Kalakand

My final recipe for this week under Milk based sweets is Kalakand. Kalakand is a sweet made with paneer and khoya. As you all know paneer is a cheese made with milk and Kohya is a thick milk solids which is made by boiling the full fat milk. 

For Paneer boil one liter whole milk bring to full boil, reduce the heat add little by little 1/2 cup fresh curd keep stirring.
After few seconds milk will curdle switch off the heat and strain the whey water and collect paneer in a cheese cloth, This one liter milk gives you nearly one and half cup paneer. Rinse the paneer in cold water well and set a side, rinsing the paneer in cold water makes paneer little more soft. Now close the cheese cloth from all sides tie a not and tie this on a height for half an hour to remove extra water. we need one cup paneer from this to prepare kalakand.

                                                                          

We need one and half cup kohya (un sweetend kova) for this kalakand recipe. Heat one liter milk in a thick bottom pan bring to full boil and reduce the heat and keep boiling the milk. Boil the milk till it turn in to thick and grainy after one and half hours or two hours the milk turn in to a solid with a grainy texture and starts leaving the sides of the pan. This is kohya which we are going to use for making kalakand.

Always use freshly made paneer and kohya for making Kalakand. This is a milk based sweet so it has a less life time it will stay for two to three days in room temperature. Can store this in fridge for one week.
                                                                             

Now let's check how to make Kalakand...
INGREDIENTS:---
Kohya (un sweetend kova)  ---  1 1/2 cups
Paneer  ---  1 cup
Sugar -- 1/2 cup powdered
Ghee  --- 2 tab sp
Cardamom powder  ----  1/2 tea sp
Finely chopped almonds and pistachios -- 2 tab sp
METHOD:----
1. Crumble the paneer and kova in a nonstick pan and start heating. It will turn soft after few minutes. Keep stirring and cook for 15 minutes.
2. Now add ghee, powdered sugar, cardamom powder mix well to combine every thing. Keep stirring and cook till it leaves the sides of the pan it will take 15 minutes in a medium heat.
3. Finally add one more tab sp ghee and chopped nuts mix well and pour this in to a greased pan.
Flaten the surface with a greased laddle leave a side to cool down to room temperature, it will take one hour time to cool down.
Cut in to squares, you can garnish with chopped nuts and silver vark.
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Basundi

Basundi is a milk based sweet which is very popular in three states, Gujarat, Maharastra and Karnataka.I have always confused with Basundi and rabri . Some people says both are same, some says both are different. After trying these two recipes and a small research I came to know both recipes are almost same with little variations.  

  1. Both rabri  and Basundi are made with full cream milk.

   2. The consistency of rabri is more thicker then Basundi

   3. For rabri you have to keep on scraping the layer which form on the top and sides which is a fat layer this gives the rabri a granules type of texture.

4. Rabri is served with Malpua or jelabi since Basundi is served as it self as a dessert.

                                                   

Make sure to use a thick bottom pan. Once you get a full boil reduce the heat and cook on a low heat and remember to keep scraping the sides of the pan while cooking. This gives the Basundi a creamy and rich texture.
                                                         Basundi will be served as a dessert chilled or warm. Also served with puri and sabji as a part of festival meal specially for Holi, Dessara, uttarayan like festivals. In north Karnataka Basundi is served as side dish with puris.  
                                                                 

 
INGREDIENTS:---
Milk  ---  1 and half lit. full cream milk
Sugar  ---  3/4 cup
Cardamom powder ---  1 tea sp
Almonds  ----  15 finely chopped
Pistachio  --- 15 finely chopped
Saffron  --- few strings
METHOD:---
1. Start boiling one and half lit. full cream milk in a thick bottom pan

2. Bring to a full boil and reduce the heat to low and boil till milk reduced to half it will take approximately one hour or more.

                                                         

3. In between keep stirring and scraping the pan and keep boiling

4. Now add sugar and cook for 20 minutes more to bring the consistency. Because when you add sugar the consistency will turn in to thin.

5. Add cardamom powder and chopped almonds and pistachios and cook for 20 more minutes in a very low heat.

Switch off the heat and garnish with chopped almonds, pistachios and saffron strings and serve warm or chilled

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Semiya Payasam

Starting this New year with a sweet dish. When I made semiya payasam with tomato rice for make a meal theme last month, I realized that I didn't posted a recipe for Semiya payasam till now.How surprising which I make very often that sweet recipe is not in my blog. Then I thought of posting semiya payasam recipe with a small twist.
                                                                  I have added roasted poppy seeds and almond paste and condensed milk to the semiya payasam to make it more flavor full and rich. Actually we don't add this poppy seeds and almond paste to the payasam. We just cook the semiya in milk and add sugar, cashews and raisins. But this poppy seeds and almond paste will give a delicious flavor to the semiya payasam. This Semiya Payasam is for my this month first week theme Milk Based Sweets.
                                                                              

