Mango Kesari (Aam ka Sheera)

- Submitted by Dahlia

(Aam Ka Sheera, Mango Rava Kesari, Mampazha Halwa, Mango Sooji Halwa)

Today I am going to share yet another recipe from the king of fruits, mango. The nutritive benefits, taste quotient of mango has already been discussed in detail in the previous mango recipes (Refer mango milkshake).

God has always blessed me with a wonderful set of friends in each stage of life. Each of them have made significant contribution in making me what I am today. When I left college or even when I quit work, I never thought, I will continue to make yet another set of closest friends. We go on regular morning walks; have monthly play dates for kids, go out for shopping and frequent pot luck lunches. In one of those pot lucks we all decided to treat the ‘pregnant dudette’ of our group with her choice of delicacies. Of late her taste buds have been craving for mangoes, sweets, chaat and cakes. I personally believe that all cravings of all pregnant women must be completely satisfied, since that’s one stage of life, where we can indulge ourselves in all the pampering and delicacies without any worry on calorie count and weight gain.

Mango Kesari (mango semolina) pudding is a discovery arisen from these thoughts. Mango kesari or popularly mango sheera is a simple twist to our traditional rava kesari. The ingredients required and the method is very much the same as our traditional kesari.

Recipe For Making Mango Kesari

Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Serves: 4

Ingredients

• Semolina (Rava) - 1 cup
• Mango Pulp - 1.5 cup (store bought or home made)
• Ghee - 1/2 cup (add more if you prefer)
• Sugar - 1 cup (add more if you like it sweeter)
• Water - 3 cups
• Cardamom Powder - 1/2 tsp (optional)
• Cashews - 1 tbsp
• Salt - a pinch
• Kesari powder (Orange food color) - a pinch (optional)

Method

Stove Top Method

1. Heat 1 tbsp ghee in a heavy bottomed pan and fry the cashews till it turns golden brown. Remove it.
2. Add another tbsp of ghee and roast the rava till it turns light brown. Do not burn it. You can also use store bought roasted rava to fasten the process. Remove the rava from the pan.
3. Add water to the same pan and bring it to a boil. Add the sugar, salt, mango pulp and kesari powder to the water.
4. Slowly add the roasted rava while constantly stirring.
5. Reduce the flame to a simmer. Cover and let it cook for about 5 minutes.
6. Add the ghee little by little and keep mixing till the whole things forms a shiny mass and does not stick to the pan.
7. Add the cardamom powder and roasted cashews and switch off. Delicious mouth watering mango kesari is ready to be served.

Conventional Oven Method

• When you are making for a big group this method might be easier. Mix all the above ingredients in a baking dish. Bake it in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes.

Detailed Steps for making Mango Kesari

Heat 1 tbsp ghee in a heavy bottomed pan and fry the  cashews till it turns golden brown. Remove it with a slotted spoon and keep it aside. I do not prefer adding raisins to this kesari since we already have a fruit.

Add another 1 tbsp of ghee and roast the rava till it turns light brown. You can smell the roasted aroma of the rava when it is done. Remove the rava on to a plate. If you add water directly to the rava, there are chances of forming lumps. So I boil the water first.

Add water to the same pan and boil it. Add sugar, salt, mango pulp and kesari powder to the water.

Carefully add the roasted rava while constantly stirring the water. You can see the rava absorbing the water almost immediately.

Reduce the flame to the lowest setting. Cover and let it cook for about 5 minutes. Most of the liquid would have got absorbed and the rava will be cooked.

Add the ghee little by little and keep mixing till the whole thing forms a shiny mass. Do it on a low flame so that it does not stick to the pan.

Add the cardamom powder and roasted cashews. Adding cardamom powder is optional since we already have the mango flavor. Mix once and switch off.

Garnish with chopped mango pieces and some more toasted cashews.

Tips

• 
  Choose Mangoes with lot of pulp than fibre. Alphonso, Kesar or Bainganpalli variety will be the best suited for this sheera or pudding.
• If you want to give a healthy touch to the recipe you may replace regular rava/semolina with bansi rava or broken wheat.If appearance is the priority, continue with your regular rava.

Serving Suggestion

• Server the tasty mango rava kesari as an evening snack.
• You can also serve it as a desert after a heavy meal.

Variations

• You can also make pineapple kesari, strawberry kesari and banana kesari in the same way.

More Halwa Recipes

Kesari (Sooji Halwa)	Pineapple Halwa	Easy Carrot Halwa	Beetroot Halwa
See more...