Bengali Sweets

Learnt to make these all at a class conducted by a friend earlier this year

The Year End 2016 Treat

Triple color broken glass pudding!!

Set in a Silicon cupcake mould

Set in a Cake mould

For recipe, refer link

Broken Glass Pudding

Made ready mix jelly and set it in a plate 1 inch deep. Next day, made ready mix pudding. While it was luke warm, put it in the mould. Cut the jelly in cubes (like we do for Dhokla), and slowly put it in the luke warm pudding and set it! 

Makes an amazing party dish!

Millet Chikki

Millet cooked in jaggery, to make chikki!!

Sweet layers

Cake crumbs at the bottom, custard, jelly and vanilla icecream

You can also add a layer of fruits and repeat the layers all over again..

Sandesh

Very simple, take freshly made paneer and make a dough like thing after adding sugar. Keep punching the dough for 10-12 minutes till smooth, and towards the end, add to it the flavourings - cardamom powder, saffron and some vanilla essence. Make into ladoo like shapes. Garnish with chopped nuts.

Sevaiya Kheer (with besan)

Roast some sevai in ghee.
Then roast 1 tbsp of besan in ghee. Add to this 1/2 lt milk and stir well to avoid lumps.
Add some condensed milk (optional), milk malasa, crushed almonds, cardamom powder, saffron etc. Bring to boil, and add sevai. Simmer for 5 mins and serve

Nachni Malpua

A quick and very healthy breakfast option for kids .. My 19 month old baby enjoyed it :)

Makes one malpua

3 tbsp nachni atta
1 tbsp atta (wheat)
1-2 tbsp finely chopped jaggery
a pinch of turmeric
salt to taste

Mix all the ingredients in water so as to get a batter of a runny dosa consistency
Heat a tawa, grease it with ghee, and pour the batter. Cook on both sides (applying ghee) till done (Color changes from brown to a little white when done)
The gur gives a very nice flavour!

Gajar Halwa!

Just a pic of some lovely Gajar Halwa made at home (by mom in law) a while ago!



Enjoy
-Naina

Rice Phirni

Saw this on Bombay Foodie , and decided, that I just had to make this to taste it!

Followed her recipe.. but increased the proportions..
Mixed 2 tbsp of rice flour with some milk to form a paste. Boiled 500 ml milk with 4 tbsp sugar. Took it off the heat and poured into it the rice paste and whisked until it was smooth, the rice completely mixed in. Then returned the milk to the stove and simmered for 10-15 minutes till thick, while constantly whisking the milk to avoid clumps. Once done, cooled it, sprinkled pistachios and badams, and let it chill.
Yummy custard

-Naina

A great day in the kitchen!

Well..had a great time today.. Made perfect (well.. almost..) Gulab Jamuns from scratch.. for the Indian Cooking Challenge..




Mom in law made some awesome pav bhaji too.. loaded with butter here :) And believe me, she doesn't need to use pav bhaji masala, her own masalas are enough





Gulab Jamuns turned out the authentic Sindhi ones that I love (since I was born a Sindhi..)
Followed Alka's recipe, which goes thus..

"For sugar syrup:

Ingredients:

Sugar - 500 gms (This can be reduced as per taste)
Water - 1 & 1/2 cup (bit more or less)
Cardamom - 2-3
One spoon of milk (optional)
Few threads of saffron (optional)
2-3 drops of rosewater (optional but highly recommended)

Method:

Mix about 500 gms of white sugar in one and half cup water and keep it for boiling.

Add a spoonful of milk to remove the impurities (impurities if any, will form a scum on surface)

Add 2-3 green cardamoms also in syrup for strong flavor, and a tad of saffron strings (optional)

Boil until you get just a tad sticky syrup. Gulab Jamun syrup is not very dense nor too dilute as in Rasgulla

Strain the syrup, add rosewater when syrup is slightly cooled.
Always remember two things while using rose water, do not add it while syrup is bubbling hot or on fire, and be particular about the quantity mentioned in every recipe, since even few drops of excess rosewater could lend a bitter taste to the final product.

