Srivilliputhur Palkova/Thiratti pal

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Srivilliputhur is another ancient town in Virudhunagar district near Madhurai. 
The town is famous for its ancient heritage, temples and Palkova(Milk sweet).The temple tower in this town is the official emblem of Tamil nadu.There is a separate temple for Andal here.
There are numerous shops selling Palkova near the Andal temple which has a unique taste.


Coming to the recipe, I learnt this from my maternal grandfather.My grandfather was a President for one of the cottage industry making these palkovas at Srivilliputhur.Whenever he visits us in Chennai he never fails to bring those small packets of palkova.It so happened that all those packets got over and I was wanting more.My grandfather finally set to make this sweet in our kitchen with aavin milk and I can never forget those moments (It was nearly more than 15 years back)


Nowadays I make them only in microwave using condensed milk (Click here for recipe), but for the marathon I made this in stove top just to retain its authenticity

Ingredients
Milk: 8 cups
Sugar: 1 cup
Titbits from my Grandpa: Looks like they add only 1/2 cup of sugar in Srivilliputhur Palkova as the milk in nature is very sweet there.And that is the secret of the uniqueness in the palkova sold there.


Procedure:
Step1:
Bring the milk to a boil

Step2:
Reduce the flame and simmer for 1 hour stirring every 10 minutes.
Use a flat splatula to stir and scrap the sides of the pan.
Make sure that the milk does not get burnt at the bottom

Step3:
After some time, the color changes to ivory color and starts to solidify

Step4:
Once it starts solidifying, add sugar and stir continuously otherwise the milk will get burnt

Step5:
Keep on stirring until the milk solidifies and starts leaving the sides of the pan

Packed them in butter paper as sold in Andal temple.I got only 4 packets with 8 cups of milk!

Thirunelveli Halwa

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Thirunelveli also called Nellai is an ancient city in South of Tamil nadu, situated on the banks of the river Tamirabarani.I guess everyone in South India will be familiar with the famous Thirunelveli Halwa/Wheat halwa sold at Iruttu kadai (meaning dark shop) in Thirunelveli

This is one of my favourite sweet and I was lucky enough to have friends in Thirunelveli who used to get for me from Iruttu kadai often during my college days.

I bookmarked this recipe from this video.Here they have explained how they make this halwa at Thirunelveli.I just followed this recipe with only one change.I reduced the amount of sugar alone.It took almost 3 hours for me to make this halwa.I would say this almost tastes close to Thirunelveli Halwa so it is worth the effort.Also I was amazed with the yield.1 cup of wheat can yield more than 1/2 kg of halwa

Ingredients

Wheat : 2 cups (approx 450gms)

Sugar: 7 cups

Water: 12 cups

Cardomom powder: 1/2 tsp

Ghee: 3 cups

Procedure:

Step1:

Soak the wheat is sufficient amount of water for 8 hrs

Step2:

Grind the wheat with some water and extract the wheat milk

To get the milk, grind the wheat in mixie/blender for 5 minutes and filter out the milk.

Grind the wheat with fresh water again and filter.Repeat this atleast 3 times

Step3:

Allow the milk to ferment overnight

Step4:

In the morning , you will find that the thick milk has settled at the bottom and the clear liquid on top.Discard the clear liquid. I got approximately 3.5 cups of milk
Note: If you are able to extract more milk, adjust the quantity of other ingredients accordingly

Fermented milk

After clearing the liquid on top

Step5:

In a wide non stick pan, pour this milk and add 12 cups of water and mix well

Mixed with water

Step6:

Cook in a medium flame and keep stirring once 3 -5 minutes.After 1 hour, the mixture starts to thicken

Step7:

At this point add sugar and keep on stirring

Step8:

Once it reaches semi solid stage, add ghee little by little and keep on stirring.After another 1 hour or so, the ghee will start oozing out.The halwa will look transparent as well.When you take the mixture in the laddle, it should slide and not stick to the laddle
The ghee will really start oozing out at the last stage. I recollected more than 1/4 cup of ghee once I was done with the Halwa

Step9:

Add cardomom powder and fried cashews and switch off the flame

About to be done.Still sticky

Almost done.The halwa has to slide from the spoon.Should not stick

Adding color to Halwa

1. Heat 3 tsp of ghee
2. Add 2 tsp of sugar and keep stirring until the sugar starts melting and starts caramelizing
3. At one point (within a minute or two), the ghee starts changing color to brown
4. Pour this to the Halwa mixture and you will get the required color naturally

Heat ghee and sugar

Add it to the halwa

This will become more darker once the halwa is done

Tips:

1. If you want to try this halwa for the first time, cut the recipe by half.Use only 1 cup of wheat.The yield is really huge.So 1 cup will be more than enough for a family
2. Use a good quality triply stainless plan so that it is easy to stir 
3. I got only 3.5 cups of milk from 2 cups of wheat.If you extracted properly with good squeezing and grinding more than 3 times, you may get even more.In that case increase the other ingredients accordingly
4. Do not add any artificial colors.You may not get the color naturally when you are making with less quantity.However use the above tip to bring the color
5. I have made this halwa several times.It stays fresh for almost 10 days. and more than 2 weeks when refrigerated. Best when served warm.

Kancheepuram Idli

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For this week marathon, I have decided to post the famous recipes from Tamil Nadu.Starting with the divine city near Chennai - Kancheepuram.
Kancheepuram, also called temple city of Tamil nadu is famous for its temples, silk sarees and of course Kancheepuram idlis.This idli is different from the normal ones with added spices and flavours.This is a parasadam served in Varadharaja Perumal temple at Kancheepuram.Typically these idlis are steam cooked in Dhonnai (Made with banana or mandharai leaves) which gives an extra divine flavor to it.

Ingredients
For Idli batter:
Raw Rice: 1 cup
Boiled Rice: 2 cup
Urad dhal: 1 cup
For seasoning
Sesame oil: 2 tablespoon
Melted ghee: 1 tablepoon
Fresh thick curd: 3 tablespoon
Mustard seeds: 1/2 tsp
Pepper: 1.5 tsp
Jeera/Cumin seeds: 1.5 tsp
Ginger powder/sukku podi: 1 tsp
Hing: 1/2 tsp
Cashew nuts: 1 tablespoon (optional)
Curry leaves: a sprig


Procedure:
Step1:
Soak the dhal and rice separately for 6 - 8 hrs


Step2:
Grind them separetly , add salt and allow to ferment overnight

Step3:
Powder pepper and cumin seeds to a coarse powder


Step4:
Heat 2 tsp of ghee in a pan and slightly fry the pepper cumin powder ,ginger powder,hing and curry leaves.Fry the cashews as well

Step5:
Add this to the batter. Also add the remaining ghee, sesame oil and curd and mix well

Step6:
Pour it into idli moulds and steam cook for 15 - 20 minutes(This may take little longer to cook than normal idlis)


Step7:
Serve with idli milagai podi or sambar