Maa's Caramel Custard

A dessert that I used to have aplenty while growing up -- yeah, yeah so much so that I stopped liking it. These days, I like to have it once in a while, in very very small servings. Since hubby dear just loves it, I learned how to make it from Maa. Of course, to also make it when I miss home and want some food that can take me back to the growing-up days and provide the calming effect!. Here it is -- The caramel custard.


Ingredients (makes 8 servings)

White sugar - 1.5 tbsp + 8tbsp = 9.5 tbsp
Milk - 2 cups
Eggs - 6
Vanilla essence - 1/2 tsp
Nutmeg Powder - a pinch
Step 1 - Caramel Prep

Take 1.5 tbsp sugar and heat in the container you plan to set the caramel custard in. The sugar caramelizes and develops a wonderful golden red color. Spread it out over the entire bottom of the container. This will show up in the caramel custard when you invert it out of the container into a plate.

Tip - To ensure the caramel remains spread out, you can spread it out and then place the container in cold water such that the bottom cools down.

Step 2 - Custard Prep - Liquid mix

Beat the eggs with vanilla essence. Add this to the milk and sugar mixture. Make sure that the sugar is well mixed with the rest of the mixture.

Tip - Don't beat the eggs too hard. The more foam you develop, the custard becomes less soft in texture.

Step 3 - Custard Prep

Heat the pressure cooker with some water. Place the container with caramel from Step 1. Add the mixture from Step 2 to the container. Close the lid with the weight. Cook for 1 whistle on high heat (approx. 10 mins) and 5 mins on Medium heat after that. Put the heat off and let it stand till it cools down to room temperature.


Refrigerate the caramel custard and serve cold. There are definitely some exceptions like my dad who like it a little warm. Enjoy the subtle flavours of this easy dessert!

Update on 03/30/2008 - Alternative receipe from Paula's Home Cooking of Food Network (Thank you, Paula!)

1/2 cup sugar + few drops of water - for caramel
3cups milk - 5 eggs - 1/2 cup sugar - 1 tsp vanilla - pinch of salt - Mix well and fill up the individual containers.
Bake at 350 degree Fahreinheit for 1 hr in a hot-water bath

Update on 03/15/2012 - Sharing a lovely presentation of caramel custard we had in a resort in Cancun, Mexico.

Eggless Dates Cake

"A new form of cake" is all that can easily be said to summarize this cake. Indeed. I first had this cake when my dear friend Prajakta (I still got to make and post her finger-licking Malai Kofta!) made this and got some for me. I was wowed. It was a soft cake with an absolutely different taste. She had used the recipe from our Konkani fellow blogger Shilpa's Aayi's Recipes. The master recipe is here. Thanks to both Shilpa and Prajakta for introducing me to this cake. I love it and so does my family. My dad, who is not a major fan of dates, also liked it :)



Ingredients (Makes 1 loaf)

Pitted Seedless Dates - 18 (If normal dates are used, they need to be soaked with warm milk overnight)
Milk - 3/4 cup
Sugar - 3/4 cup
All purpose flour / Maida - 1 cup
Canola Oil - 1/2 cup
Baking soda - 1 tspn
Cashews, raisins - handful each (optional)

Preheat the oven at 350F.

Seive together flour and baking soda.

Grind the dates, milk and sugar together till the dates are finely mixed with the rest of the mixture.

Add oil and mix. Add the flour+baking soda mixture 2-3 tablespoons at a time and mix slowly. Add the nuts and mix.

Bake the cake in a greased oven proof dish for 50 mins - 1 hr (or till a knife inserted in the cake comes out clean)


This tastes great fresh and warm out of the oven!!

Crabmeat Dip with Ranch Dressing

A light stuff to have with Belgian Endives or Garlic Parmesan Bread! I had first tried this recipe during Christmas 2006 following Rachael Ray's recipe. When I wanted to make it again for this year's Christmas, I just could not find the recipe. I think it was similar to the one mentioned below...whatever it was, it was pretty similar. How else to console oneself? Just kidding. :)

Ingredients

1 Belgian Endive
Crabmeat 1/2 lb (I used Phillips Foods brand)
Onion - 1/2 small (or Green Onion - 2 stalks)
Yellow Capsicum - 1/4
Orange Capsicum - 1/4
Red Capsicum - 1/4
Celery - 1 stalk
Ranch Dressing - 2 tbsp
Pepper Powder - 1/4 tsp
Salt as per taste
Hot sauce - few drops
Paprika Powder - 1/4 tsp

Chop the veggies into tiny pieces and then mix everything together. Easy, isn't it? :)

You can also add sour cream and cream cheese for added flavour. Check out one of those recipes here. Have fun!

