Diwali Special Recipes

Kesar Sandhesh	Star Sweet
Kesar Rasamalai	Besan Halva
Coconut Peda	Jangiri

Sweet Stars

Ingredients : Bengal gram - 100gms Green gram dal - 50gm Ghee - 150gms Powdered sugar - 250gms Finely grated dry coconut - 100gm Milk - 3/4cup Cardamom powder - 1tsp Sliced Almonds - 10nos Peeled melon seeds - 1tbsp

Method :

Soak the dals overnight and grind into a
coarse thick paste. Heat ghee in a non-stick pan and fry the dal paste on a
low flame, stirring constantly. It should not be over-fried.

Add milk and powdered sugar and mix. Now
add grated dry coconut and cardamom powder and keep on stirring till the mixture
becomes thick and leaves the sides of the pan. Take off the fire and cool. Make
balls of the mixture. Flatten them between the palms and shape them into stars.

Garnish them with sliced almonds and peeled
melon seeds.

Jangiri

Jangiri is a traditional Indian sweet made with Urad dal and maida. Jangri is deep fried in oil/ghee and soaked in sugar syrup. Jangiri has a flavour of Saffron and Rose. Ingredients Needed: 1. Urad dal 1 cup 2. Raw Rice 1 table spoons 3. Maida flour 2 tablespoons. 4. Food colour (Orange ) 3 pinch 5. Sugar 1-1/2 cups 6. Water 1/2 cup 7. Saffron 4 to 5 strings 8. Oil or Ghee for deep frying 9. Jangiri Rit (Thick, Square cloth with small hole in Center) 10. Rose essence or Rose Water little. Jangiri Frying Method: 1. Wash and soak Rice and Urad dal for 20 minutes. 2. Grind it, in Wet grinder without adding water. (Just sprinkle water).Minimum for 30 mins. 3. Lastly add food colour and maida. 4. Take a bowl of water and put this mixture in water. (It will float.) 5. Heat Oil/Ghee in a flat pan in moderate heat. 6. Make sugar syrup, 1/2 string consistency, add food colour, Saffron and Rose essence and keep it aside. 7. Take Jangiri rit, put some grinded batter and make one big circle and in that circle make small continuous rings. 8. Deep fry in oil, without changing its colour and tansfer this jangiri to sugar syrup. 9. Make another Jangiri and when putting this batch in the sugar syrup, take out the earlier batch of Jangiri and keep aside. 10. Serve Hot or Cold. Note: Enjoy it the same day, preferably. Does not last long for more than couple of days, even when refrigerated.

KESAR RASMALAI

INGREDIENTS: For Malai: 1/2 gallon Whole Milk 2 Tbsp Lemon Juice or Vinegar. 2 Cups Sugar Water For Ras: Evaporated Milk 2 Tins Sugar Saffron few strands METHOD: • In a heavy bottomed pan cook milk and bring it to boil. • When it starts boiling add lemon juice and stir continuously until the milk curdles completely. • Let it cool and set completely. Drain using muslin or cotton cloth using as much strength. ( I wash the paneer to remove the lemon flavor from it. To do it slowly drain it in muslin cloth and when doing it hold it under running water with your hands running thro the paneer) • Place a heavy weight on this to drain away all the excess water for about 7 mins. Note- there should be no water left else the panner balls will break when put in sugar water. • Now put the above in the food processor and run it. You will first see the paneer break into small pieces and then it slowly forms a whole lump just like chapathi dough. slowly form small round balls out of it. • Meanwhile in the pressure cooker add 1 cup of water along with 1 cup of sugar. When the sugar melts in the water add just 10 paneer balls keeping a good distance between each of them and pressure cook for 2 whistles. Repeat the process untill all is done adding little sugar and water as required for each batch. • In another pan heat the evaporated milk with sugar and saffron and bring it to boil. • To this add the above sugar malai balls draining them slightly. • Chill for a few hours and enjoy.

COCONUT PEDA

INGREDIENTS: 1.5 Cup Grated Coconut fresh/frozen 1 Tin Condensed milk 2 Tbsp Milk Saffron few strands Dry fruit of your choice for decoration. METHOD: •Dry grind the grated coconut until it reaches to a powdery consistency. •Soak saffron in about 2 tbsp of milk for about 10 mins. •In a heavy bottomed kadai heat the condensed milk along with the milk and saffron and brig it to boil. •When you see the bubbles add in the powdered coconut and keep stirring it for another few mins until you see the mixture thickening and forming a single mass. •Now cool it for 2 mins and slowly and carefully form circular laddus and slowly press it using your palms to flatten it thus making pedas. Note: the sweet still needs to be hot when you shape it. Be quick when you do it. You need to do it before the sweet cools completely. •Slowly press in a dry fruit in the center as shown in the picture. I used chopped dates here. •Enjoy!!!