So let's check the recipe....   
INGREDIENTS:----
 Semiya (vermicelli) --- 1/2 cup
Milk  -----  500 ml
Sugar  ---  1/4 cup
Condensed milk  ---  1/4 cup
Cashew nuts  --- 10 broken
Raisins  ---  15
Almonds ---  5 soaked in warm water for 10 minutes
Poppy seeds  ---  1 tea sp
Cardamom powder  ---  1/2 tea sp
Ghee  ---  1 tab sp
                                                                     

METHOD:---
1. Heat a pan and dry road poppy seeds for few seconds remove and set a side.
2. De-skin the soaked almonds add poppy seeds add little water make coarse paste and set a side.
3. Heat ghee in a pan add cashews fry till golden remove, fry raisins in the ghee remove and set a side.
4. Now add semiya to the same ghee fry till light golden, then add milk to the semiya mix well and let it cook till done it will take five minutes.
5. Add poppy seed and almond past, condensed milk mix well cook for two more minutes.
6. Add sugar mix well let it cook for few more minutes and switch off the heat, add fried cashew nuts and raisins mix well
Serve hot or chilled.. 
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Goru Meetilu or Goru Mitai

My final recipe for this week under Indian Sweets is again a traditional sweet from Andhra cuisine. Goru Meetilu is a traditional sweet which specially made for deepavali in some regions of Andhra Pradesh. The name Goru meetilu is because we give shape for this sweet with our thumb finger nail, goru means nail in Telugu. We are giving the shape with thumb finger nail and dipping them in the sugar syrup to make them sweet. Meeti or mitai means sweet ,actually meeti is not  a Telugu word I don't know how they adopted. Will do a bit investigation on that.

The main ingredients for this recipe is maida, rava, and sugar. Here in this recipe I used chiroti rava whis is fine upma rava. You can use normal upma rava also. The original recipe calls for upma rava because we don't get chiroti rava in Andhra Pradesh.

Next ingredient is sugar in some homes they mix half sugar and half jaggery or only with jaggery. But some how my choice is sugar so choosing the sweetener is your choice.

You can use whole wheat flour in stead of maida or you can mix half maida and half wheat flour. only thing if you use wheat flour you get a little dark color.

Now let's check the recipe.

   

INGREDIENTS:---

Maida (all purpose flour)  ---  200 grams

Chiroti rava or upma rava  ---  3 tab sp

Soda- bi- carb --  a big pinch

Salt   ---  a big pinch

Ghee  ---  50 grams melted

Sugar  ---  150 grams

Cardamom powder  --- 1 tab sp

Ghee  ---  1 tea sp

Milk --- 1/2 cup

Water  ---  1/2 cup

Oil for deep frying

METHOD:---

1. In a mixing bowl take maida, rava, soda-bi-carb, salt,  ghee and rub with your fingers to give a crumb texture to the flour.

2. Add half cup milk and half cup water to the flour mixture and knead in to a stiff dough. Knead this dough for five minutes, cover with a cloth and set a side for half an hour.

3. Now make small balls out of this dough and roll them in to a finger shape.

4. Press the dough fingers in the center, now take the dough finger in between your index finger and middle finger and press with your thumb finger to make impression by this time you get a shape on the top leave a small gap and do the same to give goru meeti shape,

5. Do the process with all the dough and set a side.

6. Heat oil in a deep frying pan and  keep the heat in low and drop this goru meetilu slowly one by one in to the hot oil.

7. Fry goru meetilu in a low heat till golden, remove from oil and set a side.

FOR SYRUP:----

8. In a thick bottom pan take sugar add 1/2 cup water mix well till sugar dissolves in water.

9. Cook this sugar water in a medium heat till you get a two thread consistence, add ghee and cardamam powder mix well and add fried goru meetilu and mix well to coat the sugar syrup all over the goru meetilu.

10. Mix well and remove the gori meetilu from sugar syrup and spread them on a plate and let them cool.

Store Goru meetilu in a air tight container.

Goru meetilu will stay for a month. 

                                                                               

make small balls out of this dough and roll them in to a finger shape.

Press the dough fingers in the center

now take the dough finger in between your index finger and middle finger and press with your thumb finger to make impression

by this time you get a shape on the top

leave a small gap and do the same to give goru meeti shape,

Do the process with all the dough and set a side.

Heat oil in a deep frying pan and  keep the heat in low and drop this goru meetilu slowly one by one in to the hot oil.

Fry goru meetilu in a low heat till golden, remove from oil and set a side.

Now make the sugar syrup as I said in the recipe method above and fold the Goru meetilu in the sugar syrup to coat well.

