Food for 7 Stages of Life: Desserts

Showing posts with label Desserts. Show all posts

Friday, January 15, 2010

Moong Dhal Halwa

Posted by RV @ Food for 7 Stages on Friday, January 15, 2010

Moong Dhal halwa - Though this was completely new to me, TH & I completely liked the flavor and taste of this halwa. Thanks Srivalli for choosing Simran's recipe for this month's ICC.

Ingredients

Split (Yellow) Moong dhal - 1 cup
Ghee - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 3/4 cups to 1 cup (as per your taste)
Milk - 1/2 cup
Cashews/ raisins roasted in ghee for garnish.
Saffron - 1/8 tsp (Optional)

Method

Soak moong dal overnight or 8 hrs.

Grind to a smooth paste adding some water.
Heat the Kadai, with 1/2 of the ghee.
When it melts, add dhal paste and stir continuously so that lumps does not form. (This part is very tricky as the dhal cooks really fast, irrespective of the ghee)
Keep the heat at the lowest and keep stirring even after the dhal becomes thick.
Add the rest of the ghee intermittently and cook the dhal until aromatic and the ghee starts oozing out.

Meanwhile mix the sugar with milk in a pan and bring to a boil. Add this slowly to the cooking dhal.
Keep the flame low at all times and break lumps if formed while adding milk.

Cook until the ghee surfaces.

Garnish with cashews and raisins.

Notes:

1. Use a thick bottom pan or nonstick pan

2. Don't leave the halwa unattended. The dal can stick and it can go from just done to burnt in a second so keep stirring as much as possible. You should remember to keep stirring to prevent dhal from sticking irrespective of the ghee added.

3. I have used 1/4 cup of the dhal and reduced the other ingredients accordingly. But still I needed close to 1/2 cup of ghee and 1/2 cup of milk to attain the halwa texture.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Gulab Jamoon for ICC

Posted by RV @ Food for 7 Stages on Monday, November 16, 2009

I decided to choose Alka's Gulab Jamoon for ICC among the 3 recipes given to us. You can enjoy this delectable dessert as it is or a add a scoop of vanilla ice cream for a twist.

Recipe:
For sugar syrup:
Ingredients:
Sugar - 500 gms (This can be reduced as per taste)
Water - 1 & 1/2 cup (bit more or less)
Cardamom - 2-3
One spoon of milk (optional)
Few threads of saffron (optional)
2-3 drops of rosewater (optional but highly recommended)
Method:
Mix about 500 gms of white sugar in one and half cup water and keep it for boiling.
Add a spoonful of milk to remove the impurities (impurities if any, will form a scum on surface)
Add 2-3 green cardamoms also in syrup for strong flavor, and a tad of saffron strings (optional)
Boil until you get just a tad sticky syrup. Gulab Jamun syrup is not very dense nor too dilute as in Rasgulla
Strain the syrup, add rosewater when syrup is slightly cooled.
Always remember two things while using rose water, do not add it while syrup is bubbling hot or on fire, and be particular about the quantity mentioned in every recipe, since even few drops of excess rosewater could lend a bitter taste to the final product.
For Gulab Jamun:
Ingredients:
Unsweetened Maawa* - 250 gms
All purpose flour - 1 & 1/2 - 2 tsp
Cornflour - 1 tsp
Green cardamom - 1-2 crushed
Oil for shallow frying
* (khoya-the condensed milk thickened till it turns into moist dough, preferably made from cow’s milk, also known as Hariyali mawa)
Method:
Mix all the ingredients in a wide mixing bowl until soft textured dough is obtained (keep mixing until it is really soft)
Make very small sized balls (bit larger than pebbles) as they swell up after frying and soaking in syrup
Make sure that the surface of dough balls is really smooth without any cracks. In case the cracks refuse to go away, slightly wet your palms with water and roll the flour till absolutely smooth.
Now take little oil for frying in preferably flat bottomed pan, and heat the oil. But gulab jamuns are to be fried on LOW FLAME or else the surface will be browned while the core will remain uncooked. Some prefer to place an unsalted pistachio in the center of every gulab jamun while making balls, that way the core of gulab jamun is not left uncooked .
Fry one or 2 gulab jamuns at a time and always remember to STIR THE OIL with slotted spoon AND NOT TO TOUCH GULABJAMUNS, which means keep swirling the oil without tossing or turning gulab jamun.
Fry till light brown in colour, remove on tissue paper and repeat the procedure with rest of dough.
Now soak these in COOL syrup for few hours. They will surely swell up
These can be stored in the same syrup till consumed
If there are cracks in the balls before frying it will burst open while frying, in that case adding a bit of cornflour will surely help.

