Kesari Bath: The Lip-smacking Delicacy of Karnataka

Kesari bath or Kesari baat is a sweet Indian food that is common throughout the country. The classic ingredients used for its preparation are semolina, sugar, ghee (usually), water, and milk. The sweet is most commonly known as Jonnadula Halwa in certain parts of northern India.

Claims to the origin of the dish are made by Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and other regions of South India. The dish is common in the cuisine of Karnataka as well as of multiple regions in South India and is a popular dish during festivals such as Ugadi.

How to make

Preparation time: 1 min
Cooking time: 10 min
Serves: 2

Ingredients: (measuring cup used = 120ml)

1 cup medium rava / sooji / semolina
3 cups water
1.25 cup sugar
1/2 cup ghee (you can mix oil and ghee)
1/2 tsp lemon juice (optional but I recommend)
Little food colour (or 1/4 tsp turmeric powder or saffron)
A pinch of salt
A big pinch of cardamom powder (optional)
5-6 cashews
8-10 raisins

Instructions for making Karnataka style kesari bath:

1. Take a vessel. Add water, sugar, salt, turmeric powder and lemon juice and keep it for boiling. Adding lemon juice and salt gives nice texture and removes the bland taste of Kesari bath. You can use either food colour or saffron instead of turmeric powder.
2. Parallelly take ghee in a frying pan and heat it.
3. Add in rava, cashews and raisins. Start frying them under medium flame.
4. Fry until raisins are swollen and you get nice aroma from the rava. Reduce the flame.
5. By now the water will be boiling on the other stove.
6. Carefully pour the boiling water into the frying pan little by little and start stirring. If you follow this kesari bath recipe, you need not worry about lump formation.
7. Add in cardamom powder and keep stirring until it reaches thick paste consistency. Please note, cadamom powder is optional.
8. Once it turns thick..switch off the stove. It will become more thick or hard once it is cool. Please note this stage takes hardly 3-4 minutes.
9. Do not overcook it. Lip-smacking kesari bath is ready. Serve it either hot or cold.