Sweetiepie I love you sooo!

God has blessed me with 32 sweet tooth out of which 1 has already been removed thanks to cavities! But God forgot to bless me with an infinite capacity to burn those extra calories that come as a big thick string attached to all those sweets I gorge upon. I ask Him for the Nth time “why are the best things in life illegal, immoral and fattening?” Maybe He wants to teach me that nothing in life is for free; that for every benefit there is a cost; that I must keep on my toes always like all other animals on this planet!

OK enough of digression! Like I was saying, I have been too fond of sweets ever since I set foot on Earth. I can hog plates and plates of gulab jamuns; to the extent I won an informal gulab-jamun-eating competition while in college ;) I start consuming mysore pak right off the pan even before it is poured on the plate to be cooled and cut into bars. I start drooling even while the cake is getting solidified inside the oven; its smell making me float like Tom of the Disneyland! There is no boundary when it comes to sweet for me. From West Bengal to Gujarat; from Kashmir to Kanyakumari; anything with a dash of sugar or jaggery can woo me easily. Whether Jalebi or Jangiri, Roshogulla or Besan Ladoo, there is hardly a sweet I can say NO to. Why, I even go international! As long as there is no raw-egg-smell, I am fine with it. Cakes, pastries, doughnuts are great mood-lifters! I can eat chocolates even when woken up from sleep.
But now comes the twist in the tale! Though a good eater of sweets, I can hardly make them ;) My first attempt at cake made it too powdery (I guess too much of soda!) The second got itself burnt! There are 2 sweets which over the years have resigned to me unable to bear my constant nagging attempts. Let me share them with all those looking for such quick fixes.

One is called Cooker Payasam. Very very simple, I say.
1) Pour some water in the (pressure) cooker.
2) In another vessel (preferably a little tall one), pour half a litre of milk and add a handful of rice.
3) Put this vessel inside the cooker and let the cooker blow one whistle.
4) Reduce the flame and let the cooker be on low flame without removing the whistle for 20 minutes.
5) Let the cooker cool down. Remove the vessel, add sugar as per your taste and let it boil directly for a minute.
6) Add garnishings in the form of fried cashewnut and cardamom powder.
Your kheer is ready J Cool, isn’t it? No need of constant stirring and your kheer comes out thick and pink!

The second sweet is called 7-cup-cake. Please do not misunderstand this as sponge and baked cake. By cake, generally, we Tamilians mean sweet bars. Anything in the shape of cuboid :) So heres the simple recipe!
1) The 7 cup adds as 3 cup sugar (gulp! Oh its OK, we will go for 1 hour walking everyday for the next 365 days ;) + 1 cup besan (gram flour) + 1 cup ghee + 1 cup milk + 1 cup grated coconut
2) Mix all the above ingredients and put the mixture on the pan.
3) Keep stirring the mixture until the mixture thickens and leaves the side of the pan (this should take appx 1 hour)
4) Pour the mixture on a plate waxed with ghee
5) Allow the mixture to cool, cut it in squares and invert the plate on a piece of paper.
And you are done! For added taste, you can roast the gram flour before adding other ingredients.
So, THIS is going to be the sweet I plan to make this year( AGAIN !!!!) for Diwali. The rest are going to be ordered. Krishna (Sweets) saves all damsels in distress, you see! So, it might be jangiri or maybe badusha or maybe rava laadoo or teratti paalu or sigh, maybe all of them ;) Me and my sweet 31!