Wishing all my readers a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Hope Santa brings you all the gifts you dreamed for. Enjoy the holidays with fun and full of Joy.
We celebrated Thiruvathria festival on December 22nd of this year. Usually it falls in the Malayalam month of Dhanu (December- January) of every year. Story behind the Thiruvathira festival is that on this day Kamadeva, the mythological God of love got killed by Lord Shiva’s Thirkannu. According to another version Thiruvathira is the birthday of Lord Siva read more from here. Women will fast during that day and skip rice and eat only wheat and root tubers. Mainly use plantains, tubers etc.
Amma used to make Thiruvathria kali (rice flour and jaggery sweet) and Thiruvathira Puzhukku / Ettangadi which contains eight different vegetables with more tubers such as koorka (Chinese potatoes), Taro (chembu), Kaachil (Asiatic yam), Sweet potato, elephant yam (Telinga potatoes/Suran), Kappa(Tapioca), Red beans, Potatoes and raw banana , and garnished with coconut oil, cumin powder and curry leaves . However, this time I didn’t prepared Kali or Puzhukku. But I made Koova vilachiyathu or arrowroot halwa, as it was wish of my husband. It is also prepared during this day.
Out of blue moon, he remembered about this Koova Vilayichathu prepared by his mother, even gave me the recipe of what he had tasted during his child hood. When I called my mother-in-law and asked her about the recipe, she told me exactly what my husband had described to me except the quantities required for the dish. This is dish is very easy to make and very tasty.
Arrow root powder consists of following health benefits like as non-irritating, nutritious diet for people with certain chronic diseases, during recovery from an illness, or for certain internal irritations including bladder irritation. Due to its demulcent properties, arrowroot has been used as a treatment for various bowel complaints. If you wish read more from here.
Due to lot of sweet dishes in the festive season, I used barely enough jaggery to prepare this dish. Usual ratio will be for 1 cup of arrow root powder you need 1 cup of Jaggery. If you have sweet tooth try 1:1 ratio of arrowroot and jaggery. Koova vilayichathu contains arrowroot powder, jaggery with coconut scrapings, teaspoon of ghee, cashews and cardamom powder. While have a bite you can enjoy the crunchiness of coconut and cashew in a pillowy sweet arrowroot. Try this, as it only takes 10 minutes to make. If you want this dish to set like a halwa in shape you would have to wait for an hour for the dish to cool down, otherwise you can eat it warm we as soon as it is prepared. Here goes the recipe.
One year ago : Plum cake /Rich Christmas fruit cake
Print recipe from here
What you need
Koova/ Arrow root Flour: 1cup
Jaggery: ½ cup (Increase the amount if you need more sweetness)
Grated coconut: ¼ cup
Cardamom: 2no
Cashew nuts: 10 no
Ghee/Clarified butter: 2 ½ teaspoon
Water: 1 ¾ cup
How I made
In a small skillet heat 1 teaspoon of ghee and add cashew nuts and fry them until they become golden brown. It takes about 1 minutes and set aside.
Grease a 5 inch cake pan or thick plate with ½ teaspoon of ghee and set aside.
In a small pan and ¼ cup of water and Jaggery bring it to a boil. Remove from the fire and strain for impurities and set aside.
In medium sauce pan add arrowroot powder and rest of water and mix everything, so that there is no lumps remain and only uniform runny batter. Heat the watery arrow root batter for 5 minutes with continuous stirring in between once it starts forms jelly like consistency add jaggery water and cook again until it thickens it took about 10 minutes.
When the mixture starts getting thicker and leaves the sides of pan, take and pour it into greased cake pan or thali. Arrange the top of halwa with ghee fried cashew nuts and set aside.
Leave it for 1 hour, and when it cooled, cut it into desired shapes using a buttered knife so that it won’t stick to the knife.
Enjoy....
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Yield: 10 pieces
Verdict: Yummy
Will you make it again: Yes
This is Swathi ( Dr. Ambujom Saraswathy Ph.D) from Zesty South Indian Kitchen who loves to explore cuisines from all over the world. Whenever possible I try to to give an Indian touch to several of the world cuisine, and has weakness for freshly baked bread. All the recipes you see here are created by me and approved after taste-test by my family.
honeybeecooksjackfruit says
Wow, never knew about this one. You have a great collection of recipes!
jayarajmurukkumpuzha says
hridayam niranja puthuvalsara aashamsakal......
