Payesh

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

I had made this earlier too but today i thought i would make this for milind and ajoy. Its one of ajoy's favorite sweet dish and so easy to make.


Ingredients
1 Liter Milk
3/4 Cup Rice
1.25 cup Jaggery

Method

• Boil the milk and reduce to 3/4th.
• Wash rice and and add it to the boiling milk. Let it cook completely.
• Take off the heat once the rice is cooked completely. Add in grated jaggery
• Mix well and let it dissolve completely. Chill and serve.

Notes
Cook the milk and rice over medium heat with constant stirring so as to avoid burning.

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Ras Malai

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Ajoy wanted me to make this for Dasara but ended up getting the raw material (aka milk) quite late on sunday. So I made it yesterday. It has turned fabulous and the sweetness is perfect not too sweet not too bland..


Ingredients
2 Liter Milk
2 Spoon Vinegar
1 Pinch of Saffron
1/4 Spoon Cardamom Powder
1/4 Cup Almonds
1/4 Cup Pistachios
3 Cup Sugar

Method

• Boil 1 liter of milk in a pan.
• Mix vinegar in half cup water and add it gradually to the boiling milk.
• When the whey separates from milk fat strain it on cheese or muslin cloth. Run through cold water and let it hang for an hour or two so that water is drained completely out from the paneer
• Start boiling remaining 1 liter of milk in a wide pan, stir continuously and let it reduce to half.
• Add in safron and 1/2 cup sugar in it and let it simmer for another couple of minutes. Keep aside.
• Mix in remaining 2.5 cup of sugar with 1.5 liter of water in a cooker or wider pan. Bring it to boil
• Mean while knead the paneer really well till its smooth. Make small flat discs and drop them in the boiling sugar water. Cover with the lid (if in cooker don't put the whistle on) and let it cook for 10 minutes on high.
• Let it sit covered for another 5 minutes and then uncover the pan and keep the discs in syrup and let it come to warm temperature. At this point the discs would have doubled in size.
• Take each disc in your palm and press lightly to remove the syrup from it, then drop these discs in a bowl.
• In earlier prepared milk add in cardamom powder and finely chopped almonds and pistachios. Pour this milk over the discs in the bowl. Chill and serve.

Notes
I soak the almonds in water for couple of hours so that you can very easily chop them.
You can also use half liter of half and half instead of using 1 liter milk to make ras of the ras malai. Just let it simmer and add in saffron.
I didnt have big vessel to accomodate all the discs in one go for cooking, so i cooked the half of discs as mentioned, then added 2 cups of water to the syrup and cooked rest of the discs. Keeping sugar syrup thin is key to make those discs soft. Dont overcrowd the disc so that they have space to double in size

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Sandwich

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

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.

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Mishti Dohi

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

This is one of Ajoy's favorite sweet, which is simple to make, yet I had trouble making it given that its so difficult to set curd out here. I tried so many times, so many different ways and it did work few times but results weren't consistent. But now that I have learned the exact trick that works here, I made this perfect sweet.


Ingredients
1.5 Liter Milk
1 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup Curd

Method

• Bring milk to boil.
• Add 1/4 cup of sugar and keep the milk boiling till it reduces to around 1 liter in volume. Stir continuously to avoid burning
• At this moment keep reducing milk, but also in another bowl add in remaining 3/4cup of sugar with 1/4 cup of water and let it boil
• When the sugar water turns dark golden in color, reduce the heat of boiling milk and add the sugar mixture into the milk.
• Boil the milk for another 5 minutes and let it sit till it is warm to touch
• In a bowl add curd and add a cup of earlier made browned and sweetened milk. Mix well.
• Add in remaining milk, mix well and cover with the lid and let it set overnight
• Let it chill in fridge for couple of hours. Serve cold

Notes
Here to make the right quality curd, I keep the curd pot inside the casserole (the one which keep items hot) and then keep the casserole into the oven with the light on. Note that i dont preheat oven nor it is on whole night. Just the light is on, the casserole helps in maintaining the temperature while light keeps giving enough warmness to sustain it.
While adding the caramelized - brown colored sugar syrup be careful and add it slowly as the temperature differences make it suddenly splutter out and might burn your hands.
You can also set it in individual bowls and serve each bowl directly.
Try to use whole milk for better results. To make my life easier I used 1 liter of Half and Half. I didnt have to reduce the milk quantity that way.

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Dhokar Dalna

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

I had been meaning to cook it ever since I had it in Kolkata at relative's place. I wasnt feeling all that great that day so couldnt enjoy it to fullest but whatever I had was sure good enough to motivate me to make it. So finally after almost an year I get chance to make this.


