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.

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.

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,

Carrot Sondesh

Finally I am back after the longest break since I started this blog. We moved to a different house and to another city (in the same area though). The good news is that I have a bigger kitchen and more room to take better photographs. So hopefully I will makeup for the lost time.

Let me re-start blogging for something sweet to mark the occasion.

Ingredients

• 5-6 large carrots grated
• 1 cup freshly made chena (Cottage Cheese)
• 1 cup grated khoya (dried whole milk)
• 1/2 cup cashew powder
• 2 black cardamom crushed into powder
• 1 tsp. saffron soaked in warm milk
• 3/4 cup sugar (adjust according to your taste)
• 2tbsp. ghee (clarified Butter)
• Few chopped almonds,pistachio, saffron and silver leaves for garnishing

Procedure

Heat ghee in a nonstick pan till it melts. Add grated carrot and a spoon of sugar. Sauté on low heat for about five minutes. Turn off the heat and let it cool.

In a mixer grinder take carrot along with chena and khoya and make paste of them.

Transfer the content of the mixer into a non stick pan. Add cashew powder and sugar to it. Sauté on low heat till the mixture comes together and starts leaving the sides of the pan. Sprinkle black cardamom powder and saffron infused milk to it. Turn off the heat and immediately transfer it in a flat plate or tray.

Flatten the mixture with a knife and let it cool down completely. Carefully place the silver leaf on top and garnish it with slices of almond and pistachio. Sprinkle few dry saffron strands and cut them into your favorite shape.

You can store this sweet upto couple of days in the refrigerator.

Aamshotto Sondesh

When I made aamshotto one of the trays was over soon. I kept the other tray aside to make some Sondesh out of it. In Kolkata the typical way of making it is by placing layers of aamshotto in between sondesh. I decided to give it a twist, literally.

Ingredients

• 1 sheet of aamshotto or mango leather of 12”x5”
• 2 liter whole milk
• 1/4 cup vinegar diluted in water
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup fresh cream
• 1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
• 2 green cardamom’s seed

Procedure

I have already outlined the procedure of making mango leather or aamshotto in my post here. Either use that to make one or buy ready made slabs.

Heat milk in a heavy bottom pan. When it roll to a boil reduce heat and slowly add diluted vinegar or lime juice to it. You will see that the milk solid starts curdling. When the milk solids are separated from the transparent whey, drain it on a colander lined with a cheese cloth.

Bring the corners of the cheese cloth together and squeeze out water out of it. Tie the cheese cloth from your kitchen faucet from 10 minutes.

On a flat surface knead cheena with the heel of your hand till its smooth and lump free.

Now transfer the chenna in a non stick pan. Add sugar, condensed milk,fresh cream,and cardamom seeds to it. Mix well. Keep stirring on low heat till the mixture comes together and leaves the pan. Remove it from the pan and let it cool a bit so that its tolerable when you touch with hand. This mixture (Sondesh) will be kind of sticky.

Lay the sheet of aamshotto on a flat surface and then place the sondesh mixture on it. Spread it uniformly over aamshotto with a spatulla. Press it with your palm to set properly.Now start rolling the aamshotto from one end till you reach the other side. Secure it on a chopping board and slice with a wet serrated knife. Done with your aamshotto sondesh.

Rajbhog

Raj bhog is a two layered Bengali sweet with a khoya core and a rosogolla (rasgulla) type shell. The name literally means that it’s for the kings palate and is a desert worthy of the kings. If you put in the right effort you will be rewarded handsomely. If you can find an actual king to feed this to, you might even get a bag of gold coins. At least that’s the story I told my daughter. Here goes another recipe of Rajbhog from Chitrangada’s blog.

Ingredients

For The Outer Shell Of Rajbhog

• 2 liter full fat milk
• 1/4 cup white vinegar or juice of 1 large lime
• 1 tbsp. sooji (Semolina )
• 1 tbsp. all purpose flour (Maida)
• 1/2 tsp. saffron strands soaked in 1 tbsp. milk

For The Stuffing

• 4tbsp. grated khoya (unsweetened milk powder can also be used)
• 6-8 pistachio pods blanched
• 5-6 raw cashew
• 1/4 tsp. green cardamom powder

For Sugar Syrup

• 2 cups sugar
• 4+1 cup water
• 1/4 tsp. saffron strand
• 3-4 green cardamoms bruised

Procedure

Boil milk in a heavy bottom pan.Stir continuously to avoid any scalding at the bottom. As the milk comes to a rolling boil reduce the heat and slowly add vinegar or lime juice to it. Keep stirring till the milk curdles and you can see the transparent whey. Line a colander with cheese cloth and strain the curdled milk. Gently hold the colander under cold running water to wash off any residual acid.

Bring all the corners of the cheesecloth together and tie up the cheese cloth containing the solid curdled milk. Squeeze it with your hand to drain the excess whey out of it.

Transfer the cottage cheese to a flat tray and add semolina, flour and saffron milk to it and mix very well.

