gudamma or gudamba, a dessert recipe with raw mangoes

Mangoes are celebrated in several ways in India. While the ripe mangoes are made into countless number of desserts and even some curries the raw mangoes keep tingling the taste buds with aam ka achar and relishes like kuchla, chhunda, aam ka khatta meetha achar and aam panna etc etc.

Apart from all these uses of raw mangoes, the most uncommon use is in a halwa like dish called as gudamma that my grandmother used to love so much that she would make a small batch almost every week during summers. The consistency is like lapsi or smooth oats porridge, I think technically gudamma is a raw mango lapsi and nothing else.

Gudamma or gudamba is difficult to categorize into a dessert or something else, as I never saw it being served as a dessert. Gudamma was always a part of the thali, served along with the dal and subzi and one used to keep having it in between. It was one of the best palate cleansers if you ask me. I saw my grandmother (dadi) having it like a warm comforting snack sometimes.

The most disturbing thing with gudamma is that I never saw it being made into other homes and always thought that it was something my grandmother had invented to satisfy her sweet cravings at a ripe age of 90, when her digestion was not so good and she couldn't eat much halwa, from the time I remember this dish. My dadi went on to live for another 12-15 years after that and gudamma was lost into the deeper folds of memory, till I discovered a gudamba recipe in the book Cooking Delights of The Maharajas by Digvijaya Singh of Sailana.

Gudamba was made using semolina in the Sailana kitchen while my grandmother would make it with regular whole wheat flour, recipe simpler, not sure whether it was to make a short cut to the recipe which was unlikely knowing her zeal for cooking but I do remember my mother's disdain towards gudamma as she considered it to be worthless. My mother loved atte ka halwa loaded with ghee and loathed anything like lapsi. Lapsi was a term used to describe badly cooked food, devoid of all texture or taste.

Dadi would always make lapsi alone in the kitchen, I remember peeking into the pan sometimes and getting a ladleful of gudamma to taste, it was not something the others would relish understandably. I didn't care much about the dish but the taste was never forgotten, possibly because dadi was so adorable always.

I tried recreating gudamma a few times last year and even before that but somehow the taste was not the same as my dadi would make. Then I realised I was using much less sugar while my dadi was a sugar junkie, she used to keep Poppins (flavoured candies) in her pocket back then.

Gudamma is an acquired taste for many, I like it in small doses at a time but can keep on getting second helpings. Gudamma grows on you.

ingredients
(2-3 servings)
1 large raw mango, peeled and cubed or sliced the way you like
3 tbsp whole wheat flour
1 tbsp ghee for cooking and 1 tsp ghee for serving
4-5 tbsp sugar or jaggery, taste and add more if required
1 cup water 

procedure

Heat ghee in a kadhai and tip in the mango pieces. Shallow fry briefly and add the flour. Lower the flame and roast the flour along with the mango pieces till the flour turns brown and aromatic. This needs a little patience so keep calm and stir continuously.

Add sugar once the flour is aromatic and brown, mix and add water, stir vigorously to make a homogeneous lapsi or porridge. Add little more water if it gets thicker than porridge. Stir for a mnute and it is ready to serve.

Pour in serving bowls and top with ghee. The subtly flavored sweet and tart gudamma or gudamba can be served with a topping of coconut cream or fresh cream too.

I am sure you will find more ways to serve gudamba if you like it. 

recipe of shakarkandi ki kheer : a rich creamy dessert with taste of roasted sweet potatoes

Shakarkandi (sweet potato) ki kheer is a recipe I don't cook much but whenever I do I make it a point to do it the way I like. Yes I don't eat desserts much but if a dessert has some character that has imprinted in my mind I keep reviving my memories at least every few years if not every season.

In the case of shakarkandi ki kheer it is the roasted flavour of the shakarkandi that I love and I found a trick many years ago to bring the roasted flavour to the kheer. It is simple and yet makes a world of difference from the regular shakarkandi ki kheer.

The shakarkandi ka halwa is not my favourite but shakarkandi ke roth I love since childhood. This kheer made of shakarkandi has been much preferred over shakarkandi wali rabdi which is a lighter rabdi, although I don't make desserts everyday. Sweet potato hash browns are my type.

Also I prefer desserts that don't use much sugar or use a bit of jaggery and preferably made with sweet fruits or sweet potatoes as in this case. If you reduce milk slowly the subtle sweetness is enough along with the natural sweetness of sweet potatoes in this shakarkandi ki kheer.

I suggest you try this recipe without using any sugar and see how the rich multilayered natural sweetness of the ingredients shines through in the absence of sugar. If we add sugar it overpowers the subtle sweetness of milk and sweet potato combined. If you feel like adding sugar you can always keep some thick syrup ready to be added in the last moment. I bet you wont need that if you really like the roasted flavour of the sweet potatoes..

ingredients 
(2-3 servings, depending on portion size)

one medium sized sweet potato (about 150 gm)
500 ml milk (full fat, I used 7% fat)
some chopped nuts for garnish

procedure 

Simmer the milk in a thick base pan till it reduces to about 200 ml.

Meanwhile, peel the sweet potato using the thin side of the grater. Place the grated sweet potatoes in another thick base pan, sprinkle with 1 tbsp water, cover and cook on very low heat for about 7-8 minutes or till you get a roasted sweet potato aroma.

You will find the grated sweet potato sticking to the bottom of pan and getting reddish brown, that is a desirable step of the recipe as it brings in the much desired flavour. This is the trick to get that roasted sweet potato flavour in the kheer, let it stick to the bottom of the pan in a controlled way and see how it makes a difference.

Take care to use a really small pan for such a small quantity as a large pan may alter the cooking time. Using cast iron or anodised Aluminium pan works better.

By the time the sweet potatoes are cooked and aromatic the milk will be reduced suitably, add the cooked sweet potato to the reduce milk and let it simmer for a couple of minutes together or till you get a desired consistency.

Chill and serve with chopped nuts on top. You will not need any sweetener in this recipe I promise.

Do let me know when you make this shakarkandi ki kheer, and whether you liked it.

