Hi dearies, what’s new waiting for you this week🤩? As you are all well aware, the theme for this month is Diwali sweets and snacks recipes. For the last 3 weeks, you must have enjoyed my Bottle gourd Halwa, Instant No Cooking Chocolate Halwa Roll, Sago/Javvarisi Mixture, and Sabudana Chakli/Murukku, Instant No Cooking Kaju Peda, and Healthy Purple Kaju Katli. I keep up my promise of giving unique, easy, novel recipes to make your festival more memorable. Now for this week too, my assurance for you continues…❤.
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For the last 2-weeks, the recipes had 1 common ingredient with which I prepared 2 delicacies. With Sago/Sabudana/Javvarisi as 1 common ingredient-I prepared 2 snacks namely Sago/Javvarisi Mixture, and Sabudana Chakli/Murukku. Similarly, with cashew as 1 common ingredient, I prepared 2 sweets namely, Instant No Cooking Kaju Peda and Healthy Purple Kaju Katli.
The same goes for this week, but with a twist, yes…😉🥰🥰. Here, I used 2 ingredients as a common ingredient and prepared a sweet and a snack with the same.
Interesting!!!, curious to know what the ingredients are, let me disclose it…it’s Yellow split gram/Pasiparuppu/ Moong dal and Foxtail millet/Thinai/Kangni. Utilizing these 2 ingredients I created a sweet–Ashoka Halwa /Moong dal Halwa and a snack- Thinai pasiparuppu Murukku/Kangni Moong dal Chakli.
After a long brainstorming session of what to create with these 2 variant ingredient-Yellow split gram and Foxtail millet, I chose these 2 scrumptious treats and unique recipes.
Coming to the recipes, Ashoka halwa is a must-have delicacy in Tanjavur district weddings. If you google, you’ll get loads of stories about its origin, name, and evolution. So I’ll keep it short and sweet. This dish (also known as Thiruvaiyaaru Halwa) originated from Thiruvaiyaaru, from the Tanjavur district, served in weddings with a melt in the mouth texture and the taste lingers for a while. This glossy beauty is made with 3 main ingredients namely- yellow split lentils, ghee, and sugar. This delectable dish was introduced to me by my Bahrain neighbour, Uma, who was a Tanjavur native. She was courteous enough to share her recipe, which I tinkered and tweaked a little to take a notch higher.
Let’s quickly go around the ingredients and their role in the sweet.
Yellow split gram/Pasiparuppu-is used here, slightly roasting in ghee and finely pressure cooking and smoothly mashing into a puree are the key steps involved to get excellent results.
Sugar-quantity should be double or triple the quantity of dal. I always prefer my sweet to be moderate. I chose 2 ¼ cups. If you require sufficient sweetness, then go ahead with 2 ½-3 cups depending upon your requirements. After 2 cups, gradually add the sugar in ¼ cups and stop where you feel like it reached your requirement.
Ghee-is almost added 1 and ½ times of the dal. Do not compromise the quality and quantity of the ghee. Feel free to remove excess ghee after cooking as it separates out when you reheat it. This ghee can be used in making dosas, rotis, and curries.
Wheat flour or maida-is added as a binding agent. Here, I tweaked it by adding Thinai / Foxtail millet flour in the place of wheat flour. Thus, converting this dish into a gluten-free recipe.
Cardamom powder-was added for flavour. Garnished with nuts and raisins.
Food Colour-is added for an appealing look. I’m a person who avoids artificial food colour in my recipes. Here, I compensated with beetroot water. Finely chop a small beetroot and cook in a cup of water. After it reduces the water to ¼ cup, switch off the flame and mash the veggie to impart more colour to the water. Use this ¼ cup (4 tbsp) beetroot water for colour, it may not be that bright orange colour but definitely a healthy substitute. If you do not want to take that extra leg of effort, you can still try with turmeric powder or saffron/kesar (rubbed and mixed in hot milk), other natural food colors which I always look for.
