Vennai Puttu - ICC Feb 15 - Wedding Anniversary

Vennai Puttu - ICC Feb 15 - Wedding Anniversary:

I feel proud to say that I have been part of Indian Cooking Challenge in this month, February 2012 reason this recipe is not only been prepared by me but also by all the participants who have participated in Indian Cooking Challenge. Entry to this blog is restricted only for the users.

ICC is an event which happens every month. Host of this blog ICC, Srivalli would be selecting a recipe with the help of participant(s) and announcing it to the team. Whole team has to prepare the same dish and post it on their blog on 15^th of every month. Post has to be in their own words with pictures and link it to the announcement page and also link it to the source.

Last time, I was late in taking up the challenge of making Pheni Pattar or Chiroti and had to give up. This time, the recipe was announced on Feb 2^nd and I had enough of time to prepare. This recipe is called Vennai Puttu, it looks like halwa and tastes like Akkibele Payasa. It’s a special dish of Tamilnadu shared by Priya, one of ICC team member. Nirmala had shared this recipe.

Ingredients:

Rice – ½ cup

Water to grind – ½ of rice quantity

Cooked Channa Dal – ¼ cup

Jaggery – ¼ cup

Water for Jaggery Syrup – ½ of jaggery quantity

Ghee – 2 tsp

Cardamom Powder – 1 tsp

Water for sweet – twice of rice – 1 cup

Method:

Soak rice for atleast 3 hours. I had soaked it overnight.

In the morning remove the water from the rice and along with half quantity of rice blend it like idli batter and keep it aside.

Cook channa dal and keep it aside

Put jaggery in to a vessel and add water and make a medium consistency jaggery syrup

Pour water for the sweet and allow it to boil

Once the water starts boiling add grinded / blended rice batter and star stirring continuously so that it does not form lumps. Never stop stirring till the sweet is removed from the stove.

When the raw smell in the rice batter vanishes add jaggery syrup, cardamom powder and cooked channel dal and stir continuously till a mass like substance is obtained or the mixture leaves the side.

Grease a plate and pour the mixture on to it and spread it across.

When it is warm make it into desired shapes and then serve it.

Story: Yesterday was a right time for me to do this as it was our wedding anniversary and mom-in-law had prepared only kheer to celebrate the occasion. Just for info, it was our 9^th anniversary and I was happy that I could do something on this special day.

I soaked the rice overnight and blended it and kept. I could do the sweet only in the afternoon as my little son was not well and I had to take him to doctor. In the afternoon when I checked the consistency of batter all the water was on top and the thick batter was settled down in the bottom. I removed the excess water and learnt the trick. If you add excess water while grinding might be this method can work out to remove the excess water.

Once I did the sweet, my hubby who will never eat sweet came and tasted a little told it looks more or less like akkibele payasa. That was the great surprise.