Vegetarian Panna Cotta with home-made Mango Jam

Most of us know this recipe. The Indian version actually. We actually call it "China Grass" for some reason. And the best part! It's vegetarian!!! I know it is a hassle for many to get hands on halal/kosher/vegetarian gelatin, so use Agar-Agar instead. Very simple. Very easy.

What you need:

500 ml of full cream milk (Half and Half if you can get your hands on it)

250 ml of agar agar (boiled and strained to remove any lumps)

1 cup sugar

2-3 drops of vanilla essence (Vanilla bean if you can get your hands on it)

Warm milk just up-to the point before it starts boiling. You don't want to boil it. Add sugar and dissolve. Add the strained agar agar liquid. Add the vanilla. Pour into molds. Allow to cool. Put it into the fridge for 4-5 hrs to set. Yay! It's done.

I'll put up the recipe for Mango Jam later on. You can serve with any fruit, or caramel, or honey, maple syrup...whatever moves you to tears.... 

Oh, what are those crystals you say? That is just clear agar agar with sugar and some cardamom powder for flavour. Totally optional. :D

Moong dal Halwa

I had this recipe book in my room since a long time. Never bothered to look through it much before. But recently I wanted to see if I could try something out since it was written by Sanjeev Kapoor(you know, the smiley guy who comes on Zee). :D I tried out two recipes from there so far and both were lip smackin good. Not sure how many of you have heard of moong dal halwa before but it really is quite an interesting sweet to make. I've usually had moong dal as a savoury dish, but this was the first time I had it sweet. Try it out!

What you need:

Moong dal/ Spilt green gram, skinless 1 cup
Sugar 1 cup
Saffron a generous pinch
Milk 1/2 cup
Mawa (khoya) 3/4 cup
Ghee 1 cup
Almonds 10-12

Preparation

Wash and soak the moong dal for six hours. Grind coarsely using very little water. 

 

Prepare one string syrup with sugar and one cup of water. 

 Soak saffron in some milk.

If you got mawa or half and half with you, then crumble it all into fine granules and keep aside. I made my own mawa by boiling milk for a long long time till it reduced to a thick consistency.

 

Blanch almonds in boiling hot water for five minutes. Cool, peel and cut them into fine slivers.

Heat Ghee in a thick-bottomed pan and add the ground moong dal.

Keep stirring over a low flame till the dal turns a lovely golden brown. Please dont get tempted to hurry through this.

This will take a while. So please be patient and do not rush through this step. 

 Dont be too patient please. Keep an eye on it.

Add the sugar syrup and saffron milk, stir till they are thoroughly incorporated and the halwa is of dropping consistency. Add mawa and cook till it dissolves.

Notice how the colour is now a deep golden brown.

Serve hot, garnish with almonds.

Thank you Sanjeev Kapoor.

P.S: it's quite yummy when served hot with roti or poori. Enjoy!

Semiya ka Meetha

Oh Hello there!

Semiya or vermicelli is famous mostly for "Sheer Kurma", the creamy sweet dish we have every Eid. Here's something I discovered as a child in Oman in one of my aunt's place and boy, was it refreshing to have this sweet dish instead of the regular Sheer kurma. Crunchy, chewy and juicy.....sounds delicious right?

Here's what you need:

• 500gms vermicelli - get wire-thin and pre-toasted vermicelli if you can.
• 400gms condensed milk - sweetened (I used good 'ol milkmaid with that pretty lady on top of the tin)
• 150 gms melted butter - you can use ghee (clarified butter) as well, that's what I did.
• 1/2 tsp cardamom powder (elaichi)

What? No sugar? Nope. Seriously. Trust me.

The sweetened condensed milk will suffice.
Put the vermicelli in a plastic bag and tie a knot. Get your husband/father/son (or whoever is watching TV) to break it all up into little pieces.

Right, get your saucepan out then. Heat the butter and add the vermicelli. Now, on high heat, keep stirring and swishing about the vermicelli in all that lovely butter. Be careful not to leave it alone while frying the vermicelli no matter what. It'll burn pretty quickly if you start daydreaming in the middle. (NO! I DID NOT BURN MINE!!! It's just a warning)



You'll need to continue stirring for at least 10 min until it turns reddish brown in color. Do keep your nostrils alert. We don't want extra toasty (read burnt) vermicelli in this recipe.






Add the cardamom powder to the toasted vermicelli. Carry on stirring. Reduce the heat.



You will notice the butter droplets like this at the bottom of the pan.