I have seen even kids loving it without realising it is a dessert without sugar. The roasted flavour of the sweet potato is a great help in bringing out the natural sweetness of the ingredients.

Caramelisation of the natural sugars in food they say.

how to make gulkand or rose petal jam and a recipe of gulkand phirni, a light and aromatic Indian dessert

I know you might not be drawn to the thought of rose petal jam or gulkand phirni, unless you have experienced otherwise.

Rose is a tricky aroma when used in foods I always used to think. I never liked it whenever I tried it in my childhood and was put off Rose scented foods, drinks and desserts. It was when I started growing the heirloom variety of roses that I was tempted to use them again in my food and I understood what was the reason of my hatred towards all things rosy, at least in food.

The reason is, that most (read almost all) rose scented drinks and desserts are made from synthetic essence of rose and hence makes one averse to this aroma. If you have ever had experienced a real rose water like we get from IHBT Palampur, you would know what the real thing is and different varieties of roses yield different bouquet of aromatics.

Once you grow the real aromatic roses you would know even better. These flowers are small in size, get even smaller when the garden is mostly shaded, but the aroma is unmistakable. This Rose petal jam (Gulkand) phirni is a testimony to the real flavour. 

I made this gulkand phirni when a few friends came visiting recently and I wanted something that cooks fast and takes lesser effort as my hands and fingers have really stiff joints right now due to a recent Chikunguniya infection. This gulkand phirni came to rescue.

Recipe of Gulkand Phirni
______________________________________

ingredients 
(6-8 portions)
1 liter whole milk
2 tbsp sugar (as per taste, I keep it very lightly sweetened, gulkand is sweet too) 
200 ml light cream
2.5 tbsp rice powder (or make a paste of 2 tbsp fragrant rice with 3-4 tbsp milk or water)
3-4 tbsp gulkand or rose petal jam (homemade or the best you can get)
1 tbsp real rose water 
few rose petals for garnish

procedure 

Reserve 100 ml milk and mix the cream and rest of the milk in a thick base pan and simmer. Add sugar and let it dissolve.Keep simmering till the volume reduces by about 20%. keep the flame low at all times.

Make a slurry with the reserved milk and rice powder, whisking it nicely.

Take a whisk in the right hand and pour the rice slurry into the simmering milk using your left hand. Keep whisking the mix all this while. The simmering milk and cream mix starts getting thicker like a custard and a few fat bubbles burst at the surface. The whisk starts getting coated too at the same time and this is a sign the phirni is cooked. It takes about 3-5 minutes depending on the heat. 

Take the phirni off the stove, add rose water and gulkand. Whisk again to mix.

Pour into serving bowls or glasses. It is best served in earthen pots but any bowls are okay as long as the phirni gets chilled and set. .

Chill before serving as I mentioned, garnished with rose petals and a little gulkand. The phirni should set like a soft grainy custard. The creaminess comes from the rice starch and the light cream used in the recipe and glukand provides the flavour base. 

How to make Gulkand? 
_____________________________

There are only 2 ingredients needed to make Gulkand. 

Rose petals and sugar. 

The quantity of rose petals and sugar is equal by weight so sugar helps preserve the rose petals along with their essential oils.

We need the heirloom (desi) variety of rose known as Damask rose. This variety has very soft delicate petals and a lingering fragrance. The flowers can be multi-whorled or single whorled depending on where they are growing, pruning pattern, sun exposure and climate.

In the states of Uttarakhand and lower Himalayas the Damask rose grows wild by the roadsides and comes in huge bunches. The rosehips from those roses are the best.

Deep pink variety of Damask rose is preferred over the light pink rose to make Gulkand or rose petal jam.

Once you have the roses, better get them from a chemical free source, I collected them over a week when my garden was benevolent a couple of years ago, just separate the petals and rinse them lightly under running water. Spread the petals over a muslin cloth in shade so the water evaporates.

The older method warrants crushing of rose petals in mortar and pestle slowly but I use a mixie blender whenever I have a good quantity of rose petals to preserve. It takes just a couple of seconds for a batch and the mixture doesn't get heated. Heating the mix would result in the loss of the aroma.

To make fresh gulkand from a couple of roses within a day I just crush them along with sugar, keep in a glass jar and expose to sun for a day. 

Here is how it looks when rose petals and sugar are crushed lightly in a mixie blender. You can use a food processor and even a chopper.

 
After crushing them together coarsely, just transfer to a sterile (clean and dry) glass jar with a tight fitting lid and keep indoors at room temperature, away from sun to preserve the colour.

The gulkand stays well for years but the colour gets darker as you can see from the pictures of freshly made gulkand above and the 2 year old batch in the picture with Gulkand phirni.

And don't worry about the high sugar content of gulkand. It is never used as a jam spread but always as a rose flavour to be added to desserts so the sugar gets balanced.

Damask roses traveled from Persia to Europe, the name of the rose comes from Damascus Syria. I am not sure how these roses came to India but now they are called as Indian desi gulab. It might have come to India via older trade routes as there has been a considerable exchange of such commodities between the middle east and India.

I will update this post if I get any information about how Damask roses came to India. Please share if you know anything about that.

Till then, make some Gulkand whenever you get a few Damask roses or desi gulab. You will be hooked to make this rose petal jam that doesn't need any cooking.

And the gulkand phirni will be a preferred dessert at home I must tell you. The real ingredients have the taste, the chemical essences just fool our senses and sometime kill them too. Please don't let that happen. 

khas khas ka halwa | recipe of poppy seeds halwa

Khas khas or Poppy seeds is also called as Posta dana in UP and Posto in Bengal. Khas khas ka halwa or Posta dana ka halwa used to be a much loved halwa in my growing up years. I had been planning for this recipe of khas khas halwa to be shared on Banaras ka Khana for ever but somehow I could not take pictures whenever I made it.

