Rava Kesari / Kesari Recipe - Easy Indian Sweet Recipes

Rava Kesari is a popular South Indian sweet that is made using Semolina/Sooji/Rava. It is made during all festive occasions & Weddings. This is a simple and quick sweet, you can make this sweet instantly if you have rava/sooji at home. This is one of the easiest & quick nivedyam. This Rava Kesari even makes a quick Cake to celebrate Birthday instantly. Have cut Kesari Cake few years and even this year for my husband's birthday i made this Kesari Cake since I was sick at that time. So prepared this Kesari cake instantly(see 4th collage pic)

I wanted to share this recipe for a long time, but every time one or the other reason prevented me to click. This is the first sweet recipe I learned to make and from the first time it was successful. As its very simple and also it can be prepared in 20 minutes, I often make this sweet for all special occasions. Recently made this on Diwali day and clicked few pictures to share here. I used only few drops of ghee for flavor so my rava kesari doesn't have the glossy, shiny texture and it looks dry like upma, but taste wise it was good and I am happy with the reduced calorie/fat :) I sometimes use oil also for this Rava Kesari. Either way it tasted good, but the addition of ghee makes it rich, delicious and flavorful sweet.

Preparation Time : 5 minutes Cooking Time : 20 minutes.

Serves : 4 

Ingredients

1. Rava/Semolina/Sooji       1 cup *
2. Sugar       3/4 cup or can add up to 1 cup
3. Water    2 and 1/2 cup
4. Cardamom Powder    1/4 tsp
5. Ghee     3 tbsp or 1/4 cup
6. Cashew Nuts      10 no.s
7. Raisins      7 or 8 (optional)
8. Kesari Powder/Orange food colour    a generous pinch

Method

• Heat 2 tsp oil in a pan, roast cashew nuts and raisins till golden brown and transfer it to a bowl and keep aside.
• To the same pan, add 2 tsp oil and roast rava till light golden brown and flavor comes (2-3 minutes in medium heat)

• After roasting, transfer it to a bowl/plate and keep aside.
• Now to the pan add water, kesari powder, pinch of salt (optional) and bring it to boil.

• Once it starts boiling, turn the heat to medium and slowly add rava and simultaneously keep stirring.
• Stir well and allow rava to cook for a minute and then add sugar and cook till the sugar melts and mixed well.

• Now add the remaining ghee and stir for another 1-2 minutes or until the kesari starts leaving the sides of the pan.
• Lastly add cardamom powder and roasted cashew nuts, raisins mix well.

• That's it...Delicious Rava Kesari ready. If you want you can transfer the entire kesari to a greased plate and spread it evenly and cut in to slices and serve.

Notes:
* 1 cup , I used 160 ml cup but you can also use any cup/bowl/tumbler measurement. only the ratio - Rava:water - 1:2.5 and Rava:sugar - 1:1 or 1:0.5
You can add sugar equal to the amount of rava for more sweet but I prefer 3/4 cup or half of the sugar.
Adding more or less ghee is individual choice, at the same time don;t forget to roast Rava using ghee or oil.

This is off to Nalini's Tamizhar Samayal Tuesday Event.