Nolen Gurer Chaaler Payesh .... Rice Pudding

A Bengali and Chaaler Payesh have an eternal connection....The first morsel of solid eaten by a Baby during Annoprashon (Rice Eating Ceremony), the first spoon eaten by the mother-to-be during Baby Shower or Shaadh, the Payesh on every birthday or Jonmodin are memories every true blue Bengali holds precious. 

And the Paayesh is made even more precious and tasty if its made of Nolen Gur (or the solidified version known as Patali Gur for the off season payesh)

Ingredients :
* Full Cream Milk - 2 litres 
* Gobindobhog rice / jeera rice / Basmati rice - 2 fistfuls (1 fistful or 'mutho' per litre i,e approx 45-50gm per litre)
* 2 tbsp of sugar
* Nolen Gur/Patali Gur (date palm jaggery) - approx 90-100gm (45-50gm per litre of milk)

Procedure :
1. Boil milk and reduce it to 3/4 of its original volume. 
2. In the meanwhile, wash rice, drain the water and dry it while the milk is being boiled
3. While stirring the milk, add the washed and dried rice and keep stirring gently till the rice cooks and the milk thickens. The milk should have reduced to 1/2 (i.e 1 litre) by now.
4. Add 2 tbsp of sugar after the rice has softened. An early addition of sugar will stop the rice from softening further.
5. Take the milk-rice mix off the flame. Soften the jaggery by microwaving/heating and add the softened jaggery into the rice-milk mix and . Mix well 
6. Cool it down ....delicious Gur flavoured Payesh is ready for the auspicious occasion.

Puli Pithey...a Sankranti Speciality!

Coconut-Jaggery filled Rice flour-Sweet Potato Dumplings in Thickened milk sweetened with Date Palm Jaggery

Making Puli Pithey has been on my agenda since I began making Paatishapta. But recalling Ma's elaborate preparation of this particular Sankranti speciality, I've always developed cold feet.

However, this time, after making Patishapta I had a substantial quantity of excess Patishaapta's coconut filling and so decided to proceed towards the much loved yet much dreaded preparation of Puli Pithey.

This is the recipe of Puli Pithey  I have grown up eating, savouring and later craving for. And so is precious to me....

Ingredients
Rice flour (of preferably Gobindobhog rice) : Sweet Potato = 1:1  (I used 1/2 kg of each)
Milk : Full cream 2 litres
Sugar : 1/2 of my Daal ladle
Gur : enough to sweeten the milk and mix with the coconut
Coconut : 1 medium sized
Hot / warm water
Salt : a pinch

In case of my Ma's authentic recipe of Puli Pithey the cocunut filling is to be mixed & cooked with sugar without any khowa (milk solids). But since I used leftover from my Paatishaapta filling, my filling had coconut (1/2 medium sized) + date palm jaggery (75 gm) + khowa (from approx 750ml milk).

Procedure :
I) Coconut filling : See recipe at 'B' of Procedure in this post.
    If desired, the khowa may be eliminated from this recipe and the coconut proportionately increased to 1 medium sized coconut, grated

II) The Milk base
Bring 2 litres of milk to a boil and add 1/2 a (Daal) ladle of sugar. Keep aside

III) The Dough
a) Pressure cook 1/2 kg sweet potato and mash them into a pulp. Keep aside.

b) The Rice Dough :
     1) Wash, Dry and grind the Gobindobhog Rice in fine flour. Keep aside a small bowl full of powdered rice aside for later use.
     2) In a Kadai, take 2 teacups of  water. Add a pinch of salt. And bring to a boil.
     3) Pour the rice flour into the boiling water and stir to make the dough. Add more hot water if needed to moisten the whole flour and make into a smooth dough. Cover and keep aside for ten minutes.

c) Rice + Sweet Potato Dough :
Now knead the boiled and mashed sweet potato and the Rice Flour Dough together into a smooth dough. If too moist, sprinkle some rice flour or Atta to reduce the moisture.

