Besan ke Laddu is just pure love. I mean you have hundreds of varieties of Indian sweets, there can be different Kheers, Halwas and other numerous kinds of burfis, also Laddus, but there is something about Besan Laddu which is just pure love at first sight.
I know I sound like those Moms from some Bollywood movies from the 80’s and 90’s who always made Laddus for their kids and handed them in a large steel container while they would be leaving for work/studies to another city and it always came in with instructions of how the son should just be eating one each day and not share much, which of course the son forgot with convenience as soon as he reached his destination and his room mates and friends could smell the fragrance of home made Laddus from a mile away… OMG! can’t believe I just had the time and energy to mention all this. Well, hope it reminded you of your childhood movies if you have watched the “Masala Bollywood” and if you have not, I am sure the story still brought a smile to your face.
So, one day like a Bollywood mother I also got in the groove of making some Besan Laddus and I think its not just one of the easiest but one of the best sweet dishes ever. Its easy to make, few ingredients and takes very little time. If you are new at making Indian sweets, this is your go to dish. The instructions are pretty easy which makes it easy to follow and wonderfully impressive. Enjoy!!!
After Moong Daal ka halwa, Badaam ka Halwa has been my favorite. I just love the flavor of Almonds with the grainy texture cooked in ghee with the sweetness that can melt hearts.
Halwa are the innovative creations a gift from Mughla or Persian rulers. The halwas were introduced in wide range from Moong Daal Halwa or Chana Daal Halwa to those made with Carrot and Bottle Gourd and if you can dare to be more exotic one is made with just Almonds. All Halwas are rich, full-of-ghee fudges and are cooked to perfection in milk solids and milk.
Badaam Ka Halwa of course, is the quintessential rich man’s dessert. The expensive sweet dish is cooked simply, adding richness with Saffron or Zaafraan and Milk solids like Khoya. A little flavor of Screwpine water or Kewra adds a lot fragrance when added with Saffron. Kewra and Zaafraan together not just enhance flavor and fragrance but also enhance color. I always love decorating my sweet dishes with Silver varq, and I always feel that silver varq adds a lot of glamour to a dish. And for something that looks beautiful always wins the first food serving battle of presentation, since it’s a feast for the eye. Of course, if the flavors aren’t doing justice to your taste buds, then the eye feasting doesn’t do much. In this case the sweet dish is very easy to make. All you have to pay attention to is adding the right quantity of ingredients at the right time. Almonds are known to absorb flavors while maintaining their own. So you wouldn’t want anything to be added in quantity more than required specially if things cannot be reversed. Because of the copious mounts of ghee and heavier grain, this Badaam Halwa is basically a winter delicacy.
Halwas made using vegetables were invented in the kitchens of the Mughlia Empire when the Mughal culture was at its zenith of cooking. The use of lavish Almonds, pistachios, cashews , walnuts and saffron added to those delicious inventions made them more desirable and put them under the category of celebration food. Though I am not a big fan of dishes like Apple Halwa and a new known mango Halwa. I feel a hint of those fruits with Flour or Semolina and serving it as a Halwa is fine. But the moment the entire halwa is made using a single fruit, as much as people feel its something innovative, my personal opinion differs. I feel a hint of a fruit gives out lovely flavors as opposed to an entire fruit that might leave you with a very strong taste for hours and I am someone who enjoys a mix of flavors in a bite than one flavor over powering the others.
Coming back to Badaam ka halwa. This sweet dish is rich and extremely loved in every family I ever made it for.
One of the first laddu experiments that I did. Experiment sounds extremely funny, but the fact is that it was a complete experiment. I was newly married and wanted to impress my husband with my “Indian sweet” making skills. This was the time when my cooking were still doubtful and my food was mostly an experiment, when I tried something new.
Its really amazing to see yourself grow confident for something you are always so passionate about. Its not that I never make any cooking mistakes anymore, we all do at some point. Sometimes a dish made in rush turns out amazing and something that you give a lot of time to gets messed up, and leaves you wondering that what could have you possibly done wrong. But, you are a master when you learn how to fix up your mistakes and still be able to serve a lovely dish. The art of being able to fix a dish is called cooking.
