Microwave Kaju Halwa

This is a sweet which is made by me atleast once a month. My husband likes this better than the kathlis available at the famous Grand Sweets and Snacks, Chennai. I came across this in Mallika Badrinath's Microwave recipes under Kaju Kathli. Since it looked very easy, i gave a shot at it and found out it was easy to make and tasted very much like the tradional one.It does not take a lot of ghee/butter when cooked in microwave. When i make this, i do not allow it to get to the Kathli stage, but take it out few minutes before it when it is halwa form.

Recipe:-

Cashewnuts - 2 Cup
Sugar or Powdered - 2 Cup
Milk - 4 Tsp
Butter/Ghee - 2 Tsp
Cardamom Powder - 1 Tsp

Method :-

~ Soak cashewnuts for 3-4 hours.
~ Powder Sugar first in a mixie/blender, if using regular sugar.
~ Grind Cashewnuts, sugar, milk, ghee/butter to a liquid consistency.
~ Transfer to a microwave safe bowl, preferably a glass one(you can see what is happening).
~ Microwave for 14-18 minutes with 4 minute interval. Mix the liquid every 4 minutes.
~ Add cardamom powder after 12 minutes, mix well.
~ After 12 minutes, you may want to reduce the interval to check for the desired consistency.


Notes :
~ It took me 18 minutes to get to the halwa stage. I would not say my microwave is powerful(it comes with the apartment and does not revolve).
~ If left for too long, it gets burnt, so be careful after 12 minutes.
~ Instead of sugar, condensed milk can be used. For one cup of cashewnuts, 3/4 of condensed milk is used.
~ My photos are not great, got to work on it :-)

Rosemary Infused Olive Oil

Olive oil is considered an important ingredient in Italian cooking. So also the herb Rosemary. Olive oil is very good for health when consumed raw. Olive oil loses its properties once the oil is heated to a certain temperature for deep frying, tempering etc. Olive oil's monounstaturated fat is very good for health when compared to other oils like vegetable oil, corn oil etc.

Infusing Rosemary in Olive oil caught my attention when i saw one of Paula Deen's episode in Food network. Unfortnately i saw the ending of the show when she spoke of infusing rosemary into olive oil which i could not locate in the www.foodnetwork.com. When i did a search about this i found out that i can infuse other herbs like basil, tyhme, oregano, clintaro etc and spices like caradmom, cinnamon, cumin etc.


Infusing is very very simple to do. All you need is Olive oil, herbs and a container to store them.

Procedure for Infusing :

Place few springs of rosemary in the container and pour olive oil till the rosemary is soaked. Leave it aside for 2 -3 weeks and enjoy them in your salads, sandwitches etc.

Notes : Olive oil can be heated in medium heat and poured over the rosemary springs for few weeks before using them.