A sweet beginning

A long time dream takes shape today. This is an effort to record all the traditional recipies that have been passed down the generations from my grandma to my mom and now to me. My love for home made food - from the simple milagu rasam and thengai thuvayal to the kai murukku and seedai - has driven me to share my passion with all those like me.

With a sweet beginning to my blogging journey - my first recipe is the traditional Thirattippaal.

Thirattippaal takes its place in all occasions in our custom. A simple, delicious with just 2 ingredients.

Milk - 4 cups
Sugar - 1/2 cup ( 1 : 8 is the proportion of sugar : milk)
Time to cook - 1 - 1.5 hrs

Take milk in a thick bottomed pan or kadai.

Boil it in a medium flame stirring gently. Constantly scrape the sides of the pan and add it to the boiling milk. Do not cook in high heat as it will burn the milk.

As the milk continues to thicken, you will see the colour turning to a light yellow and the smell wafting across the kitchen.

Once the milk thickens and reduces to about a quarter of the original quantity, add the sugar. Once sugar is added, the mixture will get diluted.

Keep stirring and scraping and stirring until the sugar blends into the milk and it turns to a light pink colour. The mixture will by now turn into a nice thick gravy. Turn off the flame now and transfer to a bowl.

Yummy thirattippaal is ready to devour :)

Note: Once the sugar is added, do not cook for very long. If you do so, the sugar syrup will thicken the mixture and once cooled, the thirattippal will become hard.

If you have left over thirattippaal, do not fret. You can turn it into a delicious carrot halwa :) More on that later.