Mithas e-guftagu from India's masterchef 1

rabdi

phirni

Pardon me ! Warm new year wishes to each and everyone of you from Palate Corner .So here i come after a long long long break as i moved from Australia to India and finally after the helluva time i am back to my blogging,also  my apologises for not blog hoping these days, was really tied up and had no proper net connection .I did had a chance to meet many food bloggers in bangalore which was super amazing and unbelievable .I am sure everyone must be aware of it and ofcourse the credit goes to Facebook.As everyone knows India's masterchef 2 is also finished and i am glad that this time i had a chance to follow,the last few months of this show and am very happy for India's 2nd masterchef Shipra Khanna ,she is very well deserved candidate but on the other hand i  liked Shazia  a lotz,i thought she'll be the masterchef of this season.Anyways recently i went through  the website of India's masterchef and i was very disappointed as they had posted very limited recipes unlike Australia's masterchef and i desperately wanted one of the  recipes but i was unable to hunt on their site ,when i was browsing i found this dessert on India's Masterchef 1 site and i quite liked the name though  the elements in the dish r very common and familiar to all ,but to be very frank i never thought of assembling all those elements together ,so inspite of being common and simple dish it looked extremely beautiful and delicious.I assembled this dish with ma own measurements and method unlike the original recipe .This dish was actually made on my second blog anniverary which was in last week of decemeber,Yess !! I have completed 2 long years of blogging and cooking up these yummy dishes but had been sheepishly lazy to blog about it,so without any much ado lets go straight to the yummylicious recipe .
approx for 4-5 ppl
ingredients for phirni :
1/2 litre full cream milk
1/2 cup  sugar
3 tbsp basmati rice,washed and drained
1 tsp cardomon pwd
1/2 tsp rose water
1-2 tbsp mixed sliced nuts - almonds,cashews,pistachios,chiroli
3-4 strands of saffaron soaked  in 1tsp of warm milk
method :
Boil milk ,lower the flame and simmer for 10-15 mins.Meanwhile drain the soaked rice and grind it to a coarse powder form and keep it aside,once the milk is simmered for a while then add this powdered rice and stir it for a while,let it simmer till the rice cooks well enough and becomes soft and mushy.Once the rice is cooked,add sugar and mix well,keep stirring as the rice gets thickened in the milk and it may stick to the bottom of your pan so occassionally keep stirring.After the sugar gets dissolved add cardomon pwd ,kesar and when the phirni is cooled down add  rose water.

ingredients for rabdi :
1 cup milk ( full cream )
3 tbsp grated khoya
3-4 tbsp sugar
a pinch of cardomon
1-2 strands of saffaron
method :
Mix milk and grated khoya together,simmer it for a while ,keep stirring occassionally.Add sugar according to your taste ,once the milk gets thick enough ( yet pourable) add cardomon pwd and saffaron ,mix well and keep it aside.The thick rabdi is ready.

ingredients for crispy sevaiyan:
1/2 cup thin sevaiyan ( i used mtr roasted vermicilli as i didnt had sevaiyan )
2 tsp ghee
1/2 cup sugar
method :
Mix sugar and very little water just to soak the sugar and boil and make a sugar syrup of two thread consistency.Heat ghee and fry sevaiyan to golden brown colour.In the sugar syrup add the roasted sevaiyan and mix well for 1-2 mins.Turn off the gas and your crispy sevaiyan are ready.

Assembling the dish :
Take a bowl / wine glass add half the glass phirni,top it with some sliced/chopped dry fruits ,sprinkle it with a tbsp of sevaiyan ,to top it add a tbsp of rabdi  and garnish with some more dryfruits.Keep the dish for some time in refrigerator and chill well before serving.Mithas-e guftagu is ready to eat.

vermicilli kheer

To celeberate my inlaws 36th wedding anniversary which was a couple of days back i treated me and my family with this simple,easy peasy and delicious vermicilli kheer ( payasam ).We loved the warm kheer in this winter very much and to top it i made some deep fried snack ,which was real crisp and lip-smacking ,will surely post that recipe too :)

ingredients :
5 cups boiled milk
3/4 cup roasted vermicilli
3/4th cup sugar ( pls adjust more or less acc to your taste )
2 tsps ghee
1 tsp of rose water (gulab jal )
handful of mix cashew nuts and almonds,sliced ,raisins .
cardomom pwd to taste
1 tbsp charoli (chironji seeds )
method :
Heat ghee in a deep non-stick pan,add vermicilli and roast for a min ,add milk and give it a stir.Lower the heat and let the milk boil and let the vermicilli cook in the milk.Occassionally keep stirring .When the vermicilli are tender and soft enough ,add sugar .Simmer till sugar dissolves completely.Turn of the heat,add rose water,cadomon pwd ,nuts and charoli .Serve warm and njoy !

