Puran Poli

Come Holi, and it is time for Puran Poli! It is also a time for thandaai mixed with bhaang. That is definitely not on my agenda right now. Foodie I am, but  a junkie I am not.

I remember the last time my husband had bhaang. I was seven months pregnant, and it was the day before my 'Goad Bharaai'. As can be expected, I was very worried about him and my brother having bhang and making not just fools of themselves, but also putting their lives in danger (they were on a two-wheeler). But men will be men. Out of curiosity or simple case of over-confidence, they went ahead and had the bhaang. I don't know why they thought, that we wouldn't come to know. They reached home safe, thank God, but not before making a pitstop at a general store, and asking the poor shopkeeper to get them this and that, and half his shop, and then realizing that they had but 5 bucks in their pocket! Haha!

My husband spend the entire day laughing, even when I was furious. He laughed and laughed, till his eyes were ready to pop out of his head. I decided (and so did he, eventually, when the effect wore off) that we are staying away from bhaang forever.

But nothing can keep us away from Puran Poli! And katachi amti the way my mom makes it. So here comes the recipe of Puran Poli and the katachi amti follows in the next post.

Ingredients

• 1 cup channa dal
• 1 cup jaggery
• 1/2 tsp cardamom powder
• 2 cups maida or plain flour
• one pinch of salt
• 2 tbsp oil
• 1/4th tsp turmeric powder (for that beautiful yellow color)

Pressure cook channa dal with ample of water. Allow it to cook for 4 to 5 whistles. Let it sit, till the cooker cools down. Then open the pressure cooker, and check the dal. It should be squishy between your thumb and forefinger. If it isn't, put it back in the pressure cooker for a whistle or two more.

Once it has cooked sufficiently, drain all the water from the cooked dal. But do not discard the water. Save it for the amti.

Break the jaggery into small pieces, and put them in a kadhai. Add the drained channa dal. Cook over high flame. The jaggery will first melt and the mixture will once again become watery. Keep stirring till the mixture dries up. Allow the mixture to cool down. Put the channa dal mixture in a puran maker, and grind it into a fine paste. You may do this in a blender if you don't have the puran maker, but remember to not use any water, and the resulting mixture will still be pretty grainy.

Make a soft dough with the maida, water, salt and oil. Add a little turmeric powder if you like the yellow color, but it is entirely optional.

Keep the dough immersed in oil. (This is my mother's tip, it keeps the puran poli soft) Remove a portion of the dough and make a deep receptacle in it with your thumbs (read my modak recipe for the method) and place a small lemon sized ball of puran mixture in it. Seal the edges of the dough shut by pinching them together at the top.

Apply a little dry flour, and roll it into a thin chapati. Be careful, the puran tends to come out a little. If it does, do not hesitate to do a little patchwork, who's to know? Perfection takes both time and practice.

Roast it on a griddle (tawa) with a little ghee if you like. Serve hot with katachi amti.

Happy cooking!

Kharwas

Had a trip down the memory lane today. I was waiting downstairs with Saee waiting for her school bus, when a man with a milk can came by yelling "Cheek!" He wasn't yelling out the name of any part of the face, he was selling what he had in his can. Cheek is the Marathi word for the colostrum laden milk that a cow yields after calving. We  add jaggery, sugar and cardamom powder and steam it to yield a lovely pudding, tasting similar to China grass, only much softer and yummier.

We had a cheek-wala who used to come deliver this milk at my mom's place. Mom would make such lovely Kharwas with it, that whenever she made it, me and my brother would compete for who gets the bigger share. Without him, and without my mom's love in it, kharwas just doesn't taste the same. For the first time in my life, I didn't enjoy having kharwas.

Yet, the recipe remains the same. So the next time you find "Cheek", buy it and make this lovely recipe. Oh! And one more thing. Remember to ask the vendor, if the milk is from the first day or the second or third day. If the milk is from the first day after calving, you need to add the same quantity of plain milk, or the kharwas will go really hard, and won't remain fit for consumption. If it is from the second or third day, you will need to add one fourth the quantity of milk. My recipe is for the second day cheek. If it is from the fourth day you may not need to add milk at all, or if you do, you may need very little.