Knead the mixture with heel of your palm for 4-5 minutes to make a smooth lump free dough.

Divide the dough into 12 - 14 equal parts and roll them in between your wet hands to form balls. Cover these cheese balls with a wet kitchen towel to avoid any loss of moisture.

Dry grind cashew and pistachio into a fine powder and then mix them to the rest of the ingredients listed under Stuffing. 

Mix all the ingredients together to form a soft dough. 

Divide the stuffing into 12-14 equal parts and roll them in between your palms to make small balls.

Stuff each cheese balls with a stuffing at its center and make outer shell of cheese   smooth so that they don’t break during cooking. Cover them with a wet kitchen towel.

Make sure you are using a large enough container for sugar syrup to accommodate all the cheese balls as the cheese balls when cooked will swell up to 1.5 times of their original size.

In a deep sauce pan boil sugar with 4 cups of water. Keep one extra cup of water warm to make the boiling syrup thinner while cooking. Add green cardamom pods, saffron to the syrup and let the syrup boil. when the syrup comes to a rolling boil drop the cheese balls carefully. Reduce heat to medium and cook them covered.

Keep an eye so the syrup doesn’t start to thicken. Add ladle full of warm water(the extra one cup) in between to keep the consistency of the syrup right. It will take almost 30-40 minutes (Depending on the size of the cheese balls) for the cheese balls to get cooked.

After 30-40 minutes switch off heat and let the rajbhog cool down in the syrup for at least 5-6 hrs. Serve them cold or as I like warm them up in microwave for 20 seconds before you serve.

I don’t carry any nostalgia of Rajbhog since I don’t like sweets other than very few like Rasgulla and Mishti Doi. The lovely pictures of Rajbhog in Chitrangada’s blog literraly pushed me into making this. Here goes her recipe link.

Lemon Cake

One of our hiking tradition is to stop on the way at a Starbucks. Among other things we always pick up their lemon pound cake. On the hard hike up, we look forward to munch on those cakes high up in the mountains.

Cakes are in general heavy and is not something which I enjoy on hot days. However, I realized that I like the lemon cakes on the hot hikes because it has a refreshing flavor. So now in summer I generally favor baking these over other rich fruity cakes.

Ingredients

• 2 cups all purpose flour (maida)
• 1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1 cup white granulated sugar + 1/4 cup
• 4 large eggs at room temperature
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• Zest of 1 lemon (Grated yellow skin of firm and plump lemon)

Procedure

Preheat oven at 350F and place the rack at the center of the oven. Butter a 9” cake pan and then line it with a wax paper.

In a bowl beat butter and sugar with an electric hand blender until they are light and fluffy.

Beat in the vanilla extract. Now add eggs one at a time mixing well after each addition. Scrape down the sides and the bottom of the pan as needed.

In another bowl whisk together flour, baking powder and lemon zest. add the flour mixture in three batches alternating with lemon juice. Mix till you get a smooth batter.

Pour the batter in the prepared cake pan and bake for about 45 minutes. Insert a toothpick at the center and take it out. If it comes clean your cake is done. Let it cool and then invert it on a plate.

Grind 1/4th cup of sugar into a fine powder and sprinkle it through a strainer on top of the cake.

Its ready to be enjoyed with some nice light tea.

Home made Mango Ice cream

With time my notion of seasons have undergone drastic change. Today what I think of as a nice hot afternoon used to be chilly and drab a decade back. However whatever the notion of weather, that of food hasn’t changed much. Summer is finally here and I really wanted some nice cold mango ice-cream.

Ingredients

• 4 cups  whole milk
• 3 cups  heavy cream
• 2 cups sugar (Quantity could be adjusted depending on the sweetness of mango)
• 4 cups mango pulp (If you are using store bought mango pulp then don’t add sugar)
• 2 tbsp. cornstarch
• A bowl full of ice cold water with few ice cubes

Procedure

Take about 1/4 cup milk in a bowl and mix cornstarch in it. Blend it smooth with a spoon. Keep aside.

In a heavy bottom pan take the rest of the milk and cream and put on low flame. Stir till it simmers and then add sugar.

Mix the cornstarch mixture once again and pour in the milk – cream mixture. Keep stirring the milk till starts to thicken. Continue the process for few more minutes till you get the required consistency. Turn off the heat and place this vessel on a bigger bowl of ice cold water, like water bath. Gently whisk to cool it. If the water turns too hot change it once more.

When it comes back to the room temperature start adding mango pulp and keep mixing it. The milk needs to be at room temperature before adding mango pulp to avoid curdling.

Pour the content in a metal tray (like a cake tin) and cover tightly with a cling wrap. Keep it in the freezer. After every 2 hours take it out and using a hand beater beat it. Do it 5 – 6 times to break the ice crystals. Freeze for another 2 to 3 hours and serve with some fresh juicy mangoes on top.

Note:

I have read that adding few spoons of vodka reduces the formation of ice crystals and make the texture smooth. Since I made it mainly for the children I didn’t add it. If you are willing to try let me know how it went.