This is a typical South Indian Halwa. In Northern India, they also prepare with this yellow split gram/Moong dal. But its preparation is completely different from the South Indian Ashoka halwa in the following ways-
Moong dal is not cooked, just soaked and ground into a paste.
Milk is added and moong dal is cooked in it.
No flour is added.
I hope you had a deep insight into the dish.
Now let’s move on to our next addition using the same ingredients- yellow split gram/Pasiparuppu/ Moong dal and Foxtail millet/Thinai/Kangni flour. This time, I wanted to make a savoury using the same ingredients in contrast to the previous sweet dish.
I created this recipe by replacing half of the rice flour with this Foxtail millet/Thinai/Kangni flour and mixed it with cooked moong dal, butter, salt, and spices to knead into a smooth and soft dough. Squeeze it through a kitchen press or Murukku maker, and deep fry them till it gets cooked and turns brown.
This savoury is ultimately crispy and crunchy in texture, healthy in its ingredients due to the inclusion of millet flour, and tasty because of the moong dal. You cannot resist yourself munching on this crunchy snack.
Generally, Murukku or Chaklis are a mix of any cereal flour with lentil flour. Preferably rice flour mixed with fried gram flour or urad dal flour or gram flour. The addition of lentil flour contributes to the crispiness of the Murukku/chaklis. Along with it, salt and other condiments like cumin seeds, sesame seeds, carom seeds are added. Then, spices like chilli powder or green chillies, asafoetida powder (for aiding digestion) are added as optional ingredients. Additionally, little butter or hot oil is added to increase the fineness of the texture. Here, I came with a twist, I included small millet-Foxtail millet/Thinai flour with rice flour. For the lentil part, I used the cooked moong dal. the rest of the ingredients include salt, spice, butter, and condiments. Then knead, squeeze, fry, and serve as any other regular murukku/chakli. But the outcome turns out to be extraordinary. Every bite gives you a crispy and crunchy experience, also with a soft melt-in-mouth feel when it enters your throat. Amazing way to introduce small millets in kid’s diet plan. It’s 2 in 1 recipe, satisfy yourself by giving a healthy feast and satisfy your kids by giving a tasty snack.
What else are you waiting for..😎😎! let’s get into the recipe…👇
Ashoka Halwa /Moong dal Halwa.
Wash and rinse moong dal nicely, then drain water. Sauté this for a minute in 1 tsp ghee heated in a pressure cooker pan.
Add 4 cups hot/warm water to it.
Then pressure cook it for 4-5 long whistles (refer notes).
Meanwhile, prepare the natural food colour by cooking finely chopped small beetroot in 1 cup water. Switch off the flame, once it reduces to ¼ cup water. Then smash the cooked beetroot to impart more juice and colour to the water. Keep it aside. Once the pressure settles down, pulse the cooked dal in a mixer grinder or using a hand mixer.
To this add ¼ cup or 4 tbsp beetroot water to the cooked, mashed dal.
Now take a wide, thick-bottomed kadai or non-stick pan. Heat ¼ cup ghee, fry the required quantity of cashews and raisins and keep it aside.
Then sauté foxtail millet flour for 3 minutes in medium flame in the same ghee.
Reduce the flame to low, then add cooked and mashed moong dal, sugar, a pinch of salt and cardamom powder.
Combine everything and cook in medium flame for 5 minutes.
After 5 minutes, keep adding the remaining 1 ½ cup ghee (refer notes) in quarters for every 5 minutes.
Initially, when you add ghee, it floats, then after consistent stirring, halwa absorbs the ghee. The consistency of the halwa will be a bit gooey and runny at this stage (refer to notes).
Every 5 minutes interval, keep adding ¼ cup of ghee. Repeat the process till you empty the 1 ½ cup ghee by 30 minutes.
After 35 minutes of cooking, it starts gathering as a single mass without sticking to the pan. The consistency of the halwa will be glossy and solid at this stage. This is the indication of halwa being cooked.
Switch off the flame and garnish with fried cashews and raisins.
