Gulab Jamun

Every time someone mentions these awesome, sweet, sugary balls, people either tend to get them from a sweet store or if they are home made, most times they are made from the popular mix pack that has you add a few easy ingredients from home, like sugar and milk and fry them and you all set to serve them. But, little do you know that you don’t really need that little pack or run to the store. Making Gulab Jamuns at home, with ingredients you will find at home, is pretty easy and not at all time consuming. The only thing you need is a perfect recipe.

Now, if you ever thought Gulab Jamuns is a gift of India to the world, you are wrong. Gulab Jamuns are actually a gift from the Mughals. All these sweet dishes that used Orange Blossom water or Rose water or screw pine water with saffron are all delicacies that came in from the Middle East and were introduced to Indian cuisine during the Mughal Era.

As the history says, the Gulab Jamuns were first prepared in the era of medieval times in India, derived from a sweet fritter recipe that a Central Asian Turkish invader brought to India. One theory also claims that it was accidentally prepared by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan’s personal chef. All in all, it is a sweet dish inspired by the Middle east.

The word “Gulab” is derived from the Persian words gul, which means flower and āb, means water, referring to the rose water-scented syrup. Jamun is also defined as a fried delicacy in dipped in sugar syrup. A middle eastern dessert Luqmat al-qadi is very similar to gulab jamun, though it uses a different batter.

These outstanding Gulab Jamuns have a remarkable depth of taste and texture achieved very carefully combining few ingredients to form balls. Fry them slowly in ghee or oil, further soak them in syrup. With such detailed recipe, its hard to go wrong.

Mewa Baati

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.

Khoya Burfi

Barfi, borfi or burfi is a dense milk based mithai, originating from India. The name though is a derivative of the Persian word barf, which means snow. I have not come across any sweet in the middle east that tastes close to Burfi, therefore I could not find out the reason behind the name. But, one thing is for sure, that the use of cardamom and saffron does prove the Persian influence in initial creation of this marvelous dish.

You never realize until you leave India that getting decent Khoya Burfi from a sweet shop would ever be a big deal. And trust me, the best of shops have sold us the most crappy burfis ever and don’t forget the high prices.

For quiet some time I have been trying to make my own Khoya burfi but they would for some reason not be perfect. I was not getting the exact measurement for each ingredient to make sure the final product comes out to be perfect.

And, just then I remembered this guy who made the simplest and nicest Khoya Burfi outside my father’s workshop. In fact, his pakoras and his Khoya burfi were very popular and though my father was his regular customer, at times he would just run out and my father has returned empty handed from his store. Oh yes! I also loved his aloo papdi. I think those childhood memories and flavors always linger on your tongue and mind and we mostly run around to get those flavors back and have our children experience and love things the way we did.

This Khoya Burfi recipe is from that store, though the guy who made is no more, nor is my father but the memories are so beautiful that I would cherish them for as long as my heart beats.

Mango Lassi

Mango Lassi is a popular name in Indian houses during summer, specially the Mango season. I personally have always loved sweet and sour lassi, but those days I never realized that Lassi could have fruit flavors as  well.

The maximum innovation I tried during our Ramadan was Rose Lassi, which was basically sweet lassi with Rose syrup, not really an innovation. With time, and thank you to all wonderful exposure that I got, I came across Mango Lassi. As a Mango lover, it was definitely something that I wanted to master.

It’s an easy drink to make and very refreshing, specially during summer evenings. I prefer using real mangoes for lassi than mango puree. I feel the taste is more pure and the natural sugar from Mango gives it a great taste.

Mango Smoothie

Have you ever had problems feeding your kids enough fruits? Well, I do. I love the fruit and vegetable servings designed by the food pyramid. If you pay attention to the food pyramid, you might realize that your kids aren’t consuming enough.

