Papaya Halwa/Jam

My son is not a big fruit fan. This time it was papaya and he was running around not even trying to taste it. I tried to disguise it as a halwa/jam and gave him in a piece of bread. He loved it. This can be stored in fridge for a week. It is yummy and 100 times better than store bought jams. Some add rice powder in this to make it thick(as in the case of halwa), but I wanted to use papaya as jam too, so I avoided it. Try this for your dear ones.

Ingredients

• Ripe papaya scooped  - 2 cups
• Sugar - 1/2 cup (reduce sugar if your papaya is very ripe)
• Cardamom - 5
• Ghee - 1/2 tsp

Method

• Powder sugar and cardamom seeds
• In a thick bottomed non-stick pan, put the scooped mashed papaya. Switch on flame.
• Add powdered sugar and cardamom powder to this and allow to simmer on medium flame. 
• Add ghee. Let it simmer, stirring occasionally until the mix starts to leave from sides of vessel and becomes thick. 
• Grease a plate and transfer the halwa to it.

Paneer Gujiya/samosa

It was our son's birthday on friday. So had a small snack party at home. This is one of the snacks. It is a very quick and easy to make mildly sweet samosa. You can increase the amount of sugar and add nuts, tutty frutties as your wish. I had earlier tried this recipe as pinwheels. You can prepare this and freeze it. Fry it when you've surprise guests.

 Ingredients

1. Paneer - 15 small cubes
2. Sugar - 3 tbsp
3. Grated coconut - 2 tbsp
4. Cashew nuts - 6 nos. (chopped)
5. Raisins - a few (chopped)
6. Vanilla essence - 1/4 tsp
7. Maida (all purpose flour)/Atta - 1 cup
8. Oil for deep frying
9. Butter - 2 tsp
10. Salt - 2 pinches
11. Water required to make dough

Method

• Mix together maida, salt and melted butter. Add enough water to make a non-sticky dough.
• Crumble paneer well
• Mix together all ingredients from 2 to 6 very thoroughly.
• Roll out the dough into small circles (poori size)
• Put a spoon full of paneer filling in it and fold over into a half moon. Lock the sides. Give designs with fork. I used a mould to make this. (You get different moulds in market) (At this stage you can freeze it and fry as required)

• Heat 1/2 cup oil in thick bottomed vessel
• Deep fry until golden brown. 

Other things in my snack list were

Chicken rolls

Noodle balls

Puff pastry cups

 and the Marble cake