Category: Dessert

As promised last time, here is the post on Pista Kulfi. Truly summer season is here and kulfi and ice-cream are on a roll. 

Ingredients

• ½ litre milk
• 7 ½ Tablespoon Sugar
• 2 tablespoon Cornflour
• 100 gms mava (you can even use some burfi or home made mava left after making ghee)
• 1/8^th tsp green colour
• 1/8^th tsp pista essence
• ½ tsp elachi powder or cardamom powder
• 3 tbsp  chopped pista

Method

1. Blend Sugar and cornflour in milk and keep on gas stirring continuously
2. After 3 -4 min switch off the gas , add mawa and let it cool completely
3. Add essence, colour , elachi powder, pista pieces and blend well with beater
4. Fill moulds or steel container and let it set in freezer

You can do variation with Badam instead of pista. Just drop the colour and replace pista with badam or use both.

Summer season is here and one cannot resist making things out of mango. My house hold has been having lot of mango being used like mango rice, mango shake, aam panna …list is endless. When you get amazingly sweet mangoes from your favorite organic Earthy Tales so you try Mango kulfi without any delay.. So here it goes.

Ingredients

• ½ litre milk (preferably full cream)
• 1 Tablespoon Cornflour
• ½ cup Milkmaid
• ½ cup mango pulp (preferably Alphonso)
• ¼ tsp vanilla essence
• Few drops mango emulsion (optional)
• 1/8 tsp orange colour (optional)

Method

1. Mix cornflour and milk and put on gas and boil for 2 min or so
2. Add milkmaid and mango pulp and cook for sometime
3. Let it cool completely
4. Add essence, colour beat till frothy
5. Freeze in small portions otherwise a steel container for 4-5 hours
6. Serve it with fresh mangoes

In my version and I just added little vanilla essence as my Mangoes were too sweet and flavourful. You could also use ready made pulp instead of mangoes.

Watch out for the next article on Pista kulfi

It is two years since I started my blog and what better way to say thank you to god on Basant panchmi. Made this special sweet rice for the prasad today. This also has a special significance today and connection to my mom. It happens to be my parents anniversary as per Hindu Calendar and my mom used to make it every year.

Ingredients

• Long grain rice- 1 cup soaked for 30 min
• Sugar – 1 cup
• Green Cardamom – 2 nos
• Dry fruits- cashews and raisins
• Water- 2 cups
• Turmeric- 1/2 tsp
• Ghee- 1tsp

Method

• Take pressure pan , add ghee and dry roast the dry fruits
• Add cardamom, rice and turmeric and saute for some time
• Add sugar and water
• Pressure cook for 1 whistle and on low sim for 10 min. You could also do it in open pan and cook till water dries.

That’s it!! It’s a simple recipe, so enjoy the lovely sweet rice.

Navratri–or the nine sacred days–mark the most auspicious days of the lunar calendar according to Hinduism. Celebrated with fervour and festivity all over north India, and every Hindu community the world over, these nine days are dedicated solely to Maa Durga (goddess Durga) and her nine avatars. People fast during this and eat very restricted items of Kuttu Atta (buck wheat flour) , Potato, Singhara (water Chestnut Flour)..

This is simple recipe of Singhara Flour Barfi with basic ingredients. It can be made in advance and stored to have it during this period. Most of our familiy loves the same

Ingredients

• 1 cup atta
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup ghee
• 4 cup water
• One plate or try to spread the mixture

Method

1) Dry roast the flour till brown in a pan

2) Add ghee and roast little more

3) Switch off the gas ( this step is done to ensure no lumps are formed). Let the atta cool a little

4) In another pan dissolve sugar with water and add it to the flour

5) Cook the same till everything comes together without lumps

6) Quickly spread it on the greased tray and put lines like a diamond cut on batter till it is warm

7) once the Barfi/Panjiri is set you can remove it and store in airtight container

If you feel you want to add dryfruits or garnish it with silver paper. Pl do the same. I do not do so as everyone loves it this way.