Ingredients
2 Cup Harbara Daal
2 Tomato
2 Green Chillies
2 Spoon Ginger
5 Garlic Cloves
1/2 Spoon Jeera
1/4 Spoon Turmeric Powder
1/2 Spoon Jeera Powder
1/2 Spoon Corriander Powder
Oil
Ghee
Salt

Method

• Soak the daal overnight and keep aside.
• In a mixie, grind the daal to smooth paste. Keep aside
• In a pan, add in couple spoon of oil and let jeera splutter in it.
• Add in 1 spoon of grated ginger, turmeric powder, salt and daal paste we made earlier. Cook till daal separates from sides of the pan.
• Grease a plate and pour the daal mixture over it and spread uniformly. Let it cool.
• Cut the diamond shaped pieces of this daal and shallow fry them in oil. Keep aside.
• In a mixie, grind tomato, green chillies, remaining 1 spoon of ginger, garlic cloves to fine paste.
• Heat a pan with spoonful of oil and add the above ground tomato paste in it. Cook till mixture is cooked.
• Add in jeera powder, coriander powder, salt and 3 cups of water. Let it boil.
• Add in earlier fried daal dhokas in it and let the mixture simmer till dhokas start absorbing the gravy.
• Garnish with spoonful of ghee and serve.

Notes
I didnt make the gravy too spicy and hence didnt make use of garam masala. Instead I kept it light and let the dhoka taste through the gravy. Worked out quite well.

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Malpua

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Every weekend Ajoy asks me if I can put oil in his hair (he does it for me). So my reply is always same : I can cook whatever you ask but doing the oil massage every weekend just for those short hair and that too for one hour - doesn't work :) :) probably once in couple of months is ok :) :) So when last weekend I replied with the same answer, he mentioned that he wants to eat malpuas. I searched on net for quick recipes, every recipe was quite different so I had to make up my own after lot of research and here I am sharing this.


Ingredients
1 Cup Maida
1/2 Cup Rawa
2.5 cup Milk
1 Spoon Saunf
1.5 Cup Sugar
A pinch of Saffron
Almonds, Pistachios for garnishing

Method

• Mix in maida, rawa, saunf and milk and keep aside for 4 hours
• Boil Sugar with 1.5 cup of water to form 1 threaded sugar syrup.
• Add in safron and keep aside.
• Heat oil in a pan and add 1/4 cup batter each time to form the malpuas
• Fry to golden brown on both sides and then dip them in the sugar syrup for couple of minutes.
• Take out of the syrup, garnish with almonds and pistachios and serve.

Notes
Actually lot many videos had asked for frying the malpuas, but i am going to try shallow frying instead next time.
Also I had used 1 cup sugar, water each for the syrup and last few malpuas didnt have enough syrup to soak in.
I have never eaten malpuas earlier except once when badi ma had gotten it to hyderabad. So next time I am also going to ask my mom-in-law for her recipe and see how different it turns out.

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Muttor Kachori

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Ma's specialty and one thing we always demand when we go to Pune. :) Its been a while since I took this recipe from her, infact I had made it earlier too but it hadn't come out as nice as she makes. This time it was quite close and I thought it would be perfect time to post it.


Ingredients
2 Cup Maida
1 Cup Wheat Flour
1 Potato
3 Cup Muttor
1/4 Spoon Jeera
1/2 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
Oil
Salt to taste

Method

• Mix in maida, wheat flour, salt to taste and 1/2 cup oil.
• Add in water and make dough. Keep aside.
• Cook potato in the pressure cooker and keep it to cook.
• Cook muttor with some water for 2 minutes in microwave.
• Drain the water from the muttor and grind it in mixie
• Once the potato cools down, grate it.
• In a pan heat 1 spoon of oil and add jeera. Let it splutter
• Add in grated potato, muttor paste, red chilli powder and salt to taste.
• Cook till the paste dries up and becomes a dry ball. Let it cool down
• Take a lemon sized ball of the dough made and press it to make a cup shape. Add in the half sized muttor-potato ball and seal it.
• Roll it just like puris and fry in hot oil. Serve with pickle.

Notes
The trick is to make the dough of right consitency - not too hard not too soft and the perfect to seal it after the feeling.
Also roll the balls to the puri's thickness - just a bit thicker to get the best results.

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Lauki Kofta

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Ajoy just loves lauki kofta so much so that he asks ma to make it every time we go to pune. Till last year, that did work out especially since we visited pune atleast each month. But after coming to Redmond, one thing I am sure Ajoy and me too missed was Ma's special Kofta. So this time when we were in india we did ask her to make it quite frequently but the recipe is so good that eating it once in a year doesn't satisfy the taste buds. So after I got the recipe from her, today I made it on valentine's day. Guess my gift to Ajoy :)


Ingredients
3 Cup Bottle Gourd
1 Cup Carrot
1.5 Cup Besan
3 Spoon Corn Flour
2 Onion
2 Tomato
2 Cup Curd
4 Spoon Sugar
1/2 Spoon Chaat Masala
1/2 Spoon Jeera
1.5 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1/2 Spoon Turmeric Powder
1 Spoon Corriander Powder
1 Spoon Jeera Powder
1 Green Chilli
1/4 Cup Cashews
1/4 Cup Raisins
Oil
Salt to taste