Ingredients

• 1 litre bovine colostrum (cheek)
• 250 ml plain cow milk
• about one and half cup grated jaggery
• about one cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp cardamom powder

1. Add the plain milk to the colostrum.
2. Add the jaggery and sugar and stir till it all dissolves
3. Add the cardamom powder and mix.
4. Place a steamer with water, on heat. Place the mixture in the steamer, and steam on high power for 20 to 25 minutes. 
5. Open once to check if the colostrum has set. If it has set, turn off the heat, and allow the kharwas to cool down to room temperature.
6. Place in the refrigerator to chill.
7. Once chilled, remove and cut into several pieces.
8. Serve as a chilled dessert.

Happy Cooking!

Hotchpotch

This dessert is an example of how you can turn a disaster into something good. I wanted to bake a cake for my mom's birthday. Blast the electricity! There was load shedding throughout the day everyday. When I finally made the cake, I had only a small window, and had to rush things up. So I scrambled the few things I had, together for the sponge cake, without measuring the ingredients (a cardinal sin in the rulebook of cake making) and pushed the batter in the oven. Then I crossed my fingers and hoped that if I really want the cake to turn good, everything in the universe will conspire to help me achieve that end. - (borrowed from the alchemist!)

The world didn't. My cake looked horrible. Lumpy and flat. It tasted good though, and it seemed a shame to throw it away altogether. So to salvage the cake (and my dignity) I decided to turn it into a different dessert. And because it is a hotchpotch of all things I found, I am calling it Hotchpotch!

This is what I did. I didn't have pictures though. :-(

Ingredients

• Sponge cake
• Mango ice-cream
• Strawberry sauce
• Kellogg's honey loops (or any other breakfast cereal)

1. Cut the cake into cubes.
2. Place the cubes in a tall glass.
3. Pour strawberry sauce over the cake.
4. Scoop the ice cream into the glass on top of the cake. 
5. Pour another drizzle of strawberry sauce on the mango ice cream.
6. If the glass is REALLY tall, repeat the steps from 1 to 5.
7. Finally add the honey loops or any other crispy cereal and serve!

Happy Cooking!

Ukadiche Modak

Ganesh Chaturthi means a lot of things to a lot of people. Fun, festivities and relatives and friends coming together to pay obeisance to the God of good times. To me, it means one of my most favorite and loved recipes of all time... Ukadiche modak.

These were made by mom, though. Yet, even when I make them, this is the exact procedure I follow.

Sorry Naina for posting this recipe so late!  :-(

Ingredients
For the covering

• 250 g rice flour
• 250 ml water
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vegetable oil

For the filling

• one large coconut grated
• equal quantity of jaggery (as the coconut)
• 1/2 tsp cardamom powder

Others

• a steamer
• a few turmeric leaves 

Boil the water and add salt and oil to it. Once it has begun boiling add the rice flour to it and mix well. Remove from the heat and let it sit for some time till the dough cools down. Once it cools, knead well to make a smooth dough. Cover with a damp muslin cloth and set aside.

In a large wok, heat the coconut and jaggery together. Add the cardamom powder. Cook well till not only the jaggery as dissolved but the coconut emits a nice roasted aroma. Let the mixture cool.

Now make a large lemon sized ball of the dough and make a deep depression in the center of the ball. Put a teaspoon of stuffing in the center of the depression and shape the dough like a dimsum. Make all the modaks in this manner and cover them with a damp muslin cloth.

Start the steamer. Place turmeric leaves on the steamer tray. Dip each modak in cold water (this is a trick I learned from my mom, and it makes for really soft modaks) and place on the turmeric leaves. Cover the steamer and steam for about ten to fifteen minutes. Remove from the steamer.

(Tip: If you want to re-heat modaks, and make them soft again, just dip them in water and steam them for 3 minutes or dip them in water and microwave on high power for a minute.)

I do not have any pictures though. :-(

Happy Cooking!


Serve hot or cold. They taste amazing either way.

ILE FLOTTANTE : The Floating Island Dessert

I am in heaven! Who knew eggs could taste like that? Besides, there is something about eggs, vanilla and sugar. They never fail to delight you. Use a different technique and they will yield something different yet entirely exciting for you.

