Ananas Sheera / Pineapple Kesari / Pineapple Sheera / Pinapple Rawa Kesari

Pineapple Sheera/Ananas Kesari used to be the dessert that used to be served in our community especially during functions. I still remember the days of my childhood when I used to decide whether to attend or not a function based on the menu that was up for the day there. It is usually common to have in many big functions like marriages or bramhopadesham a breakfast menu with idli sambar and pineapple kesari. I used to love this pineapple kesari so much that I would never miss a function that had ananas/pineapple kesari in menu. It is considered to be a rich sweet, with the involvement of saffron or kesari in it along with loads of sugar, ghee and the flavor of cardamom and chunks of pineapple fruit along with loads of ghee fried cashew nuts and raisins. So here I share how I prepared this pineapple sheera.

Halittu Payasa

A payasa/kheer/payasam made mainly in Dakshina Kannada in Havyaka families during special occasions is Halittu payasa. It is a favourite payasa at my place. At times I feel it matches alot to the ada payasam prepared in Kerala. But Ada is prepared by sun drying and later used in payasam where as here sun drying is not involved. I feel the Havyakas, most prominent in Dakshina Kannada in Karnataka and Northern Kerala prepare this payasa/payasam/kheer. It is made out of thick rice noodles that is added to thin syrup of jaggery and coconut milk and cooked and further thick coconut milk is added along with crushed cardamom. It is devoured after offering to God. Vishu is a festival that falls in the second week of April which marks the transit of Sun to the first Zodiac sign (i.e. Aries) and it is believed that farmers start their agricultural activities after Vishu. On the day of Vishu, it is believed that day has equal number of daylight hours and darkness. With no delay let us move to this specific halittu payasa recipe.

Kaju Pista Roll/Cashewnuts Pistachios Fudge/Rolls

Shreeya has today celebrated her 3rd B'day. As usual I left to my class early morning and was sad that I was unable to wish her in the morning before leaving as she did not wake up by the time I left to school. As soon as I returned was surprised to see that both father and daughter had gone out without letting me know where they were going, quite unusual and later got to know that as it was her B'day they went out shopping, both selected and purchased dresses and what not. I was willing to join them but by then they were done with shopping. Suddenly Mr. S called back and told me if I wish I could go and join them both for a Pizza party at Pizza Hut. Why not? I just could not resist and reached the place they were. We had great fun eating Pizza, Garlic Bread with Cheese and so on.
After reaching home I was like I should prepare something for my cutie pie and decided to prepare a rich sweet with cashew nuts and pistachios which she loved. She was the happiest eating them, and not only she even Mr. S too was gulping one after another. Here I share the way I prepared them.

Bele Obbattu/Puranpoli/Kadalebele Bellada Holige

Even after knowing that it was Yugadi yesterday, I deliberately decided to forget that it was a special day and had no plans of preparing anything special for the day, but it was Mr. S at around 4pm in the evening calling me up and reminding me to prepare a sweet as it was Yugadi, but I very well know it was not because Yugadi was around, but he wanted to eat some sweet and had not seen me taking any extra effort preparing something delicious for few days now. Having prepared holige with my own measures I was not sure how it would turn out, but to my surprise, my first attempt to bele holige turned out fabulous and Mr. S was in praises for me. I had earlier attempted kayi holige but it was not in huge amount, but this time I tried and attempted to prepare in good numbers.