Mango Peda

 

 

This was the longest time I have not blogged since I started. My one and a half month long trip to India was the initial reason. After I returned Durga Puja kicked in, and with that started the season of house parties. Finally now that I have a little breather, I thought I’d post about the sweets I made for this Diwali. I love peda which is a sweet-dish made of condensed milk. I have been making them for some time. This is a little variation from the traditional milk peda in that I added mango pulps. Hope you like it.

Ingredients

• 2 cups mango pulp (I used readymade one, you can use fresh pulp as well)
• 1/4 cup sugar (If you are using fresh mango pulp)
• 1 cup milk powder
• 2 cups whole milk
• 1/3 can sweetened condensed milk (Approx. 100gms)
• 2 tbsp. saffron
• 1 tbsp. freshly ground cardamom powder
• 2 tbsp. ghee (Clarified butter)

For Garnishing

• Slivered almonds
• Chopped pistachios
• Saffron
• Seeds of black cardamom
• Warq (Silver paper)

Procedure

In a bowl mix milk powder along with milk. Whisk well so that the mixture is smooth and lump free.
If you are using fresh mango pulp follow this step. In a pan take mango pulp along with sugar and cook it on medium heat till the mixture turns thick. If you are using canned mango pulp skip this step.
In a heavy bottom pan take mango pulp (canned or the one you just cooked). Add the milk mixture to it along with the saffron strands. Mix well. Start cooking on medium heat while stirring continuously.
Once the mixture is reduced to its half add condensed milk along with a tbsp. ghee. Cook till the mixture turns into a dough and leaves the sides of the pan.Turn off the heat and sprinkle cardamom powder. Mix well and let it cool down completely.
Grease your palms with ghee. Take small portions of the dough and make small balls out of it. Flatten each of them by pressing slightly in between your palms.
Arrange them on a greased tray. Stick one black cardamom seed at the centre of each peda. Top with silver paper and garnish with almonds, pistachio and saffron.

Semiya Kheer

Eid Mubarak to all my friends celebrating Eid today. Hope you have been having your fill of Kheer or Payesh at the end of iftar parties. Here goes my recipe for Semiya Kheer that I like to serve as dessert at the end of a heavy traditional Bengali meal.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup vermicelli
• 5 cups whole milk
• 3-4 tbsp. mixed dry fruits (Cashew, Raisin, Pistachio)
• 1/4 tsp. cardamom Powder
• 1 tbsp. ghee
• Pinch of saffron

Procedure

In a heavy bottom pan take milk and let it come to a boil. Once it starts boiling lower the heat and keep stirring it till it reduces to about 3 cups.

In a non stick pan heat ghee till it melts. Add cashew and raisins to it and fry on low flame till the nuts take a golden brown color. Remove and set aside.

Add vermicelli to the same pan and roast it on medium flame with the remaining ghee until turns golden brown.

Add roasted vermicelli and half of the dry fruits to the reduced milk. Cook on medium heat until the vermicelli is cooked.

Add sugar to it. The milk will become thinner immediately after you add sugar. Keep it simmering till you get the previous consistency. Turn off the heat and add cardamom powder to it. Stir well.

I like my kheer hot directly from the stove. You can go ahead and chill it in refrigerator. Garnish with rest of the dry fruits and saffron.

Malai Chum - chum

This recipe took a long time to get published as I just didn’t get time over the holidays. A lot of friends has been asking me for it and finally it’s here. Sorry for the delay. I made this over Diwali for my Husband’s office Diwali get-together. Indian folks in his office were supposed to bring in a dish each, I decided to go with traditional Bengali sweets which is famous across India. I chose Malai chumchum as it is popular for its mild sweetness and silky soft texture.

Ingredients For Chaana

1. 8 cups whole milk
2. 1tsp. saffron
3. 1/2 cup vinegar diluted in 1/2 cup water

Ingredients For Sugar syrup

1. 4cups of sugar
2. 10 cups of water

Procedure Of Making Chaana

In a heavy bottom pan take the milk and bring it to a boil. Optionally you can use saffron in the milk to give the chum chum a rich color, or omit it for clear white chum chums. If you choose to use saffron you will see within few minutes it will start releasing its color. Once it starts boiling reduce the heat and slowly pour diluted vinegar to it while stirring the milk.

Soon the milk will start curdling. It means the milk solids will be separated from the watery whey.Now strain the milk mixture on a colander lined by a cheese cloth.