This is one such dessert. It is called the floating island, because of the little meringue floats on the custard sauce. I think it should be named as the Edible Clouds. They are so soft, and fluffy, they just melt on your tongue! And the custard... the heavenly custard, oh! Together, they make a dessert that is so smooth and velvety in texture, it tortures you for pleasure as it slides down into your heart!

It didn't take me long to make it. Thanks to my mom who gifted me the electric egg beater, my work was done in half an hour. Such a perfect recipe in under thirty minutes! This is not the only time I am ever going to make it!

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup sugar ( I don't like my desserts irritatingly sweet)
• 1 pinch salt
• a few drops of vanilla essence
• 3 cups milk

Separate the whites from the yolks.

For  the meringues:

Beat the egg whites with salt, a few drops of vanilla essence and 1/4th cup sugar until stiff peaks form. Boil water in a large pan and once it begins to boil, drop blobs of egg whites into the water. (They float like beautiful spotless white clouds). Keep them undisturbed on the boiling water for two minutes. Turn them around gently and keep them for two more minutes. Remove them and bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for five minutes. Remove and keep them aside.

For the custard sauce:

Beat the egg yolks with the remaining sugar till it changes color to light yellow. Boil the milk with the a few drops of vanilla essence. Add the milk in little quantities to the egg yolks while beating the egg yolks continuously. Once all the milk has been added, place the custard sauce over heat and boil while stirring constantly. Boil it until the sauce thickens enough to coat the back of your spoon.

Chill the sauce. Then pour a ladle of sauce into a bowl, and float a meringue on it. Ta da!

It would have looked better if I had a bit of mint to garnish it. A little green to offset  the yellow and white.

Instead, I have bordered the picture with green. Looks just as delectable I think!

Happy Cooking!

Chocolate Eclairs

Finally for some reason, I can see that my blogger is working today. I am posting two new recipes with pictures as a celebration.

The first one is a French recipe called Chocolate Eclairs. Nope they are not the same as the Cadbury's eclairs that you get at your local store, these are much more warm, soft and delicious. They are a little tricky to make I guess but there are innumerable videos on YouTube and Videojug. I  took my recipe from Rachel Allen's Bake! on TLC.

Saee loved it!

Ingredients

For the  Choux (Pronounced as 'Shoe') pastry

• 25 g butter
• 50 ml water
• 35 g flour
• 1 egg
• a pinch of salt

For the Chocolate topping

• 25 g dark chocolate
• 25 g white chocolate

Chop the butter into tiny pieces. In a saucepan pour the chilled water. To it, add the finely chopped pieces of butter. Bring the water to a boil slowly. (The reason we should chop the butter is that we need to take the water accurately, and can't afford for the water to evaporate while the butter melts.)

Once the butter has melted, and the water has just come to a boil, remove the pan from heat. Add the flour to the water-butter mixture and mix it well till it becomes a uniform furry mass.

Keep it aside till it cools down to room temperature. Meanwhile beat the egg. Add it in small quantities to the flour mixture, till you get a batter of just dropping consistency, which is satiny and sheeny to look at. You may not need the whole egg. Keep the remaining for glaze.

Preheat your oven to 120 degrees. Line the baking tray with butter paper. Fill the batter in an icing bag fitted with a large round nozzle. Squeeze out thick tubes of the batter on to the butter paper, which are about 2 inches long each.

Place them in the oven at 120 degrees for about 10 minutes. Then notch up the temperature to 200 degrees and bake for 15 to 20 more minutes.

Remove them from the oven and cool them.

Meanwhile chop the white and dark chocolate and place them in the microwave for two minutes only. With a rubber spatula, mix the molten chocolate gently, so as to avoid incorporating bubbles into the chocolate.

Spoon out the chocolate onto the choux pastry and put them in the refrigerator for a few minutes to chill.

Serve cold!

Happy Cooking!

Narli Bhat - Sweetened Coconut Rice

This is not a recipe for me. It is a memory from my childhood. It represents for me a lot of things. Narli Poornima for one, and a warm dessert for another. This recipe is made best by my mother. She is a really talented cook. I did make it yesterday and I did not fare too badly. It came pretty close to tasting the way my mother makes it.