And then I made it in such huge amounts that I was feeling guilty for not sharing khas khas ka halwa recipe on my blog. Last month I curated a Banaras ka Khana festival at The Oberoi Gurgaon and a 37 course Banarasi meal was served at their all day dining restaurant Three Sixty One for 9 days. We cooked a lot of Banaras recipes from this blog but whenever I had to tell the Chefs at the hotel about the recipe of khas khas ka halwa which is very simple incidentally, I felt guilty I haven't yet shared it on the blog.

We actually cooked poppy seeds halwa several times during the Banaras ka Khana festival at The Oberoi Gurgaon. Each time the quantity would be about 5 kilos as we would start with 2 kilo dry poppy seeds that will be made into a fine paste using a huge stone grinder that the Oberoi kitchen has. I cooked it myself most of the times but Chef Santosh did a fabulous job with it too. I wish I had the recipe on the blog as I used to show the pictures for reference for other recipes like Besan ki Katli, Turai pyaz ki subzi, Matar ka Nimona, Khoya Matar Makhana ki subzi and Hare chane ki burfi, Kamlagatte ka halwa etc.

While cooking the khas khas ka halwa several times in the hotel kitchen I resolved to post the recipe first thing on Banaras ka Khana blog after my return, and here it is. The recipe is simple as most Banaras recipes are.

Khas khas ka halwa recipe uses only 3 ingredients, that is ghee, poppy seeds and sugar. We don't add any milk or nuts or even cardamom because we love the natural flavor of khas khas so much we don't want to mask it with anything.

ingredients 
(for 6-10 servings depending on how much you love poppy seeds halwa)

200 gm poppy seeds
60 gm ghee (or 2 level tbsp)
100 gm sugar

procedure 

Do not soak the poppy seeds for this recipe. Soaking works if you plan to grind the poppy seeds on silbatta (flat stone mortar and pestle) but if you are planning to grind and make a paste in a mixie jar it is better to grind it dry for a few seconds and then add little water to make a fine paste.

Grind the poppy seeds dry till it starts making a loose lump, then add about 100 ml water and make a fine milky paste.

Heat the ghee in a large thick base kadhai and pour the poppy paste in it.

The paste starts coagulating at the bottom, keep scraping and stirring while you bhuno the poppy paste for about 10 minutes on medium low flame. The paste keeps getting thicker and changes colour and finally looks like a scramble.

Note that the poppy paste doesn't need to be browned. It just needs to change colour a little but it should still be moist.

Add the sugar and stir slowly to dissolve the sugar. After about 5 minutes of cooking the sugar dissolves and the halwa becomes homogeneous. It is ready to be served.

Serve this poppy seeds halwa a little warm, sprinkled with chopped pistachio. You actually don't need any garnish for this khas khas ka halwa trust me.

It looks a lot like sooji ka halwa but the similarity ends there. The aroma and the taste is so unique that it arrests your senses with its mild sweetness and robust nutty taste.

Some people add milk or khoya to the khas khas ka halwa but that dilutes the taste of khas khas in it. This is the family recipe of mine and we have made it like this forever.

Some people say poppy seeds halwa makes you sleep better and swear by it but it has never made me sleep. You can find out for yourself if you want to test the sleep inducing quality of poppy seeds.

In fact my maternal grandfather's family was into poppy farming during British times and they used to supply the alkaloid from the plant to the largest Opium factory in the world at Ghazipur which is a part of Banaras Division. Poppy seeds were a by product of the crop and were much prized for the nutty taste and richness they provided to the currys, halwas and even chutneys. Poppy seeds were used extensively in Thandai, Mithais, curries and some deep fried snacks like gulgule, malpua, anarsa etc.

This khas khas ka halwa remains my all time favourite poppy seeds recipe. Of course I like the poppy seeds chutney too and that is another recipe that needs to be shared here on the blog. Some recipes are so simple and commonplace we don't really value them enough. Each summer I make loads of poppy seeds chutney and yet it is not here on the blog. Just like this poppy seeds halwa that was more of a winter staple back home.

Kali gajar ka halwa | black carrot halwa

There are very few places in Uttar Pradesh where you still get kali gajar ka halwa. One of those places is the Moti Mahal (restaurant and chaat place) in Hazrat Ganj Lucknow where you get kali gajar ka halwa during winters along with decent malaiyyo, kesar pista doodh and an assortment of other halwas. You can get about a dozen variants of halwa at Moti Mahal, made of lentils, nuts, seeds and carrots of different types. Unfortunately I haven't come across kali gajar ka halwa in Banaras yet.

But I will tell you about Ghazipur, a small town some 75 Km from Banaras which is my maternal grandparents home town. It has been about 2 decades since I went there but we used to go to Ghazipur every summer vacation for at least 2 weeks (back in late 70s and 80s) and I have some great food memories from those days. We visited Ghazipur a few times in winters too when my maternal grandfather was terminally ill and that is the time my memory of kali gajar ka halwa dates back to.

There was this halwai family who used to make all types of murabbas and halwas apart from the regular dry mithais which used to be sent to other parts of the state as much I remember. This was a wealthy halwai family who was in this trade for a few generations, we knew in detail because one of the daughters was my mother's classmate.

So someone was sent to buy kali gajar ka halwa to their workshop and the person came back empty handed saying they haven't made kali gajar ka halwa this season. Everyone in the family was crestfallen and unanimously blamed the family for this act of 'cheating' their customers. The disappointment was grave.

The imminent expectation of the kali gajar ka halwa treat and then the disappointment somehow got imprinted in my mind and every time I would taste a well made kali gajar ka halwa later this incident will replay in my head.

Note that black carrots are quite distinct in their flavour and the halwa recipe needs a little fine tuning if you have been making red carrot halwa all your life.

I tried making it myself a few times, failed a few times and finally learnt how to keep this halwa sweet and pleasant, not causing the milk to get the flavour of the black carrots that makes the halwa weird tasting in my opinion.

While I like the milk to be cooked slowly along with grated red carrots to make my kind of great gajar ka halwa, where the milk gets all the colour and flavours of the red carrots making it sweeter and pleasant. Red carrots are sweet in taste while black carrots, owing to the rich flavonoids and dark coloured pigments, are a little astringent in taste.