Rinse the milk solids with fresh running water to remove any residual acidity.

Wrap the cheesecloth around itself to squeeze out moisture from the chaana (paneer).

Now tie the muslin cloth from the faucet of your kitchen sink for 3-4hrs to drain out the last drop of whey.

Take chaana out of the cheese cloth and knead it with gentle pressure to make a soft dough.

Now take small balls out of it and roll them in elongated shape. Flatten each of them by putting them in between your palms. Keep them on a clean plate.

Take a wide sauce pan and dissolve sugar into the water. Bring it to a boil on high heat.

When it starts boiling reduce the heat to medium and allow the syrup to simmer for another 5 – 6 minutes.

Remove the lid and gently release chum chums in batches; into it. Chum chum will expand when it is cooked, so keep enough room for their expansion.

Cook them covered on medium heat for 15 minutes and then turn them over. Cook for another 5 minutes and then remove them with a slotted spoon.

Arrange them on a plate and allow them to cool in a refrigerator for 30 minutes.

By this time prepare malai for chum chums.

Ingredients for malai

1. 1 cup whole milk
2. 1 cup heavy cream
3. 2tsp. sugar
4. Crushed pistachio for garnishing
5. Optional saffron

Procedure of making Malai

In a heavy bottom pan mix together milk, heavy cream and sugar. Optionally add saffron. Now let it boil on medium heat. Stir continuously to avoid scalding.

Soon you will see it starts getting thick. Cook for some more time till it gets a spread like consistency.

Take out the chum chums from refrigerator and either using a flat knife or using pastry bag with malai filling spread the warm malai on the top surface of chum chums. Let it soak for a minute, then apply the 2nd layer. Sprinkle crushed pistachio and saffron over them to garnish.

Rum Ball

Each time we go home to Kolkata we make it a point to visit Nahoum’s in New Market. This store has been at this place from 1916. Rulers have come and gone, the country has changed it’s boundaries, cities have changed name around it, but Nahoum has stuck to it’s origins. My favorite at Nahoum is their rum-balls. It is an European delicacy that had reached the shores of Kolkata via the British. It is generally made in the bakery with the left over cake/cookie crumbs bound together with chocolate and flavored with rum. Rum-balls taste the best after a few days of making them when the taste of Rum matures.

It had been some time since I last sent some goodies with my husband for his team-mates. Generally I send some Bengali sweets like Rasgulla/Sondesh but this time I thought of making a fresh batch of Rum-ball. Even though the rum-ball has it’s roots in Europe, it takes me back to my roots in Kolkata.

Ingredients

• 500 gms. chocolate cake
• 100 ml. golden rum
• 4 tbsp. dark raisin
• 4 dried plums
• 4 candied cherry
• 10 roasted almonds broken roughly
• 3-4 tbsp. powdered sugar or honey
• 1 tbsp. cocoa powder ( plain or Dutch processed)
• 1/2 + 1 cups semi sweet cooking chocolate bar ( instead you can use 2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips)
• 1 cup white chocolate chips or white cooking chocolate
• 2 tbsp. unsalted butter

Procedure

If you are making chocolate cake don’t use it on the same day. Use after a day or two so that the cake becomes a bit dry.

Cut all dry fruits into tiny pieces and soak them in 30 ml. of rum.  Best if you can soak it overnight.

Cut cake into small pieces and put it in a blender. Give them a very quick pulse to make coarse crumbs. Put all the crumbs in a big mixing bowl.

Now take the soaked dry fruits in the blender and give a very quick run of a second or two to just crush them. Just make sure you do not process the nuts into a paste.

Add the crushed dry fruit mixture to it along with powdered sugar,cocoa powder and rum. mix thoroughly with a spoon.

Now take half a cup of semi sweet cooking chocolate or chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl and warm it up for 30 seconds. Give it a stir and heat it up for another 30 seconds. Take it out and mix it with a spoon. If it is already melted fine, else you can again heat it up for another 10 or 20 second. Remember to take it out and stir it every 30 seconds, else the chocolate will burn and become unusable.

Add the melted chocolate to the cake mixture little at a time and keep mixing. You will notice that after mixing the ingredients together, the batter is quite sticky. To prevent your hands from becoming a mess and to ease the process of making balls chill the mix for at least 30-45 minutes.

Cover the bowl with a cling wrap and let the mixture cool in the refrigerator for about 30- 45 minutes till it hardens a little.

