Rava Kesari / Sooji ka Halwa

 Let me start this new year with a sweet recipe! :)

This is a quick and easy dessert, without any fancy ingredients.  you can fix it within half an hour. Instead of serving it in a bowl, you can cut it into squares, garnish with cashew and raisin, sure its a crowd pleaser! :)))

Ingredients
Rava/Sooji - 3/4cup
Sugar - 11/2 cups
Ghee -1/4cup
Kesari colour / food colour - few drops
Elaichi-3
Cloves(optional)-2
Few Raisins and Cashew

Method

Heat  a tablespoon of ghee in a wide pan. Fry the cloves-cashews-raisins, and keep them aside. In the same pan, add the rava and roast it till you get a nice aroma.

Powder the elaichi and keep it aside.

Meanwhile, start heating 11/2cups water in a separate burner. Once the water starts boiling, add in the food colour and mix it well.

Now reduce the heat on the roasting rava, and add the boiling water to it. (Be careful, the content will start bubbling vigorously) and mix it continuously.
Rava will absorb all the water added, mix it for a minutes and add the sugar.

Kesari will become watery once you add the sugar, keep stirring for a few minutes and start adding ghee, one tablespoon at a time. By the time you complete the 3 tablespoon of ghee, kesari would have become a non-sticky mass  and will start leaving the pan.


Add the elaichi powder and put-off the flame. [You can add the fried cashew-clove-raisin to the kesari, give it a quick mix, and done! Delicious rava kesari is ready.]

Since I was taking this to a friend's place, I poured the kesari on a greased plate, and levelled it. After a minute, marked the lines on the kesari and placed cashew & raisin on each square. Once the kesari cools down completely, you can cut it with the help of the lines marked already.

This is for our home! :)
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 This dessert was liked by many of the kids at the party, and hence linking this recipe to "Healthy food for healthy Kids" happening at Nithu's Kitchen. You can check the host line up for this event here.