After keeping aside a ball * (approx 2" in dia) of this dough, use the rest for making the Puli


III) The Puli or the Dumplings :

- Pinch off balls of the size you would while making luchi/puri.
- Make a depression at the centre and mould them as a bowl.
- Fill it in with adequate amount of coconut-jaggery filling...not too much
- Now fold into half moon shaped dumpling and seal the edges by pressing together.
- Repeat with the rest of the dough & coconut filling

IV) * The 'Chooshi' or dough filaments :

I dont know the English word for Chooshi. Will just explain the making of it.
Smear your palms with a little of the rice flour+sweet potato dough ball kept aside. And also pat the smeared palms with dry rice flour. Now slowly rub your palms together...the approx 1" length snake like filaments falling of your rubbing dough smeared palms is Chooshi.
Repeat with the rest of the 2" dough and rice flour.

IV) The final assembly
- While the dumplings were being made, bring the boiled milk to a boil again and after the dumplings are made, slowly slide them into the boiling milk one after another.
- Simultaneously, mash the jaggery into paste and add it slowly into the milk, and keep stirring gently to mix.
- Finally add the Chooshi and stir gently.
- If you have some coconut filling in excess after making the Pulis, add them to the boiling milk and give a gentle stir...
- Once the whole assembly of Puli - Chooshi - milk have come to a boil and has boiled vigorously  for a few minutes, switch off the gas.

Serve hot or chilled. Both have their distinctly delicious flavours !

I found some of the other variations of Puli Pithey in Sharmila's & Indrani's kitchens.

Patishapta, Kite flying and relaxation on Sankranti!

(A sweetened pancake with coconut-jaggery-milk solids filling)

A Bong's Poush Sankranti celebrations amidst Hyderabadi Sankranti's Kite flying fervour!

Well it was fusion all the way.....Holiday, Pithey preparations, Kite Flying, my 7yr old decorating the main entrance with chalk powder muggu.....we did it all!!

I am surprised at how I've missed blogging here about the annual tradition of Pithey Paarbon and the famous Bengali Pitheys...though I have shared the recipe of Paatishapta in my now abandoned personal blog 'Whims and Wishes' (here & here)!

Well Paatishaapta being the easiest (in my opinion) of the Pitheys and the most oft prepared one by me, I'll post the recipe of it today. And will share the recipe of the more elaborate Puli Pithey later.....

Ingredients for Paatishapta which yielded approximately 30 pieces:

* 2 medium sized Coconut - freshly grated

* Patali Gur (DatePalm Jaggery) - 450 gm approximately

* Sugar- 1 Cup

* Flour (Maida)- 2 Cups

* Suji or Semolina - 1 Cup

* Rice Flour- 1 Cup


* Milk - 1.75 - 2 litres

*Khoa (dried or thickened milk) from 3 litres milk - yielded approximately 500 gm of which about 450-470gm was used

* Ghee - 2tbsp

Procedure : Instructions are given in the sequence I prepared


A) PATISHAPTA BATTER -Part 1:
I mixed the Suji and Rice Flour. Then soaked the mixture in adequate milk. Left it aside and got on to work on the Filling.

B) PUR /FILLING :
Took the freshly grated coconut in a wok (Kadai) and added the sugar and approx 300 gms of jaggery. Stirred it around well. (Sugar provides the binding)
After mixing it considerably well, put the wok containing the mixture on fire and continued stirring.
Added the khoa after the coconut-jaggery-sugar mix had turned a lovely golden brown. All the while I was vigorously stirring the mix which is the most important aspect of making the 'Pur' or filling.
I continued the stirring process for about 30 minutes, till the coconut turned a rich brown and became sticky in texture.

C) PATISHAPTA BATTER (Continued):Part 2
I added 2 tbsp of ghee to the Maida and mixed evenly. 

Added this to the already milk-soaked mixture of Suji-Rice Flour. Had to mix it well as to ensure no lumps are formed. Added more milk to make the batter of medium consistency so that it spreads evenly on the tawa.

To sweeten the batter, add some broken pieces of jaggery (approx 150gm). The batter should be of mild sweetness.

D) THE FRYING PROCESS:

I used a non-stick Tawa (a non-stick frying pan would do fine)

Smeared some oil/ghee (I used ghee....sinfully delightful!!) on the Hot Tawa. (I used the top of a brinjal cut horizontally, with the stalk intact..it makes the ghee smearing easy as the stalk acts as a handle)

Poured a ladle of batter and spread it in a circle as in Dosa/Pancake 

Fried in low to medium heat to ensure the patishapta is crisp yet soft. Flipped it over.

Made a snakelike shape with a tablespoonful of Pur and laid it lengthwise as is shown in the pic.

