Dry Fruit Chocolate

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

One day while watching Foodnetwork channel I saw this recipe and liked it at that very moment, for it is so simple yet so elegant. Dont remember exact measures and all but here is my own version of the same.


Ingredients
350g White chocolate
120g Dark Chocolate
1 Cup Walnuts
1/2 Cup Apricot
1/2 Cup Cranberries

Method

• Heat oven to 350F/180C and bake walnuts in it for 10 minutes. Set aside to cool down.
• In a bowl microwave white chocolate for 1.5 minutes stirring it every 30 sec. It should be smooth soft molten chocolate.
• In another bowl microwave dark chocolate for 1.5 minute stirring it every 30sec.
• Line a plate/tray with parchment paper and pour the white chocolate in the center. Spread it over the plate to get smooth layer
• Pour dark chocolate on four corners and with a fork mix it in with white chocolate creating patterns
• Dice apricots and walnuts, sprinkle them along with cranberries on top of the chocolate.
• Let mixture come down to room temperature and then transfer it to fridge to set it hard.

Notes
The recipe that I had watched only used white chocolate, but I didnt use white chocolate completely as it would make it very sweet. So instead used dark chocolate to balance out the sweetness. Earlier once I had used semi sweet chocochips instead but that too was sweet to my tooth so this time i used dark chocolate. One can use mix of dark and semi sweet chocochips as well.

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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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