Take it out and shape them into 1 inch balls with your hands. Place them on a cookie tray lined with butter paper.

Once you are done, then comes the glazing. Take 1 and 1/2 cup of dark chocolate and 1 tsp. of unsalted butter in a microwave safe bowl and heat them up for 30 seconds. Stir it and again heat it for another 30 seconds. Take it out and mix well to make a lump free chocolate glaze.

Dip each ball in the glaze of melted chocolate, making sure that the entire ball is coated with chocolate. Using a fork remove the ball from the glaze allowing any excess glaze to drip back in the bowl.

Place the glazed ball on the cookie tray lined with butter paper. when you are done place the tray in the refrigerator to allow the chocolate to harden.

By this time mix 1 tsp. of unsalted butter with white chocolate chips and make a white chocolate sauce following the same procedure as described before. Let it cool down a bit then pour it into a pastry bag. Cut a small hole in the corner and drizzle it over the rum balls.

Baked Rasgulla

One of my cousins is getting married soon. Like all big fat Bengali weddings the menu is being planned the first. Even though the wedding is close to an year away that’s what we are mostly discussing over trans-Atlantic calls. I am especially looking forward to the dessert which is baked rasgulla. Since it’s hard to wait that long I decided to make some for ourselves.

Baked rasgulla is rasgulla placed in thick reduced milk and baked to create a crunchy crust on a soft rasgulla base. This combination of soft smooth core and crunchy crust along with cardamom flavored milk is pretty amazing.

Ingredients

• 15 pieces rasgulla (Make your own or use canned)
• 1 cup fresh cream
• 2 cups milk (I used 2%)
• 1/2 cup milk powder
• 3- 4 tbsp. sugar
• 1 pod green cardamom crushed
• 6-8 pistachio blanched and chopped
• 5-6 almonds slivered

Procedure

Arrange rasgullas in a bowl and pour enough water to cover them all. Heat them up in microwave for 30 – 40 seconds. Drain the water. Take out each rasgulla and squeeze out syrup from them. We are removing the syrup so that the rasgulla can absorb the thickened milk.

In a heavy bottom pan take milk along with fresh cream. Add milk powder to it and mix well. Turn on the heat and keep stirring till it reduces to its one third. Now add sugar, and crushed cardamom to it. Let it simmer for one more minute. Turn off the heat and let it cool down. As it cools down the milk mixture will thicken further.

Pre heat the oven at 375F. Take an oven safe serving bowl and spoon a layer of milk mixture. Arrange the rasgullas on top of it. Add another layer of reduced milk on top. At the end sprinkle some chopped dry fruit.

Place the serving bowl on the top rack of your oven and bake it for about 15 – 20 minutes. When the top layer takes a brownish hue you know that baking is done.

Let it come down to room temperature before you serve.

Purir Goja

 

Updated with new photo

Vacation to a lot of Bongs meant visit to Puri, a beach city in the state of Orissa in India. For one of my maasi (aunts) vacation “always” meant visit to Puri. She used to go there every year for almost a decade. Even for me the first time I saw a sea was in Puri when I was 5 years old.

Once in Puri the evenings are generally spent on the beach of the Bay of Bengal. The mornings are scorching hot and hence people generally spend that in site-seeing in video-coaches (buses playing movies in a VCR). One of these must visits is the famous Jagannatha temple. People offer puja there and bring back prasad to Kolkata for their friends and families. The prasad is always the famous Puri’s Goja.

Goja is a crispy sweet. It is a kind of wheat and rice flour cracker dipped in sugar syrup. Making it is easy when you know the exact steps. Otherwise it is easy to mess up the layering process. It took me couple of attempts to get the perfect Goja.

Ingredients

1. 1/2 cup all purpose flour ( maida)
2. Rice flour: 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp
3. White oil (e.g. Sunflower or Cannola): 2 tbsp + oil for deep frying
4. 2 tbsp. ghee ( clarified butter)
5. 1 cup sugar
6. 1 cup water

Procedure

In a small bowl mix 2 tbsp of ghee and 2 tbsp of rice flour and keep aside for further use.

In a thick pan take water and sugar and boil on a medium heat till the sugar completely dissolves and the syrup reaches a medium thick or one string consistency. Keep the syrup warm. The consistency of the sugar syrup should be such that once they dry on the goja it should leave the goja glossy and not caked white.

