Ingredients 

1 cucumber very finely chopped

2 cups curd (well beaten)

Pinch of cumin seeds

1 small green chili chopped 

Salt as per taste

Pinch of sugar

Coriander for garnishing

1 tsp ghee

Method

Mix finely chopped cucumber, curd in a bowl.

Add cumin seeds & finely chopped chilli to hot ghee, add this to the cucumber & curd mixture, add the salt, sugar, garnish with finely chopped coriander 

Serve with sabudana khichadi.

Note: 

1. Over the years, I have noticed each company's sabudana takes different time to soak.

2. One trick for soaking sabudana is when you buy the sabudana from the shop soak a tablespoon of sabudana and note the amount of time it takes to become soft. 

3. It may differ from the regular brand you always use.

4. After the khichadi is done, add a tablespoon of ghee n give the khichadi a quick stir, this will give the sabudana pearls richness & shine.

More Recipes for fasting:
Sabudana Wada
Batata cha kess
Spiced Buttermilk
SweetPotato Kheer