Suji Ki Katli

Ingredients

Suji(semolina)-2 cups

Besan( Chickpea)- 1 cup

Sugar- 3 cups

Ghee- 1 spoon+1 spoon (tablespoon)

Water- 6 cups

Milk- 1 cup

Malai- 2 tsp

Grated dry cocunut-1

Raisins(kishmish)-10-15

Small cardomon - 6-8 (use seeds)

Chirongi(melon seeds)- handful

Badam- blanched and grated (optional)- I didnt use.

Kevda-1 tsp

Recipe

1. Saute suji in a kadai till golden brown and take it out.

2. Add I tsp ghee in a kadai and add sauted suji and besan to it and do it till its sauted nicely( golden brown in colour) and leaves a smell. Make sure besan does not has knots and if it does remove it. The sauting with ghee is optional for katli so one can just saute alone too but ghee makes it delicious and soft.

3. Take 1 tsp ghee in a pan and add raisin and small cardomon. Once raisins swell immediately add 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water to it so raisins dont burn. Then add rest of the sugar and water to it.

4. Cook till sugar gets dissolved and the mixture gets sticky.Keep stirring while cooking and check mixture by touching the mixture and see if its sticky.

5. Add sauted suji to it or this mixture to kadai and then add milk, malai to it. Add chirongi, coconut to it. Stir it nicely fastly till its too heavy to stir and so all water is drained and its ready to be frozen. It takes 1-2 minutes.

6. Take a big thali and use ghee to moisten it. And then pour the full mixture to it and spread it with spoon to be even and let it dry under fan.

7. As its tuff to cut when its dry...marks square pieces in it when wet and when its almost hard, remove the pieces and store in a box.

Upma

Ingredients

1-cup semolina(Suji) (not too fine)

1 tsp. urad (dhuli ) dal

1 tsp. mustard seeds

One stalk curry leaves

Some grated cocunut/ cocunut powder

Three green chilies chopped ( or more depending on you)

One onion chopped coarsely

2 tbsp. oil

Salt to taste (1/2 tsp)

Pinch of sugar

2 cups water

Cashews ( 1 tsp)and Peanuts ( 2 tsp)

( if available...since I didnt have them so I didnt otherwise add them and its tastes awesome)

Coriander for garnishing

Recipe

1.Heat oil in a kadai.

2. Add the mustard seeds and cover with a plate so spluttering doesn't spoil the kitchen.

3. Once spluttering stops add green chillies, urad dal and curry leaves and nuts and fry on low till light golden.

4. Add onions. Stir and sauté till the onions are pink.

5. Add the semolina and stir continuously till the semolina gives out a nice aroma. It Takes about 7-8 minutes to roast the semolina on low.

8. Add the salt and sugar and stir. Carefully pour in a cup of water and stir well.

9. If it feels too dry, add more water( 1 cup) and stir. Keep on low and simmer for 2-3 minutes.

10 . Garnish with coriander (optional) I didnt add coriander. One can garnish with more cocunut too.

Serve hot with steaming coffee or tea or as breakfast.

Note: Always soak dals in water for 10-15 minutes before cooking and fry them till pink in the oil so that they get done.

Suji Halwa!

Ingredients

Suji(semolina)-2 cups

Besan( Chickpea)- 1 cup

Sugar- 3 cups

Ghee- 2-3 cups

Water- 6 cups

Milk- 1 cup

Malai- 2 tsp

Grated dry cocunut-1

Raisins(kishmish)-10-15

Small cardomon - 6-8 (use seeds)

Chirongi(melon seeds)- handful

Cinnaomon(darchini)-1

Zarda colour-1/4 tsp mixed with milk

Saffron-3-4 strands mixed with milk

Kevda-1 tsp

Recipe

1. Saute suji in a kadai till golden brown and take it out.

2. Add 2 cup ghee in a kadai and add sauted suji and besan to it and do it till its sauted nicely( golden brown in colour) and leaves a smell. Make sure besan does has knots and if it does remove it.

