Gulab Jamuns

Going Traditional....

I have to confess...I like traditional sweets, But I am Very picky about where I have a particular Indian sweet from , My Kaju Katli Has to be from MM mithaiwala, my rossogulla has to be fresh and spongy, my carrot halwa has to be mom made and so on and on it goes...(people think i'm impossible, but thats just how i am).
When it comes to gulab jamuns, the traditional way of making gulab jamuns is by addind a little khoya or mawa to the dough, plus some people even add rose water to the syrup. but i don't like them if either of these ingredients are added, and i prefer the modern recipe for this traditional sweet , that is, making the dough with milk powder. 

Ingredients:

8 tbsp milk powder

3 tbsp maida

1 tsp ghee

1/4 tsp soda bicarbonate

milk - as per consistency

for syrup -

2 cups sugar

4 cups water 

Method:

mix milk powder, maida,ghee, and soda bicarbonate, add milk to make shaping consistency. make balls, make sure that the surface of the balls is smooth. fry the balls in ghee.

make sugar syrup, and add balls in warm syrup, cover and keep till the balls are softened.

Golden balls of perfection !!!

Seviyan barfii

Trial and Error..

Thats what comes to my mind whenever I think of this yummy dessert. One of my cousins once brought a box of these barfis to our house and one bite of it was enough for us to start guessing the recipe, so that we could recreate it later. And as soon as She got the time, My Mom along with her two helpers (me and my sister) tried cooking up a batch that would be similar to the orignal barfi that we had got.
What mummy concluded after tasting the crisp, n crunchy barfi was that, it had three main ingredients - seviyan, condensed milk and nuts.
The First batch - It was not at all the same, it stuck to our hands..and we couldn't even get out proper pieces.
Second Batch - we decided to increase the amount of vermicelli and roast the quite a lot and with a little ghee. But the result was still not perfect - it was still lacking in the crunchiness
TADAA.. THE THIRD BATCH - This one was perfect and it became a frequently mad edessert in our house, the only difference in this batch was that after spreading it on a tray, mummy put it in the oven for a bit to crisp up the top, and it turned out perfect....

Ingredients:
150 - 200 g seviyan (vermicelli)
1 can of sweetened condensed milk (400g)
2 tbsp ghee
100 g mixed nuts (almonds, pistachios, cashews or walnuts), you can toast the nuts a bit if you want.

Method:
Prepare a tray by lining with foil and grease with a little ghee.
Dry roast the vermicelli till a little fragrant. then add ghee and roast for a few minutes. the vermicelli should be golden brown and fragrant. add the condensed milk and chopped nuts. Mix till all of the vermicelli is coated with condensed milk.
transfer into lined tray immediately, and flatten with the backside of a bowl or the underside of a glass.
score with a knife into diamonds or squares.
bake the barfi in the oven for 10 - 15 minutes at 160 degrees Celsius. to crisp up  the top, and make it nice and crunchy. (you can skip this step if you like it softer)
Let cool and separate the pieces.

Perfect to carry as a gift for your friends and family

crisped to golden perfection

Coconut Barfi

When God gives you coconuts....Make coconut barfi..

well thats exactly what i did when there were like 8 coconuts lying in my kitchen. you see every few months we take down all the ready coconuts from the coconut tree in our society and they get distributed among all the flats. 

so we couldn't figure out what to do with so many coconuts. i thougt of coconut cake, coconut cookies, but finally zeroed in on a coconut barfi recipe as they are really tasty and pretty easy to make, as compared to other nut barfis.

I adapted this recipe to suit my taste, as i don't like very sweet desserts

Ingredients:

• Coconut,scraped - 4 cups
• Sugar 1- 1 1/2 cup
• Milk 3/4 cup
• Green cardamoms 2
• Saffron (kesar) a few strands (optional)
• Ghee 2 tablespoons
• Almonds

Method:

heat ghee in a pan and fry the almonds till fragnant, keep aside to cool.Mix sugar and milk well. Add scraped coconut and mix. Transfer the mixture into a pan and cook, stirring continuously with a spatula. Peel cardamoms and crush the seeds. Add crushed cardamom seeds to coconut. Mix well and add saffron. Mix again. Continue cooking for about ten minutes or till the mixture becomes a little dry and begins to leave the sides of the pan. Grease a tray with ghee. Pour the mixture into it and spread evenly. Cool and cut into pieces and top each piece with an almond. 

thats what you do with a lot of coconuts....

carrot halwa

If you are an Indian, You most probably love Gajar Halwa . evry Indian household has its own recipe of gajar(carrot) halwa, some add no milk, some add khoya, some add only milk, other condensed milk...the list will be endless. the carrots used are usually the red ones you get in winter, which are sweeter than the regular carrots, and it makes this a special winter treat. and you will find mother or grandmother making pots full of halwa in the winter to send to their children or grand children. b'coz lets face it moms love feeding their children and more so their grand children.
My moms recipe is one where she adds a lot of milk to the carrots, and the whole thing is then slow cooked for hours until the milk is completely reduced...time consuming .... yes... but also the best.

I had some left over short crust tart shells that i used to server them in.
the biscuit added a nice twist to it.
My very own Gajar halwa tarts.












Ingredients:

1 – 1½ kg carrots, peeled and grated
1 ½ - 2 L milk

250g sugar
50g cashews, coarsely chopped

50g almonds, coarsely chopped

50g pistachios, coarsely chopped

3 - 4 pcs green cardamom

3 tbsp ghee

Few strands of saffron

Method:

Start cooking the carrot on medium flame in a non-stick pan. Add 250 ml of milk at a time and cook till slightly reduced before adding more milk, until gradually all the milk has been added to the carrots. Also add the saffron, split cardamom and chopped nuts while cooking the carrots.

When the milk has been almost completely reduced, add the sugar and cook till dissolved. Keep cooking till halwa starts leaving the sides of the pan.

Add the ghee and cook for another 5 -8 minutes, while stirring continuesly.

Remove from heat and garnish with sliced nuts.