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Bellam Boondi or Boondi Mitai

Now coming to the second sweet under my Indian Sweets theme this is my childhood favorite. A typical andhra sweet which is made with besan and jaggery . Bellam Boondi or Boondi achu or Boondi mitai is the names for this sweet.freshly made boondi folded in to thick jaggery syrup then poured in to greased plate then cut in to desired shapes or you can make in to small balls but you have to give the ball shape when it is hot other wise the sweet boondi will get dry.
                                                                         

                                                                      Making the boondi is a bit different for this sweet, not like boondi laddu. Fry boondi in to golden color then only the boondi will stay crisp. So the first point is use coarsely ground gram flour for this boondi. Finely ground gram flour will give a soft texture to boondi. Second point is add half portion rice flour to besan means if you took 1 cup besan then add half cup rice flour, so that boondi will turn crisp and stay crisp for long time.
                                                                          

 For this recipe we have to make three thread or hard ball consistency syrup with jaggery. If you want a detail recipe please check my recipe for jaggery syrup   
                                                                       Be careful with the syrup if you made a two thread consistency then the boondi mitai won't stay crisp and the boondi will go soggy. So be patience when start making the syrup and don't leave the syrup on the stove. This Bellam boondi or Boondi mitai will stay for long means it will stay for a month at least. So try to make this for this Deepavali
                                                                       

Let's check the recipe...
INGREDIENTS:---
Gram flour (besan, Senaga pindi) ---  3 cups
Rice flour ----  1 and half cup
Cooking soda ---   a big pinch
Ghee  ---  1 tab sp
Salt - --- a big pinch
Water  ---  2 cups approximately ( it may take less water so check and add water)
FOR JAGGERY SYRUP:--
Grated jaggery ----  4 cups
Cardamom powder  ---  1 tea sp
Ghee  ---  2 tab sp
                                                                         

METHOD:---
1. Take a mixing bowl add besan, rice flour, soda mix well with your hand to combine well.
2. Add little by little water and mix in to a thick batter this batter should be like a thick dosa batter.
So check and add little by little water if the batter turn in to a thin consistency the boondi will drink oil.
3. Add ghee to the batter mix well this will give boondi a nice aroma.
4. Now heat oil in a deep frying pan in a high flame. To check the if oil is hot enough, drop few drops of batter with a spoon, if the drops came up immediately then the oil is ready to make boondi.
 So heat of the oil is most important, if the oil is hot enough then you get perfect bubbles of boondi.
And one more thing if the oil is hot enough when you drop batter in to the oil  the boondis will come up immediately other Wise the batter will sit in the bottom of the oil and they stick together and you do not get perfect boondi. So heating of the oil is most important.
The second point is if you over heat the oil then your boondi will come up very fast and they turn red very fast and do not cook properly . 
5.  Hold a skimming ladle (one with holes normally we use to remove deep frying) above the hot oil and pour a soup ladle full batter  so that the batter will drop in to the hot oil trough the holes.
With in few seconds you can see the boondi coming up in the hot oil.

                                                              

6. Fry this boondi till golden, remove and place them in a strainer to remove extra oil if any.

Prepare boondi with all the batter and set aside.

NOW START MAKING THE SYRUP:-

7. Take grated jaggery in to a thick bottom pan, add 1/4 cup water let the jaggery melt.

8. Remove the jaggery from fire and strain to remove the dirt if any.

9. Bring back the jaggery water to the same thick bottom pan and cook till you get a three string syrup.

Keep a plate with water in the side and drop few drops of jaggery syrup in the water if you bring to gether the the syrup which is in the water that should form like a ball.

Then the syrup is ready.

10. Now add ghee and cardamom powder to the syrup mix well, reduce the flame.

11. Pour the prepared boondi in to the jaggery syrup give a good stir and switch off the heat

12. Mix boondi with jaggery syrup well to coat the syrup all over the boondis 

13. In the mean while grease a plate with ghee and pour the jaggery coated boondi in to the greased plate, spread it evenly (this job you have to do very fast other wise then boondi will become hard and you can not give it a nice shape.)

Now take a big knife and make marks to break the boondi mitai in to desire shapes.

Set a side to set, when the mitai is set break it in to desire shapes, remove from the plate and store it in a air tight container.

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Mango Rasmalai

Rasgullas and Rasmalai are my all time favorite sweets. I have tried few flavors with rasmalai rose flavor, pista, coffee. I have tasted this coffee flavored rasmalai in a restaurant in Goa, I liked it but have to give a try at home. Long back I have tasted this mango rasmalai in a function I liked it. But when I tried it at home with fresh mango puree the flavor and taste was awesome. I used rasalu (a variety of mangoes which we get in Andhra Pradesh). These rasalu mangoes will give beautiful vibrant color to mango puree. you can use Alphonso mangoes to get a good color.
                                                                         