Folded the patishapta and turned it around a bit to give a golden brown look to it.

Served hot!!!

This Sankranti special delicacy is off to Foodabulous Fest Event organised by Preeti’s Kitchen Life.

Mixed Halwa

with Ata (Wheat Flour), Roasted Almond powder & Roasted Lotus Seed powder

Catering to the taste and health needs of a five and half year old and a one year old with a common dish is not only tough but quite an uphill task. But makes life a trifle easier for me! ;)

On the few occasions I do manage and satisfy both the elder's tastebuds and the younger's nutrition needs, I cant help but pat myself on the back.

This halwa is one such a dish.

Setting out to make suji halwa, realised that the dampness due to incessant rains had gotten the better of me, and the suji looked far from edible.

I had just 15 minutes to leave for office before which I had to make the-after-school-evening-tiffin for AD (my elder daughter).

So this was the substitute....

Ingredients :

Wheat flour (Ata) - 1/2 cup
Roasted and powdered Almond - 1/2 cup
Roasted and powdered puffed Lotus Seeds (Phool Makhana)  - 1/2 cup
Ghee - 3-4 tbsp
Milk - 1/2 litre
Green Cardamon - 3-4
Sugar - 1/2 cup or to taste

Procedure :
1. Heat ghee in a kadai and throw in the green cardamoms
2. Add the Ata and roast on medium heat vigorously. Take care that the ata does not burn
3. After the raw smell of Ata is eliminated, add the roasted-powdered almond & lotus seeds. Keep on stirring  on medium to high heat.
4. Add sugar and continue stirring till nicely browned but NOT burnt
5. Add the milk slowly and keep stirring to ensure lumps are not formed.
6. Cook till the consistency is semi solid & gooey i.e upma/halwa like!!

serve warm...

Note : I have also made this by substituting the Ata with Ragi flour & suji.

This recipe is being sent to 'Fast & Quick Healthy Dishes - Guest hosted by Kalpana Sareesh of Life with Spices, on behalf of Priya of Priya's Versatile Recipes

Mango Kulfi

Summer ….the season of Mangoes, vacations, sorbets, ice-creams, kulfis and more….

This summer has been a summer of Mango kulfis for us ….making kulfis almost every 3 days and relishing this awesome summer treat almost daily.

The recipe is a slight modification of Tarla Dalal’s mango kulfi recipe found here

Ingredients : yields 11-12 medium sized kulfis

Full Cream  Milk – ½ litre (the full cream part is optional)

Condensed milk  – ¾ cup of a 180ml cup (I used sweetened condensed milk)

Milk powder – ¾ cup of a 180 ml cup

Sugar (may be skipped if condensed milk is sweetened OR the mango is v.sweet) – 2 tbsp

Mango pulp of 3 -4 medium sized mangoes.

6 aluminium moulds

Procedure:

1.    Mix together the milk, condensed milk and milk powder  and bring to a boil and simmer for 5-7 minutes

2.    Cool down the mixture completely. I put it in the refrigerator to fasten the cooling process

3.     In the meantime, keep the mango pulp of 3-4 mangoes ready

4.     After the milk mix cools, add the pulp and give the mango-milk mix with a hand whipper.

5.     Pour into moulds and freeze.

     Take them out of the mould, or as Tarla Dalal says "demould" them.

6.   

          Serve, relish and attain mango nirvana!! ;))

This post is off to SERVE IT CHILLED
and also to 'SIMPLE AND IN SEASON'

Shubho Naboborshe Mishti Mukh with Pantua!

Celebrating Kali Pujo & Diwali with Chhanar Jilipi

(Jalebi made out of cottage cheese)


It's that time of the year again!

Come September/October/November and the Indian Calendar is choc-a-block with festivities. Religious, social, cultural ... our festivities are a joyous symphony of vibrant colours, myriad tastes that tingle the palate and religious fervour that embraces and engulfs our sprirts. It's a time of the year I love and yearn for. The smell of new clothes, the anticipation of going home to family and friends, the smell of Pujo in the air, the sound of the Dhakis in the background are all so familiar and nostalgia evoking....yet gives me goosebumps every year thus creating the magic of pujo. For us since childhood, Pujor Chhuti meant Durga Puja followed by Lakshmi Puja and finally the festivities and fun would culminate with Kaali Puja exactly two weeks after Dussehra and finally Bhai Phonta just two days thereafter!

