Thursdays are always special for me every week. Being a devotee of Shri Shirdi Baba I dedicate atleast an hour for him doing poojas,making prasadham etc. This week I had decided to prepare Sweet Pongal for Nevedhyam (offering to God). But Jaggery was running out of stock. Hence I made Rava Kesari.
Rava Kesari is easy to make and will not take more than 20 minutes. Whenever there are unexpected guests this is the sweet that Amma makes for them and serve it with some spicy snacks & coffee/tea. The key to getting the texture right for the Kesari is to roast them well. Standard ratio for Kesari is 1:2:2.5 which means 1 part of Rava/Sooji, Approximately 2 parts of Sugar and 2.5 cups of water. You can increase or slightly decrease the quantity of sugar based on your preferences. If you are using very fine Rava then the amount of water might be slightly lesser too.
The following measurement serves four people. I used one standard cup to measure the ingredients. If you are using a stainless steel tumbler for measurement then use the same tumbler and take portions of Sugar & Water as mentioned below.
| Prep Time | 10 minutes |
| Cook Time | 30 minutes |
| Servings |
serving
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- 1 cup Rava White Semolina/Sooji
- 2 cups sugar Increase or Decrease sugar quantity based on your preference
- 2.5 cups water Add extra if needed
- 1 teaspoon Cardamom Powder
- 3/4th cup ghee
- 1 pinch Kesari Powder or you can add few strands of Saffron for natural color
- 10-15 Cashewnuts
- 8-10 Raisins
Ingredients
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|
- Heat 1tbsp of ghee in a frying pan. Add cashew nuts,raisins to it.
- Fry until they turn golden brown. Remove them from the pan and keep it aside.
- In the same pan roast rava until a nice aroma comes up. Rava would have turned to a light brownish colour by now.
- Boil 3 cups of water when the rava gets roasted. Once the water is hot add it to the pan along with Saffron color powder. Keep stirring continuously so that no lumps are formed
- Once the Rava is completely cooked add sugar, 1/2 cup ghee and again start the stirring process. Do not take your hand away from the pan and continue this for about 5 minutes.
- The mixture will now become little watery. Don't worry about it. Continue stirring and ensure you are scraping the sides and bottom of the pan too.
- In other 5 minutes all the ingredients will blend together. They will start to thicken. At this stage add the remaining ghee and the roasted nuts
- Mix everything together. Semolina will absorb ghee and the sugar quickly. Two key points to remember is always add sugar when the semolina is completely cooked and don't add too much of ghee when semolina is getting cooked . Sugar + Ghee should be added together. Also save one or two tablespoons of Ghee to add to Kesari before serving
- Transfer the Kesari to a hot pack. If you have prepared it well even when gets cold Kesari it will be delicious. Don't skimp on the quantity of Ghee.