In case you want to have it like halwa then reduce water and add milk to it and then it can be served as halwa.

Bottle Gourd (Lauki) is not a very popular vegetable in our household. But my hubby likes to order it more than the required quantity. Not too sure why does it happen every time : to irritate me; or to give me hints I need to eat it to reduce weight; or challenging my culinary skills on what different things I can make with it!! So this time I’m sharing a simple desert (halwa) variation with Lauki & Milkmaid. It is very simple and does not require too much effort.

Ingredients:

1. Bottle Gourd – 3 Cups grated
2. Ghee – 1/4th cup
3. Milk – 3/4 cup
4. Sugar – 2-3 tbl sp
5. Milk maid – 200 gm
6. Nuts for garnishing
7. Green color – 2-3 drops (optional)

Method : 

• Take a non stick wok and saute the grated lauki for 2 mins.
• Add milk to the wok and let it boil till lauki cooks. It will take about 10min or so.
• Add sugar after some time and let it dissolve and then add ghee
• Add Milkmaid and roast the same for 10min. You can colour if u want at this stage or leave it. I have not added any colour in my dish.
• Roast till the ghee separates. It will take max 10 min or so

It is very yummy and when i first made it, I did not tell the kids that it is lauki and it was polished off. Try making for this Rakhi as a surprise.

Navratras have special place in most North Indian households. Often there is less of fasting and more of feasting which happens! Potato halwa is one of our family favourite and I never had it after my mom’s death. Suddenly cleaning my cupboard, I chanced upon my mom’s recipe book and saw the potato halwa recipe . Just got tempted to try it and relive my childhood. It is an easy recipe and you can reduce or increase the ghee quantity

Ingredients

• – 1 ½ cup boiled and mashed potatoes (let the boiled potatoes cool naturally)
• – 1/4 cup ghee
• – 1/2 tsp cardamom powder
• – 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• – 1 /2 cup milk

Method

1. Take a pan and put some ghee in it. Heat it for a min
2. Put the potatoes and fry them in ghee for about 10 min. Use a non stick vessel so that it is easier and potatoes do not stick to the pan
3. Add sugar and roast it for a min
4. Add milk and cardamom powder to the mixture and let it cook for another 3-4 min
5. Serve it hot with almond garnish

It is really yummy, my kids had it for the first time and they loved it . It took them a while to find out it is boiled potato

Post Holi, the kids wanted something different than Indian food. To end the long weekend decided to surprise the kids by making these Whole wheat eggless waffles. This is the first time I tried waffles without egg and made them whole wheat. The results were amazing. I can vouch for the same as I had kid’s friends over and everything was polished off in minutes. I had to make extra for clicking pics!!

Here it goes.

Ingredients

• Whole wheat flour  – 1 ¼ cup

• All purpose Flour (Maida) – ¼ cup

• Baking powder- 1 ½ tsp

• Baking soda –  ½ tsp

• Sugar- 3 tbsp

• Milk – 1 cup approximately

• Butter – 20gm melted and for applying on the waffles pans

• Serving – Maple syrup or Ice-cream or dust icing sugar

Method

1. Sift all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl
2. Add Sugar to the batter
3. Slowly add milk to the batter. Depending on the grade of whole wheat flour you are using, the milk can vary. Please note the batter is not to be runny but on thicker side
4. Add melted butter and mix well
5. Let the batter rest for 5-10 min
6. When the batter is resting, please preheat the waffle maker
7. Pour the batter in the waffle maker and let the magic begin (It takes about 7-8 min in my machine – I have used a Morphy Richards one)

You can serve them hot with ice–cream or maple syrup

You can store waffles in an airtight container once they have cooled and  reheat them in a toaster. Let the kids enjoy these guilt free waffles anytime.

Keep following, as I will share more variations with Banana and gluten free.

