Cooking Pleasures: Kheera Kesari (Cucumber Sweet)

Kheera Kesari is my entry to Jhiva_Diwali Event. I made Boondi Laddoo's For Diwali, but was unable to take any snaps. I was quite dissapointed then. But as Manisha of 'Indian Food Rocks' said as far as we enjoy diwali, nothing much matters. Her words really gave a soothing touch. Thank you Manisha for those nice words. But to remove that little dissapointment, Vee of Past, Present and Me decided to make another round up for diwali event. Thank You Vee. But to say folks, we had really great diwali this year, sharing happiness with couple of friends and lots of lights in our home than any time before.

I thought of this sweet, seeing kheera in the refrigirator. Since it is cold season, we were avoiding eating kheera from long time. But, for my son I cooked this and gave him when it is warm. The taste was very good, good more than I thought of:-) I choose, this name, beacuse kesari (Saffron) gave real good aroma, color and taste to the sweet. And kesari being one of the ingredient, infact played a vital role in this, how can miss the name kesari for this dish. Also friends, do you remember "Kesari Vilaayathi" the villan in the famous, hindi movie called "Ram Lakhan". Can u tell the name of the actor who played Kesari Vilayathi role in the movie?? Lets see the response...Iam waiting??? So here I go....

Ingredients:
------------------
1 medium Cucumber(kheera)
4 tsp Sugar
1 tsp of Khus Khus
1 full tsp of Ghee (I used cow ghee)
1/4 cup of Milk (I used whole milk)
few Kaaju and Baadam
few strands fo Saffron (kesari or zaffron)

Method:
-------------

Cut one round from both ends of cucumber and rub those ends with respective cut pieces. This I practice every time, because, it removes the sour taste which cucumber has or atleast I can say reduces to much level.
Peel the cucumber skin . Cut into two halves and remove the seeds from it. Now cut them into small pieces and grate them in the food processor or as you do with carrot while preparing carrot halwa.
Take a deep sauce pan, heat ghee and fry dry fruits till they are light brown in color and keep them aside.
In the same pan, add grated cucumber and fry till all the water is evoparated. If you want you can add little more ghee before started frying cucumber.
Now add 4 tsp of sugar , fry by mixing well till sugar is competely dessolved in it.
Add milk, khus khus and saffron and cook until the sweet starts leaving the edges of the pan and coming togeather.
Finally, remove from heat and serve warm with few more saffron strands soaked in little warm milk from the top.

Note: Since cucumber taste little soar, to remove that soarness do follow the steps I mentioned in the method above also fry it very well. I used only badaam and kaaju here, yo can also add kishmish (dry grapes) in it. One more important note is...the amount of sweet showed in the picture is result of only one cucumber. Since I cooked only for one person I used one ccucumber, if you are using two then double the ingredients accordingly or as per your taste which can always vary and we can make changes. Thank You!!

Labels: cucumber, cucumber sweet, desserts, kesari, kheera, kheera kesari, sweets

Posted by Meena Kandlakuti on Friday, October 27, 2006 at 12:22 PM | Permalink

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Oh Meena! I didn't know you could make sweets with cucumbers!! WOW!!
Great recipe, thanks girl!

Happy Halloween!!Check out my halloween post,very scary!:))

Posted by FH | October 27, 2006 4:02 PM

Hi Meena, what a great way to use cucumber! Looks beautiful -- will have to try, thanks :)

Posted by Anonymous | October 27, 2006 8:23 PM

cucumber kesari.. haven't heard of this.. looks lovely.. thanks for the idea to use cucumber to make a sweet

Posted by Prema Sundar | October 28, 2006 2:52 AM

Thanks for such a different recipe...I had no idea that Cucumbers can be transformed in such a way!

Cheers,Trupti

Posted by Anonymous | October 28, 2006 11:03 AM

Hi Meena, unusual sweet. Will try it sometime! I've had a Kheera dosa, though, not very nice.

Posted by sra | October 30, 2006 12:56 AM

Meena,

First time on your blog, you have a great blog here, very nice pictures. Please keep blogging!

Cheers,
Nav

Posted by Anonymous | October 30, 2006 6:23 AM

Thank You asha,
I made this sweet for first time..but it really tasted good..U can give a try with one cucumber first and if u like u can continue doing with others too.

Thank You Linda:-)

Thank You Prem:-)

Yeah, trupti..this Even I tried for first time..but the taste was very goog, just tasted like dosakaaya sweet.Hope you know about that.

Hi Sra,
thanks for visiting my blog. Kheera dosa I don'nt know, but this really tasted good..since it has sugar and little bit ghee the taste was good.Give a try with one cucumber first....and hey!..if u try don'nt forget to tell me how it tasted:-)

Hi Nav,
thanks for visiting my blog and for your nice words..sure I will keep blogging..since I like to take pictures of food and like to share recipes I know with all of You. Thanks once again:-)

Posted by Meena Kandlakuti | October 30, 2006 9:45 AM

Meena - I have never had this before, but this looks delicious and easy to make. Would love to try some :)

Posted by Anonymous | October 30, 2006 9:50 AM

I have never tried this before, but it looks delicious Meena, thanks for sharing :)

Posted by Anonymous | October 30, 2006 9:55 AM

Meena! You're a sweetheart! Whenever you despair, you'll find that there is always a silver lining on the horizon waiting to spring its surprise on you. And sure enough, there was! Also, it's not all about blogging. Enjoy the process of preparing the food, relax with your family, then share it by blogging about it. I'm sure your family enjoyed the boondi laddoos, eh?! What more could you ask for!

Your kheera kesari looks so good! But I am so done with ghee and sweets that I had to force myself to make treats for Hallowe'en. I'm bookmarking this and will let you know when I make it - it will probably be early next year!

Have a great Hallowe'en!

Posted by Anonymous | October 31, 2006 8:49 AM

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

Posted by Meena Kandlakuti | October 31, 2006 7:52 PM

thank you Mandira..hope you will like it:-)

Thank you Manisha..for all you concern and nice words. Yeah..I know blogging for me too comes after my family....also this blogging has become like good friend to me. I think same for many of us. I blog only after Iam done with my son and husband's daily work:-)...also thanks manisha for reminding me for Mozilla firfox error in the page...I corrected it today...do check again...I have seen it Its coming now...if you find any error you are always free tell me again and again...Thanks for that once again..happy halloween to u too:-))

Posted by Meena Kandlakuti | October 31, 2006 7:53 PM