Badam Halwa

Ingredients:
1 cup Almond
1 cup Sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
2 tbsp Ghee

Method:

Soak the almond over night or drop it in boiling water and the outer skin is peel right off the almond. Now add the 1/2 cup of milk 1 tsp at a time and grind into a coarse paste.

Now in a wide non-stick pan take the 1/2 cup of water and add the 1 cup of sugar. Mix until the sugar blends in. Now add the coarsely ground almond paste and keep stirring on medium heat(remember to keep stirring else the almond will burn).


When the almond has thickened enough that it looks like the picture below(almost the consistency of rava kesari), remove from heat and let it cool.

Serve as it is in bowls or make into bite size balls and Enjoy!!

Boondi Ladoo

Ingredients:

1 cup besan flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup water for sugar syrup
2 tbsp cashew nuts
1 tsp ghee
water for besan mix

Bring the sugar and water to boil and keep boiling it until the mixture forms a half thread consistency. Now mix the gram flour with water(this should be added 1 tbsp at a time) to make a smooth batter without any lumps. The batter consistency should be that of a dosa batter.

In a pan heat ghee and fry the cashew nuts till slightly brown. Remove and keep aside. I have used cashews, but raisins or almonds are also popularly added to the laddoo.

You will need a spoon which has holes in it, usually used in the Indian households during deep frying like the one shown below.

Heat oil in a deep bottom pan. When the oil is hot, hold the spoon on top of the oil and slowly add the batter into the oil to form little drops of boondi. Fry them until the sizzling sound stops and the boondis are slightly colored. Remove and put it directly into the sugar syrup.

Repeat making the boondi and dropping it into the sugar syrup until all the besan batter is finished.

Now add cardamom powder and fried cashews into the boondi sugar mix. Spread this mixture on a aluminum foil or a wide pan.

When its warm enough to handle by hand(Remember not to let them cool off completely because you'll not be able to form any shape with it at room temperature), make the mix into little balls and let the laddoo sit until it comes to room temperatur

Enjoy Boondi Ladoo and share with Family and Friends!!

Kasa Kasa Payasam

I crashed my laptop with all the photos in it. I also seemed to have misplaced the usb cord that connects the camera to the desktop computer and hence I'll be next few recipes with out photos. Will update photos when possible.

Ingredients:

1 cup Kasa Kasa (poppy seeds)
1/2 cup Jaggery
8-10 Almonds
1/2 cup grated coconut
1 tsp ghee
8-10 raisins
1/2 cup milk

Method:
Soak the Kasa Kasa with a little water for 30 mins. Soak Almond and grated coconut in the milk for 30 mins. Grind soaked poppy seeds with soaked almond and grated coconut along with the milk that was used for soaking.

In a deep bottomed pan add 1 cup of water and add jaggery. Allow it to dissolve well and if needed strain the jaggery water and then keep aside. In another deep bottomed pan heat the ghee and fry the raisins. Remove and add the ground poppy-almond-coconut mixture into the remaining ghee. Bring to boil and then add the jaggery water while stirring constantly.

Boil well and if needed add little milk. Stir the mixture constantly so that it does not boil over. When done add a little cardamom powder and add the fried raisin.

This payasam tastes best when served cold.

Homemade Rasmalai

Rasmalai

Happy Easter!!

Last weekend we celebrated Easter with my brothers family. They prepared mouth watering chicken wings on the barbecue which was moist and juicy, fish fry and our all time favorite of Mutton Biryani and Mutton curry from my sister-in-law. We took loads of nice pictures of all the food. Will post it soon.

When I was speaking to my sister-in-law last weekend I offered to bring in a homemade dessert. There were a couple of favorites like the Sorakai Halwa and Rasmalai. Finally I decided on the Rasmalai. Will make the Sorakai Halwa sometime and post the recipe.

Here we go:

Ingredients:
8 cups whole milk
2 tbsp lemon
4 cups of sugar
1/2 tsp powdered cardamom
7 pistachio chopped
7 almonds chopped
3 cups water
2 whole cardamom

Method:

Rasmalai is nothing but Rasgulla which soaked in reduced sweet milk flavored with cardamom (sort of like Rabri).