Atta halwa just reminds me of my childhood days when my grandmother used to sit on stool and make this for me.  She was short and could not reach the gas and I used to snuggle to her tummy and taking in aroma which was coming and keep asking her when will it be done some 10 times.  My grandmother would keep saying 2 min and her hands would be busy in making the halwa. Even today when I make it for my kids and they just love the same and the smell just rekindles those memory in my mind.

With people becoming conscious of health, ghee and sugar portions need to be controlled. So, in way I devised this no lump halwa and where you can control sugar and ghee portions without compromising on taste. Recently made the same for my friend with healthier version and she loved it.

Here it goes

Ingredients

• 1 cup Atta/Wheat flour
• 1 cup sugar but you can take little less (you can reduce if u want or replace with sugar free)
• ½ cup ghee (low fat version or u can reduce or increase as per taste)
• 1 tsp cardamom powder
• 2 cup water
• 2 tbsp mixed dry fruits chopped for garnish

Method

• Dry Roast the wheat flour till dark brown. Let it cool completely
• Mix sugar and water in a non-stick vessel and add the cooled wheat flour to it and cardamom powder
• Once it has mixed then switch on the gas and keep stirring it
• Add Ghee to the mixture depending on your need. Min of 3 tbsp gives you the good taste
• Keep stirring till it thickens and leave sides of the vessel
• Garnish with dry fruits and serve hot

Please enjoy the hot halwa and do share feedback on your version

 

I got married to a husband who hates cream and milk and I love them! I do not remember a summer without chilled fruit cream at mums place . So with my thinking cap came this recipe of fruit cream with no cream. Instead using our King of Fruit Mango. This is quite low calorie as we are not using cream. This has become everyone favorite at our place and of our friends.

Ingredients

• ½ cup mango
• About 2 cups milk
• 2-3 tbsp of sugar or little milkmaid
• Roasted nuts
• Assortment of cut fruits like apple, mango, pineapple, grapes, banana, kiwi

Method

• Puree the mango with sugar or milkmaid
• Add Milk and churn it again
• Mix all the fruits and nuts in the mango puree
• Chill in fridge for at-least 3 hours before serving
• Garnish with some chopped mango and cherry and nuts

Tips/Variations

• Pl note nuts add little crunchy taste to the dish. You can skip if you do not like it .
• People who like cream and give a top layer of whipped cream or Amul cream. But remember to set in fridge to chill.

Go ahead and Enjoy the mango season 🙂

This is my kids favorite dessert as they get to make it and eat it too. They just love doing it and often it gets made for me to uplift my mood or they need to bribe me.

Ingredients

• Digestive Biscuits of any kind- 100 to 200 gm( 2 packets typically)
• Butter -100 gm
• Chocolate- 1 cup
• Amul cream – ½ cup
• Fruit for decorations or anything you like. I used strawberry in my recipe

Method

• Grind the biscuits in a mixer
• Add melted butter in the biscuits. It should form soft balls. The quantity may vary depending on the biscuit type and size.
• Put this biscuit mixture in a serving dish which is little shallow or use a tart mould.
• This needs refrigeration for about 15 minutes for the butter to set with biscuits
• Melt the chocolate with double boiler method and then add Amul cream to the mixture
  • Alternatively you can  pour boiled cream on chopped chocolate and mix
  • Or Microwave the chocolate for melting and then add Amul cream
• You need to have a smooth mixture of cream and chocolate.  You can do this buy passing the chcoclate and cream mixture through a strainer or seive
• Pour this on the biscuit base
• You can put strawberry in the setting stage or Oreo cookies or any fruit of your choice
• Let it cool for one hour or till chocolate sets
• Dust icing sugar before serving
• You can serve it in the dish itself if it is glass bowl or otherwise de-mould it from tart mould and serve.

As you can see in the picture we made strawberry Tart as these days we are getting them fresh. You can add anything or just serve it like that. It is your creativity and what flavours your family likes.

You add another layer of whipped cream over the chocolate layer once it is set.

Other Alternative who are not chocolate fans is to fill the tart case with thick custard and fruits.