7 cups to Heaven - 7-cup Barfi for Janmashtami

For the longest time, I stayed away from even attempting to make Indian sweets. I even stayed away from thinking about making them. When it came to celebrating festivals, I always made my own rules. Why might Krishna only want uppu seedai and vella seedai for Janmashtami. Why not chocolate cookies? Or buns? Why make Indian sweets and savouries for Deepavali. Why not cookies and cakes again? You get the drift, don't you? I simply didn't want to move out of my comfort zone. So, I found every excuse not to.

A few years ago, I was a visiting with a friend and she had made a snack with beaten rice and a sweet. I asked her if she'd brought the sweet from India or if one of her family members had visited. She told me that she'd made it herself. I immediately asked her for the recipe and made it soon after. Three years later, it remains the only Indian elbow greasy sweet I can make confidently. 

1 cup Ghee
1 cup Besan
1 cup Milk
1 cup Almond Meal/ Dessicated Coconut (or a combination of the two)
3 cups Sugar
Cardamom and Saffron to taste
1 tbsp Ghee for greasing the plate/cake tin

Grease a large thali or plate and keep aside. (I've even used cake tins when I didn't own a thali.)

Heat 1/2 cup ghee in a heavy bottomed pan. Add the besan and fry it until the raw smell of besan goes and you are left with the wonderful aroma. To this, add the milk carefully. Add all the other ingredients, including the remaining 1/2 cup ghee. Keep stirring until the mixture comes together and begins to leave the sides of the pan.

Transfer to the greased thali/plate and smooth the mixture down carefully. Cool it a little. Cut it into diamond shapes with a sharp knife or a pizza cutter. When fully cool, store the pieces in an air tight container.

Be sure to share this with your friends and family. You may want to hand out recipe cards with this as people are bound to ask you for the recipe. Especially if you're like me and no one associates any traditional sweets with you, they're probably thinking - if she can make it, why not I?

On that happy note, let me sign off while wishing all of you a Happy Janmashtami.

Check out some other not so traditional Janmashtami recipes on the blog here.

Kaju Barfi

Indian sweets is one area I have steered clear of. You could easily blame it on two things. One is the hard work involved and the other is definitely a scar from the olden days. I remember trying to make one sweet which just didn't set. I added sugar, more sugar and then some. At the end of the experiment, all one could taste was sugar and it still had to be eaten using a spoon. My mother was very encouraging and very forgiving. Far more forgiving than I have ever been on myself.

Last year, at Deepavali, I made my version of the 7-cup cake. The recipe will come up soon. It took me another 9 months to try my next Indian sweet. I usually don't stock the amount of sugar and ghee that go into Indian sweets. After years of making cookies and sweet buns for Janmashtami, this year I decided I must introduce little A to mithai as well. I found this recipe in the Milkmaid Gold Collection and modified it a little.

1 1/4 cups Cashews, powdered

150g Khoa, grated

1/2 cup Milk

1/4 cup Flour

1/2 tin Milkmaid

1 tbsp Ghee

1/4 tsp Cardamom powder

a few Saffron strands

Grind all the ingredients except the cardamom and saffron to a fine paste. Grease a heavy bottomed pan with 3/4 tbsp ghee and add the paste. Add the cardamom and the saffron. Heat the mixture over an even medium flame until the mixture comes together as a ball.

Grease a plate with sides (I used two 8" cake tins as I don't have thalis in my house). Transfer the mixture and spread evenly. Cut into diamond shapes and store in an airtight container.

Since this was my very first attempt, I didn't add any ghee to my pan at the start, which explains the little burnt bits. The original recipe didn't ask for any extra ghee. My barfis needed some extra love.

Happy Janmashtami all of you!

Green Masala Dal

Dal is almost a staple in our house. I don't make it everyday, but I make it very often. On days when it is pasta/noodles or anything other than rice and roti, dal doesn't make an appearance, but it is there to grace our meals on every other occasion.