I love this recipe for its simplicity. It doesn't take a lot of efforts or any fancy ingredients. Just your basic stuff will do.

Ingredients

• 2 cups long grain rice
• 2 tbsp clarified butter (ghee)
• 2 tbsp grated fresh coconut
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp cardamom powder
• 2 tbsp condensed milk (mom doesn't add this, but I added it for its richness)
• 2 cups water
• Dry fruits (raisins, cashews, almonds etc. if you have them)
• a pinch of saffron (if you have it)

Wash and soak the rice for two hours. Drain the rice and keep it aside. 

Heat the ghee in a non-stick wok. Add the drained rice to this and saute for two minutes. Add two cups of water and bring to a boil. Cook for about ten minutes till the rice grains are soft but still separate. 

Add the sugar, coconut and the remaining ingredients and stir well but carefully, till the moisture is soaked up.

Serve warm.

Happy Cooking!

Malai Kulfi

Agreed, it is not the season for kulfi, at least for kids. But my kid was insisting on having ice-cream and I thought that making homemade kulfi would be much better. I had the kulfi moulds since about two years. Somehow though, I never got around to making kulfis. This time though I had about two litres of milk left over, and decided that I would make malai kulfi for the benefit of both my daughter, and Project Indian Cooking.

I did not use any short cuts. I did not use condensed milk. I used whole milk and spent three hours trying to reduce its volume. My kid had already fallen asleep by that time, and I was feeling sleepy too. I slept at 2 a.m. finally after pouring the milk into the moulds. But trust me, the result was darned well worth all the effort that went into making this.

You can use the short cut method, there are plenty of those available on the internet. But this, was the real thing. You should make it too, and you will remember your favorite kulfi wala, like my husband remembered this kulfi-wala from Indore, and mom and me reminisced about our favorite ShreeRam Kulfi wala from Vasai.

Ingredients

• 2 litres whole milk (fatter the better)
• 1 and 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 tsp cardamom powder
• 1 tbsp sliced pistachios
• 1 tbsp sliced blanced almonds (optional)
• 7 kulfi moulds with sticks

Take a wide wok with heavy bottom for this. Pour about 3 tablespoons of water into the wok. This prevents the milk from sticking to the bottom and prevents it from burning. (I do not know the rationale behind this, but this works even in your regular milk boiling utensil too. It just prevents milk from forming that icky fatty layer at the bottom which is so difficult to clean. A tip I thankfully received from my sister-in-law Shivani Rege)

Now pour all the milk into the pan and place it on the heat. Bring the milk to a boil. Keeping the heat to a medium, keep boiling the milk, stirring continuously, till it reduces to about half its original volume. (This will be about a litre.) Now add the sugar, cardamom, pistachios and almonds and boil further till it reduces to half again (about half a litre remains in the wok)

Turn off the heat and cool the milk to room temperature first. Pour the milk into kulfi moulds and insert the sticks (Or individual bowls if you don't have the moulds) and put them in the freezer to chill them overnight. 

While serving, remove the moulds from the freezer for about 5 minutes, and then put a gentle but firm tug on the stick. The kulfi will emerge from the mould, stuck to the stick.

Become a child again while you enjoy this delightful Indian ice-cream!

Happy Cooking!

Eggless Vanilla Muffins

This recipe was given to me by my friend Sahana. Thanks Sahana, and a big big bear hug to you! Lou you for the recipe!

It turned out really amazing. I had a lot of inhibitions about eggless cakes. To begin with, I didn't think they rise enough. I used to think that they may not turn soft enough, or delicious enough. I couldn't be more mistaken. These cakes are very soft, if not as soft as the egg containing cakes. They are very very yummy too!

They did not need a lot of preparation either. It took me all of 30 minutes, including the baking time to complete my lovely muffins. The only problem is, they do not last long ;-)

The original recipe contained club soda instead of buttermilk. You can flip to the club soda if you wish.

This recipe makes for 6 muffins.