Maa Kaali, the fierce incarnation the Durga, is worshipped on the Kartik Amavasya night in Bengal. While Ma Kaali is worshipped in Bengal, on the same day, Diwali is celebrated in the rest of the country and Goddess Lakshmi is worshipped in most homes of North, South and Western India.

Diyas, candles, fireworks are an intrinsic part of both Kali Pujo as well as Diwali. And as in case of all Indian festivities, be it religious/cultural/social, food, especially a wide variety of sweets is an integral part of all our celebrations!

So on this ocassion of Kali Puja, as we indulge our sweet tooth, shoving to the backseat for a couple of weeks the fear of calories, pretending to ignore for a while the clockwise swing of the weighing scale needle, I bring to you a sweetdish I love.... CHHANAR JILIPI. I learnt it from my Ma during my Puja vacation and here I am sharing it with you......


Ingredients:
Chhana from 2 litres milk (check here to see how chhana is made in Points 1 & 2 of Process)
3 Black Elaichis, made into a paste (I used the green elaichi/cardamoms-around 5)
Maida (refined flour) - 2 - 3 tbsp
Oil - 2 tbsp
Baking Powder - a pinch
Sugar syrup using sugar : Water in the ration 1:1.5
Oil for deep frying


Procedure:

1. Knead the Chhana into a soft and smooth dough

2. Mix the Maida with the Oil.

3. Then mix the maida-oil mix to the chhana to give some firmness to the very soft chhana dough

3.Mix the elaichi paste and baking powder and again knead very well.


4. Pinch of small balls of chhana and roll into smooth balls.

5. Roll it into a snake like shape as shown above

6. Twist the two ends as shown in pics below.

6. Deep Fry each formed jalebi in the wok

7. Keep the sugar syrup hot/boiling.

8.Fry the jilipis and dunk them in the sugar syrup.

9. Let them stay dunked in the sugar syrup for about an hour when the jalebis soak in the sweetness of the syrup and turns juicy.

Serve hot or cold......

HAPPY DIWALI!!

This is my entry to the event FF:DIWALI DHAMAKA hosted by Purva Desai of PURVA's DAAWAT. The logo for the event is ....

Mishti Doi...Sweet Curd

MISHTI DOI....the term conjures up an image of an earthen pot (Maatir Bhaar) containing a pink coloured sweetened curd. A must in any traditional Bengali feast. In most households, though the plain white and healthier curd is always homemade and available, Mishti Doi is rarely made at home. There have been occasions, though rare, when I have seen Ma prepare home made Mishti Doi.

So when my neighbour, while we were having our stair-side chatting sessions, asked me the recipe of Mishti Doi, stating casually that her young daughters loved it, I enquired the recipe from Ma and found it surprisingly simple.....

So just to share this simple recipe to dish up a rarely homemade dessert, here I am...

Ingredients : (What I used)

*Full cream milk - 1.5 litres.
*Sugar - 2.5 cups (I meaured the 2.5 cups and it was around 360gm)
*Plain curd - 2 -3 tbsp

Procedure :
1. Boil the 1.5 litre milk and bring it to half the volume.

2. Caramelise the sugar by heating it in a wok. Keep stirring while heating to ensure the caramelised sugar does not stick to the bottom of the wok and burn.


3. Pour the liquid caramelised sugar into the milk. Stir well to mix the milk and sugar. The milk mixed with caramelised sugar will be pinkish brown in colour. If needed you can bring the mix to a boil once again to ensure uniform mixing.

4.Cool milk-sugar mix to lukewarm temperature.

5. Smear the container/s in which you wish to set the curd with the plain white curd.

6. Pour the milk slowly into the curd smeared containers.

7. Cover and keep aside for 8-10 hours to set. (I had to keep for almost 11 hours)

8.Refrigerate to chill the curd


The yummilicious Mishti Doi is all yours to savour!

Bread Pudding

The easiest recipe for dessert. Simple, easy to make, yet delicious. So in almost every lunch/dinner gathering I host, if their isnt much time for more elaborate affair, I can safely fall back on this Pudding dish.

So without much ado, here goes the recipe..

