How to Make Rava Kesari or South Indian-Style Sheera [Video]

As we need sweets galore during the festive season, we like to add more to our repertoire of recipes. It might extend to learning how to cook the same dish in different ways. That’s how Indian recipes are, as different cultures add their signature flavours and what you get is a vast variety in tastes. Something as simple as sheera or sooji halwa has myriad variants. This time around, we turn to South India to learn how they make sheera or Rava Kesari.

Ingredients:

1 cup of sooji (semolina) rava, roasted
112 cups of sugar
112 cups of water
1/2 cup of milk
Dried fruits (cashew and raisins)
2 tbsp of ghee
Some cardamom and cloves
Saffron colouring
Edible camphor

Method:

1. If you have bought roasted rava, dry roast it once again as it will give a nice texture and colour. This is done by heating two tablespoons of ghee in a non-stick pan.
2. Add the rava and gently stir it till it is ghee coated and turns slightly brown.
3. Then turn off the flame and transfer the rava to a bowl. 
4. Next step is to boil the water so that you can cook the rava. So, put the water and milk in the same non-stick pan and bring them to a simmer.
5. Now, add the rava slowly and keep stirring so that it doesn’t form lumps. Reduce the heat and continue stirring as this mixture comes to a boil.
6. Lid the pan and allow it to cook.
7. Dissolve some colour in water and add that to the rava.
8. When the rava is almost cooked, add the sugar. Stir and mix it.
9. Add the colour and keep stiring so that there are no lumps.
10. Increase the flame and keep stirring.
11. Add a tbsp of ghee. This mixture is supposed to cook in the ghee.
12. When the ghee starts to leave the sides of the pan, that’s when you know that the rava is cooked.
13. Add a little bit of roughly grounded cardamom and stir well. 
14. Cover and let it cook for sometime.
15. When the ghee and sugar have been completely absorbed and the rava is slightly pasty in texture, you know it is ready. Turn off the flame.
16. Now, add a pinch of the edible camphor and mix.
17. To garnish, heat some ghee in a non-stick pan.
18. Throw in the cloves and when they leave the aroma, add the raisins. Gently stir and just when the raisins are about to puff up, add cashews. Stir for a few seconds and when the raisins are fully puffed, quickly take them off the fire. Allow the cashews to cook. When the cashews acquire a slightly brown colour, turn off the flame. Keep the cashews aside.
19. The ghee that was used to prepare the garnish will be added to the rava.Throw in the nuts and mix well.
20. Ready to serve.

Here’s the video with cooking tips:

Image Courtesy: Shutterstock

Recipe Courtesy:

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