Ingredients

• 50 g plain flour
• 1/4tsp + a pinch of baking powder
• 1/4tsp + a pinch of baking soda (soda bicarb)
• 100 ml condensed milk
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp powdered sugar
• 50 ml buttermilk
• a pinch of salt (brings out all the wonderful flavors. Skip it if you are so inclined)

Line the muffin tray with paper cups and keep them aside. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Centigrade.

Sieve the plain flour baking powder and baking soda together. Keep them aside.

Beat all the other ingredients together till well blended. Finally add the sieved plain flour and mix it lightly for ten to fifteen seconds only. (It is OK if some of the flour is in lumps than to overmix. The rising agents in this recipe are the baking powder and baking soda. If you overmix, they fail to raise the cake properly and you may end up with a hard muffin. That is why it is imperative that the last step takes only a few seconds.)

Pour the batter into the prepared muffin tray. Fill the paper cups about three fourths full with the batter. 

Place the tray in the oven and shut the oven door slowly and carefully. DO NOT slam the oven door shut.

Bake at 180 degrees for fifteen minutes. Remove the tray from the oven and let the muffins cool a little. Remove the muffins from the tray and cool on a wire rack. 

Once they are cooled, you may decorate them with buttercream, whipped cream or leave it plain. (They taste just as good if eaten plain, I can definitely vouch for it!)

Enjoy the cake of your efforts!

Happy Cooking!

Bebinca: The Layered Goan Pudding

The Bebinca is less of a cake and more of a pudding. It is one of the most celebrated desserts from Goa. I first had it a couple of years ago and I have been hooked since then. However, each time, I only had the pleasure of eating a store-bought bebinca. I have been thinking about making it since some time, but never got around to making it.

For my birthday though, I decided that a regular cake was an old-show. I needed something new. Something great. It was a huge hit with Shrikant and even Saee. It was so much better than store bought cakes! I could have slapped on vanilla ice-cream and made it into a super-exotic dessert too! It was really wonderful.

The only spoiler is that it takes a hell of a lot of time. No, it is not difficult to make. Just that the whole process is tedious and time consuming. If you have a lot of time on your hands and you want to surprise your family with something nice, this the one for you.

Ingredients

• 250 ml thick coconut milk
• 250 mg sugar
• 6 egg yolks
• 75 g plain flour
• 1/4th tsp nutmeg powder
• ghee or clarified butter

If you can get store bought coconut milk, it is easier. However I am not so sure about the flavor. What I did was that I grated one whole coconut, and pureed it with 240 ml of water. Then I filtered the husk from the milk and pressed on the husk hard till all the coconut milk is out. Filter it twice again to make sure no husk has found a way into the coconut milk. (This is a tedious process and I had to take the company of my husband's cell phone with its songs to be able to complete it properly!)

Add the sugar to the coconut milk. Mix it well. Keep stirring till all the sugar is completely dissolved. Start whipping. Add the egg yolks one by one. Mix the first completely and only then add the other yolk. Once all the yolks are used up, add the plain flour, nutmeg powder and 1 tbsp clarified butter or ghee and keep it aside.

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees C. Grease the bottom of a baking tin with clarified butter. Pour a ladleful of the smooth silky and liquidy batter into the baking tin. The bottom of the baking tin should be only just covered. Push the tin in the oven and bake till the layer is slightly brown. This takes about ten minutes but the time could differ in different ovens. Pull the baking tin out of the oven, and pour a teaspoonful of ghee on the baked layer, and then pour another ladleful of the the batter on the first layer. Keep doing this till all the batter is used up and you have about five to seven thin layers.

Cool the cake in the tin for a while, and then remove it on a tray and chill in the refrigerator.

Serve chilled!

Happy Cooking Patrao!

Strawberry Cheesecake

One of the best things to happen in the recent times with regards to food, is that Britannia has now launched their own cream cheese. It is readily available in most stores. I found it irresistible to try itout in making a cheesecake then. Still, I found that the cream cheese is slightly salty. I don't know if it is supposed to be that way, but it has lent a tanginess to my cheesecake.

The cake turned out technically perfect. There were no cracks on the surface, and neither was it undercooked. The best part is that the process of making the batter lasted only about ten minutes. So I can safely claim that it is easy.