3. Take 1 cup ghee in a pan and add raisin and small cardomon. Once raisins swell immediately add 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water to it so raisins dont burn. Then add rest of the sugar and water to it.

4. Cook till sugar gets dissolved and the mixture gets sticky. Add zarda colour, saffron mixed in milk in it.Keep stirring while cooking and check mixture by touching the mixture and see if its sticky.

5. Add sauted suji to it and then add milk, malai to it. Add chirongi, coconut to it. Stir it nicely till its too heavy to stir. It takes 1-2 minutes. Add kevda to it and close lid so that smell remains.

6. Decorate with grated cocunut and serve.

Variation

1 One can also add graded badam(Almond), grated akrot(walnut) and grated kaju(cashew) to it.

Mong Dal Halwa/Katli!

Ingredients

Mong Dal (Green gram)- 3 cups

Suji(Semolina)- 1 cup(optional)

Sugar-4-5 cups

Kishmish(Raisans)-10-15

Small Cardomom seeds-4-5

Cocunut (Dry )-1

Almonds, Cashew, etc (optional)

Chironji(melon seeds)-10-15

Khoya/Malai (optional)

Milk-2-3 cups

Water-1 cup for syrup and 4-5 cups for soaking dal

Kevda- few drops

Ghee

Recipe

1. Soak mong dal in water overnight in a bowl ( or 2-3 hours atleast).

2. Strain water from the dal.

3. Put it in a cooker with milk enough to cover the dal and then cover the lid to let it give out 2-3 whistles(about 5-10 minutes).

4. Take it out and if u want u can remove the crumbles and soften it.

5. Take about 2-3 cooking spoon of ghee in a kadai and let it heat.

6. Saute some suji in a kadai till it turns golden brown and let out a distinct smell and then mix dal in it and saute it nicely till it turns golden brown and leaves out a distinct smell. If u want to make with ghee once can again saute with about 2 katori ghee. You can also add grated cocunut, chironji, malai and other nuts in it at this time.

7. In another utensil, heat 1 cooking spoon of ghee and put raisins in it so that they swell. Also add elaichi seeds at this time and immediately add sugar and 1 cup water so that raisins don't get burned. Let the syrup cook till sugar get mixed with water. Cook it for 5-7 minutes.

8. Switch on the flame of the kadai and pour this hot syrup in it and saute it at fast speed. Make sure no lumps are formed and remove them if they do. Keep doing it till the mixture becomes too heavy to be mixed. Pour few drops of kevda at this time.

9. If you want to have halwa , its ready to be eaten hot.

10. Chances are there that this halwa would not freeze into katli as mong dal doesn't soak water. So one can mix it with chana dal(bengal gram) or suji in equal quantities or more than half chana dal to make it into a katli.

11. Take a dry flat platter(Thali) and moisten it with little ghee. To make the katli pour the whole kadai on a flat plate where to freeze it. Flatten the surface with hands and let it cool for some hours.

12. Once the katli becomes cold , cut it into squares and then let it harden for some hours . The katli should be cut before it hardens as it would not be able to be cut after that.

Mong dal halwa tastes awesome when eaten mixed with vanilla ice cream!

Variations

1. Suji and besan katli can be made in similar way. The process is same since step 5. Take equal amounts of suji and half of besan and take sugar as much as both. Eg. Suji-2 cups,Besan-1 cups and Sugar-3 cups. Suji katli doesn't requires khoya but requires 1 cup of milk to be poured once the syrup is poured in suji as it soakes easily. There is no need to add extra nuts in it like almond and cashew. Suji katli hardens immediately so cut it immediately and then remove from platter after few minutes and store in a box.

2. Suji and besan halwa is made in same way. Just add 4 cups of water for every cup of suji. and saute with 2 cups of ghee

3. If u want you can make plain suji katli and suji halwa leaving out besan.

4. Chana dal Katli are made in the same way and usage of suji is optional in it due to water soaking qualities of chana. But I mostly use suji for better taste

4. Suji katli are harder than mong dal katli.

Mong Dal Halwa