Serve this Ashoka halwa while hot. Smooth, soft, glossy, melt-in-mouth halwa enters your throat and takes you on a divine experience, that cannot be explained unless you taste it.
It can be stored in a refrigerator for 8-10 days. Reheat the portion you consume and retain the rest in the refrigerator. When you reheat, it starts leaving ghee on sides, merrily, save this ghee to use in your day-to-day cooking (refer notes).
Thinai pasiparuppu Murukku/Kangni Moong dal Chakli.
Wash and rinse moong dal nicely, then drain water. Sauté this for a minute in ½ tsp ghee heated in a pressure cooker pan.
Add 1 cup hot/warm water to it, then pressure cook it for 4-5 long whistles (refer notes).
Once the pressure settles down, check if the dal is cooked well by squishing between your fingers, then mash the hot dal with a masher. It doesn’t require pulsing or grinding in a mixer grinder. Now take a wide bowl, add Foxtail millet flour, rice flour (refer notes), salt, asafoetida powder, chilli powder, sesame seeds, and cumin seeds. Mix it well.
Now add cooked, mashed moong dal,
Add 1 tbsp butter, mix it with the tip of the fingers to combine it evenly, and then thoroughly mix it well till you get a crumbly texture.
At this stage, take little flour and press it against your palm and see if it holds the shape (refer to pic and video). It denotes the right texture and right proportion of ingredients added.
Now gradually add water tbsp by tbsp in portions. It’ll roughly take 9 tbsp of water, it may vary depending on the quality of flours you used. Always be safe by adding in tbsps.
And knead the dough into a wet and soft consistency (but not hard or sticky consistency).
Cover the dough with a damp cloth, to avoid getting it dried.
Heat a pan or kadai with a neutrally flavoured oil in high flame. Once heated, reduce to medium flame. Roll the dough into a cylindrical shape to fit into the murukku maker and drop it into the greased murukku maker filled with multiple holes jali (refer pic).
To check the right temperature of the oil, drop a pinch of dough, it should raise immediately from the bottom and sizzle on top. If not, let the oil heat for some more time. Then grease the back of some flat ladles and start squeezing in a tight swirl shape. Join the edges and end if broken to avoid unfolding while frying.
Make a batch of 4-5 on different ladles and drop it in the oil and fry in medium flame. Flip it twice, and once the bubbles settle down.
Remove from the oil and drain excess oil by placing them on a kitchen tissue.
Repeat the process till you finish the dough and fry the murukkus effectively. Once cooled down, store them in an airtight container and has a shelf life of more than 2 weeks.
Crispy, Crunchy, Tasty, Healthy, Savory Thinai Pasiparuppu Murukku/Kangni Moong dal Chakli ready to bite and indulge.
Recipe card
Ashoka Halwa /Moong dal Halwa.
Preparation time: 2 minutes
Cooking time:50-60 minutes
Cuisine: Indian
Category: Festive Sweets and Snacks
Serves: 6-8
Author: Manimala
Ingredients:
Yellow split gram – 1 cup
Water – 4 cup
Foxtail/Thinai flour – ¼ cup
Sugar – 2- 2 ¼ cup
Ghee – 1 ¾ cup
Cardamom powder – ¼ tsp
Salt – a pinch
Beetroot water – ¼ cup
For garnish- cashews and raisins.
Instructions:
- Wash and rinse moong dal nicely, then drain water. Sauté this for a minute in 1 tsp ghee heated in a pressure cooker pan. Add 4 cups hot/warm water to it, then pressure cook it for 4-5 long whistles (refer notes).
- Meanwhile, prepare the natural food colour by cooking finely chopped small beetroot in 1 cup water. Switch off the flame, once it reduces to ¼ cup water. Then smash the cooked beetroot to impart more juice and colour to the water. Keep it aside.
- Once the pressure settles down, pulse the cooked dal in a mixer grinder or using a hand mixer.