Hari Chandana says
Woww.. my fav recipe... looks so tempting and delicious.. quick and tasty recipe.. 🙂
Indian Cuisine
archana says
This is the kind of recipe i am always looking for,let me see if i can get some arrowroot flour, may be from the Indian store. Wish you a very happy New Year Swathi, may happiness, peace and prosperity follow you through the New Year and beyond. Take care.
Marus says
Beatiful. Happy Holidays!
Peggy says
This looks absolutely delicious! I've never cooked with arrowroot before, but will definitely search for it now!
Ananda Rajashekar says
oh this is so new to me.,...looks fab Happy Holidays!
Magia da Inês says
♫°° Amiga,
°º♫ Desejo para 2011
° • ♫ "O sonho realizado...
°º ♫°° ♫♫ O amor esperado...
° ·. •*• ♫ A esperança renovada..."
Bj♥s
Brasil °º♫
°º
° ·.
Satya says
Sweet is looking delish...
Sushma Mallya says
Perfectly done, just loved this unique fudge
Torviewtoronto says
delicious flavourful halwa happy holidays
aipi says
Arrow root Halwa looks awesome Swathi..very nice recipe!
Happy Holidays dear 🙂
US Masala
Renata says
It's been a long time since I last used arrowroot flour in my kitchen, we can't find it easily in the markets here anymore... This fudge recipe looks very interesting!
Happy Holidays for you too!
Miriam says
That fudge looks amazing! I hope your Christams was a very happy one. Miriam@Meatless Meals For Meat Eaters
Melissa (The Sword in the Scone) says
I've never heard of arrowroot fudge before. It looks delicious though. By the way, thank you for answering my question. I hope to try your recipe for tomato rasam soon. Hope your holidays were nice!
Rumana Rawat says
Beautiful:)
Padhu says
Sounds very delicious and as usual nice pics.Wishing u a great year 2011
Talita says
I've never used arrowroot 'cause I've never find it. This fudge looks soooo yummy!
Ameya says
Arrowroot is completely new to me-I never would have thought to make a fudge with it! Great recipe!!
Susan: My Food Obsession says
Your fudge looks fabulous! I too am yet to cook with Arrowroot and look forward to giving it a go 🙂
Maris says
I've never cooked with arrowroot before but this sounds great.
Your decorations are so festive, too. Merry merry!
Jen says
Passion4Food here to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year. May 2011 bring you lots of happiness and friendship. Have an awesome day with your love ones!!
jen @ http://www.passion4food.ca
Priya says
Never tried making halwa with arrow root, yummy Swathi..
Joanne says
Mmm I've never heard of arrow root before but I'm always up for a block of fudge! Looks delicious.
Hamaree Rasoi says
Hi SwathiKoowa looks awesome. Perfect for the festival. Merry Christmas to you and your family. Deepa Hamaree Rasoi
G.Pavani says
sweet looks yummy...merry christmas to u n your family .happy holidays.
sanjeeta kk says
This dessert looks, quite interesting, similar to wheat halwa. Happy holidays to you. Have fun, Swathi.
Lite Bite
Jaisy James says
adipoli ayittundu ketto
Elisabeth says
Swathi-Thank you for sharing such a festive dessert, and the history of it. Loved reading about it. Very inspiring story, and amazing dessert.
Thanks for sharing. Have a Wonderful Christmas, with your loved ones!
PALATABLE says
Yummy! Great that you've reduced the sugar so everybody can enjoy it without guilt...Happy holidays!
http://treatntrick.blogspot.com
kasthurirajam says
Beautiful.MERRY CHRISTMAS
Kairali sisters says
Adipoli aytund ttto...Happy X'mas Swathi...
Priya Sreeram says
yummylicious---have heard abt this sweet delight and this one is a revelation ! way to go swathi !! u have been tagged--pls chk my blog dated Dec 23.
Wishing u and family festive cheers and a great year ahead !!
sinfullyspicy says
Never eaten something like this and never heard too.The only use of arrow root powder i have seen is as a thickner.But the fudge looks melt in mouth kind.Merry Christmas to you n your family:)
savitha ramesh says
wow new one swathi.......i am drooling here
VineelaSiva says
HAi Swati even i too prepare this sweet.We call it paala gunda minjulu.Nice recipe goos for health.
Pushpa says
Yummy koowa halwa Swathi.Happy Holiday Season and Merry Christmas to you too.
Subhie Arun says
wow...lovely recipes....neva had this be4..will try soon..bookmarked...merry christmas to u too!!
Sayantani says
Maa used to make a arrowroot soup in childhood mostly after fever or when we needed strength to recover from illness. this looks good and great for health too.
kothiyavunu.com says
Wow!! U make me nostalgic with ur recipes...Lovely!!