For Gulab Jamun:

Ingredients:

Unsweetened Maawa* - 250 gms
All purpose flour - 1 & 1/2 - 2 tsp
Cornflour - 1 tsp
Green cardamom - 1-2 crushed
Oil for shallow frying

* (khoya-the condensed milk thickened till it turns into moist dough, preferably made from cow’s milk, also known as Hariyali mawa)

Method:

Mix all the ingredients in a wide mixing bowl until soft textured dough is obtained (keep mixing until it is really soft)

Make very small sized balls (bit larger than pebbles) as they swell up after frying and soaking in syrup

Make sure that the surface of dough balls is really smooth without any cracks. In case the cracks refuse to go away, slightly wet your palms with water and roll the flour till absolutely smooth.

Now take little oil for frying in preferably flat bottomed pan, and heat the oil. But gulab jamuns are to be fried on LOW FLAME or else the surface will be browned while the core will remain uncooked. Some prefer to place an unsalted pistachio in the center of every gulab jamun while making balls, that way the core of gulab jamun is not left uncooked .

Fry one or 2 gulab jamuns at a time and always remember to STIR THE OIL with slotted spoon AND NOT TO TOUCH GULABJAMUNS, which means keep swirling the oil without tossing or turning gulab jamun.

Fry till light brown in colour, remove on tissue paper and repeat the procedure with rest of dough.

Now soak these in COOL syrup for few hours. They will surely swell up

These can be stored in the same syrup till consumed

If there are cracks in the balls before frying it will burst open while frying, in that case adding a bit of cornflour will surely help

You can enjoy it hot or cold ,either way it is delicious"

My experience:

First thing.. mom in law was there to guide me on intuitive things.. cos I rely a lot on her experience!

I took less than 1/2 the quantity

Sugar syrup - Took 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water and boiled it. Didn't need to add milk to clean the syrup. Added cardamom powder, and the flavor's so good, that I've not yet added rose water.. may be I'll add it later..

I'd made mawa from 1 lt milk reduced by 2 tea cups, day before yesterday.. (can't make mawa and gulab jamuns in one go, cos of routine office and house work.)

Took that mawa from the fridge, added 1.5 tsp cornflour and 1 tsp maida and kneaded it till it got soft and smooth. Added some cardamom powder to this dough. Then rolled it into small 'pebble' size balls - they just didn't crack at all



Then deep fried it in ghee in a kadhai, stirring continuously. Well, Alka says not to touch the gulab jams, but I kept stirring them all the time!! Cooked 4-5 at a time, at a very low flame till nice and brown and soaked in the sugar syrup.. and ready to eat in 1/2 an hour.



I guess, they are just a little bit hard right now (still may be to soak more syrup overnight), but the moment I microwaved them for 10 secs, they got real spongy and yummy..

So far, one of the easiest (like a breeze) and best cooking experience.. Thanks ICC!!

-Naina

Karanji & Besan Ladu

These are my mom in laws belated Diwali sweets!! She's a super chef! And she's fully supportive and excited for the Indian Cooking Challenge tasks.

We'll, I've told her to write down the recipes, and I'll put them in the blog then.. may take a while.. :) Meanwhile.. have a look .. 2 ladus and a karanji





-Naina

Mawa

Made Mawa today.. just keep boiling the milk and stir continuously.. till it thickens such that it looks like some mithai from the shop.. looks like a softly kneaded dough..




-Naina

After very long...

Its the festive season and have been really busy, cleaning and cooking!! Diwali's here!
End September, went to Igatpuri for a short holiday.. very nice.. back.. and it was Karwa Chauth.. then Diwali..
Have just made several delicacies for Diwali, will post them immediately after Diwali..
Here's what I did for Karwa Chauth..
It's my fav festival so far.. I just love keeping the fast for my husband.. no food.. no water.. To sacrifice something so basic to our existence is such a wonderful and pure feeling..

Here's the prayer arrangement..



Made several delicacies, managed to cook most of it with my mom in law's help..Forgot to take a pic of the 'Baayna' (all the food together.. offered to mom in law).. hence all separate pics..