To make paneer for Rasgulla :

Boil 5 cups of milk in a deep bottomed clean pan. Once the milk starts to boil, pour in lemon juice slowly, stirring continually. Remove from heat and remove the water in the paneer. Wash paneer well in water and hang in a muslin cloth till the the water is completely drained.

  
To make Rasgulla :

Take the paneer which is completely drained of water and gently knead and mash the granules to make a smooth dough out of the paneer. Shape it into round ball and flatten slightly with the insides of the palm to form a oval/round shape. I was able to make 8 paneer balls.

In a pressure cooker add 3 cups of water, 2 cups of sugar, 2 whole cardamom and the shaped paneers. Cook for 2 whistles and remove from heat. Remove from the cooked rasgulla from the water and place in a bowl to cool.

To make Malai: 

Put 3 cups of milk into a heavy-based saucepan and stir constantly while bringing to the boil. Cook steadily and continue stirring until reduced to about 1.5 cups. Lower heat, add sugar and stir until sugar dissolves. Now add the powdered cardamom and nuts. Remove from heat and cool.

Finally the Rasmalai:

Remove the Rasgulla's from the water and gently squeeze out water by placing the Rasgulla between both your palms. Place this in the malai prepared in the above step. The Rasgulla is like a sponge and will absorb the malai. Place in the refrigerator for atleast 30 minutes before serving.

Serve chilled and enjoy!!

Aval Payasam

Ingredients:
1 cup Aval/Beaten rice/Rice flakes/Poha
3 cups Milk(whole milk preferable)
1 tbsp Ghee
1 cup Sugar
1/4 tsp Cardamom powder
5-6 whole Cashew
5-6 Raisin

Method:
In a deep bottomed pan heat the ghee and fry the Cashew and Raisin until light brown. Remove from the ghee and keep aside. In the remaining ghee in the pan, add the aval and fry for a few minutes. There is no need for the aval to turn brown. Just well coated with ghee.

Now add the milk to this and bring it to boil. Also add sugar. Keep stirring so that the milk does not boil and flow over.  Reduce the heat and keep cooking until the milk reduces to half of its original content and the aval/poha is cooked. Now sprinkle the cardamom powder and remove from heat.

Garnish with the fried cashew and raisins and serve. This can be eaten hot or chilled.

Note: If you feel the Payasam is too thick you can add milk to it. You can also add more sugar to it to make it sweeter.

Grape Sorbet

Its has never been a good idea to buy fruits and vegetables for just the 2 of us at a wholesale clubs like Costco that we go to couple of times a month. With just both of us to eat it never gets over and I hate throwing it to trash. Last week we bought a box of grapes and when I checked today, it was far from over. In fact more than half of it still remained and its just a matter of days when it will find its place in the comfort of trash.

So when I searched the internet for some good grape desserts I came across this Grape Sorbet recipe and wow, what a way to eat grapes!!

There are some changes I made from the original recipe like adding 2 tsp of Honey coz our grape wasn't sweet enough and it needed a little more sweetness. I also did not use grape juice using fresh grape instead.

Ingredients

2 cups red seedless grapes

1  envelope unflavored gelatin

2 tsp honey

1 cup water

1 mint sprig

Preparation

Wash the grapes and get the juice of the grapes using a juicer or a mixie. Add 1 cup water to this juice. You will now have 2 cups of grape juice.  Heat 1 cup of grape juice in a deep bottom pan and add the gelatin, 2 tsp honey and stir until the gelatin, honey mixes well. Remove from heat and mix with the 1 cup of cold juice.

Pour the juice into a container and freeze. When the mixture is firm, remove from freezer, break into pieces and place in a food processor; process several seconds or until fluffy but not thawed. Return to freezer, and freeze until firm.

Scoop sorbet into individual dessert dishes using an ice cream scoop. Decorate with Mint Sprig.