This is a wildly popular sweet in all of India – Rava kesari in the south and suji halwa in north India. This is the first recipe in my recipe diary, that I noted down from my pinni (Bangalore) for this is one of the first sweet recipes any newbie learns as it is easy and can’t go too wrong 😅

Experienced cooks dish out hot, shining, frangrant bowl of kesari in minutes. That simple it is. In TN, it is famous as penn-parthal (pelli-chupulu, bride-seeing) event sweet – Bajji and sojji combination. Even other items like cashew pakoda and badam halwa were also served for these occasions, but bajji-sojji combo is the ideal fit. Probably those days unfortunately each girl went through many episodes of this predicament, particularly due to dowry woes and these items are easier to prepare and somewhat light on the pocket 🤔

We also prepare this sweet for Satyanarayana vratam for naivedyam, with very slight variation. So it generally goes by the name ‘prasadam’ in our circles. Annavaram Satyanarayana murthy prasadam is very famous, as much as Palani panchamirtham and next to Tirupati Laddu. It is a bit different in that it is made by cooking somewhat coarse wheat rava in jaggery, but it really tastes great.

My recipe is the same as most people’s but what I had noted down in my diary 30 years ago is different and maybe it worked for rava and sugars 30, 40 years ago, now it wont. That is cooking rava first and then adding sugar vs cooking rava in sugar solution itself. These intricacies intrigue me always but they are mostly just left open as experimenting or checking with a proper source is rarely done 😞.

Wedding menu kesaris are one of the best, and of course the restaurant ones. We skimp on the fat if we prepare conscientiously and so even though it tastes wonderful, it cant compete with the caterer’s in appeal!

Ingredients:

• Rava – 1 cup
• Sugar – 1.5 to 2 cups
• Milk – 1.5 cups (or omit and add same quantity of water instead)
• Water – 1.5 cups
• Ghee+refined oil – 1/4 to 1/3 cup
• Cardamom – 6 pods powdered
• Cashew, raisins – t tbsp each
• Saffron strands/Food color (opt)

Method:

1. Heat 2 tbsp ghee and roast cashew and raisins until golden.
2. Add rava and roast until aromatic. Set aside.
3. Heat milk and water in the pan and when it starts to boil, add rava slowly without allowing lumps. (Add saffron or food colour. opt)
4. Reduce the flame to the lowest and cook covered for a few minutes until all water is absorbed and rava is cooked soft.
5. Now add sugar. It becomes runny and forms tiny lumps, gently press the lumps mashing them which become smooth eventually.
6. Keep stirring adding ghee till the mixture thickens to a mass.
7. Add cardamom powder and garnish with nuts.

Notes:

• Use good quality, fine rava for silky kesari.
• Instead of all ghee, using flavorless oil helps keep the kesai from hardening upon cooling.
• Three times liquid is needed for soft kesari.
• For SN vratam, use three times water and no milk. Rest all same. Once done, allow it to cool, knead well and make balls.
• Variation 1: Mix half the sugar with roasted rava and add this when liquid comes to boil. Once rava is cooked add the remaining sugar and stir to desired consistency. (Haven’t tested recently)