We do make loads of shakes at home, but most of the shakes would have sugar, milk and fruit and there wouldn’t be anything too fancy. Most of the shakes were just Mango . Then one day, we ventured out the world of smoothies that became a huge trend in early 2000. I felt it was an excellent way to serve your kids everything they wouldn’t consume if they saw…LOLzzz.

With all this came in my reasons to start making my own smoothies. The boys love it since its the best thing they can have on the go. Smoothie makes an easy, fast, filling and super healthy breakfast.

My boys love Mango and every Mango season, we get tons of mangoes and a lot of times with busy schedules and summer outings, we go without eating. The problem also is that Mangoes go bad really quickly. So, making smoothies is a great way of incorporating them to your meals.

Mix in your choice of flax seeds and hemp seeds and it would not just make it more delicious but also a super healthy breakfast. For a great smoothie, you have to make sure the milk is chilled. You can always put the milk in the freezer for 15-20 minutes, and it would make your  smoothie much better than normal.

 

Mango Cream

Like most Marwaris, I also grew up eating Fruit cream as a fast and go to dessert. As much as its an easy and impressive dessert to impress your guests and loved ones, its not everyone who can make it the authentic way. Now, every time I use the word authentic for “Fruit cream”, people usually give me a very confused look. But what they fail to understand is its not just mixing in fruits, sugar and cream.

A fruit cream is best when the cream is whipped with sugar making those stiff peaks and making it fluffy at the same time. Your fruits should always be fresh and the additional sugar should be based on the fruits you are using and how sweet they are. Small little things and make big changes to your dish.

But here, we aren’t making fruit cream, I am making Mango cream and that too with a little twist. My first time trying to make Mango cream was whipping the cream and mixing in a few mango pieces. I wouldn’t say it wasn’t nice but it was definitely not satisfying as a chef.  Instead of making the whole serving with just mango flavor, I divided into half vanilla and half Mango.

The recipe below might remind you of Mango Panacotta, though similar but its very different. Panacotta requires a little more effort and cooking time where as this is you to go recipe and can easily be made in a rush with almost no prep time.

Malai Chum Chum

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.

Maave Ki Kachori

Jodhpur, my beautiful hometown and land of sweetness and colorful people. One of the most popular sweet is Maave ki Kachori. The crunchy outer crust and slightly sweet inside dipped in the sugar syrup.

For Mr. Parveez it was love at first sight or love at first bite. He enjoyed it so much that every Jodhpur visit, Maave Ki Kachori was a must and if we had any one coming over, we would ask them to get it for us, which I would fry again and pour some warm sugar syrup on it ans serve. As much as we would appreciate the pain people would go through to bring/send these awesome sweets to us, but the only problem was that staying without refrigeration for so long would spoil the taste a little and we wouldn’t be able to enjoy more that 25%. So, with time, we had to give up on that.

The best Maava Kachori according the polls is made by Raawat sweet store and I once happened to have a few guests over , out of which one has been to Jodhpur and has tried maava Kachori from that sweet store. I was truly honored when the guest told me that mine would win if there was a competition. Its always great to receive compliments from my boys and as much as I know that they are honest when it comes to food, I still believe they appreciate my efforts at times and never complain if the dish hasn’t come out great.

And then finally one day I decided to try my own. Before I write the whole recipe, let me tell you this…I have never eaten or tried Maave Ki Kachori. I am just few of those “weirdos” who do not enjoy sweets made with sugar syrup and therefore when the thought came to my mind, it was actually an arrow in the dark. What I knew was that the filling has Khoya and nuts and slight taste of some spices.  The biggest blessing is to have a husband who has amazing taste buds and therefore, it was easy to have him try the filling before I finalize it.

The first attempt had too much spice and it was hard to taste the khoya and sweetness. The second try had too little spice. The third one was perfect since I understood how and what to do. The khoya needs to have a little bit of clove but suggest that they shouldn’t be powdered and they should be mixed as is in the pan while cooking khoya and should be taken out leaving the flavor. Besides, cloves, its cardamom powder, cinnamon powder and Nutmeg powder.