So when grated black carrot is cooked with milk slowly for long duration it (the pigments) masks the sweetness of reduced milk and also make it a wee bit astringent which is not a pleasant attribute of a halwa.

So what to do when making kali gajar ka halwa?

Not to worry much, the recipe is still simple you just change the timings of the addition of different ingredients. Also, note that keeping the kali gajar ka halwa a bit rich on ghee helps in absorption of all the pigment goodness (read fat soluble vitamins) so go make this halwa rich and delicious.

ingredients

1 kilo cleaned peeled and grated black carrots
1 Liter whole milk reduced to make about 200 gm thick evaporated milk (almost like thick rabdi)
300 gm sugar (I use 200 gm)
50-60 gm (2 tbsp) ghee or a little more
chopped nuts for garnish as per choice

almond meal about 100 gm per kilo carrots if you want to make it a tonic breakfast dish

procedure 

Take a thick base kadhai or pan wide enough to accommodate all the grated carrots and still be convenient enough to stir easily. Heat it over gas stove and smear it generously with the ghee.

Now add all the grated black carrots, keeping the heat high and stir vigorousely for 5 minutes or till the grated carrots wilt a little. Now switch the heat to be medium low and start stirring it every couple of minutes. This will enable the carrots to get a little seared and that somehow locks the flavours in.

You can reduce the milk on the other side simultaneously.

Once the grated black carrot reduces in volume and becomes soft enough to get mashed easily it is time to add the sugar. You can mash the carrots if you want a smooth halwa before adding the sugar or keep the shreds undisturbed like I do. The mixture gets a little watery after adding sugar so cook some more while stirring almost continuously till it becomes glazed and shiny.

Now add the reduced milk, mix well and cook some more to let everything mix together. The reduced milk will get the colour of the cooked black carrots but wont become astringent.

If you intend to add almond meal you can add it along with the reduced milk and cook for 5 more minutes.

All well cooked gajar ka halwa variants stay well for 3-4 days at room temperature (in winter months, north India) and the halwa was always spread in a parat or large thali in my home, nuts were sprinkled over it and the thali was covered and kept either on the dining table or on kitchen platform or in the milk cupboard. Well, it was hidden from our sight most of the times.  No one can resist stealing some halwa if it is kept in a visible place.

Now I refrigerate. Now we have lost that habit of stealing such foods and I miss that.

Kali gajar ka halwa is definitely tastier than red carrot halwa if made well. And now you know how to make the kali gajar ka halwa in the right way. It is indeed a tonic food and can be supplemented with a little warming spices if one wants some warmth in harsh winter months.

Kali gajar ka halwa was considered an aphrodisiac too but I am sure the recipe would include some cardamom and nutmeg too for that effect.

Now I know the reason my family felt cheated when kali gajar ka halwa was denied to them one season about 4 decades ago. Food memories are best preserved in our minds I feel, the reason being that food is perceived by our senses so well. More reasons to make the food better for all of us, enjoy food with loved ones and create memories of togetherness.

the perfect recipe of kheer | 10 ways to make your own favourite perfect chawal ki kheer

Kheer is the Indian rice pudding, the most common dessert we used to enjoy in our times. Now a days the most common dessert seems to be a slice of cake or a brownie but kheer ruled my childhood. Chawal ki kheer or this rice pudding was almost an everyday affair in many families I know but in our home we did not eat much meetha (desserts) everyday so kheer was made about twice a week or so. The special occasion kheer used to be a little rich with more nuts, slow reduced milk till it turns pinkish and saffron etc used to be added to the special occasion kheer. The everyday kheer would be cooked and reduced for lesser time for convenience and a few nuts would be added because everyone loved the occasional bite of cashew and almonds. Oh and we loved the plump raisins so much in our kheer.

The everyday kheer would sometimes include some chopped dates or grated coconut or some grated carrots for colour but it was certainly lighter than the occasional festive kheer. The question is, which one was the best kheer out of these?

The best kheer recipe differs from person to person. Some people like the rice just cooked while some people (like me) like the rice almost completely dissolved into the milk making it more creamy and smooth. I remember one of my bong friend used to reduce the milk to almost rabdi consistency and then add the rice so the rice just cooked in the remaining water left in the much reduced milk. The resultant kheer used to look like halwa with whole rice grains sticking out and she loved it that way. I could never associate that dessert with kheer though. The rice in my kheer has to be dissolved to creaminess. That makes my kheer perfect. Always with short grain rice.

Some people would like more nuts and some aromatic spices like cardamom, nutmeg or cinnamon in the kheer while some like it with rose water or kewda water (screw pine extract). British picked up our kheer and flavoured it with vanilla and what not but even that rice pudding is the best when the rice disintegrates after slow cooking. The baked versions are not just the same.

I am listing a few ways to achieve what you want in a kheer. To get your kind of perfect kheer to enjoy.

1. If you like the kheer really thick and the milk caramelized to pinkish brown, reduce the milk with patience for hours. The rice will be added in the very beginning if you like the kheer creamy and the rice grains disintegrated into it and add the rice half way though it if you like your rice grains intact into the kheer.
2. If you like the nuts crunchy or with a bite add them as a garnish. You might like to fry them in ghee for added flavours. But if you like the nuts to soak up and become a part of the creaminess, add them along with the rice and milk together. Same way, if you like the raisins plump and juicy add them while the kheer is reducing, else add chopped raisins as garnish only.
3. Use whole milk for perfect results. Skimmed milk would give you half hearted results.
4. Always add sugar in the last when you see the kheer has reached the consistency you want and the rice has achieved your kind of texture in the kheer. If sugar is added early it doesn't allow the rice to disintegrate, the way I like it. The sugar makes the kheer a little thinner just after adding and the kheer needs to be reduced a little more after adding the sugar.
5. You can add powdered cardamom or nutmeg along with the sugar to allow the flavours to stay in the kheer. The aromas escape if you add these spices in the initial stage of cooking kheer. Avoid adding whole cardamoms in the kheer unless you like to chew on them in between spoonfuls of kheer.
6. Do not add too much rice to the quantity of milk you are using. The bulk or number of servings of the kheer depends on how much milk you are starting with and not the amount of rice. No more than 2 tbsp rice per kilo of whole milk is the rule to follow.
7. Always use good quality aromatic rice. Some people like basmati rice for kheer but I like the small grain gobindbhog or kala namak variety of aromatic rice for my kheer. Keep the sugar minimal so the flavours of the rice take center stage. Don't add too much cardamom or nutmeg to kill the fragrance of rice too.
8. Never make the kheer too sweet. It kills natural sweetness that comes by caramelisation of reducing milk and the fragrance of rice. Add sugar little by little, taste and add more if required.
9. Always cook the kheer on very low heat once the milk had reduced to half. The milk and rice mixture tends to stick to the bottom while cooking and get burnt. This makes the kheer really awful if it happens. Cooking the kheer in thick base vessel helps. Stirring frequently helps too.
10. If you like the kheer warm make sure you serve it with minimal cardamom or nutmeg as these spices can be overpowering at warm temperature. Cold or chilled kheer arrests the fragrance of these spices so you might need to add a bit more of them.

