Kesari Bath

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It’s Friday again and I am here with a sweet recipe – the one that’s quite famous in South India. Rava Kesari or Kesari bath is a must for any festive occasion or weddings in most parts of South India. It’s one of those sweets recipes that can be made in a jiffy. Rava Kesari happens to be one of the favorite desserts of my husband and so, this gets made every now and then in our household. The recipe that I am sharing today is the most basic one – plain Kesari. I follow the most trusted method used by my mom to make the Kesari, which is fail proof. It always yields moist, tasty Kesari in less time. I have used a pinch of food color to get the golden yellow color for my Kesari – I somehow don’t like the orange color 🙂 Instead of food color, Saffron can be used as well.

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To make Rava Kesari | Kesari Bath

Servings: 2
Time: 20 mins
Difficulty: Easy
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What I used –

Rava/Sooji/Semolina, 1/3^rd cup
Water, 2/3^rd cup
Sugar, 1/3^rd cup + 2 tsp
Green Cardamom, 1 crushed
Clove, 1 (optional)
Yellow/Orange Food Color, a generous pinch
Ghee/Clarified Butter, 1tsp + 1tsp
Cashews, few
Raisins, few

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How I made –

1. In a thick bottomed pan, heat 1 tsp of ghee. Fry the cashews until slightly toasted. Remove onto a plate. In the same pan with left over ghee, add the cclove (if using) and rava/semolina. Roast it on low flame for 4-5 mins until nice aroma comes up. The rava should not brown. prep1

2. On low flame, add water to the rava/semolina and quickly mix it well so that there are no lumps. Keep cooking the rava on low flame until it thickens and looks cooked. Add sugar to it. And the crushed cardamom. prep2

3. The mixture would get watery as the sugar gets dissolved. Keep stirring it and cooking it on low flame until it thicken again. Add the generous pinch of food color or saffron and cook until the Kesari comes together. Add 1 tsp of ghee and mix well. Remove from flame. prep3

4. Serve hot with fried cashews and raisins on top.

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Note –

The rava to water ratio is 1:2. If the rava is not fine, change it to 1:3
Clove is optional. My husband likes the flavor of cloves added in kesari bath as is the norm here in Bangalore.
Adjust sugar quantity as per preference. This quantity would be just right.
Instead of food color, add saffron strands directly or mixed with milk. The color can be lighter. Instead, food color/saffron can be skipped altogether.
Remove the kesari from heat while its still moist/a bit watery. It can harden on cooling down, add few tbsp of water and reheat it again before serving.