Gulab Jamuns ( Deep fried milk fudge balls in sugar syrup)

As i mentioned in my earlier post that i completed 200 posts in my blog,it was but obvious that i had to make some beautiful and yummy dish to celeberate so i decided to make gulab jamuns, though im not very fond of sweet dishes , my husband definately loves and is having a sweet tooth,my daughter is very selective in sweet dishes,she is fond of gulab jamuns and so i decided to make them.Its not that i have never tried gulab jamuns earlier,i have definately made a couple of times before but this time when i made it turned out so perfect and gorgeous that my hubby had to comment that it was sure shot a ready made sweet mart style and bingo !! that was the best comment i ever got from him,he usually never passes such comments even in his jokes ,he is my best critics i can say and his compliment was more than enough for me to post this gulab jamun's  here.These days i am going through a lot of cookery books and i picked this recipe from one of those books.The book is Kurma Dasa's Vegeterian World Food.

makes approx 20-22 balls
ingredients for jamuns ( balls ):
21/2 cups full cream milk powder
6 tsps self raising flour
3/4th cup warm milk ( or as required )
ingredients for syrup :
23/4 cups sugar ( actual recipe is 33/4 cup but i used less , pls adjust according to your sweetness )
4 cups water
cardamon pwd to taste
2 tbsps gulab jal ( pure distilled rose water )
other ingredients :
oil or ghee for deep frying
1-2 tsps of warm ghee ( unclarified butter )
method :
Combine water and sugar together in a huge deep pan on a medium heat and stir continuosly till sugar is completely dissolved.Boil the sugar syrup for 10 mins and turn off the heat.Add cardomon pwd and rose water and set the syrup aside.
Heat the oil / ghee for deep frying on a very low heat in a deep non stick pan.Sift the milk powder and selfraising flour together.Warm the milk and shift into a mixing bowl.Sprinkle the sifted milk powder and flour into the warm milk and knead a soft and pliable dough.At this stage the dough will be quite sticky but rub some warm ghee on your palms and rub it on the dough.Make equal walnut size balls and place them on a oiled / greased plate or a tray.
When the oil is hot enough drop few of the balls into it ,initially the balls should sink in the bottom .That very moment shake the pan carefully till the balls turn over and comes up to the surface.Do not put any kind of spoon to move the balls or u might break them apart.Once the balls start to rise and come up ,then carefully stir them with a slotted spoon and roll them over .Fry till it turns dark brown evenly on a very low heat all the time .The balls usually expand and gets bigger in size .
Remove the balls with slotted spoon,strain the oil completely and drop them carefully into the sugar syrup.Fry all the balls in the same manner on very low heat and then drop them into sugar syrup.Soak the balls in syrup for atleast 3-4 hours or for best results soak them overnight.Serve at room temperature or can be warmed in micro and also can be stored for a week in refrigerator.
Pls Note :
1.While making the dough ,it may b little sticky and soft so dont worry , just wash and dry your hands and rest the dough for 2-3 mins and then u can apply some warm ghee  over the dough and make balls.
2.While frying the balls,the heat should always be on a low flame ,instead of stirring the balls try and shake the deepfried pan instead for best results.You can use the handle one deep sauce pan for frying so that it wud be easier to hold and shake .
3.If the balls collapses in the syrup that means the balls are not well fried so do fry them again for 5 mins more .So initially drop 2-3 balls only for deep frying and in sugar syrup and then you can adjust accordingly.
Since i have adpated this recipe from a book and its Tuesday ,im linking it to Priya & Aipi's Every Tuesday - Bookmarked Recipes event.