- To this add ¼ cup or 4 tbsp beetroot water to the cooked, mashed dal.
- Now take a wide, thick-bottomed kadai or non-stick pan. Heat ¼ cup ghee, fry the required quantity of cashews and raisins and keep it aside. Then sauté foxtail millet flour for 3 minutes in medium flame in the same ghee.
- Reduce the flame to low, then add cooked and mashed moong dal, sugar, a pinch of salt and cardamom powder. Combine everything and cook in medium flame for 5 minutes.
- After 5 minutes, keep adding the remaining 1 ½ cup ghee (refer notes) in quarters for every 5 minutes.
- Initially, when you add ghee, it floats, then after consistent stirring, halwa absorbs the ghee. The consistency of the halwa will be a bit gooey and runny at this stage (refer to notes).
- Every 5 minutes interval, keep adding ¼ cup of ghee. Repeat the process till you empty the 1 ½ cup ghee by 30 minutes.
- After 35 minutes of cooking, it starts gathering as a single mass without sticking to the pan. The consistency of the halwa will be glossy and solid at this stage. This is the indication of halwa being cooked.
- Switch off the flame and garnish with fried cashews and raisins.
- Serve this Ashoka halwa while hot. Smooth, soft, glossy, melt-in-mouth halwa enters your throat and takes you on a divine experience, that cannot be explained unless you taste it.
- It can be stored in a refrigerator for 8-10 days. Reheat the portion you consume and retain the rest in the refrigerator. When you reheat, it starts leaving ghee on sides, merrily, save this ghee to use in your day-to-day cooking (refer notes).
Notes:
- There is no requirement of soaking moong dal, just wash it thoroughly and drain the water. Sautéing the moong dal in 1 tsp ghee adds an extra aroma to the flavour. But it’s not mandatory, you can keep it as optional. But if you are sautéing do not sauté more than a minute. Because over sautéed moong dal will not get cooked completely as it is supposed to be in a mashable mushy consistency. Just 1 minute of sautéing will suffice.
- While adding water either add 3 times or 4 times the dal quantity. Preferably add water 4 times the dal and also add warm or hot water, as adding cold water to the sautéed hot moong dal will affect its cooking due to the temperature difference.
- Here, I used 1 and ¾ cup ghee, where I used 1st quarter cup ghee to sauté Foxtail millet flour. Remaining 1 and ½ cup ghee, I added in quarters every 5 minutes till the halwa reaches its right consistency.
- This quantity of ghee is required to get the desired consistency and taste. Do not hesitate to add this quantity, as almost ½ – ¾ cup ghee is thrown out when you are reheating the halwa. This excess ghee can be used in your day-to-day cooking like in dosa, chapathi, or any curries. Always, reheat the halwa to get rid of the excess ghee and to relish its authentic taste.
- Initially, the consistency of the mashed dal will be gooey and runny. It’s because I added 4 cups of water to 1 cup of dal. If you have added 3 cups, then your cooked dal may not be the same consistency. It’ll be a bit thicker even after mashing. Then it may not take much time to cook. For my consistency of dal, it took a total of 35 minutes to reach the final stage. Nothing to panic about if your dal is a bit runny. Just it’ll take time to cook. But make sure- a)you pulse the dal and do not grind it. b)also do not add water while pulsing it.
- Another tip to make Indian sweets like halwa, use thick bottomed or non-stick kadai/ pan.
Thinai pasiparuppu Murukku/Kangni Moong dal Chakli.
Recipe card
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes (including pressure cooking moong dal)
Cuisine: Indian
Category: Festive Sweets and Snacks
Yields: 20 medium sizes
Author: Manimala
Ingredients:
Foxtail millet/Thinai flour – ½ cup
Rice flour – ½ cup
Moong dal – ¼ cup (uncooked)
Butter – 1 tbsp
Sesame seeds – ½ tsp
Cumin seeds – ½ tsp
Chilli powder – ½ tsp
Salt – to taste
Asafoetida powder – a pinch
Ghee – ½ tsp
Water – 1 cup + 9 tbsp
Instructions:
- Wash and rinse moong dal nicely, then drain water. Sauté this for a minute in ½ tsp ghee heated in a pressure cooker pan. Add 1 cup hot/warm water to it, then pressure cook it for 4-5 long whistles (refer notes).
