Be My Guest – Strawberry Kesari

PinThe first guest post for the year 2018 is here. 🙂 InShaAllah, I am looking at doing this series non-stop for the whole of the 12 months. Wish me luck! 😉

 

Meanwhile, today I have a blogger who is one among the first bunch I followed when my cooking craze started. Initially, her blog was called En Veettu Kitchen, which means “the kitchen in my house” in Tamil and then slowly she “camped in her kitchen“. I always wanted to ask her whether she actually had a camp in her kitchen. Stupid question, right? 😀 A very versatile blogger and an even more jovial person, she has a blog full of interesting recipes and bakes. Of late, her interest has been in learning frosting techniques and some of her latest cakes, like this one, had some really pretty work on it, that it is hard to believe that she is a beginner. Her blog is a store house of a lot of Tamilian pure vegetarian delicacies. If you are looking at cooking with millets, she has a special section for that too.

 

It wouldn’t be good for me to pinpoint recipes that I would really love to try out from her blog, but this recent Strawberry Yogurt looks like a must-try especially during this strawberry season, this Mawa Cake is also my list of to-do, and it’s not just the sweet stuff, this Thengapaal Rasam is up to try when I am in a mood for something new for lunch. Talking about strawberries, wouldn’t you be keen to see what she has come with? A pretty pink dessert set in a blue background just makes my knees weak! Let me leave the podium for my guest for today then… 🙂

 

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This is my very first guest post. Rafeeda, many who have met her know how down to earth she is and those who haven’t met her in person, would have experienced her warmth and love thru the social media. If you are a blogger, then she would have definitely reached you with her spoons 🙂 oh yeah, she has a crazy following for her spoons!!! The first time I met her was in a bloggers meet which she arranged and till date she is the one who will bring up the talk of a meet up first. Thank God for such initiatives and we do meet regularly these days and have a itinerary planned for the next 3 months!!

 

Coming to today’s guest post, we have a little Whassup group, and Rafee just dropped a line asking whether any of us would be interested to do a guest post. I was going thru a blogger block that time, and wanted to really get back my mojo. I took the opportunity and here I am with The Big Sweet tooth!! 🙂 Thanks Rafeeda for the opportunity. I am Priya Srinivasan and I blog at “I camp in my Kitchen“, yup the camper in the kitchen :). I blog mainly on South Indian cuisine, but with a family who love to experiment with food, I am one happy cook who experiments with vegetarian cooking around the world.

 

 

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While thinking on what to cook for Rafeeda, there was no confusion at all, I knew her love for desserts, she will enjoy a good dessert anytime!!

 

So, here is my simple, yet colorful and yumm dessert humble sheera/kesari/semolina pudding with strawberries. Kesari/sheera is such a versatile dessert, you can experiment with lot of flavors. With strawberries in season, i wanted to try my go-to dessert with them. It takes just 15-20 minutes flat if you have the compote ready in hand. I usually make the compote whenever i get fresh strawberries. Even if you have to prepare the compote, add another 10 minutes, that’s it.

 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup sooji/semolina
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1 tsp cinnamon powder
2 tbsp ghee
1/2 cup strawberry compote (recipe below)
2 tbsp chopped cashew nuts, toasted
2 tbsp chopped pistachios, toasted

 

Method:

In a pan, add a tsp of ghee and toast the semolina until golden brown and aromatic. Though these days we get roasted semolina, I still recommend doing this step. Once roasted, take it off the stove. Take care not to burn the sooji, it will leave a bad taste in the dessert.

In the same pan, add a drizzle of ghee and toast the cashew-nuts and keep aside.

In a sauce pan, combine milk and water and heat. Once it is about to boil, add the roasted semolina to the liquid and using a whisk combine well. I again recommend a whisk, since it easy to mix and it also ensures no lumps.

Let this cook in a simmer flame for 5-8 minutes. keep stirring, while it is cooking. Once cooked, sooji almost doubles up in quantity.

Now add sugar to this and mix. When you add sugar, the mixture will liquify a little. But don’t worry it will be absorbed into the final dish.

Now add the remaining ghee to the kesari and let this sit on the heat for another 5-8 minutes. Keep stirring from time to time .

Now, add the strawberry compote to the kesari and mix well, let it be on heat until the kesari comes together as a mass.

Take it off the heat. Garnish with roasted nuts and serve warm. I had some strawberry compote which i drizzles on top and served.

 

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For the strawberry compote
10-12 nos fresh plump strawberries
4 tbsp sugar

Method
Wash and hull the strawberries. Chop them roughly. Take the strawberries in a sauce pan and heat it.
Add sugar to the strawberries, let it simmer on heat for 10-12 minutes, while they cook well in the sugar completely losing their shape.
Take it off the stove, once they start to thicken. Roughly mash them with a potato masher or puree them with a blender for a smooth compote. I usually puree it as my lil one love to eat the compote as such, and he doesn’t prefer chunky berries in that.

This can be stored in the refrigerator in a clean jar for 2 weeks. Enjoy this compote on your sandwich/roti , add it to your desserts, morning breakfast smoothies. The options are endless, if they last that long. At home, the maximum is 3 days.

 

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I was just wondering to myself that a few months, I had another sheera as guest post! 🙂 Thank you so much Priya for this lovely post… I can’t stop looking at the pretty pink dessert on the awesome blue background! You know how much we as bloggers have eyes that loiters all over the place apart from the food! 😉

 

Hope you all enjoyed the guest post… have a great weekend ahead…