Pineapple Kesari - பைனாப்பிள் கேசரி - Navarathri special neivedhyam - Step by step

Kesari is usually served as neivedhyam to the goddess ,during navarathri. I just added a twist to it ,by adding pineapple to it. It will taste great, compared to the ordinary kesari. The ratio is very easy to remember. 1:2:3 of Rava: Sugar : water. Yes its that easy. Only point here is , we are replacing 11/2 cup of water with pineapple juice. To get a perfect kesari, two things are important. one is ,the rava has to be cooked completely, if not the kesari will not have a good texture . To achieve that, we should always, cook the rava in low flame. The other point is, use oil in making kesari.  Because it gives a shinier texture, when compared to ghee. Always use ghee at the end, for the kesari to have a good flavour. 

Happy navarathri to all !!!

Preparation time : 10 minutes
Cooking time : 15 minutes
Serves : 4

Ingredients:
!.Pineapple - 1/ 2 cup (chopped)
2.Rava - 1 cup
3.Sugar -2 cups
4.Water - 1 1/2 cups
5.Raisins - few
6.Cashews - few
7.Ghee - 1/4 cup
8.Pineapple juice - 1 1/2 cups
9.Pineapple essence - few drops.
10.Yellow food color - a dash.
11.Oil - 1/2 cup

Method: * Take ghee in a pan, heat it. Fry the cashews and keep it aside, when it turns golden brown. Fry the raisins, till they blow like balloons. Dry roast the rava in the same pan. Take care not to black the rava. The rava should give out nice aroma. that is the perfect time to stop the process of roasting. Remove the rava and keep it aside. * In the same pan, add little ghee and fry the pineapple pieces.  Mix water and pineapple juice together . The ratio can vary according to the quantity of the pineapple juice. For example, if you have 1 cup of juice ,then add 2 cups of water to make it 3 cups. So the ratio of rava to water is 1:3.Now pour the the water + juice to the pan and bring it to boil. Add few drops of yellow food colour to the pan. * Once the water is at its boiling point, add rava slowly to the pan. Mix it without any lump. Let the rava cook well in medium flame. If not the kesari will have a grainy texture. Add oil little by little.So when the rava is cooked completely, add sugar to the pan and mix.  * At last, add ghee to the pan and cook. The kesari, should come out like halwa, without sticking to the pan.This is the right consistancy for the kesari.Now add the pineapple essence. Always add the flavourings at the end, if not it will evaporate while cooking. At last garnish it with fried cashews and raisins.Serve the kesari as such or grease a plate with ghee and spread the kesari on it. Use a cookie cutter and cut out the kesari like cookies as I did.

Notes:
* Always roast the rava to have a kesari with fine texture.
* The rava should be cooked well , before adding the sugar.
* Oil gives a shiny texture to the kesari, so always use 1 part of ghee and 2 parts of oil.
* We can also roast and grind the pineapple pieces to a paste, instead of having chunks in the kesari.
* Pineapple essence is optional, if you don't have ,just skip it.
* You can increase or decrease the amount of sugar according to your taste.