Take equal portions of maida, rice flour and 2 tbsp of oil in a mixing bowl and mix them well. Knead the mixture into a stiff dough by gradually adding water to it. Keep it covered for half an hour. Knead it once more and you are all set to go.

Divide the dough into even number of portions (2,4,6,8) and roll out each portions into flat chapatti (roti) like discs. Take one chapatti and apply the rice flour and ghee mixture on one surface with the back of a spoon. Now take another rolled out chapatti and cover it. Start rolling up the joined chapattis starting  from one end to other.  Once you finish rolling up cut with a knife into equal sized portion. Take each of these portions and roll them flat by lightly pressing your rolling pin.

Here a step by step guide for you. Click on the images to see enlarged version.

		Goja Steps VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Heat oil in a pan and deep fry till both sides takes a golden brown hue. This is the time when the layers in the Goja will separate out. Remove and drain out the excess oil on a paper towel and dip them into the sugar syrup. Keep them for about 3-4 mins. Take out and serve hot or cold

Chingri Macher Malaikari (Prawn in cream of Coconut)

Updated: With new photos

This makes it into the top 10 dishes of most bongs. Evolved in Bangladesh this has close ties to it’s neighboring Thai and Malaysian food. This is easy to make in the US because of the easy availability of canned coconut milk. The sweet tastemakes it a favourite among children.

Ingredients

1. Prawns 10-12 cleaned and deveined
2. Coconut milk - 1 can
3. Onion 1 medium sized
4. Ginger 1"
5. Green chilies 5-6
6. Bay leaf / tejpatta - 2
7. Cinnamon stick - 2"
8. Green cardamom - 2
9. Clove - 4,5
10. Turmeric powder
11. Sugar
12. Salt
13. Ghee
14. Oil

Procedure

1. Make a fine paste of onion, ginger and two green chilies.
2. Wash the prawns and pat them dry. Mix them with salt and turmeric powder and keep aside.
3. Heat oil in a pan and fry the prawns till they are light golden in color. Remove and keep them aside.
4. In the same oil add bay leaf, whole cinnamon, cardamom and cloves. As soon as you get the fragrance of whole garam masala add little sugar followed by the paste you made before. The sugar will give the onion paste a nice brown color because of caramelization.
5. Fry the masala in low medium heat till it gets a nice golden brown color and the raw smell of onion and ginger is gone.
6. At this point add little turmeric powder to it.
7. Season it with salt and sugar.
8. Add a can of coconut milk and stir it. Check the sugar level at this point. The malaikari is generally on the sweeter side.
9. Cook the gravy till it thickens.
10. Add the fried prawns and continue cooking them till the sauce takes a creamy consistency.

Serve it with white rice or pulao.

Note: Don't overcook prawns. It makes them stiff.

Lemon Flavored Yogurt

My daughter was down with fever and whenever she is unwell she becomes a yogurtarian. So I decided to make something yoghurt based but still yummy and health for her. This lemon flavored yoghurt has no color, no chemical additive, 100% healthy and yet a very tasty dessert.

My husband decided to work from home that day and was so happy with the yoghurt that he right-away posted the pictures on Facebook. Generally when I write post it lands at the end of a queue and takes few weeks to appear on my blog. This is an exception as I bumped up the priority based on demand :)

Ingredients

• 4 cups yogurt OR 3 cups Greek yogurt
• 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 cup sugar ( Increase or decrease the amount depending on your taste)
• Zest of 2 lime
• A pinch of saffron
• Few mint leaves for decoration

Procedure

1. To make the thick yogurt place a strainer on a deep bowl and keep yogurt on the strainer. Keep this in an refrigerator overnight to get thick yogurt or chakka. By morning all excess water will be drained out. Make sure to keep in the refrigerator or else the yogurt will become too sour. Transfer the yogurt into a mixing bowl. If you are in hurry you can use Greek yogurt instead of plain one and you can start preparing right away.
2. In a pan take the lemon juice, sugar, saffron strands and heat it on low flame. Soon the mixture will start getting thick. Once it reaches to a jelly consistency add lemon zest to it and turn off the heat.
3. Pour half of the lemon mixture you just made in step 2 to the yogurt and mix well. This mixture should be lump free.
4. To the other half of the lemon mixture add few spoons of water and keep it on stove on the lowest heat. This will keep this mixture in pouring consistency by the time you are ready to garnish.
5. Take each serving bowl and fill half with lemon flavored yogurt. Pour few spoon of lemon juice mixture (from step 4) over it. Fill the rest with yogurt again and then top it off with another spoon of lemon juice mixture. Garnish with fresh mint leaves.
6. For those who love mint flavor here is another option. Finely chop few mint leaves and mix it with yogurt along with the lemon juice mixture.
7. Chill them in refrigerator before you serve,

