Badam Halwa: A delicious sweet / dessert

• Soak 1 cup of almonds in a bowl of boiling water.
• Remove and discard skin.
• Grind to make a fine paste.
• Boil 2 1/2 cups sugar with 1 cup of water to get syrup.
• Add the paste of almond to the boiling syrup and stir well.
• Dissolve 1 pinch of saffron in a little water and add to the syrup.
• Add 1 cup of ghee and stir.
• Wait for the contents to become like paste and add one more cup of ghee gradually.
• Maintain medium flame. Remove from flame when we get a batter like result.
• This tasty Badam Halwa, can be served hot or cold.

Coconut Burfi: A tasty dessert (Tengai Burfi)

• Take 1 tbsp of ghee in a saucepan.
• Heat it under low flame.
• Add 2 cups each of grated coconut and sugar.
• Stir constantly to get the contents thick.
• Grease a plate with ghee.
• Transfer the preparation to the plate and level it.
• Wait for cooling a little.
• Cut into required shapes like square, rectangle, diamond, etc.
• Decorate each piece with almond or cashew nut.

Green gram Payasam (Paasipparuppu Payasam / Split Moong dal Payasam) : A dessert

• Take 1 cup of water in a pressure cooker.
• Add ½ cup of slightly fried split green gram.
• Boil under low flame.
• While boiling, add ½ cup each of grated jaggery and grated coconut.
• Fry qty 6 each cashew nuts and raisins in 2 table spoons of ghee.
• Add this also to the boiling content along with some cardamom powder and 1 cup of milk.
• Boil further for 5 minutes.
  
  
  Glossary
  
  English --------------------- Tamil -------------- Hindi
  Green gram (split) - Paasipparuppu / Payattham paruppu - Mung dal
  Jaggery ------------------ Vellam -------- Gud
  Coconut ----------------- Tengai --------- Nariyal
  Cashew nut -------------- Mundhiri paruppu ------ Kaju
• Raisin ------------------ Ular Drakshai ----- Kismis
  Cardamom ------------------- Elakkai --------- Elaichi
  Milk -------------------- Pal / Paal --------- Dhoodh
  Ghee -------------------- Nei ------------ Desi Ghee

Venpongal (pongal)

• Wash 2 cups of raw rice (pacharisi) and ½ cup of husked green gram (pasipparuppu / moong wash).
• Add 6 cups of water, some fresh grated ginger (inji / adharak), salt and asafetida / asafoetida (perungayam / hing).
• Pressure cook for a duration of three whistles.
• Meanwhile fry some cashew nuts, one teaspoon of black pepper (milagu / Kala mirch / kali mirchi), one teaspoon of cumin seeds (Jeera, Jeeragam) and some curry leaves (kariveppilai / karipatha) in four tablespoon of ghee in a deep vessel using low heat.
• Mix well with cooked rice.
• Serve hot either with sambar or chutney or with both.