Coming back to the Laddus, so these sweet balls of flavor were a hit from the first time Mr. Parveez tasted them. But, the original thought of making Laddus wasn’t what I had in mind. I was actually trying to make Rajasthani sattu. I believe the amount of ghee that needs to be added in making the sattu was the reason I didn’t get the dish right. Mr. Parveez doesn’t enjoy Ghee much, to my disappointment, and as much as I would like to add ghee to my sweets [the Marwari in me], I am not able to. So, the sattus didn’t turn out right due to me watching and deducting the quantity of ghee and once I messed that up, I needed to fix that and this is when the Laddus were made. I figured out that adding sooji gave them a little crunch and made them taste better too.
Now, the sugar that we have in USA is granulated sugar, so if you tend to use a thick grain sugar [white or brown], I would suggest you powder it before using. A lot of Laddus require chashni or sugar syrup and since this recipe requires adding sugar in solid state, you need something that mixes in properly.
These are easy to make for beginners as well. So, if you happen to be new at cooking and would like to impress loved ones with something easy and special, this recipe is for you. Enjoy!!!
My love for Baklava began in 2003. I was working for a
University in Amman, Jordan. Trying out different foods and adapting myself to new
culture and people is when I first time tried Baklava. Now, Baklava tastes very
different in all middle east countries. I might sound bias but there is nothing
like the Jordanian baklava. Its crunchy, nutty, crispy with just perfectly
sweet. Its hard to decide how much sugar will be perfect for your baklava but
constant practice made me come up with the perfect measure.
Like most of my other recipes, this recipe too is not that
tough. Just be precise with your measurements and oven heat and time. Make sure
the nuts you use are fresh and enjoy the flavor of a wonderful Baklava. It can
be made a day before for your guests and is a great dish for potluck parties
too. The shelf life is a week and can be extended to two weeks if you
refrigerate it. Though it should be thawed before serving.
If you like Gulab Jamuns, you will definitely like these. These are almost the same recipe as Khoya Gulab Jamun with a filling of dry fruits inside. Change the shape to make it look different from regular Gulab Jamuns. I made them oblong, you can always make them bigger and round if that appeals you more.
Bengali sweets happen to be one of the best sweets in India. They offer a wide variety from Rasgullas to Mishti Doi and most people who like Indian sweets always love these sweet sugar dipped treats.
Malai Chum Chum is a very popular Bengali sweet made with Paneer or homemade Cottage Cheese. It is a delicious Indian dessert that cannot be resisted since they are amazingly delicious to look at and delectable. These chum chums are soaked in sugar syrup and in between are filled with rich and creamy Khoya filling.
Mr. Parveez loves Malai Chumchum and he would always buy them from his favorite Indian sweet shop here. There were few other ones as well and he loved them all. Few years back we moved houses and we went pretty far from the area of our favorite Indian area. So, the visits to the sweet shop weren’t as frequent and Mr. Parveez though deprived never complained and neither did he ever ask me to try.
Actually there is a funny story to him asking too. As a newly married wife, every now and then I would try to make dishes that we have tried at different restaurants. I still don’t know why I did that, probably just wanted to amaze my husband …LOLzzz. But instead of impressing him, he asked me to stop. The problem was that making the dishes we eat at restaurant would be close to what we eat outside, but the charm of enjoying a meal outside would be lost. So, as much as I wanted to try making some of these sweets, I would not attempt and just get the sweets from the sweets store whenever we would be in that area. Few years ago we moved to our new house, and the house is pretty far for us to visit that sweet store as often as we would like to, and the closest Indian market does not sell sweets of the same quality unless we buy frozen and we all know frozen loses the taste.
And that’s how I decided to make my own. Initially when I started making Rasgullas because that makes a base for all the bengali sweets, or most of them. The Rasgullas need a little tactic that makes sure they are spongy and can absorb the sweetness from the sugar syrup. That’s the first thing you need to master and as easy as the recipe looks and seems, they aren’t that easy. It took me around 5 trials to master them.
