When it came to making something quick and delicious for our home's ground breaking ceremony last year, I made these. What another way to revive the blog than to post this one :)


Ingredients
12 Oz Khawa
1.5 Cup Sugar
2.5 Cup Milk Powder
1/2 Cup Milk
Pinch of Cardamom Powder
Pinch of Saffron
2 Spoon Pistachios
Ghee

Method

• Grate khawa and mix it with sugar, milk powder and cardamom powder.
• Heat milk with saffron for 20 seconds in microwave.
• In a thick pan add ghee and khawa mixture and cook on low heat with constant stirring.
• Add in heated saffron milk after a minute or two.
• Cook the mixture till its semi solid with constant stirring
• Take it off the heat and let it cool for 5 minutes.
• Slice the pistachios
• Make small balls of the mixture and press each ball with pistachio slice on its top.

Notes
When making pedhas from the mixture, it should be warm. If its too cold, it might be difficult to make the smooth shape.
Stirring the khawa mixture continuously while cooking is important as the mixture is susceptible to sticking to the pan and burning.
Also I used anodized pan as it was easy to keep the mixture from sticking.

This is my favorite bengali sweet. So when I was making Ajoy's favorite mishti dohi i decided to pamper myself with these. Turned out very delicious.


Ingredients
2 liter Milk
4 Spoon Vinegar
1 Spoon Rawa
2 Cups Khoya
1/2 Cup Powdered Sugar
2.5 Cup Sugar
Silver leaf
Pistachio Powder
A pinch of Baking Powder
Couple Pinch of Saffron

Method

• Keep 1/4 cup milk aside and bring remaining milk to boil and add in vinegar mixed with two spoon of water.
• Stir till the whey separates out and milk cuddles.
• Strain it through sieve and run through cold water. Let it sit there for 5 minutes so that water drains out completely.
• Mix sugar with 6 cups of water in a cooker and bring it to boil.
• Take out this paneer from the sieve and knead till very soft dough forms.
• Add in rawa and baking powder and knead again.
• Make thin flat squares and add half of them into the sugar syrup boiling in cooker
• Close the cooker lid and let out one whistle. Lower the heat and let it cook for another 10 minutes. Let it cool
• Takeout the cooked paneer and add another 2 cups of water in the cooker. Bring it to boil and add remaining paneer pieces to cook just like the earlier ones.
• When the second batch is cooled down store all paneer pieces with the syrup in the fridge overnight
• In the morning grate the khoya and add in powdered sugar in it.
• Warm the remaining 1/4 cup of milk and add in the Saffron in it. Add it to the khoya and knead till smooth.
• Take out the cooked paneer pieces from the fridge and cut each into triangle shape
• Make sandwiches by adding a layer of khoya paste we made between two triangles. Also sprinkle some pistachio powder on the khoya layer as well as on top of the sandwich
• Garnish with the silver leaf and serve chilled.

Notes
Instead of making thick pieces and cutting it through i made thin slices to begin with. So i could use single piece as it is.

Its been quite a few months since I had Raskadam one of my favourite sweet. So thought of giving this a shot. The recipe was adapted from 'Ruchira' a well known recipe book in Pune.


Ingredients
3.5 Cup Milk
1 Spoon Vinegar
1.5 Cup Sugar
1.5 Cup Powdered Sugar
4 Cup Khoya
A pinch of Saffron
1 Cup Grated Paneer

Method

• Warm couple spoon of milk and add the safron. Keep aside.
• Heat the remaining milk
• When the milk starts to boil add vinegar mixed with a spoon of water and stir continuously.
• When the milk cudles and water is separated out, throw out excess water and run it through the cold water
• Squeeze this mixture in a cotton cloth and drain out the water.
• Mix it thourghly and make the dough out of it.
• Prepare around 25 balls out it (small sized
• Mix the sugar with the 6 cup water in the cooker and boil it
• Add these small balls in it and let it boil for around 5 minutes
• Cover the cooker with lid and boil for another 5 minutes
• Remove the lid, add half cup of water and boil for another 5 min. Let the balls cool down. Take out these balls and spread them on the plate and keep aside
• In a nonstick pan on medium flame cook the grated paneer till golden in colour and keep aside to cool down
• Mix grated khoya, powdered sugar, safron-milk and make the dough out of it.
• By now the paneer would be cooled and crispy. Powder it in the mixie and spread it in a separate plate.
• Now is the time to assemble the raskadam. Cover the cooked ball with the khoya mixture by froming a cup shape around it and closing it after inserting a ball in it. Roll the ball in the powdered paneer

Notes
Be careful not to burn the paneer and stir it continuously while cooking, I did that so that it was easy to powder the paneer and the raw smell from it goes away.
The ball preparation for the raskadam is similar to the rasgulla except prepare small sized balls and quantity of sugar-water.
You can add orange or pink - red colour in the khoya mixture but i didnt have it and hence didnt use it.

Earlier when I used to make gulab jamoon with Gits packet the most problematic area for me was to prepare sugar syrup correctly.. Most of the time it use to be too sugary. So when i decided to make gulab jamoon with khoya instead of ready mix packet I did little R&D over sugar syrup and found that the cookery book i have received as a wedding gift has the best method.


Ingredients
1/4 Kg Khoya
1 cup Rava
1/2 cup milk
2 pinch of Cardamom Powder
A pinch of Eating soda
2 cup Sugar
3 cup water
Oil/Ghee

Method

• Make the dough from rava using milk exactly the same consistency we prepare for Rotis. Keep aside for 2 hours
• Mix this Rava mixture and Khoya well
• Strain the mixture through the Puran Yantra
• Mix a pinch of cardamom powder with this mixture and knead the dough
• Prepare small round balls out of this mixture
• Now in a pan mix sugar and water and bring it to boil. Cook on medium flame only
• When the mixture boils add a pinch of cardamom powder and boil for another minute. Keep aside
• Heat another pan with oil/ghee
• Fry the gulab jamoon balls in this on low flame 4-5 at a time
• When the Gulab Jamoon is brown in colour keep them aside to strain the oil and fry next batch
• When next batch is ready to come out of oil, add the first batch to the sugar syrup.
• Fry and dip all gulabjamoons same way
• When all gulab jamoons are in syrup, boil the syrup again on low flame. Keep aside for 5-6 hours
• Seve the gulab jamoons warm with ice-cream of your choice to make a delicious dessert

Notes
When you put the balls in oil for frying they should float in a minute, otherwise mix little more eating soda and knead the dough.
Also when the balls are dipped in the syrup they should float otherwise balls are not cooked properly.

Yesterday I thought of preparing mung daal halwa but then ended up cooking mung daal vadi.


Ingredients
1 Cup Mung Daal
3/4 Cup Ghee
1/4 kg Khoya
2 Cup Sugar
2 Cup Milk
Almonds to garnish

Method

• Soak the daal in water for 4-5 hours
• Grind the daal in a mixer to form fine paste
• Heat ghee in a pan and fry the mung daal paste on low flame
• Once the daal turns golden brown, add the milk and cook till the mixture becomes thick
• Add the khoya and cook for a while
• Add te sugar and cook on low flame till mixture is thick and sticky
• Grease the plate and put the mixture on it. Spread it evenly and garnish with almond pieces
• Cut into rectangular pieces and serve

Notes
Frying the mung daal on low flame is important, as mungdaal will get burnt quite quickly.