Pumpkin Seed Pakora

A new ingredient in my pantry these days - Pumpkin Seeds!! Had picked them up at the New Jersey Edison Sabzi Mandi, but could not gather the courage to try making it. Finally did so with my mom's assistance. It's not difficult to make, just was not too sure how it would turn out. It did taste good. You can have it as a side-dish simply as a pakora. Or put it in a simple gravy made from onion-ginger-garlic-tomato paste sauted and cooked in a tablespoon of oil.


Ingredients (Makes about 20)

Pumpkin Seeds 1 cup
Besan 2 tbsp
Salt 1 tsp
Tumeric powder 1/2 tsp
Ginger paste 1 tbsp
Cumin-Chilli Powder 1/2 tsp

Step 1

Soak pumpkin seeds overnight. In the morning, remove the skin of the seeds. Grind the remaining portion with as little water as possible. 1/2 cup of water will most probably do.

Step 2

Add besan, salt, turmeric powder, ginger paste and cumin-chilli powder to the above batter and mix well. It will form a batter as shown here.


Step 3

Heat pan. Add a tablespoon of oil for every round of making pakoras on the pan. Take small portions of the batter in your hand and put in the pan. Let it stand so that one side stiffens and gets cooked. Once firm, turn the pakora over carefully so that the other side can cook. Use Medium to Medium-High heat throughout.


Enjoy them hot and crisp!!

Ras-bhara Rasagolla

Rasagolla-Rasgulla-Rasogolla-however you write it, if it sounds like one of these then it means this white-colored cheese-sweet immersed in sugar syrup. This is supposed to one of the authentic Oriya sweet that has made its way into the Bengali household and has since been termed as an Oriya-Bengali sweet. Wikipedia has a nice short history about Rasagolla here.

One of my earlier post about Chenna-Poda mentions the Pahala village. Apart from Chenna-poda, the Pahala village cooks are popular for their melt-in-the-mouth freshly made and warm rasagollas. If you are ever travelling between Bhubaneswar and Cuttack (in Orissa, India), don't miss the chance to taste this indigenous sweet.


A quick and easy recipe to make it at home is shown below.

Ingredients (Makes 25-30)

Whole milk - 1 gallon
Lemon juice of 1 lemon
Semolina - 2 tbsp

Sugar - 2.5 cup (syrup)
Water - 5 cup (syrup)
Cardamom - 3-4 (syrup)

Boil milk. Add lemon juice to split the milk and get chenna. Note - Don't let the chenna become hard boiling. Next, make it as dry as possible. Best option is to put it on a cheese-cloth and hang it free. Well, I could not come up with any innovative way to do this. So I just used a strainer and let it stand for a duration of 1-2 hrs. Mash the chenna and semolina with hand till it forms into a soft and smooth wet dough.

Take a pressure cooker. Add the water and sugar together. Mix them. Bring it to a boil. Crush the cardamom and add to this.

Once the sugar mixture boils, make small 2 inch diameter balls and drop them slowly into the syrup. If it holds itself in the syrup, you are good to go. Make similar sized balls with the rest of the chenna. Put the pressure cooker lid on. Cook it on high heat for 6 mins and on medium heat for 5 mins.

Enjoy the warm rasagollas! You can refrigerate them. When ready to eat, put it in the microwave for a few seconds and allure yourself :)

Garma Garam Gulab Jamun

Another recipe from my SIL's archive of delicious desserts to devour and feel guilty later! My Maa, SIL and MIL are like a treasure-trove of dessert recipes. Even if I made one dessert per week, this lifetime is not enough, I bet!

My mom is here with me these days. So she makes the dishes that keep us alive and rocking (Second thoughts on rocking since I have gained so much weight now! Cherishing all that she churns out; sometimes from the most under-estimated ingredients!). I cook once in a while, most often desserts and snacks.

Though like a good daughter (!), when they were planning their US trip, I swore vehemently that I will take care of everything and would like Maa to use this as an opportunity to relax and chill out. Right from the evening she landed here, she has been the matron of the kitchen. Anyone else who has done the same, please confess so that I can feel better that "I am not the only one with this problem" :)

You guys must have guessed it from the scarcity of new posts on this blog. At least I would like to be under the impression that my fellow foodie bloggers missed me ;) Enough of babbling from my end, here is the recipe of gulab jamun. It involves two main steps - preparing the hot sugar syrup and dunking the fried gulab jamuns in the hot syrup to absorb the hot syrup and soften up.

Step 1 - SUGAR SYRUP PREPARATION
Water - 2 cups
Sugar - 2 cups
Saffron strands - few
Cardamom - 5-6 pieces

Heat water and sugar. Let it boil and sugar to melt. As it develops a slight golden color, add the saffron and cardamom. Keep it boiling till it is golden in color. It will be runny in consistency so that when you drop the fried jamuns in it the jamuns should be able to absorb the liquid. The whole process takes about 15-20 mins.

