Nan Khatai

Nan Khatai: Indian Eggless Cookies!!!


Nan khatai is an egg-less light and crispy biscuit/cookie
Ingredients:

1/2 cup all purpose flour (plain flour or maida)
1/2 cup fine sooji or semolina
1/6 cup gram flour (besan)
Pinch of baking soda (a little less than 1/8 teaspoon)
1/4 teaspoon green cardamom seed coarsely powder (ilaichi)
1/2 cup unsalted butter
2/3 cup sugar

Method

1. Pre heat the oven to 250 degree.
2. In a bowl, mix the all-purpose flour, gram flour, sooji, baking soda and cardamom powder and set aside.
3. Let the butter come to the room temperature (butter should be soft not melted)
4. Add butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and beat for two to three minutes until light and fluffy.
5. Add the flour mix to butter and sugar mixture and knead them together to make smooth dough.
6. Divide the dough into about 20-24 equal parts and make them into balls.
7. Press each ball between your palms lightly; every piece should be about 3/4″ in thickness.
8. Put Nan khatai on a lightly greased cookie sheet and bake at 250 degrees for about 13 to 15 minutes.Then Broil them for only 1 min..so that u get the lil brown colour on them
10. After they are lightly golden brown remove the cookie sheet from the oven. Let the Nan Khatais cool down for two to three minutes before taking them off the cookie sheet.

Nan Khatai taste good when they are warm,though u can have them later by microwave them for 10 sec.

Shakar pare

ShakarPare: Indian Sweet!!


Ingredients
1 Cup All Purpose Flour
1 Cup clarified butter or ghee or cooking oil
Water to make dough
Oil for deep frying
2 cup sugar
2 cups water for the syrup



Method:

Place flour and ghee in a bowl and make a stiff dough by adding water slowly. With this amount of ghee, very little water is required. Knead it well. Keep it covered with a moist cloth for 10 minutes.
Break dough to make golf size balls.
Roll each ball, to a circle of 1/2 centimetre thickness. You may need to use a little oil to grease the surface and your rolling pin.
Using an knife or a pizza cutter, make diagonal, linear cuts all the way across the circle, roughly 2 cm. apart. Now make diagonal cuts in opposite direction. You will now have diamond or square shaped ‘pare' of approximately 1 1/2 cm. size each. Lift them off on to a plate, using a flat spatula. Keep covered with a moist cloth.
Heat oil in a wok or kadhai. It should not be smoking hot. The pastry should cook slowly or it will not get crisp. The best way to check if the oil is hot enough is to drop a small piece of dough into the wok. If it is ready, the pastry will sizzle and rise to the top slowly. Fry until light brown and crisp.
Repeat the same process until all the dough has been used. Allow to cool.
Make Sugar Syrup by boiling water and sugar in a wok, until you have a syrup of 3 wires. To check this, dip the spatula in the syrup, lift it out and touch with your forefinger, taking care not to burn your finger. Now touch the forefinger with the thumb and separate slowly. You should get 3 wires stretching between the finger & thumb.
Put all pastry diamonds or ‘pare’ in the syrup and stir/mix quickly, coating each and everyone of them with the syrup.
Take out and allow to cool on a tray or plate, making sure that they are not clumped together. If a few stick together, they can be separated when cold.
Cool and store in an airtight tin or box.
Serve with tea or coffee.

Tip:The syrup must be 3 wire consistency or the shakar-paras will get soggy.

Rasmalai!!!

Cheese Dumpling in Milk..Simple and easy to made...

Ingredients

1 can of rasgullas/rasmalai
1 can evaporated milk
2 tablespoons chopped pistachios
Pinch of cardamon powder
1/4 tsp crushed saffron
Sugar/rasgulla syrup

Method
1. Drain the sugar syrup from the rasgullas and set it aside.
2. In a Microwavable bowl add Milk,Sugar(acc to ur taste or u can use the rasgulla syrup too)and crushed Saffron
3. Put the milk in the microwave on HIGH for 3 minutes.
4. While the milk is heating, squeeze the rasgullas.Gently press them between ur palm and then put them in hot water.Let it be in hot water for 5-10 min
5. Dunk the rasgullas in the hot milk, along with powdered cardamoms.
6. Top with the nuts, and keep it in freeze for at least 1 hr and then Serve.

Kesar Kulfi Topped with Falooda!!

Kulfi or Qulfi is a popular flavoured frozen dessert found in the Indian subcontinent made with milk. In taste, texture and preparation, it shares commonalities with ice cream.
Unlike other ice-cream, kulfi takes a very long time to melt. It comes in various flavours, including pistachio, malai, mango, cardamom (elaichi), saffron (kesar), the more traditional flavours, as well as newer variations like apple, orange, peanut, and avocado.

Here i m With Kesar Kulfi!!



Ingredients:

Sweetened Condensed Milk - 14 oz
Evaporated Milk - 12 oz
Heavy Whipping Cream - 16 oz
Bread 2 pc
Saffron (Kesar) - 1 big pinch
Sugar - 1 tsp
Cashews, Pistachios, Almonds - 1/2 cup, coarsely ground
1 packet falooda sev
4 to 6 tablespoons rooafzah syrup (available in any Indian food store)
Chopped nuts, for garnish

Method:

With a mortar and pestal, grind together Sugar and Saffron.
In a large mixing bowl, combine Sweetened Condensed Milk, Evaporated Milk, Heavy Whipping Cream
Using an electric hand blender (or by hand), gently mix all ingredients together until frothy.
Cut the Brown sides of bread n sock in 2-3 tbs of milk.Mash it and add it to the Mixture
Add in Saffron and Sugar mixture and Nuts. Mix well.
Pour mixture into kulfi molds or u can use the simple ice tray covered it with aluminum foil
Freeze Kulfi for at least 4 - 6 hours, preferably overnight.