Friday, August 14, 2009

Rice Noodles Payasam / Kheer

Posted by RV @ Food for 7 Stages on Friday, August 14, 2009

We usually make kheer/payasam with vermicelli that is made out of semolina. This noodles or vermicelli is made from rice and it comes from Thailand. I bought this from one of the Indian stores to prepare lemon sevai but ended up using in payasam. It tastes like heaven in payasam as it is very soft, blends nicely with milk or condensed milk and it isn't chewy as the normal Indian vermicelli

Ingredients

Condensed Milk - 1 small can

Milk (Organic 2%)- 2 cup

Water - 2 cup

Sugar - 3 tbsp

Rice Vermicelli - 50 gm

Raisins - 20 / 2 tbsp

Cashews - 10

Ghee - 1 tbsp

Cardamon powder - 1/2 tsp

Vellarikkai Seeds (cucumber seeds) - 1 tsp [optional]

In a kadai, heat ghee, roast raisins, cashews, vellarikkai (cucumber) seeds. Remove when the raisins puff up. Keep them aside.

In a sauce pan, add Condensed milk, water. Stir it well. Now add milk and bring it to boil. At this stage add sugar and let it dissolve. Add Rice vermicelli and let it cook for 15-20 min on a medium low flame. The rice vermicelli becomes soft when it is cooked well. Add cardamon powder, stir and remove it from flame. Garnish it with raisins and cashews. You can serve it hot or cold, either way it tastes great. This is always in my get together menu as it is different from usual kheer/payasam and it is a super hit among my friends.

Garnish:

You can garnish it with nuts or fruits you could think of. I sometimes add dried cranberry too.

Can I use milk instead of condensed milk?

Yes. Then replace condensed milk+water with 8 cup of milk. Do not add water if you are using milk.

I would like to send this to Fall in Love (FIL) - Milk event hosted by Sanghi's food delights

I would like to send this entry to FIC-Zodiac sign event hosted by Sunshine Mom & Ashwini

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Rava Laddoo

Posted by RV @ Food for 7 Stages on Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Here goes the Rava Laddoo recipe for the Indian Cooking Challenge and its my birthday special too. This recipe is a tested recipe given by the host (Srivalli) of this event.

Ingredients

Rava/Semolina - 1 cup
Sugar - 1 cup
Grated coconut - 25 gm or little more than 1 3/4 tbsp
Milk - 25 ml / 1 1/8 tbsp (I actually added 4-5 tbsp as the mix was very dry)
Raisins - 10 nos
Cashew nut - 10 whole nuts
Cardamon Powder - 1 pinch
Ghee - 25 gm or little more than 1 3/4 tbsp

Method

In a kadai, heat 2 tsp of ghee. Once the ghee is hot enough reduce the flame and fry the cashews and raisins until the raisins balloon up. Remove.
Roast the grated coconut until it blends with the ghee. Remove. Amma says we shouldn't fry coconut for long time as it is unhealthy.
Now add the remaining ghee and roast the rava. Remove from flame when the aroma comes out.
In a bowl add raisins, cashews, coconut, rava, cardamon powder and mix it well. Please be cautious as it might be really hot.
Add sugar and mix it well.
Now add warm milk in to the bowl. Check if you are able to gather as balls. When you find that milk added is enough to get you laddoos, transfer it back to the kadai and cook in sim for 2 minutes. Mix well and then cover it and let it rest for 2 minutes. Then immediately make balls or laddoos.
Yummy rava laddoos are ready to serve.