Overall rating for the cheesecake is 8.5

Ingredients

• 225 g cream cheese
• 1 and 1/4th cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 large eggs
• 2 tbsp strawberry crush
• 2 tbsp cornstarch
• 1/4th cup fresh cream

For the crust

• 3 cups crushed digestive biscuits
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 4 tbsp melted butter

Preheat oven to 180 C. Grease the baking tin with  a little butter.

Mix the ingredients for the crust in a mixing bowl. Pat it compactly in the baking tin and push the baking tin in the oven for about 4 minutes. Remove it from the oven and keep it aside.

Now in a large bowl, take the cream cheese and sugar and beat on a medium speed for about three minutes till the cheese is uniformly creamy. Add the vanilla essence, strawberry crush and beat again for thirty seconds. Now add the eggs one at a time and beat on a medium speed till they are completely incorporated into the batter. Add the cornstarch, and the cream and beat on a very low speed for about 30 seconds. You don't want to overmix the batter.

Pour this batter into the baking tin on top of the crust and push it into the oven. Put a small container containing water at the bottom of the oven. This helps to prevent cracks in the cake. Technically, the recipe said I had to bake it for 50 minutes. However, I found that in my OTG the cake got baked in 20 minutes. So instead of telling you how much time it should be in the oven, I'll tell you how to know when it is baked.

The edges of the cake become raised and completely set, and the exact center of the cake is very slighly wiggly. You know your cake has baked then. Remove it and cool it on a wire rack. Chill overnight in the freezer.

Serve cold with fresh cream and sliced strawberries!

Happy Cooking!

Rice Kheer

The last three days have been insane. Now that I have a new job, I have had to juggle a lot of chores everyday and go to work, which leaves me bone tired in the night, and inexcusably, lazy to write my blog. I profusely apologize for that.

But that does not mean that I haven't been making new recipes. Just that I haven't been writing them on my blog that's all. I will post all three recipes for the last three days today, right here, right now.

The first is rice kheer. It is simple to make and delicious. Combine it with a poori and you have a sure shot winner on your table.

Ingredients

• 1 cup rice
• 4 cups milk
• 1/4th cup clarified butter or ghee
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp cardamom powder
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg powder
• 2 tbsp broken cashew nuts
• 2 tbsp raisins

Wash the rice and drain it.

Heat the clarified butter or ghee in a wok.  Add the drained rice to it, and fry till the rice becomes light to feel and slightly pinkish brown in color. Keep it aside to cool. Meanwhile bring the milk to a boil.

Once the rice has cooled, put it in blender and blend it till you get a grainy consistency. Do not add water. You do not want to make a rice paste. Just finer grains of rice.

As the milk boils, add the rice and reduce the heat to a simmer. Simmer it for around 15 minutes. Press a grain of rice in between the thumb and index finger to see if the rice has become soft.

Once the rice has become completely soft, add the sugar, cardamom powder, nutmeg powder, cashew nuts and raisins and boil for five more minutes.

You can either serve it hot, or cold like a pudding, whichever way suits your taste.

Happy Cooking!

(pics will be posted in the evening)

Yummilicious Marshmallows

Morning was earlier than usual for me today. Baby literally kicked me out of the bed so I could get her milk. (Not that I gave her any until she washed her teeth!) But she kept egging me to get out of bed.

I decided to put on some of the television shows that I had recorded but never watched. One of them was Rachel Allen's home cooking. Today's recipe is courtesy this show. It is fascinating that I now have a cooking blog, where I once hated cooking. It's probably because I have incessantly watched  cookery shows over the last two years. I guess I should see more of travel shows if I want to travel and start a travel blog. :-P

In any case, Rachel had indicated exact measurements and exact temperatures when making this recipe. I didn't  have anything to measure accurately. So I trusted my instinct and went ahead. But they turned out great. And as I made them, my mind factory began working over-time. I can do so many things with this recipe. Cup cake decoration, cake decoration, lollypops! You name a few too!

It is though, a little messy to work with. It will be a few times before I get it exactly right, and can make heart and star shaped marshmallows for my daughter. Not that she minded at all. Rock-like or whatever, she ate quite a few before I stole them from front of her lest none remain for the photo-op!