Keep the condensed milk ready to pour. Now this is the tricky part. The moment you start pouring the condensed milk into the pan, it's going to get all sticky and gooey. You need to ensure you got your spatula ready with you to give a good stir to the whole mixture when you pour it in.


Go ahead. Pour in the condensed milk and start stirring it immedietly.


Dump the contents on the tray you kept aside a few min ago? What? You dint? DID I NOT TELL YOU TO KEEP IT READY!!! *mumble*mumble*


Flatten it out with a broad spatula and allow to cool for a little while.





Cut into cubes with a large knife. You can cut it into diamonds as well....not a hard based rule, u know. I made laddus out of them too once.


Garnish with nuts - Almonds,pistachios, walnuts, etc (if you have them in stock that is). I personally like them without nuts, but that's just me. Everyone else I know absolutely relishes them with nuts.


Once it's cool, use the spatula to scoop 'em out and serve.
So want to eat Sheer Kurma instead of drinking it? :)
Bon Apetit!

Trifle Pudding

Right....all those who were waiting for my trifle pudding, this is for you, ok? So here goes.

All you need for the trifle is : Jelly, Custard and Sponge cake. These are going to be your beautifully coloured three layers.

For garnish:
A can of tinned pineapple slices
Candied cherries
Whipped cream (optional)
Chocolate flakes (optional)

So lets make the Jelly first, shall we?

Prepare a 250ml packet of cherry/strawberry/rasberry flavoured Jelly (whatever takes your fancy) according to the instructions. Add 2 cups of hot water first. Dissolve the gelatin mixture and then add 2 cups of cold water. Chill until firm.

Well....yeah. That's me. In my very cute apron. My mom gave it to me :)

Next prepare the custard. Take 500ml milk and heat it. Reduce heat and add sugar. We want a nice and thick consistency so we will be adding more custard powder than usual. I added around 5 tsp of custard powder in a bowl and dissolved it in cold water.

Add it to the milk, stirring it continuously until it thickens significantly. A drop of vanilla essence would really enhance the flavour so go ahead and add it. Remove from heat and chill until firm.



Next, we prepare the cake. You might as well buy it from your local bakery. I had loads of time on my hands apparently so I prepared my cake from scratch. :)

Pour the batter into a well greased and floured cake tin. Just love the cake batter left over in the bowl :) Go ahead and enjoy it while you bake your cake. :P

Here's my custard cooling down and the cake ready to be baked.

So you got all your trifles layers ready and chilled. Bring it all together!!! Top the jelly with 1-2 cm thick slices of the sponge cake (which I know you will buy from the store, call it my sixth sense). Pour the custard on top of the cake. Chop up bite-sized canned pineapple slices and/or candied cherries. Arrange them on top of the custard. Sprinkle chocolate flakes and whipped cream on top if you got some ready in your refrigerator.

And Voila! We're done. Chill for an hour or two before your guests arrive. Serve carefully with all three layers in bowl. Dig in!

Caramel Pudding

Would you believe me if I told you that making caramel pudding is extremely easy? Well....IT IS!!!! I tried it a couple of days ago and it was just perfect :)

Sadly I din't have my digicam with me...so a picture from the internet will have to suffice. However...the point is, caramel pudding is simply delicious, an alltime favourite of many and you don't need any of those instant pudding mixes at all. All you need is:

For the pudding:

• 3 eggs
• 2 cups milk
• 1 tsp custard powder
• 4 tbsp sugar
• vanilla essence - a drop

For the caramel:

• 2 tsp sugar
• 2 tsp water, lukewarm

Beat all the ingredients together and strain it using a tea strainer. Pour the mixture into a double boiler. I used an idli cooker. You can use a normal pressure cooker as well, but without the whistle. Simply use a small vessel which will hold the pudding. Put 1/2 cup of water into the cooker and place a barrier, like an upside down container inside. Place the vessel containing the pudding.over this. Cook for 20 min. That's it!

Now, for the caramel. This might be the only tricky part. Take an aluminum vessel, and add sugar in it. Sprinkle some water in it and heat very patiently up to 10 minutes on low flame. When it reaches the melting point, the sugar will slowly turn an amber color and a texture like honey. As soon as this happens, wait till the sides of the pot are covered with this liquid and turn off the heat. Stay clear (it might sputter) and quickly add 2 tsp of water into this and stir to remove any lumps. Your caramel is ready.

Pour the caramel in a dish. Turn pudding upside down into this dish and serve cold.

P.S: Making caramel for the first time was the most exciting part of the whole process. It was simply thrilling to watch sugar crystals melt into this beautiful liquid.