Phirni / Rice pudding

hiPhirni / phir nee / firni  is a traditional sweet,quite famous from the northern parts of india , tastes more or less like a kheer but this dish is thick & creamy in texture.Its usually chilled before serving in kasori's,a pot which is actually an earthenware bowl,the pot is washed and dried before hand ,then the phirni is filled and kept in refrigerators to be cooled.Its little grainy in texture,very rich dish and it happens to be a scrumptious dessert.

ingredients :
1 litre whole milk (  approx 4 - 41/4 cups full fat cream milk )
1/4 cup rice ( basmati rice is preferably )
1 cup sugar ( adjust more or less acc to your taste )
1/2 tsp crushed saffaron strands soaked in 1 tbsp of warm milk for half an hr.( optional )
1/2 tbsp rose water ( optional )
cardomon pwd to taste
few flakes of almonds,pistachios
method :
Wash and soak rice for half an hour.Boil milk on a slow flame for atleast 15 mins,keep stirring occassionally so that it does not stick to the bottom of your pan.Drain the rice and grind it into coarse powdery form .Add little milk ( say about 2-3 tsps ) to the grinded rice and mix to avoid any lumps.Add this rice mixture to the boiled milk and keep stirring for 1-2 mins  and take care that there are no lumps formed in the milk.Let the rice cook completely in the milk stirring occassionally now .Once the rice is cooked,quite tender and soft enough, add sugar, saffaron and cardomon pwd.Switch off the flame,add rose water,garnish with the nuts and chill in refrigerator or can also be served hot.

dinkache laadoo/gond ke ladoo/edible gum sweet balls

"Dink "..means gond/goond/edible gum in marathi language and this is a maharashtrian style of ladoo which are made specially for post delivery women which helps with the lactation  for the new born child,it is meant to be very healthy and nutritional ,also perfect for winters as it provides heat in the body,here the ladoos are not roasted ,very easy to make and  takes less time in making,not required much of ghee and can be stored for quite a few days,today i made these ladoos for my dear friend as she delivered a cute little girl exactly a week back and thought these would be apt for her at this point of stage,i hope she likes them :)

ingredients :
1/2 cup gond/goond/edible gum
1 cup cashew nuts (unsalted-unroasted )
11/2 cups almonds (unsalted-unroasted )
1/4 cup walnuts
1/4 cup dry dates ( deseeded )
1/2 cup dessicated fine coconut
11/2 cups sugar (add more or less acc to your taste )
1/4th cup to 1/2 cup melted ghee ( add more or less accordingly when required for  binding )
method :
Grind sugar, almonds ,cashew nuts,dates and goond all seperately one by one into powder form,add coconut.Mix all together,add ghee and bind the mixture in desired size ladoos,you can store this ladoos for a fortnight.
pls  note :
1. the difficult part is to deseed the dry dates,as they are very hard,if not with a sharp knife you can add them in your mixie jar and grind the dates with switching on and off the mixer knob for seconds and the seeds will be automatically deseeded and then u can remove the seeds from the jar and grind the dates again into powder.
Sending these ladoos to nithu bala for guest hosting celeberating sweets-ladoo ,an event by nivedita and sending my first picture to sana for her event colour your palate-"a visual treat ."

besan ke ladoo

Besan ladoos/gram flour sweet balls are one of the very famous ,easiest ,taditional and common indian sweets,my sisters and brother loves them like anything,my mom makes very yum besan ladoos occassionally, specially on diwali or any festivals but she doesnt add rava/suji and any dry fruits in it so when i went through manjula's kitchen ,i saw the ladoos with same procedure and same ingredients what my mom makes but the only addition was semolina which i thought was a very new and unique idea to make ladoos with and so immediately i boomarked it,a couple of days back my friend invited me on tea-party for the first time at her place, so i made these ladoos for her and she loved them,thank you so much manjula aunty for these lip-smacking ,delicious and yummilicious ladoos.

ingredients :
2 cups besan/gram flour
4 tbsp rava/semolina/suji
1/2-3/4th cup ghee + 1 tbsp extra
3/4th cup-1 cup sugar (i used raw sugar ) (adjust acc to your taste )
cardomom pwd to taste (optional )
rasins/almonds/pistachios for taste/garnish (optional)
method :
Heat a deep ,heavy bottomed pan,add ghee, besan and fry on a low -medium flame for 7-8 mins,add suji/rava and fry again till the besan is  brown in colour and all the raw smell is gone,keep roasting continously or else the besan wll get burnt and stick to the pan.Turn off the heat,add cardomom pwd,suar and mix well.Add the sliced almonds and let the besan mixture cools down a bit,but still should be warm enough to bind into ladoos.Make the desired size ladoos taking little mixture at a time,dip one side of laddoos in 1 tbsp extra ghee and stick a raisin or unsalted sliced pistachios for garnishing.Store this ladoos in air tight containers for a week .
Sending this besan ladoos to
1. nithu,for hosting celeberate sweets- ladoo  ,an event started by nivedita.
2.aipi for co-hosting  bookmarked recipes-every tuesday ,an event by priya mitharwal.
3.akila for her event DNSW : B .
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