Here is the recipe of my favourite way of making kheer. The everyday kind of kheer that is not too heavy.

ingredients
(for 5 small servings)
small grain aromatic rice 2 tbsp
whole milk 1 Liter
sugar 2 tbsp (or more if you like)
green cardamom powder 2 pinches
mixed chopped nuts as required

procedure

Mix the rice and milk together and cook on low flame, stirring frequently till the kheer reduces to your preference. The rice should get cooked so much that it almost disintegrates in the reduced milk.

Add the sugar and cardamom powder and reduce a little more. You can add more milk at this time if you want and reduce some more to make the kheer a bit rich. You can add saffron or raisins at this point too. Follow the instructions listed above if you have any of those preferences.

Garnish with nuts, chill or have the kheer warm as I like it sometimes.

You might like this sheer brunj or biranji if you like your kheer really rich. This parippu pradhaman will be a delight if you like this Kerala delicacy. This sevaiyyan kheer used to alternate with chawal ki kheer in out home. And the sama ke chawal ki kheer was made for navratri fasting.

There were sooji ki kheer for quick dessert and phirni for a quick but richer dessert sometimes. I intend to share those recipe too sometimes. Let me know if you find these tips on making the perfect chawal ki kheer useful for you. This is all I learned cooking kheer for the family for over 3 decades now.

harey chane ka halwa | an unusual dessert with tender green garbanzo beans

We have been on a hara chana high for sometime. It was the easy and yet exotic option for quick snacks and ghugnis all through this winter.  I was developing a lot of non vegetarian recipes for a brand and was fed up with not having my own choice of food for a while. I always love cooking my food on my own whims, my own 'flavours for the day' and when I have to work on something which is fixed, I feel a bit suffocated in terms of food choices. I don't know if you relate to it or not, but give me the fanciest of foods on a day when I want a simple khichdi, I will not be happy eating them. But that is another story.

There is harey chane ka halwa to cheer up. This harey chane ka halwa is mostly set and cut like barfi or fudge. One of the most surprising flavours trust me, and so brightly coloured.

Some of the seasons fresh produce gave me hope and I enjoyed some quick foods of my choice as well.
Harey chane ka halwa looks and sounds tricky but it incredibly simple and quick.

Hara chana, fresh green peas and some thukpa and thenthuk type soups were a great relief as they take minimal effort to be cooked. I made hara chana jhal mudi many a times for a tea time snack and loved it. But then a friend from Banaras reminded me of this hare chane ka halwa and I got transported to the older days when we never counted our desserts.

Not that we ate too much desserts as a family but we usually had everything we wanted. I think we never knew so much abundance of all things super sweet vying for attention all the time. Home made real food desserts were the norm and we grew up to become fit healthy individuals. Cakes were very occasional even if we had started baking at younger age, all of us siblings used to have so much fun in the kitchen. This harey chane ka halwa brought back all those memories.

This halwa would remind you of the halwas of Kerala and Tamilnadu (probably other states of south India as well) where they make pineapple and ripe jackfruit halwa and dehydrate it so much that it make a nice dense cake that can be sliced like karachi halwa. But this harey chane ka halwa is not that dehydrated and doesn't keep well at room temperature. This is something to be had the same day or to refrigerate and consume the next day.

ingredients
(makes 9 large squares, or 6-8 servings)
hara chana (tender green garbanzo beans) 200 gm
pistachios 25 gm (you can use cashew too)
sugar 25-50 gm as per taste
ghee 30 gm or 2 tbsp
chopped pistachio for garnish

Some people add khoya to this halwa but I like it without khoya. If you want to add khoya, you can make instant khoya in microwave by following this recipe.

procedure

Make a powder of pistachios first, add the hara chana in the blender and make a smooth paste of the two.

Heat ghee in a kadhai and pour the paste in it. Stir continuously for about 5 minutes and you would see how the green paste starts getting smooth and a bit gummy.

Add the sugar and stir more to cook further. The halwa will start looking shiny and sticky. This is the time you pour it into a deep plate or a square dish of suitable size. Spread it in even layer, thickness can be of your choice. Mine was 1 cm thick layer. Sprinkle chopped pistachios over it and press with your fingers so they embed well.

Let it cool in refrigerator for an hour or so, cut squares and serve as required.

Alternately, you can serve the halwa hot or warm like gajar ka halwa.

The taste is rich and nutty and very very delectable. This halwa will be one of those good looking desserts you can serve for formal meals as well.

Let me know if you try this harey chane ka halwa or call it harey chane ki barfi. You can make such a halwa with green peas too, but the taste will be a bit different as peas don't have that nuttiness that hara chana lends to this halwa. I hope you get hara chana in your part of the world.

modak, patholi, patole or pitha : a steamed rice dumpling with coconut jaggery stuffing, wrapped in turmeric leaves...