                                                                        Use full cream milk so that the ras will get a creamy texture. I used store brought rasgullas, if you have time can make rasgullas at home and use to get a fresh flavor. Always use fresh mango pulp to get a fresh mango flavor. You can adjust the sweetness, I like less sweet in my sweets. Instead of using full cream milk you can use half tin condensed milk that will give more rich taste to the ras. This is my first recipe for this month BM under Indian Sweets.
                                                                           

So let's checkt he recipe...       
INGREDIENTS:---
Rasgullas  --- 6 pieces
Mango pulp --  1 and half cup
Milk  ---  1 cups
Cardamom powder  ---  1 tea sp
Almonds  -----  6 chopped
Sugar ---  2 tab sp
METHOD :---
1. Boil milk add sugar mix well set a side to bring the milk to room temperature.
2. Add mango pulp to the milk and sugar mixture, mix well to combine every thing add cardamom powder mix well.
3. Squeeze the rasgullas from sugar syrup and place them on a serving dish. Now pour the mango and milk mixture.
Sprinkle with chopped almonds and leave this mango rasmalai in the fridge for half an hour.
Serve chilled. 
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Sajja Laddulu(Bajra Laddu)

My final recipe for this week is again with a millet. Because millets are best substitute for a diabetic diet to replace with white rice. Bajra is one of those millets we used to cook it in the place of rice for lunch or we mke rotis and some sweets. Cook bajra with little salt and serve with any spicy, tangy gravy the best combination for lunch. Bajra is one of the common grain which is used widely in rural India. Bajra is well known as Sajjalu in telugu, we make Sajjaburelu (a sweet snack) with this lillet in Sankranthi festival time. This sajja laddulu is an experment for my diabetic sweet recipe. So I used jaggery for this recipe but you can replace with refind sugar. I used 1/2 cup ghee if you feel that is a large amount of ghee I used. You can reduce the ghee and sprinkle some milk to make laddu's. But when you mix with milk this sajjaladdulu won't stay for long they stay for one or two days. If you make this laddu's with melted ghee this will stay for a month.
So let's check the recipe...
                                                                   

Sajjalu (bajra)  ----  1 cup
Jaggery  ----  1 cup grated
Ghee  ---  1/2 cup
Badam ( almonds)  --- 20
Cardamom powder  ---  1/2 tea sp
METHOD:---
1. Dry roast bajra in a low flame till they lightly change the color.
2. In the same pan dry roast almonds for a while
3. Now grind both bajra and almonds in to a fine powder.
4. Add grated jaggery to the millet powder mix well.
5. Melt the ghee and add little by little to the flour mix well with your hand.
6. Add ghee little by little to the flour till you can fold the laddus.
7. Make all the laddu s and store them in a airtight container 
This bajra laddu's will stay till one month.
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Multigrain And Date Fudge

One more ingredient that I use as a sugar substitute are Dates. You can use dates as a sugar substitute in your diet. Like take one cup pitted dates add 1/2 cup warm water and make a paste. This dates paste is equivalent to one cup sugar in taste . You can just take fresh pitted dates and finely chop them and and add it to your desserts, milk shakes etc.. you can use dry dates also, but you have to soak this dry dates for over night and then  grind in to a paste. You may think about the calories 100 grms dates contain 282 calories (one date contain 20 calories).
                                                                         In this recipe we are going to use multigrain flour to make this dessert more interesting. I used ragi and bajara flours for this recipe you can use any other flours or you can make this recipe only with wheat flour. As a sugar substitute you can use honey also for this recipe.
                                                                 

 
INGREDIENTS:--
Ragi flour  ---- 1/2 cup
Bajara flour  --  1/2 cup
Wheat flour  ---  1/4 cup
Desiccated coconut ---  1 tab sp
Milk  ---  2 tab sp (optional)
Dates  ----  1 cup pitted and ground in to a paste with warm water
Cardamom powder  ---  1/2 tea sp
Ghee  --- 1 tab sp
METHOD:---
1. Heat ghee in a pan and add all three flour and fry till nice aroma comes out, do this process in a low flame, switch off the heat.
2. Take dates paste in  a pan and heat for one second and add flour mixture, desiccated coconut and mix well by the time this mixture will become like a lump, if your mixture doesn't become like a lump here you can add 2 tab sp of milk and mix well.
3. Add cardamom powder and give a good stir and pour it in to a greased try and spread it immediately  and make marks to cut pieces.
4. Now leave this fudge try in the fridge for one hour then cut it in to pieces.
This fudge won't stay for long time one or two days in room temperature and for one week in the fridge.
If you want to make this with sugar add 150 grams sugar  and make a syrup like gulab jamoon syrup. when you make this fudge with sugar syrup this will stay for one week in room temperature.  Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#66 

