Ravai Thengaipal Kesari - Rava Kesari with Coconut Milk

Kesari is a very simple and tasty sweet which is popular is south india. It uses very basic ingredients that are always available at home. I made this today as my daughter loves it.

The recipe I'm posting here is a variation from the regular kesari and substitutes coconut milk instead of regular milk/water. I came across this recipe in a magazine and I made it for the first time today. It came out absolutely lovely! Coconut milk is a common ingredient that I have found in many south indian desserts like payasams & halwas. So, I was hoping this would also turn out awesome.

Since I made it for my daughter I was liberal in ghee and sugar to make it taste better... But once I tasted it, I couldn't stop eating! There's a saying that "Life is uncertain - Eat dessert first!" So, I guess its ok to forgive myself when I go insane on sweets once in a while :)

Ingredients

• Rava/Semolina - 1 cup (Coarse)
• Sugar - 1.5 cups
• Coconut milk - 2 cups
• Water - 1/2 cup
• Food color - 1 pinch (yellow or orange)
• Cardamom pods - 3
• Ghee - 3 tbsps
• Oil - 2 tbsps
• Cashews - handful
• Raisins - 10
  

Procedure:

• Heat a pan, dry roast the rava (without oil) until light golden brown (you should feel the roasted aroma) ; transfer to a dry plate and spread it.
• In same pan, heat the oil and ghee together. Add the cashews and raisins and keep stirring in medium heat until the cashews become golden brown and raisins puff up.
• Add the coconut milk, water and Sugar and stir gently.
• Cover until the mixture begins to boil. Meanwhile crush the cardamoms to a powder and add it to the boiling mixture.
• When it starts to boil lower the heat, add the rava slowly in batches and gently stir simultaneously to avoid lumps.
• Keep stirring until the mixture turns out to be semi solid consistency. To reach this consistency and have the rava fully cooked, You could also leave it covered for 2 mins in low heat.
• Immediately remove from heat and add 1 tbsp ghee and mix well.