Haldi patra pitha for bengalis, patholi for Konkanis and patole for Maharashtrians, this wonderfully aromatic steamed sweet stuffed dumpling is something that definitely evolved in the oriental-tropical world. You would see a Kaa noom sword side in Thailand which is another variation of the same rice dumpling. How food connects the world.

Steamed desserts have a certain charm to them. Especially if the steamed desserts are made of rice with a coconut and jaggery stuffing. I don't know if you have tried any of those modaks and pithas but I took to them like fish takes to water as soon I got introduced to these sweet nothings. These were not made at my mother's place although a steamed round modak was made occasionally. I learnt this turmeric leaf wrapped modak or pitha on Sanjeev Kapoor's show more than a decade ago and steamed this aromatic treat the same day. There have been many repeats since then. That I grow turmeric in my garden helps, else you would have to get hold of some turmeric leaves if you want this subtle aroma.

This year interestingly, I couldn't replant my turmeric tubers and was missing having them. So when I saw turmeric growing in the backyard of a friend's place I immediately got a few for myself. That greedy for food I am. Made these the very next day.

The recipe is simple and you can make this dumpling by using raw rice paste as this patole recipe, but I made it with a cooked rice dough because I wanted the taste of ukdiche modak redolent with the aroma of turmeric leaves. And that's what I did.


To make the rice flour dumpling this way.. Cook the rice flour with twice the amount of water. For a cup of rice flour you need 2 cups of water and 1/2 tsp salt. Boil the water and salt in a pan and dump the rice flour at once into it as soon as the water starts boiling. DO NOT stir, cover the pot and let it simmer for 3-4 minutes. Take the pan off heat, open the lid and holding the pan with a mitten clad left hand, whisk the rice flour vigorously with right hand. The whole process takes about 10 minutes for this quantity. Use a wire whisk for convenience.

Now mix this lumpy dough with the help of a sturdy spatula or spoon, till the mixture becomes smooth and looks like a malleable dough. You would be able to make small balls out of it as soon as it is colder.

You can make the stuffing in the meantime. Half a fresh coconut peeled, sliced and coarsely shredded in food processor, added with jaggery to taste is cooked till everything incorporates together. I microwaved it for 2 minutes. And I used a raw rich brown sugar which made my work easy.

Now spread the clean turmeric leaves, grease them with ghee and flatten a rice dough ball over it. Place a generous amount of coconut jaggery mix over it and fold it nicely so the dumpling becomes half moon shape.

A little bit of leaked stuffing is not a problem, as the turmeric leaf is going to wrap around the dumpling.

 Shape and wrap all dumplings and place them all on a ghee greased plate. I used a ceramic plate as I was microwaving them all together. You can use a perforated steel plate if you are steaming the dumplings in steamer.

It needs to be microwaved covered so I normally cover the plate with an inverted bowl. These required a 5 minute microwaving time. Just go by how many or how big your dumplings are, and a little raw dumplings wont be a problem since everything is cooked anyways.

 But steaming them for some time helps the dumpling to hold better. The rice starches settle down to hold the stuffing better and you can pick up the patholi or pitha in your hands to have a bite.

 This was heavenly. The turmeric leaf marks look really gorgeous.

How simple cooking techniques can make food so exotic, I wonder how our ancestors experimented with simple ingredients to cook such wonderful food. The slightly salted rice dumpling with a rich sweetness of jaggery and aroma and taste of coconut is something that satiates the senses immensely.

Please note that a modern baked dessert with all the butter, sugar and flour would NOT make you feel sated, it would make you want another sweet once the multiple helping dessert is over. With these modaks, you eat many of them and feel blissfully sated. And do not crave for more sweet once they are over. There is a reason for it. Real food makes your system behave well.

PS : Note that the turmeric leaves need to be cleaned really well, soak them, rinse them and wipe the leaves both sides with a clean muslin twice. The urban dust on them is not easy to get rid of.

sookhi sevaiyyan made easy for a modern kitchen | baked version of sevaiyon ka muzaffar

This is a 'sookhi sevaiyyan' or 'sevaiyon ka muzaffar' baked to perfection. Yes baked.

Sevaiyyan is a very thin vermicelli dish that can be made like a thin milky porridge or like a crisp chewy kind of sweet pudding. Actually the taste and the texture is not at all comparable to any other dessert that I know. Sookhi sevaiyyan is known by those who have enjoyed it in real life.

I have remembered and missed the sookhi sevaiyyan that we used to have at our friend's places. It was never made at our home though the sheer khurma (the thin milky version) was very common. But as I understand, these recipes have been a common culture of our land even though these are made basically on religious festivals. So this sookhi sevaiyyan and pheni will be enjoyed in Muslim homes on Eid and Bakrid while it was made for festivals like Teej Hindu homes. How we have weaved food with our festivals. Caste and religion no bar when it comes to food, we keep waiting for all sorts of festivals just for the spread of different types of food we get to eat. So much so that we associate festivals with food only, not knowing the cultural details of a festival.

A friend's grandmother used to make gujhia stuffed with this kind of sookhi sevaiyyan, I still have that taste lingering somewhere in my memory. This was a Hindu version suited for teej festival that comes soon after Eid. The sookhi sevaiyyan made at Muslim friend's homes was decadent and I kept wondering how they get that dry caramelised texture with perfectly cooked khoya and lightly fried nuts. Probably my mother never learned how to cook it, and we remained deprived.

I tried replicating the same texture and taste using the pheni (or feni) sometimes and was pleased with the result, but making it from the thin vermicelli was difficult, it will either get too soft or too dry for my liking. Although, this sookhi sevaiyyan can be made in all variations of textures as I have tasted some really soggy ones too, and a few really really dry textured too. I wanted to make it to my liking, the way I remembered it from my friend's home.