For Falooda:
Boil the noodles or falooda sev in water for about 15 minutes. Drain the water and Immediately transfer the noodles to an ice bath to cool.

To assemble:
Set out icecream bowl. To each, add kulfi ,a quarter of the noodles, 1 tablespoon rooafzah,(Rooafzah is very sweet, so you don't need any additional sugar.) Top off with 2 tbs of rabri and pour a little rooafzah along the sides. Garnish with chopped nuts.

Besan ke Ladoo

Laddoo can be made from many different ingredients, besan ones are probably the most popular and most commonly home-made laddoo in India. Besan is a flour made from small, black chick peas.




Ingredients

2 cup gram flour or besan (laddoo gram flour/besan is granular, not smooth, like the usual besan
1 Cup ghee
2 Cup castor sugar
Nuts Chopped(almonds, cashew nuts, pistachio-any or all) adjust to taste


Pocedure
1. Heat ghee in a heavy bottomed wok or kadhai.
2. Add gram flour or besan.
3. Fry on medium heat, stirring constantly, until besan changes colour to reddish brown and emits the roast aroma. Ghee also separates from the besan at this stage. Do not be in a hurry. Besan must be properly fry-roasted on medium fire.
4. Now add sugar and mix thoroughly.
5. Add Nuts and mix thoroughly.
6. Take the pan off the fire and let it cool, enough to be able handle the mix in your palms.
7. Take approximately 1-2 tbs. of the prepared mix in one hand.
8. Squeeze and roll it between the palm and fingers of that hand, to make it into small but firm ball. Squeezing is necessary to make the laddoo compact enough to hold together. Continue until all laddoos are made.
9. Place on a tray until completely cool.
10. Store in an air tight boxes.

Gond Burfi!!

One day while browsing the net i came across mamta kitchen whose recipes somehow give me the flavour of North India.I tried lots of recipe from her site.One of which is Gond Burfi,back in india my mom used to make it for us.I tried it with lil diff. version from the original.

Ingredients

50 gm. gond or edible gum resin. It is sold in Indian shops in 100 gm. packets
3-4 tbs. ghee or clarified butter for deep frying (you may need more if gum swells up a lot and absorbs it)
25 gm. makhana, dry roasted
25 gm. blanched and chopped almonds*
25 gm. blanched pistachio nuts*
1 cup desiccated coconut
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups water
A greased flat tray or plate (heat resistant)
A wire spatula or a fine slotted spatula, to lift gum out of the ghee. If you do not have this, a wire tea strainer can be used.

Procedure

Grease a flat tray. Keep aside. Make sure that the gum resin is dry and not sticky. Coarsely grind it by placing it between 2 layers of a tea towel and gently pounding with a rolling pin or a meat tenderiser. It should be of a thick, granular consistency, not powdered. Heat ghee in a wok or karahi. Make sure that the ghee is not too hot. Gum burns very quickly. Deep-fry gum resin on medium heat, stirring it up all the time, to ensure that every single piece is fried. It fluffs up to almost double the size very quickly, within seconds. Lift it out of the ghee quickly, as soon as it fluffs up. Otherwise, it will burn and get bitter. Keep aside to cool. Dry roast Makhana in a hot wok or karahi. Mix with almonds and pistachios , keep aside. Dry fry the coconut on medium heat, until coconut aroma rises and it turns very lightly brown. Keep aside on a plate. Boil the water and add sugar. Continue boiling (see instructions below) and make syrup of one wire consistency. Add gum resin/ nut mix and coconut to the syrup and stir quickly to mix everything well. Turn out on to the greased tray. Flatten with the back of the spoon. I do it with wetted fingers, but you have to be careful not to burn yourself. Allow to cool. Cut into square or diamond shapes using a sharp knife. Pizza cutter is good for this. Store in an airtight tin or box.

Making syrup

Measure the sugar and water in a clean pan. There should be no fat in the pan or syrup may not set. Boil on medium heat. Stir initially to dissolve the sugar but you do not need to stir it all the time. If any scum forms on the top, add a spoon of milk to the syrup. This will help to precipitate the dirt which you can lift out with a tea strainer. There are two signs of 1 string consistency: (1) When you lift a spoon out of the boiling syrup, the syrup falls in drops. (2) When a drop is stretched between two fingers, it makes a single wire. You must make sure that this stage is reached. Otherwise, your burfi will not set. Don't boil it further once this stage is reached, or your burfi will set too hard.

I am sending this as my entry for Paajaka Sweet Series:Chikki and laddu

Indian Style Cake!!

Hey Do u remember Britannia Fruit Cake in India..oh i just lovedd it.

here is similar cake recipe

Just try it out!!!

Ingredients:

1 cup of maida(128gram)
1 cup of Sugar

1 cup of oil
1 tbs custard powder
1 tea spoon of baking powder
four eggs

2-3 Drops of vanilla essence

Method:

Mix dry maida, baking powder, Sugar and custard powder thoroughly. Now broke eggs in blender/mixer,add one cup of oil and vanilla essence ,blend it for a minute. Now start the mixer on slow speed and add the dry mixture (maida, Sugar etc.) spoon by spoon and this way add the full dry mixture. Now pour the mixture in baking dish and bake this mixture in pre heated oven at 275 for 30-40 min. See through the transplant of oven that the cake is golden brown in colour. Close the oven and do cool the cake. Now cut into pieces and enjoy it with tea.