Ragi Rava Kesari

My theme for this week is diabetic friendly sweets. I am not an expert in making diabetic friendly recipes. But I do experiments with natural sugar substitutes and millet's. In that list ragi is my favorite millet, I use ragi for making breakfast and lunch like ragi rotti, ragi mudda, ragi java many more like this. But I avoid ragi for dinner because it will take long time to digest. 
                                                                     This ragi rava kesari is from one of my experiments after I tried ragi halwa. Actually I made this kesari accidentally, I wanted to make wheat rava kesari with palm sugar by mistake I have added ragi rava in a hurry. When I saw the color of the kesari then I realize, any way by mistake I made a delicious kesari :).
                                                                  For Ragi rava wash ragi well and dry in a shade for one hour or till the ragi seeds are totally dry. Don't dry the ragi under sun, make sure and dry them under shade. Now grind ragi in to a rava consistence in a blender and store this ragi rava in a airtight container. This will stay good for one week in the room temperature or you can store this rava in fridge for one month. You can make ragi upma, ragi kudumulu(kozhukattai) and ragi instent idli, ragi kheer many more like this.
                                                               I used palm jaggery for this recipe you can use normal jaggery or honey for this recipe. Since I am posting this as diabetic friendly recipe I used jaggery but you can also use sugar to make this recipe. I have used unsweetened  kova, you can use sweetened kova or condensed milk. In this case reduce the amount of jaggery or sugar.  
So lets check the recipe.....  
                                                           

 
INGREDIENTS:---
Ragi rava  ---  1 cup
Water  ---  1 cup
Palm jaggery ---  1/2 cup grated (or according to your taste)
Kova (unsweetend)  ---  1 tab sp
Cardamom powder  ---  1/2 tea sp
Cashew nuts  ---  1 tab sp broken
Ghee  ---  2 tab sp
METHOD:---
1. Heat one tab so ghee in a thick bottom pan add cashew nuts and fry till golden remove and set a side.
2. Add ragi rava to the same pan and fry in the ghee for two minutes then add 3/4 cup of water keep the heat in low and let it cook for 10 minutes
3. In the mean while heat 1/4 cup water in a pan add grated palm jaggery let it melt and add this jaggery water to the ragi mixture keep mixing and let it cook for 5 more minutes
4. Add cardamom powder, kova and half tab sp ghee mix well and cook for five more minutes and keep mixing.
5. Now add cashew nuts, leftover ghee and give good stir and switch off the heat.
Sprinkle with kova and cashew nuts and serve hot.
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R for Ros Bora

My recipe for R is again a sweet from Bengali cuisine. Usually what we think all Bengali sweets are made with milk or milk products. But there are some sweets which are not made with milk products like Patisapta, Ranga aloor pithy and some more like this. This is a special sweet which is made on Bengali new year and sankranthi. In Andhra cuisine we also made a very similar sweet for deepavali called teepi punugulu, not even a small difference in these two recipes
So let's check the recipe...
                                                          

Recipe adopted from here 
INGREDIENTS:---
Urad dal ---  1 cup
Fennel seeds  ----  1 tab sp
Soda-bi-corb ---- a pinch
A pinch of salt
Oil for deep frying
FOR SUGAR SYRUP:---
Sugar  ---  1 cup
Water  ---  1 and half cups
Cardamom powder --- 3/4 tea sp
                                                         

METHOD:---
1. Soak urad dal for over night, in the morning drain all the water  and grind in to a smooth paste with very little water (like vada batter).
2. Add salt and soda-bi-carb and mix well you can beat with an electric beater for ten minutes in low speed to give fluffy texture.
3. Add fennel seeds to the urad dal batter mix well.
4. Heat oil in a deep frying pan now drop a small drop of batter in to the hot oil to check whether oil is hot enough or not, if the small drop of the batter is came up immediately then the oil is hot enough.
5. Now take small amount of the urad dal batter in your hand and drop small ball s in to hot oil and deep fry till golden, remove from oil and place them on a kitchen paper towel.
Now let's make the syrup:--
1. Take one cup of sugar in a pan add 2 and half cups of water Mix well till sugar dissolves, now place the pan on high heat to make syrup.
2. Bring syrup to full boil add cardamom powder and reduce the heat and boil for 5 minutes in a low heat and switch off the heat.
3. Now drop boras in to the hot syrup, let them cool completely then store in the fridge till you serve.