BESAN HALVA

INGREDIENTS:1 Cup Besan 1 Cup Sugar (powdered) 1/4 Cup Ghee 1/2 Cup Whole Milk Saffron Almond METHOD: • Spread Besan evenly on a microwavable plate and heat it for 1 min. Then slowly mix the powder using the fork and again heat for another 2 min with mixing the flour here and there in between and thus nicely roasting it. • Soak saffron in the above milk. • Melt about 3 Tbsp of ghee in a heavy bottomed kadai and then add the above besan and fry until the raw smell of besan is completely gone (besan turns to golden brown). Tip: Keep stirring constantly and do not let it form granules. •Now add the remaining ghee( if wanted) and above milk and keep stirring for another few mins until it is all mixed well and forms a single mass. Add Almond slices. •Serve hot and enjoy. •Note: If you stir and cook more than required don't worry just spread it evenly on a greased plate and let it cool completely, then cut them into desired shape and serve as burfy.

Kesar Sandesh

Folks, this is probably my last post before I leave for India. It's a 3 month vacation and I am really not sure how much I can post before I come back. I do have a collection of recipes, that I experimented with past few months and hadn't gotten around to posting. As and when time permits, I will try to post them. However, no promises!!! In the meantime, I leave you with another treat for the sweet tooth. Bangla Special..shondesh!!!

The whole trick to this mithai, or for that matter any bangla mithai, is the chenna/paneer. Whats the difference between chenna and paneer?..From what I understand, the curds from the milk is the chenna and when its drained completely dry, its paneer. But, I might be wrong. Anyone who knows better, may please feel free to correct me. I would really like to know. I really should be packing for my trip and not writing a post. Which is why, I am going to explain the whole process in pictures.

For the chenna, curdle the milk first.

6 cups whole milk

2 cups dahi, beaten till smooth

You know the process. Bring milk to a boil. Remove from flame and stir in the dahi ,a little at a time, till the curds separate. If you need more dahi, add more. It should look like below.

Using dahi instead of citric acid/vinegar results in softer curds. Also, the curds won't have the sour taste of the acid/vinegar, which is really important for a mithai. Be careful that you don't burn the milk and please don't scrape the bottom while you stir the milk. The brown bits you see in the photo above result from the same mistake. I had a tough time removing that, once the chenna was formed. Lesson Number 1 learnt….

Next,strain it in a muslin cloth. Once all the whey has drained, pull together all four corners of the cloth and twist it. Keep twisting till the chenna forms a ball of sorts. The twisting will also remove any additional whey left in the curd. Tie the cloth with the chenna ball to the tap in your sink, or generally, any place where the chenna can be suspended at a height. Tying it to the tap just means that I don't have to clean up any remaining whey, that is draining away. Like so.

Yep, the brown spots still there. You don't have to hang it for long, just till the whey stops being a steady drip. Remove the chenna from the bag. This is what you will end up with.

 

Yeah, yeah, I know. the brown spots. Chenna is ready. Now, we can move on to making the sandesh.

Recipe

1 1/4 cups chenna

1/4 cup powdered sugar

Now, take the chenna in a wide bowl. Add the sugar to it and start kneading it. Knead till very, very, very smooth. It took me 5 minutes for this amount of chenna (That is, after I painstakingly removed all the brown spots). But the time is so dependent on kneading style. All I can say is that, the chenna loses its grainy texture and becomes a soft, smooth dough. When you form a ball with it, it will not have any cracks.

Before Kneading

After Kneading

Add flavorings. I added cardamom and saffron(nuke 1 tbsp of milk , add saffron and then add it to the chenna) You can add rose essence and a drop of pink color, which is the classic way of making sandesh.You can call that rose sandesh.

Cook on a very low flame in a kadhai stirring continuously with a flat wooden spoon. Remove the kadhai from the flame at regular intervals so as not to overheat the sandesh. If it does over heat, it will become grainy and recurdle. Not good. And, no, that was not lesson number 2. The sandesh is ready when it leaves the sides of the kadhai and is neither too dry nor too moist. This doesn't take long, as you have already kneaded it. Just about 2-3 minutes. Some recipes that I researched on the internet, did not cook the chenna after kneading it. So you can completely skip this step. But, I like the flavor, after it is sauteed, better. So, I did.

It should have the consistency of very soft dough. The sandesh should be used immediately for making various shapes and garnishes. This, my friends, is lesson number 2. I didn't shape it immediately and hence, did not get smooth, uncracked balls. Here's where the 'asbestos hands' thingy comes handy. But, it tasted just as good. So, other then being a visual atrocity, no harm done. Well, lesson learnt. There is always a next time….

Anyway, top with chopped almonds or pistachios and chill. Ready to eat in a hour.

Thats it, Friends. Have fun while I am gone and don't do anything I wouldn't do ;)…