Growing up, I saw only four varieties of dal being used. Toor dal (red gram dal) was the most common. Moong dal came second and not a close second. Udad and chana dals were relagated to temperings and that was that. Whole udad and whole chana found many uses, as did whole masoor. It is only when I moved out of home that I started stocking every variety of dal available in the market and learnt how to cook with them. Split, unsplit, skin on, skin off, premixed... you get the drift, don't you?

To aid me in my quest for newer dal dishes, I bought myself a pocket book by Tarla Dalal called "Dal". I have tried several recipes of hers from this book and have never been disappointed. This is one such recipe that I have adapted from this book.

1/2 cup Toor Dal

1/2 cup Moong Dal

1/4 tsp Turmeric Powder

1 tbsp Ghee

Salt to taste

Grind to a paste:

1 cup Coriander Leaves, chopped

1/3 cup Coconut, scraped

1 Onion, roughly chopped

1" piece of Ginger

3 Green Chillies

3 cloves Garlic

Combine all the ingredients for the paste and grind to a paste using as little water as necessary.

Cook the dals with the turneric powder, salt and 3 cups of water. Drain the water, reserving 1/2 cup (or save the rest for rasam). Mash the dals well.

Heat the ghee in a pan and add the ground paste. Saute for 4-5 minutes. Add the mashed dal and the 1/2 cup of water. Bring to a boil. Serve hot with rice or rotis.

Gulab Jamun

Gulab Jamuns. I think of them of little dumplings of goodness. While I can't stand the cloyingly sweet store bought ones, I love the ones that are made at home. I have to stop myself from eating too many of these whenever Amma makes them.

She made them today and we had them after lunch. All I needed was one bite and I was transported to kingdom happiness. I even remembered that this blog has been neglected for too long. Never before has this blog gone for 3 months without a single post. But this was not without reason.

S and I are blessed with a baby boy. Our own little dumpling of goodness entered our lives 8 weeks ago. Needless to say, life hasn't been the same since. Like Amma's gulab jamuns, I can't seem to get enough of him.

Here's a simple recipe that never fails to satisfy:

200g Khoa

A pinch of Salt

A pinch of Soda Bicarb

1/2 cup Flour

For the syrup:

1 cup Sugar
1 cup Water
1/4 tsp Rose White Essence or Cardamom Powder


Oil for frying


Heat the oil.

Knead all the ingredients into a dough. Shape the dough into balls or oblongs and fry in the hot oil.

Make a syrup with sugar and water and bring to a boil. Do not make it very thick or attempt to bring it to any thread consistency. Add either the rose essence or the powdered cardamom.

Add the fried balls into the syrup. Allow them to soak a little and enjoy them.

 

I am glad to share news of the new arrival with all of you. Please have some gulab jamuns to celebrate the good news. 

Carrot Kheer

Carrots. I can't seem to get enough of them ever. Especially the lovely red carrots that make an appearance at this time of the year. I tend to put them in everything from salads to pulaos to casseroles to cakes and desserts. I had eaten carrot kheer only once. A classmate of mine invited me to her place for lunch almost a decade ago, and she served this for dessert. Ever since, I've wanted to make it. But considering I'm not the biggest fan of kheer, this always took a backseat. Last weekend, I wanted to make something for dessert after lunch and I made this. We enjoyed this for a couple of days and I'm actually itching to make it again.

2 cups Carrot, grated

1/2 can Sweetened Condensed Milk (Milkmaid/Mithai Mate)

2-3 cups Milk

a pinch Saffron, dissolved in some milk

1/4 tsp Cardamom Powder

1 tbsp Kesari Milk Masala

Microwave the grated carrots (with a little water) on high for 2-3 minutes.

Bring the milk to a boil in a large vessel and add the condensed milk to it. Keep stirring until the mixture is even (else you'll have burnt condensed milk). Add the grated carrots and the saffron paste and simmer the mixture for about 10-15 minutes. It will begin to thicken nicely. Add the milk masala powder and take off the flame after a couple of minutes.

While you could enjoy it warm, I found that it tastes best the next day after it has sat for a night in the fridge. The colour seems to intensify and the flavours are just so... well, why should I tell you. You should try for yourself.

Off this goes to the JFI: Saffron event being hosted by my erstwhile fellow marathoner, DK.