Ingredients :

Milk - 1 litre

Sugar - 70gms (or as per taste)

Egg - 2

Bread - 1 slice (I used 1 slice wheat bread)

Vanilla essence- 1 tsp

Baking powder - 1/2 tsp

cashew/kaju - broken pieces (I used around 40gms)

raisins/kishmish - a handful (I used around 20gms)

Chocolate sauce - as topping

Almonds - Blanched, skinned, Roasted and sliced - for garnishing

Note : The topping & garnishing can be changed as per your liking. The most common one I do is the chocolate one (as is given here).

Strawberry crush, A combination of orange marmalade & tiny fresh fruits pieces like apple,orange, strawberry also taste great!

Procedure :

1. Boil the litre of milk and reduce it to about 750ml

2. Add torn pieces of bread slice and the sugar into the boiling milk. Reduce it further to approx 500ml. Cool the mix

3. Beat two eggs.

4. Add the whipped eggs, baking powder, vanilla essence and the kaju & kishmish and mix well.

5. In an oven proof dish, spray some oil, preheat it (optional) and pour the batter prepared as at Sl. 4.

6. In a Convection oven, I bake for about 1/2 hr - 40 minutes at 180-200 deg F.

This time I was in a hurry...hence bake in microwave for 15 minutes, in Medium Power.

Before taking it off the oven, insert a knife or anything pointed and if it comes out with some semi-solid batter stuck to it, bake for another few minutes.

7. Take it off the oven, smear the top with a thick layer of chocolate sauce (or any other topping of your choice). Garnish with the roasted and sliced almonds (This again may be changed to any garnishing of your choice)

8. Put it in the fridge to chill and serve!!

Roshogolla or Rasgulla

Bengal is and always has been famous for its sweets. And Roshogollas and the Bongs go hand in hand! There are many a variety of Bengali sweets, each delicious & exotic, heavenly to taste. But for reasons unknown to me, the Roshogolla or rasgulla is the face of Bengali sweets and confectionary.

In our household, the father-daughter duo of SD & AD are the quintessential Bong sweet lovers. Living away from Bengal, the greatest disadvantage of the true blue Bong, is the lack of availability of authentic Roshogolla. And the tinned ones are a poor substitute. So it is for them, that I often become adventurous and try my hand at the roshogollas and Sandesh.
So here it goes..the simplest Roshogolla recipe:

Ingredients :All measures are for 1 litre milk which yielded 20 medium sized RoshogollasMilk – full cream – 1 Litre
Lemon juice of 2 lemons
Maida – 2 tsp
Elaichi /cardamom powder
Nokuldana (Sweet globules) - 20 nos. OR sugar – 2 tsp
Sugar syrup made with Sugar : Water ratio = 1:2. I used 3.5 cups (250ml) cups of sugar and 7 cups of water.

Process :

1. Boil the milk. Add the lemon juice to make fresh Chhana (home made cottage cheese).
2. Squeeze the water out by putting it in a clean cheese cloth and rinsing it.
3. Knead the chhana as you knead atta/maida. The chhana should become very soft and pliable and your hand must feel oily. The trick to make soft roshogollas lies in this step of kneading. The better your knead, the tastier will be the roshogollas.

4. After the chhana dough is smooth and soft, add 2 tsp of maida to it. Mix the maida with the chhana by  kneading.
5. Add a tsp of elaichi powder to remove the lemony taste of the chhana. Keep in mind that the elaichi should be just sufficient to nullify the lemony taste but should not give its strong elaichi flavor to the chhana
6. To make the sugar syrup, in a pressure cooker, add the sugar and water in 1:2 ratio and let it come to a boil
7. Divide the chhana dough, into 18-20 globules.
8. Take each pinched off chhana piece, and make it into a globule by rolling it between your palms. Push in a nokuldana or a pinch of sugar into the centre of the globule. Again by rolling it between your palms, smoothen the globule surface,
9. The size of the globules should be half of what you want your roshogolla size to be.
10.While you are doing steps 8 & 9, the sugar-water mix may have come to a boil.
11. Add the globules into the boiling syrup. Close the lid of the pressure cooker.
12. Let a whistle blow. Lower the flame and cook for another 10 minutes on low flame. Switch off the gas. Let the steam come out of the pressure cooker on its own.
13. The spongy white spheres of roshogollas are ready. You can have them hot or refrigerate them and have them chilled. The choice is all yours!

This is my entry to WYF:Cuisine and the logo for the event is