Mohana Payasam & Veggie Platter Turns 9

Recently I was talking over the phone with my brother in law who is in India and our conversation slowly drifted towards my blog. Usually, the topic of my food blog is the last thing on my mind when I am conversing with family who are thousands of miles away, that too with the male members of the family. My brother in law was almost shocked when I mentioned that I had over 1100 recipes on my blog. The reaction was not a surprising one considering that he had seen me as a new bride not knowing the way around the kitchen. Looking back, I am equally surprised considering that this blog was supposed to be a chronicle of family recipes and the passion to pursue it had continued over the past nine years. It had last longer than any other hobbies of mine. Touch wood. 
I am lazy when it comes to celebrating my own personal milestones and so, this blog birthday announcement is also coming late by almost two months. Here is a yummy and easy kheer with an unusual name that I happened to see in a Telugu magazine as part of the celebration. Chickpea flour is the star ingredient of this kheer, which is an unusual choice when one thinks about Indian style puddings. I wasn't even certain that this creamy kheer would taste delicious until I tasted it.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup chickpea flour / besan
1/2 cup water
2 to 2.5 cups full fat milk
1/4 cup powdered jaggery
1/2 tsp. ground cardamom
2 tbsp. ghee
1 tbsp. each - cashews and raisins
A pinch of saffron strands

 Method:
* Heat a tbsp. of ghee in a pan and toast the cashews until they turn golden brown and the cashews turn plump. Transfer them to small bowl using a slotted spoon. To the same ghee, add besan and toast it on low flame, continuously stirring until you smell the aroma. Remove and let it cool.

* Add the saffron strands to a tbsp. of warm milk in a small bowl and keep aside.
* Heat the milk and bring to room temperature.
* Add water and about 1/2 cup milk to besan and whisk well to form a lump free mixture, preferably in a non stick pan. If you notice any lumps, pass it through a fine sieve. 
* Put the mixture on low flame and cook continuously stirring, for about 10 minutes. If the mixture becomes too thick to stir, add extra milk as needed. Turn off the stove and add the saffron soaked milk, cardamom and jaggery. Stir until jaggery melts.
* Add the remaining milk, toasted cashews and raisins and stir to combine.

Note: 
1. I actually added the whole quantity of milk at the beginning along with the besan and added jaggery at the end. Sometimes the jaggery may curdle the hot milk and so I mentioned to add cold milk at the end.
2. The color of the kheer depends upon the jaggery used. The jaggery I used was pale yellow in color and so the kheer ended up being creamish colored one.

This goes to Blogging marathon #60 under the theme 'Bookmarked Recipes'. Check the link to see what other marathoners are cooking.



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My Blog Turns 5 !!

Yes, it is my blog anniversary. Veggie platter turned 5 this week. :)
It seems like yesterday when I started blogging to maintain my recipe collection online. My goal was to record recipes that have been passed through generations in our family and nothing else. There were only a handful of good sites dedicated to Indian cooking when I started to cook on my own. And so, I was toying with this idea of having a website dedicated to cooking for many many years but the idea could not materialize into reality because of my limited technical knowledge. Years later, when I chanced upon to see a blog, the idea seemed fantastic and easy enough for me to handle. Within two weeks, this virtual space was born. And I should be thankful to my son Shreyas, who helped me with the layout and all the code I needed for the blog. My then 8 year old learnt basic HTML to help me out and with out him in the picture and considering my busy scheduled husband, probably veggie platter would have been still an idea. 
Over the years, I should admit that this virtual space has shown me a side of mine that was even unknown to me. I knew that I liked to cook new dishes but little did I know about the passion and obsession I had about cooking. I think that keeps me going even though I take sporadic breaks to rejuvenate. :) And the added bonus I didn't except in this journey - the like minded friends I would make virtually and the other readers who keep sending their encouraging words and comments. Thank you dear friends for all the support.
What is a celebration without mitai / sweet, right? And so in a true Indian style, I am sharing virtual sandesh with all my readers. Enjoy. :)

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