Ingredients

• 450 g sugar
• 125 ml water
• 4 tbsp cornflour
• 4 tbsp icing sugar
• a little vegetable oil for greasing
• 1 large tbsp gelatine soaked in 100 ml water

Soak the gelatine in water. Meanwhile, grease a tray with oil. Line the tray with parchment or butter paper and apply some oil to the parchment paper as well. 

In a separate bowl, mix corn flour and icing sugar well. Dust some of the mixture on the butter paper.

Take the sugar in a saucepan. Add 125 ml water to it and put it on the heat. Stir it continuously till it starts boiling. Once it starts boiling, remove your spoon and do not stir at all. Let it boil without interference for about ten to twenty minutes till it reaches the thread stage. A thread stage is when you dip your spoon into the syrup and lift it in air, and an even thread is seen dripping from the spoon instead of droplets.

Once it reaches this stage, remove from the heat.

Whip the gelatine for a minute or two. Now add the sugar syrup and whip again. It should take about twenty minutes of whipping for the mixture to attain a meringue like consistency. It does look like that. White and soft peaks form over it. It should not leave the pan when you turn it over. That's when you know that the whipping is complete.

Now pour this mixture into the tray lined with the parchment paper. This is sticky business. I mean it. It sticks to anything and everything. Dip a spoon in hot water and use it to flatten the top of the marshmallow mixture. Dust the cornflour and sugar mixture over the marshmallow mixture.

Allow the mixture to set over a few hours. It may take around 5 to 6 hours or even more for the mallows to set completely. Once it sets cut it into pieces and dust some more of the cornflour mixture over it. The cornstarch mixture prevents it from getting too sticky.

Have them by themselves, or sandwich one between two cracker biscuits and eat them for a heavenly different taste.

Happy Cooking!

Musk Melon Shikran

Musk melon is not a universal favorite. Also known as cantaloupe, there are people who don't like the taste of it. I am one of those few who actually like a musk melon. I may not be entirely crazy about it, but yes I do like the light watery sweetness of the melon. Especially so when the heat is as scorching as it is right now, a musk melon is a welcome addition to my daily diet.

Thankfully Saee likes everything fruity. She loves fruit. Although I am aware that Ayurved recommends that fruit not be eaten half an hour before and two hours after a meal (especially with wheat based meals), sometimes there is no other way for a tired mommy to feed her baby unless there is something the baby likes, in the meal.

Although I know that this must be a common recipe in Maharashtrian households, but I am not so sure about the non-Maharashtrians. In case you've never made it and you don't like the taste of the cantaloupe per se, then this is a recipe for you.

Ingredients

• 1 small musk melon (chibood as we call it in Marathi and kharbooja in Hindi)
• 3 tbsp sugar (or more if you like it sweeter)
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 tsp cardamom powder
• A few strands of saffron (optional)

Grate the musk melon. Add the sugar and the milk. Stir it well to dissolve the sugar. Now add the cardamom powder, mix and chill for at least an hour before serving.

Garnish with a few strands of saffron or kesar. (I didn't have any, so I didn't garnish)

Serve chilled!

Happy Cooking!

Chocolate tart

To begin with, a note to my friend Sahana Joshi... Sahana, you rock! I was finally able to make the most fantastic whipped cream! Yum, yum!

If you are anywhere on the right side (or should I say the wrong side) of the weighing scale, than the mark where the tip of the weighing scale is supposed to stop, then you MUST follow these ten commandments while making this recipe.

The Dieter's Ten Commandments

1. Thou shalt not lick the remnants of the butter on your finger
2. Thou shalt not eat the little piece of chocolate that was left behind
3. Thou shalt not eat more than one bite of the tart you just made
4. Thou shalt not get carried away by the aroma of the tart
5. Thou shalt not get carried away by the look of the tart
6. Thou shalt not be a tart and eat the tart.
7. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain, in case you do eat the tart and regret later.
8. Thou shalt not give in to temptation.
9. Thou shalt not be in a hurry to make this recipe, some recipes do take a lot of time and preparation.
10. Thou shalt not be attached to the material taste of the tart you just made.