- Once the pressure settles down, check if the dal is cooked well by squishing between your fingers, then mash the hot dal with a masher. It doesn’t require pulsing or grinding in a mixer grinder.
- Now take a wide bowl, add Foxtail millet flour, rice flour (refer notes), salt, asafoetida powder, chilli powder, sesame seeds, and cumin seeds. Mix it well.
- Now add cooked, mashed moong dal, 1 tbsp butter, mix it with the tip of the fingers to combine it evenly, and then thoroughly mix it well till you get a crumbly texture.
- At this stage, take little flour and press it against your palm and see if it holds the shape (refer to pic and video). It denotes the right texture and right proportion of ingredients added.
- Now gradually add water tbsp by tbsp in portions and knead the dough into a wet and soft consistency (but not hard or sticky consistency).
- It’ll roughly take 9 tbsp of water, it may vary depending on the quality of flours you used. Always be safe by adding in tbsps.
- Cover the dough with a damp cloth, to avoid getting it dried.
- Heat a pan or kadai with a neutrally flavoured oil in high flame. Once heated, reduce to medium flame.
- Roll the dough into a cylindrical shape to fit into the murukku maker and drop it into the greased murukku maker filled with multiple holes jali (refer pic).
- To check the right temperature of the oil, drop a pinch of dough, it should raise immediately from the bottom and sizzle on top. If not, let the oil heat for some more time.
- Then grease the back of some flat ladles and start squeezing in a tight swirl shape. Join the edges and end if broken to avoid unfolding while frying.
- Make a batch of 4-5 on different ladles and drop it in the oil and fry in medium flame. Flip it twice, and once the bubbles settle down, remove from the oil and drain excess oil by placing them on a kitchen tissue.
- Repeat the process till you finish the dough and fry the murukkus effectively.
- Once cooled down, store them in an airtight container and has a shelf life of more than 2 weeks.
- Crispy, Crunchy, Tasty, Healthy, Savory Thinai Pasiparuppu Murukku/Kangni Moong dal Chakli ready to bite and indulge.
Notes:
- There is no requirement of soaking moong dal, just wash it thoroughly and drain the water. Sautéing the moong dal in ½ tsp ghee adds an extra aroma to the flavour. But it’s not mandatory, you can keep it as optional. But if you are sautéing do not sauté more than a minute. Because over sautéed moong dal will not get cooked completely as it is supposed to be in a mashable mushy consistency. Just 1 minute of sautéing will suffice.
- While adding water either add 3 times or 4 times of the dal quantity and quality. Preferably add water 4 times the dal and also add warm or hot water, as adding cold water to the sautéed hot moong dal will affect its cooking due to the temperature difference.
- For rice flour, use idiyappam flour or pathiri flour or kozhukattai flour, or simply rice powder. Here, I used Store-bought Thinai flour.
- Maintaining medium flame throughout the frying process is essential to get evenly cooked murukkus. Also, do not crowd the oil with more Murukkus. Fry in small batches.
- If the murukku tends to break and split in oil, then add little flour. If it’s hard to squeeze through the murukku maker and the dough is hard, then add a tsp-tbsp of butter (as required). Also, if the oil is not hot enough or at the right temperature then murukku tends to break and absorb a lot of oil.
- You can directly squeeze into the oil if you can tolerate the heat. Better to use greased ladle’s back to squeeze. When one batch is getting fried, parallelly you can squeeze another batch of murukkus on ladle’s back to save time and effort.
- Do not store when the murukkus are hot as they sweat and become soggy. Let it cool down, then store it in an airtight container.
- In the place of butter, you can substitute hot oil, but adding either of the fat is essential to get a crispy and crunchy texture.