Method

• Grate bottle gourd and carrot and mix well
• Heat oil and add in jeera. Let it sputter
• Add in grated bottle gourd and carrot and mix well.
• Cook well stirring occasionally till the mixture dries up completely. Keep aside to cool down.
• Heat oil in a pan and add chopped onion. Fry till translucent and keep aside.
• In a mixie add tomatoes, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, jeera powder, corriander powder and salt. Grind well.
• Add in cooked onion and grind to smooth paste. Keep aside
• In the bottle gourd and carrot mixture, add besan, corn flour make soft dough
• Prepare small balls with cashews, raisins and green chilli pieces in the center of them.
• Fry the koftas in oil to brown color and keep aside.
• In a pan add the grinded paste, 3 cups of water and let it simmer for 5-6 minutes till gravy attains consistency.
• Add in koftas and simmer for another few minutes. Take of the heat
• In a bowl, mix in curd, sugar and chaat masala.
• While serving koftas, add in the kofta with the gravy, add curd and then garnish with grated carrot and some cashew pieces and raisins

Notes
Instead of carrot you can use raw banana as well.

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Gurer Sandesh

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

On the eve of upcoming Saraswati puja I decided to give this a try especially with gur because Ajoy loves that version.. It came out really well and the best part was it was not the tedious process unlike Kalakand which he keeps demanding. So now if he asks for sweet and I am tired I have something quick yet brownie point winner for my help :)


Ingredients
1 Liter Milk
3/4 Cup Jaggery
2 Spoon Vinegar
1/4 Spoon Pistachio Powder

Method

• In a thick pan boil the milk
• Mix vinegar with 2 spoon of water and add it slowly to the boiling milk
• When the milk cudles completely, take it off the heat and strain it out
• Wash it under running cold water
• Put it in the muslin cloth and drain the water. Keep it aside for 5 minutes so that it drains out water completely
• In a plate knead the chena formed till its is soft and consistent in the texture.
• Mix in grated jaggery and transfer it to the thick pan
• Cook the mixture over medium heat till it leaves the sides and is able to hold together.
• Make the small balls and press them against the chenar moulds, and if you dont have them just shape them into balls
• Sprinkle the pistachio powder for garnishing

Notes
I used the Patali Gur since I had got it from Kolkatta when I had been there last month. But you can also try it with the normal Jaggery. I also feel that Patali Gur is more of the Date + Jaggery taste. So if I try with jaggery version I am going to try adding paste of Date or something like that. Will update when I try that though.
While separating whey from the milk make sure to remove it off it immediately when you see the clear green water separated from the chena. Extra cooking can make the mixture stiff.
Key to shaping the sandesh is that you shape them while its hot. As it starts cooling down it becomes difficult to shape them up. I warmed the mixture after it came to room temperature so that I can shape the remaining ones.

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Raskadam

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

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.

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Egg Roll

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

I never imagined that egg roll can mean so much to bengalis :) Recently when I went to Puja Pandals, I saw most people at roll stand than in pandals :) Earlier ajoy use to ask me for egg roll and I use to thing he would love parathas more than egg roll. Probably you can say I didnt understand the roll importance :) But after attending puja this year, the first thing I had made my mind to surprise some day with rolls. So today for breakfast when I had almost nothing left at home I prepared this and he indeed was pleasantly surprised :)


Ingredients
3 Spoon Heaps of Maida
1 Spoon Heaps of Wheat Flour
3 Eggs
1 Onion
2 Green Chillies
Hot and sweet Tomato Ketchup
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Mix maida and wheat flour with salt to taste and little oil and knead the dough. Keep aside for atleast half an hour
• In a small pan, add little oil around half spoon or little less and heat it.
• Add sliced onions and green chillies to it and cook them till onions lose their rawness and look light brown. Keep aside
• Make 3 balls out of the dough and roll them thin one by one.
• Heat tawa and transfer the rolled roti on to the tawa. Put little oil from sides
• When one side is almost done flip the roti and let the other side cook for a while.
• Break the egg directly onto the cooking roti and spread it all over the roti and let it cook for a minute or so.
• Flip it, add oil from sides and cook from the egged side till egg is cooked completely.
• On a plate keep a kitchen towel such that it covers the 2/3rd of the plate.
• Transfer the cooked egg roti on to this plate. Egg side on top.
• Spread the 1/3rd mixture of cooked onion and chilli in the middle as one line. Add single ketchup line to taste.
• Now roll the egg roti into the egg roll with the kitchen towel and close the napkin from the bottom.
• Repeat same process for remaining two rolls.

Notes
I didnt use complete wheat flour for roti as otherwise you tend to get wheat flour taste in the roll which I dont like in the roll. I didnt use complete maida because otherwise after cooking the rotis tend to get too hard. Hence this combination.
While rolling the roti, the best way to get perfect roll is to first put one side over the other such that mixture is covered and is tightly filled in from one side. and then roll it into the roll from same side.

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