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An InLinkz Link-up

Q for Quick Rasmalai With Milk Powder

Today 17th recipe for this Mega blogging Marathon the alphabet is Q. Q is a very tough letter to find a recipe in Indian cuisine. As usual I started searching recipe names then vegetable names,I didn't find any thing. Then I thought of this recipe which I tried almost a twenty years back from booklet. I didn't find that booklet now very sad:(, I checked all my notes but didn't find the recipe. 
I checked in net for the recipe but all the recipes are used egg in net. But I am very sure which I tried is a egg less recipe.
                                                        finally I decide to try the recipe first time I tried with a tab sp of all purpose flour with milk powder, Rasmalai turned a bit hard. Second time I mixed egg replace powder in the place of a one egg. second time rasmali turned so soft and perfect. But I was not happy because when I first tried this recipe that time I didn't even know what a egg replace powder is. So was thinking what could I have used that time, not thinking I was literally breaking my head. Because that time rasgullas turned in to a lite yellow color. When I tried with egg replace powder I didn't get that color.
                                                                

                                                                  One fine day hubby ask me to make mango custard, because mango season started and we both like mango custard very much. When I was mixing the custard powder in milk that turned in to the same yellow color  what I got for those rasmalai when I first made. Then immediately I tried those milk powder rasmalai with custard powder ... yes Now I got the recipe. Now the ingredient I used int he place of egg is a tab sp of custard powder. 
                                                                      Let me tell you why we use a egg or a egg replacer in a instant rasmalai specially made with milk powder is. The original  recipe contain chhena (paneer) which is made in to round balls then cooked in sugar syrup. So when you add this rasgulla's  in to hot boiling milk to make rasmalai they won't split because they were already cooked and they hold the shape. This traditional recipe takes a long time to make. For this quick rasmalai recipe since we are using milk powder to make rasmalai balls. When you drop milk powder balls in to hot milk they will melt and mix with the milk, so to hold the shape we are using egg or egg replace powder as a binding agent. We can make this quick rasmalai with in ten minutes time and I felt these taste just like the store brought one 's soft and smooth.. and very easy to make. You can make them before and store them in the fridge till you serve, but handle with care :) because they are very soft... this is my first sweet recipe in this Mega BM
so lets check the recipe...
                                                                       

INGREDIENTS:---
Milk powder  ---  1 cup
Baking powder  --- 1/2 tea sp
Custard powder  ---  1 tab sp
All purpose flour (maida)  ---  1 tea sp
For ras (flavored milk)  ---
Milk  ---  1 lit.
Sugar  --  3/4 cup
Saffron  ---  a bug pinch
Cardamom powder  --- 1 tea sp
Ghee --  1 tab sp
METHOD:---
1. Start boiling one lit. milk with cardamom powder and sugar in medium heat, bring to a full boil and keep the heat in low.
2. Meanwhile mix milk powder, baking powder in a mixing bowl mix well.
3. Take custard powder and flour in to a small bowl add two tab sp of milk and mix well to make paste and add this paste and ghee to milk powder and knead in to a smooth dough, knead this milk powder dough for a two minutes to make it smooth, don't over knead the dough other wise rasmalai will turn hard.
4. This dough will be little sticky so apply very little ghee to your hands and make equal round shape balls and press them very gently to give a disk shape, make all the malai's and keep them ready.
5. Now add saffron mix well and gently place this balls in to boiling milk cover the pan with lid and  increase the heat to medium high and cook till milk becomes to a full boil again and balls starting increase the size.
6. Now reduce the heat to low and cook for two more minutes and switch off the heat.
Don't over boil other wise the rasmalai will turn hard.
Let it cool and refrigerate till you serve
You can garnish with chopped nuts you like.
Serve chilled...
Note:- you like to make this quick radmalai with egg replace powder, for one cup milk powder mix one and half tea sp of egg replace powder with two tab sp of water and 1 tea sp of all purpose flour and ad this to milk powder.
You can replace custard powder with a tab sp of corn flour and tea sp of all purpose flour..

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 63

An InLinkz Link-up

Steamed Cake with Fruit Compote

My second recipe for No Bake Desserts theme is a cake. This is a steam cake, yes you can steam a cake. This steam cakes are not like baked cakes in texture. Steam cakes are more moist, when you serve the cake with a fruit compote that will turn in to a delicious dessert. You can also serve any one chopped fruit and top with whipped cream
So let's check the recipe....
INGREDIENTS:---
All purpose flour  ---  1 and half cup
Custard powder  ---   1 tab sp
Baking powder ---3/4 tea sp
sugar  ----   1/2 cup
Vegetable oil  ---  1/4 cup
Milk  ----   1/4 cup
Melted butter  --- 1/4 cup
Eno ----  1 tea sp
Vanilla essence  ---  few drops
Salt  a pinch
METHOD:--
1. Shift flour, baking powder, salt and sieve for 2 to 3 times ans keep it ready.
2. Mix oil, butter, sugar and beat till sugar dissolves beat for two minutes and keep it a side for a while.
3. Now mix both flour mixture and oil mixture mix well and add milk, mix well to make pouring consistency,add vanilla essence mix well
4. Pour water in a cooker or a heavy bottom vessel till 2 inch. and place a holder in side the cooker. This holder will keep the cake vessel above the water. Grease a cake pan with little butter.
5. Add eno to the cake batter just before you pour in to the greased cake pan mix well once and pour the batter in to greased vessel.
6. Now place this cake batter vessel in the cooker over the holder.
7.  Close the cooker lid, Don't put the whistle.
8. Steam the cake in medium heat for 30 to 40 minutes
9. Switch off the heat and take out the cake and let it cool for some time and de-mould the cake
 and serve with mixed fruit compote.
Pour the mixed fruit compote on the cake with it's syrup and chill it for one hour and serve.
You can add a scope of ice cream to this to make it more delicious.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#55