When you start cooking the Khoya would melt in the pan and that’s good since it makes it easier to blend it with flavor of spices, and when it cools down, it automatically solidifies again. Sugar should be mixed only once its taken off the pan.

Lychee Heart Cake

Some recipes are a complete fluke and some recipes are born out of disaster. This recipe is  the latter category. I was trying to cook something and it turned out bad, but I just couldn’t give up and throw away. Instead I came up with these amazing burfis, which weren’t just a life saver but also tasted delicious. Not to forget, a great invention too.

I have always loved Lychee. They are one of my most favorite fruits. Every Lychee season, my father would make sure he gets more than enough for me to enjoy and I believe the whole season I wouldn’t touch any other fruit besides Lychee. With so much love for a fruit, its pretty evident that once I start cooking and inventing my own dishes, I will give something with Lychee a try.

This is how the story goes. So, during my Kulfi making season, I thought of trying to make Lychee Kulfi. And, it was one of those times when after successful attempts made me over confident and without thinking of the consequences I went on with the process resulting in failure. The milk mixed with lychee and its syrup [I used canned lychee] curdled the milk.

There was this milk in front of my eyes, that had Khoya and sugar added to it and gone sour and I was left in a puzzle and guilt of throwing away this food. As they say that Necessity is the mother of all inventions, I believe some inventions are failure/ guilt driven too. The feeling of not succeeding also makes you think outside the box and attempt harder.

I decided to hang the curdled milk, as what we do in the process of making paneer. Later I added some sugar and dry milk powder to it and whisked the whole mixture really well. Further, crushed some butter cookies and layered it as a base and put the mixture on it and bake.

The cake came out fabulous. Since I start taking pictures of the process from the first step, I have the pictures from the time the milk went bad while boiling. You could add the syrup from canned lychee and it will surely do the trick.

If not, add 2 tsp of vinegar, but in that case wash the curdled milk with ice cold water while you hang it in muslin cloth.

This cake has mild Lychee flavor and the cookies add a little crunch to the cake as well.

 

Lychee Burfi

Some recipes are a complete fluke and some recipes are born out of disaster. This recipe is  the latter category. I was trying to cook something and it turned out bad, but I just couldn’t give up and throw away. Instead I came up with these amazing burfis, which weren’t just a life saver but also tasted delicious. Not to forget, a great invention too.

I have always loved Lychee. They are one of my most favorite fruits. Every Lychee season, my father would make sure he gets more than enough for me to enjoy and I believe the whole season I wouldn’t touch any other fruit besides Lychee. With so much love for a fruit, its pretty evident that once I start cooking and inventing my own dishes, I will give something with Lychee a try.

This is how the story goes. So, during my Kulfi making season, I thought of trying to make Lychee Kulfi. And, it was one of those times when after successful attempts made me over confident and without thinking of the consequences I went on with the process resulting in failure. The milk mixed with lychee and its syrup [I used canned lychee] curdled the milk.

There was this milk in front of my eyes, that had Khoya and sugar added to it and gone sour and I was left in a puzzle and guilt of throwing away this food. As they say that Necessity is the mother of all inventions, I believe some inventions are failure/ guilt driven too. The feeling of not succeeding also makes you think outside the box and attempt harder.

I decided to hang the curdled milk, as what we do in the process of making paneer. Later I added some sugar and dry milk powder to it and whisked the whole mixture really well. Put the mixture in molds and put them in the refrigerator to set. They came out fabulous. Since I start taking pictures of the process from the first step, I have the pictures from the time the milk went bad while boiling. You could add the syrup from canned lychee and it will surely do the trick. If not, add 2 tsp of vinegar, but in that case wash the curdled milk with ice cold water while you hang it in muslin cloth.

This dish was so good that it was an instant hit. The burfis are creamy, soft and melt in the mouth. The sweetness of lychee and richness of Khoya make an excellent combination. Its a must try if you like to impress your guests with something different from usual.