Labanga Latika (Stuffed East-Indian Sweet with Clove)

 

My daughter serves me a huge list when I ask her what she wants to eat on her birthday. I land up making those all through her birthday month. One of the common requests which has stuck for the last couple of years is this Labanga Latika. I thought of posting some new pictures of the batch I made this time. Find it’s recipe in my older post  http://www.bongcook.com/2011/12/labanga-latika-lavang-latika.html

Moong Dal Barfi

In Hyderabad one of the few yet excellent late night dinner option was the Midnight Biryani Buffet in Ohri’s Banjara. They used to have this insane buffet in which 4-5 different kinds of biryani and other stuff fit for the Nizam were served. Even though everyone went for the Biryani, my little secret is  that I ate the buffet only when I saw the Moon Dal Barfi in it. I am sure they used more Ghee in the Barfi than the Biryani. Now a continent apart, I make (or atleast attempt making) the Barfi at home.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup yellow moong dal
• 1/2 – 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup raw cashew powder
• 1/2 cup grated khoya
• 1/2 tsp. green cardamom powder
• 4 tbsp. ghee ( Clarified butter )
• 1 tsp. saffron strands
• 1/4 cup warm milk
• Silver leaves for garnishing

Procedure

Soak saffron strands in 1/4 cup of warm milk and keep aside for later use.

In a pan dry roast yellow moong dal till they turn light golden brown. Remove and wash them thoroughly. Now boil the roasted moong dal with half cup water. You can pressure cook it. In that case boil till one whistle comes.

When the pressure is released discard the excess water and let the dal cool down. In a food processor make a coarse paste of boiled dal.

Take a non stick pan and add ghee to it. As soon as it starts melting, add dal paste to it. One by one add sugar, khoya, cashew powder and saffron infused milk. Mix it thoroughly on low flame. Keep stirring continulously till the mixture comes together and leaves the sides of the pan. By this time the mixture will turn brownish. Turn off the heat and sprinkle cardamom powder.

Take a flat tray or plate and grease it with half spoon of ghee. Pour the mixture and smoothen all the surfaces giving it a rectangular shape. Cut into squares with a clean sharp knife. Its better to clean the blade of the knife after each cut. Allow it to cool completely. Garnish with silver leaves and dry fruits of your choice.

Pati-Shapta

Today folks back home in Kolkata is celebrating Makar Sankranti a festival of harvest. The houses fill with the smell of guur (jaggery), fresh grated coconuts and rice. They also contend it is very cold there (ahem 55F is not cold it’s summer temp). I wanted to recreate the same magic and made some pithes. Among all the varieties I make this is our families favorite. I had posted the recipe before, but let me consolidate it here with better pictures and video steps.

Ingredients For Filling / Pur

• 1 lb. grated coconut
• 1 lb. khoya/concentrated milk solids (an alternative to khoya is a cup of milk powder)
• 3/4th cup khejur gur (date palm jaggery)

Procedure Of making Pur

In a large mixing bowl mix all the above ingredients thoroughly and check the sweetness. Adjust according to your taste. In a pan, cook the coconut mixture on a low flame till the mixture comes together and leaves the sides of the pan. You need to stir continuously to avoid the mixture from sticking to the base of the pan. Allow the mixture to cool down. Your filling is ready to use.

Ingredients For Crêpe

• 2 cups Maida / all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup semolina
• 1/2 cup rice flour
• 2,3 tbsp. of powdered sugar
• 3-4 cups of cold milk
• Ghee (clarified butter) for later use during frying

Make The Batter

Mix all dry ingredients together and slowly add milk to make an uniform batter. Mix well and make sure that no lump is formed. The batter will be little thinner than pancake batter.

Getting it all together

Heat a non-stick skillet or tawa and evenly spread a teaspoon of ghee/clarified butter. Sprinkle some water over it and when the water starts to sizzle, wipe off the ghee with a kitchen towel. You need to repeat this step before making each patishapta but use just few drops of ghee instead of a spoon full.

Pour a ladle full of batter on the tawa and with the back of the ladle spread it in a circle like making dosa. Cook it on low flame for 2-3 minutes. Put a spoon full of filling on one side and then roll it like a crepe. Step by step guide is below, click to enlarge.