Step 2 - JAMUN PREPARATION (40-45 Jamuns)
Milk Powder - 2 cups
Flour - 2/3 cup
Baking soda (NOT baking powder) - 1 tsp
Heavy Cream - 1.5 cups (You can substitute with half-and-half milk 1 cup, but heavy cream is preferred)

Mix all the ingredients together. Make it a dough using heavy cream. It will be initially a little wet. Keep it aside for 30-45 minutes. It becomes thicker - more wet than roti/chapatti dough definitely.

Heat oil in Medium heat. Wet your hand with water and make 1 inch balls (NOTE - It will increase to at least twice its present size in the whole process due to the baking soda.) of the above dough. Drop it into the hot oil such that when you drop it, it should slowly bounce to the surface. The side which is inside the oil will slowly develop a dark brownish color. Turn it such that the top half facing you is next inside the oil and develops the same color.

Once the whole jamun is dark-brown in color, drop it into the hot sugar syrup of Step 1. Leave it aside for 1 min. Remove the jamun from the syrup and keep in a separate container. Once you are done with all the jamuns, pour the remaining sugar syrup on the prepared jamuns.

Storage - Keep refrigerated. Lasts for a week and a half at the least.

Serving suggestion - Serve warm. Surprise, surprise -- It is a good combination with cold vanilla ice-cream. Bon appetit!

Yummy Masala Pav Bhaji

Pav Bhaji - a fast food that goes equally well as a lunch or dinner item. Isn't that a live-saver! :)How many times it has come to my rescue when I felt too lazy to cook!

I loved the analogy in Wikipedia entry for Pav Bhaji what states that "The connection of pav bhaji is to western India is similar to what pizza is to Italy or the hot-dog is to America. ". And whoever thought of calling these "Indian Sloppy Joes"..ha ha. Well, they are right in a way! An interesting article that chronicles the history of Pav Bhaji is here.

Well, I should mention that even though I had been making Pav Bhaji before, my dear friend Meenal's tips have definitely taken it to a completely different level. Thanks, Meenal! I can never forget how we gobbled the Pav Bhaji prepared by her on our Wintergreen Resorts (Virginia, US) trip. This is a mountain resort and we did a lot of walking around in the morning. So you can guess how hungry we were and to add on, hot yummy Pav Bhaji for lunch -- it just doubled our appetite and we just gobbled and gobbled :) (Gobble, gobble, gobble - Remember "Everybody Loves Raymond" episode where the twins are teasing their sister). Coming back to the topic, here is my version of Pav Bhaji recipe.



Ingredients (makes 6 servings)

Potatoes - 4, boiled and mashed
Onion - 2 large, chopped
Ginger - 2 tbsp, grated
Tomato - 1 large, chopped
Tomato Paste - 1/2 can of 6 oz. can
Green Peas - 1/2 cup
Jalapeno/Peppers - as per taste (optional)
Cauliflower florets - 1/2 cup boiled (optional)

Pav Bhaji Masala - 3 tbsp (I use MDH brand, thanks to my friend Meenal!)
Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp
Coriander Powder - 1 tsp
Garam Masala - 1 tsp
Salt - 1 tbsp or as per taste
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Dry Bay leaves - 2
Sugar - 1/8 tsp
Canola oil - 1 tbsp

Garnishing Ingredients

Chopped Coriander Leaves - few sprigs
Onion - 1 large, chopped
Lemon Wedges
Butter

Masala Pav Ingredients

Pav or Bun
Butter
Pav Bhaji Masala

Boil the potatoes and cauliflower and mash it.

Heat oil. Temper with sugar, cumin seeds and dry bay leaves. Add chopped onion and let it cook till it is transparent but not brown. Add grated ginger paste and let it cook. Once the ginger is cooked, add the chopped tomato. Once it is slightly cooked, add the tomato paste, turmeric powder, coriander powder, garam masala, salt and the Pav Bhaji Masala. This provides the orange enchanting color to the bhaji. Add mashed potatoes and cauliflower and mix well. Add the green peas and chopped jalapenos to the mixture. Add 1/2 cup water at a time to get the desired consistency. We prefer it a little bit runny, not exactly dry. Garnish with chopped Coriander Leaves, chopped onion and a lemon wedge. A dash of butter also as garnish enhances the taste.

Melt some butter. Sprinkle Pav Bhaji Masala and mix. Toast the bread in this butter.

For a different take on Pav Bhaji, check Nupur of One Hot Stove's version. Link here.