Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Mishti Dohi


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.

Mishti Dohi
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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Monday, September 13, 2010

Dhokar Dalna


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.

Dhokar Dalna
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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Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Veg Biryaani


I had been making this for a while now, but its only yesterday that I actually managed to click the photos. So here I am posting this recipe, esp for all my vegetarian friends who are craving for Biryaani.

Veg Biryaani
Ingredients
3 Cup Rice
350g Bhendi
250g Small Eggplants
250g Carrots
2 Raw Bananas
4 Potatoes
4 Onion
3 Tomato
2 Spoon Pudina Leaves
10 Garlic Cloves
2 Spoon Grated Ginger
1/2 Cup Cashews
1/4 Cup Almonds
1 Spoon Dry Coconut
1/2 Spoon Poppy Seeds
2 Dried Red Chillies
1/4 Spoon Saunf
1/4 Spoon Black Pepper
1 Spoon Jeera
1 Spoon Corriander Seeds
3/4 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1 Spoon Garam Masala
2 Cardamom
2 Cloves
3 Cinnamon
1/4 Cup Milk
A Pinch Of Saffron
Salt to taste
Ghee
Oil

Method
  • Pressure cook 2 potatoes
  • Soak rice in warm water for half an hour.
  • Soak poppy seeds and keep aside
  • Fry the whole egg plants, bhendi, peeled and diced bananas, 2 potatoes, and carrots and keep aside.
  • Boil a pot full of water and add in the soaked rice. Cook till almost done Let the extra water drain completely through sieve.
  • Heat a spoon of ghee and add in cardamoms, a cinnamon stick, cloves and salt. Add it to the rice and keep it aside.
  • Heat oil and add in finely chopped 2 onions. Fry till translucent and keep aside.
  • In same pan heat another spoon of oil and add in jeera, red chillies, coriander seeds, black pepper, saunf, dried coconut, cinnamon, 1/4 cup cashews and almonds.
  • Add in garam masala, red chili powder, poppy seeds, pudina leaves and earlier fried onions. Cook till spices start spreading aroma.
  • Let the mixture cool down and then adding the chopped tomatoes grind it to fine paste.
  • Heat the ghee and add in the ground mixture. Fry till oil separates
  • Add in all fried vegetables and salt to taste and cook for couple of minutes. Keep aside.
  • Warm the milk with safron and keep aside.
  • Deep fry the thin sliced onions and cashews till they are crisp and light brown in color. Keep aside
  • In a greased cooker layer the sliced boiled potatoes, then 1/3rd of rice, 1/2 of vegetable, again 1/3rd portion of rice, remaining half of the vegetable and remaining portion of the rice.
  • With big spatula make through and through wholes in the layer and sprinkle the safron milk.
  • Let the cooker sit on low heat till the pressure builds up. Garnish with the earlier fried crisp onions and cashews. Serve hot with raita.
Notes
Instead of cooking vegetables in gravy i added fried vegetables to the gravy. The taste was awesome and i could make sure that none of the vegetables are underdone or overdone.
I also wished I had those baby potatoes instead and could use them whole deep fried instead of diced ones.
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