I got a good quality pack of sevaiyyan (thin vermicelli) from Rupak stores, these are pre roasted vermicelli so there is no need to slow roast them in ghee. This got me thinking and I planned a baked sevaiyyan as this would result in slow caramelisation of the sugar added and the milk sugar both. This was a perfect decision as the result was very very close to what I had in my head all these years. And, the total preparation plus cooking time for about 4-5 servings was 20 minutes. I am thrilled.

ingredients..

thin vermicelli (patli sevaiyyan) 100 gm (pre roasted)
milk powder 1 cup to make home made khoya (or 100 gm khoya)
water 1/4 cup
sugar 2 tbsp
chopped almonds 1/2 cup
chopped raisins 2 tbsp or to taste
other nuts according to taste, adding chopped makhana will be great as I love the texture
fresh cream (amul- 25% fat) 1/2 cup , I used 1/4 cup milk and 1/4 cup fresh thick malai

procedure...

Roast the vermicelli with minimal ghee if they are not pre roasted. Keep aside.

Place the milk powder and water in a glass or ceramic bowl, mix well and microwave for 2 minutes. Stir well again and microwave for a minute again. Repeat this once more. The milk solids become granular now and taste and smell like khoya. See this procedure of home made khoya in microwave to get a step wise idea of how to do it..

I did the khoya making in the baking tray I used for baking the sevaiyyan, it got a bit stained with all the stirring but lesser utensils used is a better idea.

Now break the sevaiyyan into this khoya, add everything else and mash using your fingers. Pour in the milk and malai (or fresh cream) slowly to incorporate and dampen the dry vermicelli.

Now press down everything in a thin layer, about 2.5 cm thick. Choosing a suitably sized baking pan or dish will be advisable. The sevaiyyan gets dehydrated, caramelised and becomes a bit thinner after baking.

Now slide the tray/dish into the oven and bake at 180 C for about 8 minutes. I had not preheated the oven and it took 8 minutes at 200 C.

This is served warm or at room temperature. The decadent flavors of caramelised milk around thin strands of vermicelli is awesome. The perfect chewy interiors and crisp crust makes it a perfect baked desserts if you are serving it at a party. Just mix everything, press down in the baking dish and refrigerate. Bake when required.

Cut in squares for the ease of serving..

Or just gnaw away from the baking dish.

It keeps well at room temperature for 3-4 days, 2 weeks when refrigerated. Can be cut into fudge like squares so it is easier to serve. But the crisp texture of the crust wouldn't be there when you keep it for long. This was the closest to the sevaiyyan I have had at my dear friend's homes. The ones I loved, I quickly forget the food I haven't liked so they don't exist for me. All bad versions of sookhi sevaiyyan were never given a chance by my memory.

Now this one would keep the memories alive, make more memories and some more happy meals with friends and family.

sheer brunj, birunj or biranji, the kheer that cooks without rice....

Have you heard of sheer brunj? Well, this is a variety of kheer but not just another kheer I would say.

We all love kheer or milky rice puddings as I would introduce it to anyone who hasn't known Indian food. Which is quite unlikely in this age as I remember a Thai friend 23 years ago knew about kheer and pulav and he was introduced to pakode and much more at my place. You would agree people pick up Indian food pretty quickly and want to learn cooking once they taste it.

No I am not talking about a complicated recipe of kheer that takes 2 hours to cook. Having said that, all true kheers are slow cooked to get that taste. Otherwise it is just doodh wale chawal or mewe wala doodh for us. We wont call it kheer if it is any lesser.

Sheer brunj is the queen of kheers I would say. Or so I have grown up believing. This used to be the one kheer to impress the impressionables and to brag about when it was cooked for family get togethers. And yes, most people used to pronounce it like biranj or biranji. I figured now that most people have forgotten this name, have stopped making such a kheer just because it feels heavy on the calories scale. But then brunj was always served in small quantities. I wont add up to the mystery of this recipe any more.

This recipe takes about an hour to cook for 4-6 servings, but you don't have to work for more than 10 minutes that is for chopping the nuts and roasting the makhane. The milk keeps reducing all this while.

ingredients...

whole milk (full fat/6%) 1 L
malai 2 tbsp or amul fresh cream 100 ml
2 cups of makhane (fox nut or Euryale ferox) 2 cups
almonds 1/3 cup
cashew nuts 1/3 cup
a few strands of saffron
sugar 1-2 tbsp (this kheer is very mildly sweetened, you can add sugar to taste)

procedure..

Pour milk in a heavy bottom pan and heat till it boils. Simmer on low so the milk starts getting reduced.

Place another thick bottomed pan on the other burner and tip in the makhane in it. Dry roast on low heat till they start getting pinkish in color and become crisp. You can add 2 tbsp of ghee to the makhanas so they would turn really aromatic and would make the brunj rich. I avoid adding ghee at this step as I find it too much heaviness for a dessert. Let the makhanas cool once they are all crisp and pinkish.

Place them into a deep bowl. This a large 600 ml katori I used.

And crush them all using the bottom of a tumbler or any instrument you find useful for this. A pestle would work nicely too. The nuts will be crushed roughly, so you end up with a few bits and some powder.

Chop the almonds and cashew nuts roughly. To make the chopping easy, just rinse them all with water once, wait for about 10 minutes (this was the time I was dry roasting the makhanas) and then chop them on a board.

By this time, around 10-15 minutes or more if you have been doing a few other things on the sly, the milk has been reducing. All these chopped and crushed nuts will be added once the milk is reduced to half.

Simmer the brunj for another 10 minutes or till it gets thick and creamy. Add the sugar and malai or fresh cream to it, stir well and take it off the stove.

Add the saffron, stir and keep covered for about 5 minutes. The pan is opened to welcome a wonderful aroma.

Most people like raisins in this kheer but somehow I always skip adding them. I am not too fond of soaked plump rasins. You can always add some chironji, some melon seeds and some pistachios as well. The mix of nuts is a personal choice so go with what you like. But there will be no rice or other grains in this kheer for sure.

Some people add khoya (dehydrated milk) to thicken it, that is also a personal choice. I like the aroma and rich taste we get from reducing the milk slowly. I cooked it in a copper handi that is tin coated on the inside. It doesn't add to the flavors but a handi is a convenient vessel to cook milky dishes.