 

You can have it, as it is, or spread 1 or 2 spoon of sweet condensed milk or liquid jaggery over it. Serve it hot.

Dudh Puli

 

Makar (Poush) Sankranti is just around the corner. This is when pithe is made in Bong homes. This weekend we had decided to stay at home and just relax. So I took the opportunity to make a variety of pithe. Since last time I received some feedback that the steps seemed complex, I recorded a video. Hope you enjoy that. Also I have decided to make videos for recipes which have nuances around how they are made. I am still working out the quirks so my first attempt has a bit of jaundice (see the video you will get it). My tech-support tells me it’s something to do with bad white balance, but trust me, we will get this right the next time around. Check out the video below, the detailed steps and process follows in this blog.

 

Ingredients For Shell

• 2 cups rice flour
• 2 tbsp. sugar
• 2 tsp. ghee (Clarified Butter)
• 4 cups water

Ingredients For Stuffing

• 1 cup grated coconut (Fresh or Frozen)
• 1/2 cup fresh cream
• 4 tbsp. milk powder
• 4 tbsp. date palm jaggery

1. 6 cups full cream milk for cooking pulis
2. !/2 cup date palm jaggery

How To Prepare Stuffing

Take all the ingredients listed under stuffing in a pan.

Heat the mixture in a pan. Cook it on low flame till everything comes together and leaves the sides of the pan. Remove and allow it to cool. Your stuffing for puli is ready.

How To Prepare The Shell

In a pan take water along with sugar and ghee. Put on the heat and let it come to a boil. When the water starts boiling add rice flour slowly and keep mixing. Once you have added the entire rice flour keep stirring till the mixture turn into a dough. Cover the pan and turn the heat to its lowest mark. Allow the dough to sit for 2-3 minutes.

let the dough cool down a bit. When it is safe to handle take a lemon sized ball from it and roll it with very gentle pressure into a disc of 1.5 inch diameter. You can use regular dry all purpose flour to roll them.

Put a tea spoon full of coconut mixture at the center of the disc. Apply water at the edges. Fold the two edges and give it a shape of half moon. Press them tightly so that  they don't open while boiling. This is called the puli.

Take 6 cups of milk in a heavy bottom pan. Boil it on high heat while stirring continuously.Cook till t reduces to its half. Now add jaggery to it and mix well. Wait till it again comes to a boil. Gently slide each stuffed puli into the milk. Let them get cooked in the milk for 2-3 minutes. turn off the heat and allow them to cool before you serve.

Christmas Fruit Cake

One of my friends invited me to her home for Christmas and I planned to bake a cake for everyone. I generally make Christmas cake by soaking dry fruits in Rum. Since there were a few kids around I decided to make the cake alcohol free. Also this recipe doesn't need you to soak the dry fruits in advance and therefore doesn’t need prior planning. Bake it, when you need it!

Ingredients

• 1 and 1/2 cup roughly chopped dry fruits (plum, black raisins, apricot, cherries, orange zest, almonds)
• 250 ml. of orange juice
• 250 ml. apple juice
• 3 tsp. rum flavor
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 and 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 100 gm. butter at room temperature
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. spice powder ( 1 tiny piece of cinnamon, 2 cloves and 1tiny piece nutmeg ground to a fine powder)

Procedure

In a sauce pan mix half of orange and apple juice and stir well. Add chopped dry fruit mixture to it and simmer them in a low flame till all the juices are dried up. Turn off the heat and allow it to cool. Now add 1tsp. of rum flavor to it and mix well.

Take out two table-spoons of fruit mixture and smear them with a spoon of dry all purpose flour.

In a separate bowl sift  all dry ingredients ( flour, baking powder and spice powder) together.

Now in a big mixing bowl cream butter with sugar till fluffy. Now add egg one by one and continue to beat until completely integrated. Pour the rest of the apple juice and 1 tsp. rum flavor to it and mix once again. Now add dry flour and dry fruit mixture to this batter and gently fold into it.

Grease a 10 inch nonstick loaf pan and spoon the cake mixture. Sprinkle the dry fruits that you have separated out on top.

Bake it for an hour in a preheated oven at 375F.

Remove cake from oven and place on cooling rack. In a cup mix rest of the orange juice with 1 tsp. rum flavor. Baste the top with this mixture and allow to cool completely before you turn it over. 

Store the cake in an airtight container or eat fresh.