Here's 'Sev Barfi'.. Its a typically Sindhi sweet..



You need:
400 ml milk
250 gms mawa or sweeetened condensed milk
200 gms sugar / or 6 tsps if you are using sweetened condensed milk
250 gms unsalted sev
Some chopped almonds and pistas (to garnish)
Some cardamom powder

Melt the mawa and bring to boil. Else bring the sweetened condensed milk to boil. Add to it the milk, sugar and cook for 5 mins. Then add the cardamom powder and sev and cook until it leaves the sides of the vessel and turns into a thick lump. Transfer to a greased plate and let it cook. Garnish with chopped dry fruits.. Its yumm.. disappears very quickly!

Here's some 'Atte ka Halwa'



Well.. its mostly made by judgement.. and no measurements.. Take some flour in a pan.. and dry roasted untill light brown. Then add ghee and roast it till it gets a nice dark brown color.. The quantity of ghee should be such that the you can bind the mixture into a ladoo..
While roasting the flour.. take some water in a vessel, add to it jaggery to taste.. and bring to boil. Add this sweetened water and some cardamom powder to the flour mixture, and cook for a minute or untill it looks perfect! If you love jaggery flavour.. this one's for you!

Then made some simple 'Aloo ki Sabzi'



This one's just got a tempering of mustard seeds, curry leaves, chopped green chillies, turmeric powder. Add to it boiled chopped potatoes, salt and garnish with coriander leaves..

Next was 'Paneer Mirchi Tamatar'.. my mil's and my combined innovation..



Gave a tempering of 2 cloves, added to it 2-3 tbsp of red chilli paste, paste of 2 large tomatoes and some ginger.. cooked it oil seperated.. Then added some 2-3 tbsp of cashew paste, cooked... Added some turmeric powder, coriander powder.. added water and boiled.. finally chopped paneer paneer pieces (400 gms) ..And a lovely paneer dish (without onion and garlic) is ready!

And... mom in law made all the puri's and some dahi wada..

And..to pass my time during the day.. I applied some Mehendi on my hand.. (I'm a left handed.. hence the other hand :) )


Enjoy!
-Naina

Strawberry Oats Pudding

Made this last weekend.. not bad.. in fact quite good if you don't mind the stickyness of oats..

Ingredients:

300 ml milk

2 sachets of strawberry oats (I used the quacker brand) (you could also use the normal oats, and add cardamom or kesar or any syrup for the flavour)

1 tbsp corn flour

sugar to taste

I roasted the oats a bit, and turned them in the mixie to a fine powder.

Then, mixed the corn fl0ur in 1-2 spoons of milk and kept it aside.

Heated the remaining milk, added sugar. Then added the oats powder and cornflour paste. Kept stirring till it thickened.

Let it cool, and a yummy healthy dessert is ready!!

-Naina

Mircovawe Sevai Kheer

It's nice having hot kheer in the rains! This one ended up being very nice.. actually made it in office!


This one's going to Microwave Easy cooking Potluck Party



1/2 cup roasted vermicelli
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
3-4 cups milk
3-4 tbsp milkmaid (no need to add sugar)

Mix all the ingredients and microwave on high for 4-5 minutes. Keep stirring after every minute. Check if the vermicelli is cooked, and it is ready to serve.. Quick and tasty.

-Naina

Instant Microwave Rice Sevai

I was looking up the packed food stored in my kitchen and came across this pack of Rice Sevai I'd bought several months ago.. This is what it looks like...















Its basically an almost ready to eat thing. The packet had the instructions on how to cook it... Just put it in hot/boiling water for 5 mins, and drain the excess water.. Thats it!! Then you can add vegetables/ seasonings / takda of your choice.


I decided to try it out in the office microwave... Using the hot water outlets that we have in offices, I immersed it in a bowl of hot water for 5 mins. Then microwaved it for a minute.

And for the seasoning.. I used Maggi Magic cubes..















And it turned really tasty.. Its simpler and healthier than instant noodles :)
Here's a pic



- Naina