This kheer called brunj or biranji is served hot or warm. Even at room temperature but I don;t remember having it chilled. Even now I don't like it chilled. Warm it should be for me. The nuts provide a nice mouthful of textures, makhana becomes soft almost giving it a feel of bread pudding when the brunj is served hot. Chill it and the makhanas will be slightly chewy, though the taste wont change. The texture of fried makhana in ghee is better if you like to do it that way.

Do let me know if you make it, hot, warm or chilled?

triple lemon cakes for a kid's birthday : the kind of cakes that spread sunshine...

Yes, a triple lemon cake with lemon glaze and another triple lemon cake with quark and cream filling and frosting. And the cake frosting was decided by the kid herself. She had told me her choice of lemon 2 weeks in advance. That's how a cake like this is born. I have been in love with lemons too, another lemon cake with zucchini has been a perennial favorite, a lemon pound cake with butterscotch sauce has been missed for long. But this one just beats everything else lemony. Even the lemon tarts that I used to bake using gondhoraj lebu long back.Yes, that good.

And why triple lemon? I used the fragrant grapefruit leaves, Indian lime zest and juice (common Indian nimbu is a lime not a lemon) and zest and juice of calamondin limes. The lemon flavor gets a really nice and refreshing depth and it's just not a tart flavor that hits your palate with a zing. The depth of lemony flavors is accentuated by quark cheese and cream frosting on one of the cakes and a lemon glaze in the second. This cake will let you know limes don't make tart cakes, they make fragrant refreshing cakes with the tingling flavors and just a hint of tartness that lifts up the sweetness of a cake.

ingredients...for the cake...
(this recipe made 2 medium sized cakes)

maida (all purpose flour/white flour) 2 cups
cold pressed sunflower oil or olive oil 1 cup
(I prefer using pure oil for citrus flavors as I feel the citrus flavors blossom nicely with oil, use butter if you wish)
sugar 1 cup scantly filled (say 1 cup - 2 tbsp)
3 large eggs (or 4 small)
baking powder 1.5 tsp
baking soda 1/2 tsp
grapefruit leaves 2
Indian lime juice 1 tbsp (or lemon juice 3 tbsp)
salt 1/2 tsp
freshly zested lime peel (from whole limes)1/3 tsp zest

ingredients for the lemon glaze
lime juice 2 tbsp
water seeped with finely chopped grapefruit leaves 3 tbsp (I microwaved the water and chopped leaves in MW)
powdered sugar 1 cup

ingredients for the quark and cream frosting

*quark cheese (homemade) 1 cup
amul fresh cream 200 ml
sugar 3 tbsp and lime juice 1 tbsp ( I used 3 tbsp of the lemon glaze)

preparation...

Start with sieving the flour along with salt, baking soda and baking powder.

Start to preheat the oven at 180 C. Line the baking pans of suitable size with butter paper, no need to grease. I used 2 pans, one 7" and another 6" diameter. Keep the lines pans aside.

Finely chop the kefir lime of grapefruit leaves (or any lemon leaves you can get) and mix it with the flour. Make sure the leaves are completely dry before you roll them up and chop them in chiffonade.

Break the eggs in a deep mixing bowl, add the sugar, lime juice and zest, calamondin juice and zest and the oil and whisk till homogeneous.

Add the flour mix and fold gently till homogeneous. Pour into the pans and place both the pans into preheated  oven. On the middle rack these two cakes take 45 minutes to bake. But be careful after 40 minutes as the baking time and browning depends on your individual oven as well.

Do the skewer test and take out the cakes when done.

 Cool the cakes a bit and then invert the pans to take out the cakes. Peel off the parchment or butter paper and let the cakes cool of wire racks. If you don't have wire racks, use the atta chhanni (the sieve used for atta in every Indian home), or the perforated plate used to cover milk pan, for cooling the cakes.

One of the cakes was sliced horizontally using a large bread knife when cool. The kido wanted a sandwiched filling. She loved watching the cake being made and I loved seeing them so curious.

Let the cut halves of the cake cool completely before smearing the quark and cream frosting. I drizzled the lemon glaze mix in the cut side of these cake slices to make them taste richer.

See I used some confetti as well over the lemon frosting. The kids tasted it and declared it tastes like atta. Wow I say. Real ingredients always win. Confetti is not real. Quark and cream frosting was loved so much more than any bakery frosted cake.

Mean while make the lemon glaze and the quark and cream frosting.

For the *quark and cream frosting, just whip them both together till firm and homogeneous. Add powdered sugar and lime juice or just the lemon glaze as I did. Taste and decide how much sugar and lime you want. Keep it minimal.

For lemon glaze just mix the lime juice with sugar and mix till it looks like a thick slurry that can be poured on to the cake. I used some water seeped with grapefruit leaves too, do so if you are using the leaves.

I used the large grapefruit leaves in the base for one of the cakes. Just a crafty idea that made the kids delightful, tiny young lime leaves were used on the quark and cream frosted cake as well.

Nothing complicated, just the frosting sandwiched between the two layers, then the cake covered all over with the same and a fork run around to make a ziggly pattern. Slapped on some more frosting as the kids were feeling happy by doing so. The leftover cream was licked right away. And then the cake was cut without delay. I hurried to take a picture..

See the luscious cake inside...

The cake with lemon glaze was cut at her home. I was reported the cake didn't last even 10 minutes between 4 adults and 2 kids. Such things make us contented like nothing else.

*To make the quark cheese you just have to mix 100 ml of amul fresh cream to half a liter of full cream milk (6%), warm it and add 1/4 cup buttermilk or homemade dahi to it, mix well and leave it overnight. It gets set the next day, you would see it splits and releases some water, just pour all the contents into a cheesecloth lined sieve (placed on a bowl to drain the whey) and refrigerate the whole apparatus. The quark with will ready within 5-6 hours. Thick and creamy. I have been making fresh cheeses since long just as experimentation but Deeba uses then spectacularly, see how she makes them..

These cakes are made from scratch at home, with no special equipment for frosting or piping. Although that is not rocket science either but simplicity can be beautiful and you can always whip up something with homely ingredients. Real ingredients I would say, the way we have been using traditionally.