Keep the ten commandments in mind and you shall not put on weight (anymore than you currently weigh).

Ingredients

• 1 and 1/4th cup plain flour
• 2 tbsp granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup frozen butter (butter stick) broken into small pieces
•  1/2 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp ice cold water
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate
• 1/2 cup white chocolate
• 1/4th cup  milk
• 1 egg 
• vanilla essence

Mix the flour, sugar and salt together. It helps if all your ingredients are kept in the refrigerator for atleast an hour before using them. Throw in the chopped butter and mix it only with your finger tips till the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Now add a tablespoon of water each time and knead it carefully till it just forms a ball that doesn't have any cracks on it's surface. Do not over knead. Wrap in a cling film and refrigerate the dough for at least 30 minutes.

Remove the dough from the plastic wrap and roll out into a thin sheet. Line your tart tray or baking tray with the pastry and press the dough so that it adapts well to the tin. Place a foil on top of the pastry and place some beans on top of it as weight. Place the tin in the fridge for another 15 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 350 F and place the tin in the center of the oven. Bake for 25 minutes. Now remove the foil and the beans and place it again in the oven for another five minutes. Remove from the oven and let it cool down.

Meanwhile make the filling. Chop the dark and white chocolate into fine pieces. Heat the milk in a pan. When it is just about simmering, add the chocolate to this and mix well. Whip the egg in a separate container. Add about 2 tbsp of the chocolate milk mixture to the egg mixture first. This is called tempering the egg, and prevents it from curdling.

Now transfer the egg mixture to the chocolate milk mixture again and whip for a few minutes.Pour this in the tart shells and place it back into the oven.

Bake only until the center of the filling is still a little jiggly. Otherwise the filling may get burnt.

Remove from the oven and chill in the refrigerator.

Garnish with fruits or fresh whipped cream and serve chilled!

Happy Cooking!

Bengali Shondesh

Yesterday I had gone to Vasai, to mom's place. What a truly heavenly feeling it is to have 'Ma ke haath ka bana khaana'. Just read the menu and I am sure that your mouth is going to water too. There was Mackerel (Bangda) fry with stuffed green chutney (ooooh! Yum!) and then there was raw jackfruit curry, and aamras!!!

To be back sated from mom's home and fast the next day on Monday! Depressing! There is nothing in the world as tasty as mom's cooking. We have had it since we were infants, and no matter how tasty a recipe you make, you can never match the taste of your mom's cooking. Maybe I am just being sentimental here, but I am sure most of you are as sentimental about your moms.

Fasting need not be depressing though. The milk curdled this morning. I am sure most of you make paneer or khoya or kalakand from this milk (Tip: If the milk has begun to curdle as you heat it, heat it till the whey just separates from the fat, and while the fat is still soft throw in a handful of ice. This stops the process of curdling in its tracks. Now take the paneer in a muslin cloth and wash it under cold water. Now hang it for a minimum of 30 minutes. You get extremely soft, and sweet paneer! You can curdle milk by pouring half a teaspoon of lemon juice diluted in water or one teaspoon vinegar diluted in equal amount of water. Pour the curdling agent half a spoon at a time in boiling milk and stop pouring as soon as the whey starts separating. Wash the paneer well under cold water to remove traces of lemon juice or vinegar.)

I made Shondesh from the paneer. It is ridiculously easy, and very tasty.

Ingredients

• 1 to one and half cup absolutely fresh paneer (like the one I made above)
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar (or more if you like it sweeter)
• 1/2 tsp cardamom powder

Make sure that the paneer is completely rid of the whey. It has to be completely dry. Knead the paneer with the flat of your hands till it is completely gelled together.

Now heat a wok and throw in the paneer. Add the sugar and cardamom powder and stir. Now in the initial stage, the paneer looks like it is melting. Don't worry and don't panic. Just keep stirring till the paneer stops sticking to the sides of the wok.

Once it starts to gel together again, remove the paneer on a plate. Allow it to cool. Knead again for about ten to fifteen  minutes.

Roll into the desired shapes and garnish with raisins or any other nuts.

Serve chilled.

Happy Cooking!