Shrikhand Parfait

This month edition of Blogging Marathon already started ! But I am little late this month because of my health issues. This month I am doing two  weeks, I have to get ready with my mega BM recipes. My first week theme this month is No Bake Desserts! when I first saw this theme I was little confused why particularly no bake desserts!.. Because all our Indian desserts are no baked recipes,then I understood the challenge. :)
                                                                       When I was searching for the no baked dessert recipes the first thing I found is a Parfait recipe. This one is my kind of dessert because I like to have mango with curd and fruit yogurts are my all time favorite. Finally decided to give an Indian touch to this dessert, so I used shrikhand instead of cream you can use greek yogurt in the place of hung curd. Using chopped fruits makes this dessert more crunchy, but you can make a compote with berries or any other fruits. I like my dessert less sweet so I didn't make compote. You can make a layer with crushed oreo biscuits to give it a chocolate flavor. Because chocolate flavor makes a good pair with strawberry and curd....
                                                                    

So let's check the recipe....
INGREDIENTS:---
Hung curd ---   1 cup
Powdered sugar  ---  1 and half tabsp
Vanilla essence --  1/2 tea sp
Almonds  ---  1 tab sp chopped
Muesli  ----   1/2 cup
Strawberries  ---  1/2 cup chopped
Blueberries  ---  1/2 cup (I used frozen)
METHOD:--
1. Mix hung curd, powdered sugar and vanilla essence and whisk for two minutes, leave this shrikhand in the fridge for one hour.
2. Now layer the dessert glass with alternate layers of chopped fruits, muesli and shrikhnd.
3. Start the layers with chopped fruits and finish with shrikhand and top with chopped fruits.
Chill it in the fridge at least for two hours before serve.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#55

Sajja boorelu

Sajja boorelu this is one of the oldest traditional recipe from Andhra cuisine. Specially south regions of Andhra pradesh, people use bajra and sorghum in the place of rice. In my childhood we use to get this millets fresh bach in Sankranthi season. We use to have sorgham as pridge and my mother used to make rotis with sorgham flour. And  the other millet bajra, my grand mother used to make sajja boorelu. Specially for Sankranthi sajja boorelu, Ariselu, chekralu are must snacks at home, along with these snacks we kids enjoy regupandlu (Indian wild berrys) and sugar cane. Some times my grand mothe used to make regu vadalu (sundried pappad with Indian wild berries)
                                                                  Sajja boorelu is the recipe for this month ICC........ 


Lets check the recipe.......

Sajja pindi ---   500 gms

Jaggery  ----  200 gms grated

Grated coconut  ---  50 gms

Sesame seeds  ---  25 gms

Cardamom powder  ---  1 tea sp

Water for kneading the dough

Oil for deep frying.

METHOD:-

1. Add 1/2 cup water to jaggery and cook till jaggery completely melts, strain and allow it to cool till room temperature.

2. In a big mixing bowl take sajjapindi, grated coconut, sesame seeds, cardamom powder, add jaggery water to the flour mix well.

3. Now add little by little water and make a soft dough(just mix amd make a dough don't over knead the dough).

4. Take a banana leaf or a plastic cover apply a little ghee, take a big lemon size ball and press it in to a circle like a small puri (wet your fingers).

5. Heat oil in a deep frying pan, drop this sajja boorelu in to the hot oil and fry till golden

Store them in a air tight container.

Note:-- Jaggery water and water that we use for making the dough that should be warm not hot or cold water.

For Sajja pindi freshly ground flour in the mixee or in the mill will be good choice other then store brought flour.  

When we are making the boorelu with sajja pindi they turn in to dark brown color some people don't like that color so they add a little bit of saggu biyyam (sago) to the sajjalu  and grind in to a powder this will done in the mill we can not do this in the blender or mixee.

