Thursday, June 2, 2011

Payesh


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.

Payesh
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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Saturday, May 28, 2011

Cashew Pistachio Cookies dipped in Chocolate


I made this for taking with us to trip tomorrow for memorial day weekend. Perfect snacks for travel. Its inspired by the short bread Ajoy got from Costco couple of times.

Cashew Pistachio Cookies dipped in Chocolate
Ingredients
3 Cup Maida
2 Cup Butter
1.25 Cup Sugar
1 Egg Yolk
2 Spoon Vanilla Essence
1/2 Cup Cashews
1/2 Cup Pistachios
1 Cup Semi-sweet Choco Chips
1/4 Cup White Choco Chips
5 Spoon Shortening

Method
  • In a bowl cream butter and sugar together till fluffy.
  • Add in egg yolk and vanilla essence and cream again
  • Grind the cashews to fine powder and add it to the above mixture
  • Sift in maida and mix together till nice stiff dough is formed.
  • Form the lemon sized balls and store them in fridge for around 1 hour
  • Preheat oven to 375F/190C
  • Chop the pistachios
  • Press each dough ball using palms to thick discs. Sprinkle the pistachios on half portion of each cookie disc and press lightly to secure the pistachios in the cookie
  • Line the baking sheet with parchment paper and grease it. Transfer the discs on to the baking pan keeping an inch of distance between each of them
  • Bake at 375F/190C for 12 minutes
  • Let the cookies cool for 5-10 minutes.
  • In a bowl mix in semi sweet chocochips and 4 spoon of shortening and microwave for 1 minutes stirring once after 30 minutes. Mix till nice glossy.
  • Line the baking sheet with fresh parchment paper. Dip each cookie's part which isn't covered by pistachios in the chocolate and set it on parchment paper.
  • Mix white choco chips and remaining 1 spoon of shortening for 30 seconds and stir in till smooth and glossy. Fill it in a piping bag and make zig zag lines over the semi sweet chocolate on the cookie. Let the chocolate set for an hour.

Notes
If you dont have microwave you can heat chocolate and shortening in a bowl set over the boiling water. Stir till the mixture is smooth and dont let the chocolate burn. Microwave is really easy method and one doesnt need to worry much except to check it every 30 seconds so I prefer to temper the chocolate in microwave.

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Thursday, May 26, 2011

Lychee Icecream


Here almost all stores sell the canned lychees but never the fresh ones. Last month I decided to give it a try especially for ice-cream. It turns out that if you use the syrup you get pretty good flavor from one can

Lychee Icecream
Ingredients
1 Can of Seedless Lychee
1/2 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup Milk
3.5 Cup Cream
1 Lemon

Method
  • Take out lychees from the syrup and put the syrup in the mixie.
  • Add in sugar and milk and blend it till the sugar is disolved.
  • Mix in cream and lemon juice and whisk a bit.
  • Add it in ice-cream maker and let it set.
  • Fine chop the lychees and mix that in the ice-cream around 3-4 minutes before the setting is complete.

Notes
If using fresh lychees just use around 30 lychees. Puree around 15 of them with 2 cups of water and use that instead of lychee syrup and finely chop remaining lychees. You might need to use probably 2/3 cup of sugar.
The lemon helps in bringing out the taste from the lychee.

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