P.S: To prepare the cardamon powder take 1 cardamon, remove the skin. Add the seeds, a pinch of sugar and powder it. I use the chappati roller to powder it.

I am glad to submit this dish for the Indian Cooking Challenge! Thanks Srivalli for inviting me to be part of this event.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Nallair (Coconut) Thokku with Idiyappam.

Posted by RV @ Food for 7 Stages on Thursday, May 21, 2009

We usually have idiyappam with coconut milk, stew or a spicy curry. But my granny prepares a sweet dish with coconut that goes extremely well with idiyappam. Whenever I visit my granny's place in salem she ensures that it is prepared for me atleast once. Usually we have Sweet Idiyappam for breakfast along with Lemon Sevai (Spicy Idiyappam prepared with lemon, just like how we prepare lemon rice), just to strike a balance. I would vote for this over coconut milk because we don't discard the coconut waste in this and hence you get the complete nutrients out ot it. Ingredients

Shredded Coconut - 2 cup (Nallair Thurugaitha)
Ghee - 2 tbsp (Thoup)
Jaggery - 1 cup + 2 tbsp (Gullu)
Water - 1 cup (pani)
Cardamon Powder - 1/4 tsp (ellakai burugo)

Optional:

Pachai Karpuram - pinch
Food color - pinch
Raisins & Cashews - 2 tbsp (sukkai dratchai, mundiri)

Method

Shred the coconut in the blender or using a coconut grater. Finer the better. You will need atleast 1/2 coconut for this recipe. I prefer to use fresh coconut, instead you can use frozen shredded coconut that is available in the Indian stores.
In a pan, add 1tbsp ghee and slighly fry the coconut for a minute. Set it aside. Add another 1 tsp of ghee and fry the raisins and cashews. Set it aside.
Add 1 cup of water in a pan and bring it to boil. Add jaggery and let it dissolve.
Add any of the food color (Orange, Pink, Yellow).
Before the mixture comes to a single thread consistency add the shredded coconut. Add the remaining ghee, mix it well and cook for few minutes.
When it starts thickening, add cardamon powder, pachai karpuram and remove it from flame.
Add raisins, cashew and mix it well.
Serve it hot with idiyampam. I bought the instant rice sevai from the store here. You can also prepare the idiyappam at home.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Berries 'O' Mania (Fruit Salad)

Posted by RV @ Food for 7 Stages on Saturday, March 21, 2009

Berries are rich in vitamins, minerals, fiber and antioxidants. If you are dieting you can include them in your menu as they are usually low in carbs, fats and calories. Berries family include strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, blackberry and cranberry. It helps us to prevent cancer and heart disease. For those who are conscious about their aging, here is the good news it slows down the aging process. Wow isn't it interesting. Berries are used in cakes, short breads, jam, muffins, smoothies etc., But how many of you like to eat fresh berries? I love it, but my hubby doesn't. For his sake I had to invent this recipe. This is a simple and healthy recipe and you can choose any fruits of your choice. I used strawberries as my main ingredient, dry fruits/nuts, honey and condensed milk for a rich taste. If you are calorie conscious reduce the quantity of condensed milk. But I am sure you won't do this as condensed milk gives you an awesome flavour & taste to your salad. Here we go with the new innovation from my kitchen :-))

Ingredients

Strawberry - 1 box
Dried Cranberry - 1 tbsp
Raisins - 1 tbsp
Crushed Badam - 1 tbsp
Condensed Milk (cold) - 1 tbsp
Honey - 1 tbsp
Ice cream - 1/2 scoop [Optional]

Method

Wash the strawberries and cut it into 4 parts.
In a bowl add strawberry, dried cranberry, raisins
Add the condensed milk and honey. Mix it well.
Add the crushed badam and serve.
You can add 1/2 scoop of ice cream to make it more appealing for kids. I have not added it in my preparation though.