Rajasthani Badaam Halwa

Rajasthani  Badaam Halwa this is the recipe for this month Indian Cooking Challenge. The recipe is simple with less ingredients. I know there is a Badaam halwa recipe in Tamilnadu that is cut in to pieces before serving. I never made it but I tasted it many times, this badam halwa have grains of badaam This I have tasted in my aunt's (atta) place. 
                                                                                      This Rajasthani recipe is almost same like Tamilnadu recipe. When Valli announced this delicious badaam halwa recipe for ICC I wanted to check the texture. I goggled a lot but didn't find any picture of typical Rajasthani Badam Halwa . There are many versions of badaam halwa but I need a picture of typical Rajasthani recipe picture. Finally I decided to make this Halwa with out knowing the texture. That came out so well, tasted delicious, but only this is my badaam paste is little over fried. So take care when you frying the Badaam paste. when I was frying the badaam paste Some body rang the bell and i keep on talking with them and for got about the halwa on the stove. So don't go any were when you are making the halwa. In my halwa only the color is little dark the taste was heavenly delicious.
Let's check the recipe...   
INGREDIENTS:---
Almonds  ---  1/4 cup
Ghee (clarifaid butter) ---  4 tab sp
Sugar  ----  4 tab sp
Cardamom --- a big pinch
Water or milk for grinding the almonds

                                                                    

METHOD:---
1. Soak almonds for over night.
2. Wash and peel the almonds, after peeling wash the almonds again.
3. Grind the almonds in to a fine paste using water or milk (I used milk to give the Halwa a rich taste.).
4. Heat ghee in a non stick pan and add the almond paste and roast till it turn in to pink color.
Keep the heat low and keep stirring till the almond paste turn in to pink color.
5. Once almond paste turn in to pink start adding water little by little to bring halwa consistency  keep stirring..
6. Add sugar and cardamom powder (I grind sugar with cardamom seeds and added to almond mixture.).
7. Mix well and cook till  ghee leaves from the sides.
What mistakes I made is :--
My Almond paste is not finely griended There are some pieces left in the mixee jar with out checking I added the almond paste to the ghee
My almond paste is little over fried, Don't leave it on the stove keep stirring till you finish the Halwa 

Balushahi for ICC

Badushah or Balushahi  both are almost same recipes only the names are different. In North India they know this as Balushahi. Not only in Indian cuisine it is very popular in Nepali, Pakistaani and Bangladeshi cuisines but with different names. In south India it is very popular as Badushah. What every the name was it is my Fathers and my favorite sweet.
This is the challenge for this month Indian Cooking Challenge. ICC I was missing this challenges from long time. This is an easy to make Indian sweet but you have to take care of some points like. When you mixing the dough you can add butter or ghee first but that should be relay cold. Means keep the butter in the fridge before you using cut in to small pieces then rub it in the flour with your hands till the flour turn in to crumble texture. If you follow this you get a flake balushahis. Use fresh curd not the sour one add butter or ghee and baking powder as per measurements. If you add little more then what we gave in the measurement the balushahis will brake in the oil. If you add less then measurement your balushahis will become like rock so just follow the ingredients and mesurements.
I tried many times this sweet before but didn't get the perfect balushahis this time I almost reached. First time they blast all over the kitchen when I was frying them. so keep the heat in medium low oil should not be very hot. If you drop a small ball in to the oil that should come up after 2 minutes not immediately. I your oil is very hot balishahis won't cook in side and they turn golden out side very fast, so take care of heating the oil. Second time my badushas turned soft like soft dumplings that because I didn't add baking powder and soda. so take care of ingredients and mesurements so that you can get crisp out side and melt in mouth balushahi like what I got this time. They are crisp out side flaky and melt in mouth in side
Lets check the recipe.
INGREDIENTS:---
All purpose flour/ Maida  ---    1 cup
Baking soda  --  1/4 tea sp
Baking powder  ---  1/8 tea sp
Unsalted butter ----  1/4 cup (cold butter cut in to small pieces)
Yogurt (curd)  ---  1/4 cup
Oil for deep frying
Sugar  ---- 1 cup
Water   --- 1/3 cup
Cardamom powder a pinch
Chopped pistachios for garnish

METHOD:--
1. In a big mixing bowl take flour, baking soda, and baking powder mix well once and add cold butter and mix with your fingers.
2. Mix butter and flour till the flour turn in to bread crumb like texture.
3. Now add curd and make soft dough don't knead the dough cover and set a side for half an hour.
4. Now make the sugar syrup, In a pan add sugar and water bring to a full boil and reduce the heat to low and boil till syrup is almost one thread but not reached one thread consistency.
If you touch the syrup with your fingers that should stick to your fingers but should not form thread.
5. Add cardamom powder and remove from the heat and set a side.
6. Make small balls out of the dough and lightly flat them on your palm and make deep dent in the center.
6. Heat oil in a medium heat to check if the oil is hot enough or not drop a small piece in to the oil, if this small piece of dough take 2 minutes to come up then you oil is ready to fry.
7. Now slowly drop the balushahi s one by one in to the oil, fry 4 to 5 at a time don't crowd the pan.
8. Fry the balushahis till brown one side the slowly turn the other side and fry till golden both sides.
9. Remove from the oil and drain them on a kitchen towel.
10. Dip this fried balushahis in the sugar syrup remove immediately, din't leave them in the syrup for long time they become soft so remove immediately.
Garnish with chopped pistachios and serve.