For Malai Chumchum, make rasgullas and once done have to be cut into half and add khoya mix . The middle part is khoya mixed with sugar and a little spice to enhance flavors. You can always a little bit of food color to make the dish look nicer. Garnish with silver leaf and crushed nuts.
You can always make them 4-5 days in advance. Refrigerate and serve chilled.
After my successful trial of Kesar Pista Kulfi, I wanted to make kesar pista milkshake. It was during one of those hot summer afternoons when my boys returned from their soccer camp, they needed something cool and filling. Mostly its a fruit smoothie/ chocolate/ vanilla milkshake, but once in a while its always good to try something different and pure Indian…LOLzzz.
Before I give out other details, let me tell you this. So, there was this not too fancy Indian restaurant but, they had great Kesar Pista Milkshake. Too much competition and unable to maintain made the restaurant shut down. The best thing about that milkshake was that it had kesar pista ice cream in the bottom that would melt slowly and make the milkshake more cooler and thicker.
Since we didn’t have that restaurant anymore and also I had started making this awesome Kesar pista kulfi, this had to be my next step. It was one of the best things I ever made. There were few trials and errors till it came out to be as perfect as we would love it to be.
A little bit of Kesar Pista Kulfi at the bottom of the glass adds a lot of thickness to the Milkshake. The milkshake needs to be made with Milk and ice cream blended together. A little bit of sugar can be added if needed, but I definitely don’t recommend it. You might feel that the ice cream blended with milk might decrease the sweetness and flavor but actually adding sugar will make it extra sweet , since there is extra ice cream at the bottom of the glass too.
I love Ice creams and Kulfis are my complete favorite. Kesar Pista Kulfi are one of the first Kulfis that I tried and have been a big fan of the Kesar Pista Kulfi ever since. In fact, for a very long time, I refrained from trying any other flavor of Kulfi. Those days I couldn’t imagine in the wildest of my dreams that I would be trying so many different flavors of Kulfi and create my own too.
Saffron is not just an expensive spice but a very flavorful one too. We took a trip to Dubai and visited the famous spice souk. Oh my God! what an amazing place. The fragrance throughput that market amazes and kind of is soul satisfying. Its so pure that if you rub a little on your hand, that fragrance won’t leave your hand for hours. So, during our first trip to Dubai, I bought 500 gms of saffron. Yupp! You read it right, half a Kg of Saffron. The thing is that when I travel to different places, I don’t mind spending money on stuff that’s authentic and pure. The quality of spices that you will find in Dubai/Middle East is something you might never find in other places. I have met a lot of people praising Saffron from Spain, and finding it better. But, I believe they haven’t had the privilege to try the Saffron from Middle East.
I would have actually bought a few more spices too, but considering the amount of shopping I had done, my luggage couldn’t have taken more. Coming back to the Kulfi. So, when I started making my own ice creams is when I thought of trying the Kulfi and the first one that came to my mind was Kesar Pista Kulfi.
As much as the flavors convince you that its difficult to make something so amazingly flavorful by yourself. Believe me and follow the recipe step by step and amaze yourself and your loved ones with the super delicious treat.
This Halwa was an idea that I had after I made badaam ka halwa, which is pretty popular in India. I felt that Almonds or badaam have been given a lot of importance when it comes to nuts, where as , walnuts are very healthy, but not liked a lot due to their taste. Its easy to see moms feeding their kids badaam ka halwa, when kids refuse eating plain almonds with milk. Indian mothers and their never ending love that always displays in the food and the amount of food that we serve our kids. Its amusing how one bowl of badaam halwa takes place of 7-8 almonds/badaam…LOLzzz.
So, the mother in me wanted to feed walnuts to my boys and thats when the idea hit me. Initially, I planned on working with walnuts only, but then realizing that they might not taste as good by themselves as I would like them to.
Finally, I decided of experimenting walnuts by adding a little cashew to it for that creamy texture and nut sweetness. It did the trick. This is one of best Halwa that I have cooked. The recipe is sure to impress everyone.
