Easy and quick Gajar ka halwa

Posted on July 11, 2020 by delhigrl

Gajar ka halwa is a stovetop carrot pudding- a special occasion food. Is it your birthday? Did you do well on your exams? Is someone getting married? Is it Diwali? It is a beloved celebration food. The traditional route involves using khoya (milk solids) and boiling milk down and takes a while. This is my easier cheat using condensed milk.

Peel and grate carrots (medium grate)- I used around 650 g of grated carrots (if you have more carrots- add some sugar, if you have less carrots- your halwa may be a little sweeter). Add to large pot with 1 stick of butter. Cook for 10-15 minutes on medium till bubbling merrily. Add one 14 oz can of condensed milk, a handful of cashews, a handful of raisins, 1/2 tsp of cadamom powder and a pinch of crushed saffron. Cook on low for 20-30 minutes or so and you are done.

Eat it hot, eat it cold – delicious every which way. The flavor deepens over a day or two- if it lasts that long.

Mixed peel or candied orange and lime

Posted on July 2, 2020 by delhigrl

The Great British Bake Off will fill your heads with visions of Chelsea buns and Hot cross buns and candied citrus. This is a great recipe. I’ve made this twice and I’m yet to make any chelsea buns but as an after dinner snack, mixed peel is delicious with some dark chocolate.

As usual- I went with the Alton Brown recipe. He asks you to peel the zest using a peeler. Other recipes use the whole peel – pith and all and have to boil the peel multiple times.

Step 1- When anyone at home eats an orange or uses a lime/lemon- peel the zest into long strips and store it in a ziplock bag in the freezer till you have enough. Make sure the family cooperates, threaten them with loss of all citrus fruit if they don’t

Step 2: Once you have the zest of 4-6 oranges and 1-3 lime/lemons- put them in a pan with 3 cups of water. Boil for 15 minutes and strain

Step 3: Next comes the candy making. Add enough water to cover the peels and add the same amount of sugar by volume and simmer away for an hour or two. Measure the temperature every 5 minutes or so and when it starts climbing over 212F- use a heat proof glove (sugar splatter will burn your skin right off) and measure the temperature every few minutes till it hits 250F (around hard ball stage)

Step4: Pour over a wire rack and seperate and dry for 24-48 hours. The candied peel is ready when it makes a shattering sound as you drop it (Mary Berry tests it like that). The syrup is delicious too in cocktails.

Blackberry preserves home-made

Posted on June 20, 2020 by delhigrl

When the pandemic hits and you want preserves with your home-made ricotta , you go to the freezer. This is very quick and bubbles happily while you make brunch. In a pan, add a 10oz pack of frozen blackberries, about a tsp of fresh grated ginger (I always have frozen ginger) and 1 tbsp of so of mulling spices, pumpkin spice or any variation of clove/cinnamon/all spice/cardomom you wish. Cook for 20 minutes- stirring every few minutes.

Namoura (Syrup Soaked Semolina Cake)

Posted on June 18, 2020 by delhigrl

When you order all purpose flour in a pandemic and the store has run out, the teenager bagging and delivering your groceries substitutes the first flour he/she can see. So I have a considerable amount of semolina flour, rye flour, almond flour and spelt flour to experiment with. This cake is the result of a search for a semolina cake and it is a winner. Based off this Tejal Rao recipe in the NYT– it is a dense very sweet cake. But the sweetness is not cloying, it is a sweetness of a good gulab jamun or a baklava, a pleasant delicious moreish sweetness.

The recipe is extremely simple. Preheat oven to 400F and grease a 9×13 inch baking pan

Step 1- to one cup of yogurt, add 2.5 tsp of baking soda, mix well and allow it to froth and rise. It rose up to nearly 3 cups by volume in 10 minutes.

Step 2: Mix 3 cups of semolina flour with 1.5 sticks (3/4 cup, 12 tbsp) of melted butter and 3/4 cup of sugar till there are no lumps.

Step 3: Add yogurt to flour and mix well (yes till no lumps remain). Spread in prepared pan.

Step 4: Score in diamond shapes and add a nut to each diamond- I used walnuts. Bake for 30 minutes or so. The scoring is unnecessary in my opinion. Just sprinkle the nuts on top.

Step 5: Make syrup with 2 cups of sugar and 1 cup of water and add 1tbsp of lemon juice and 1 tbsp of flavor (the recipe suggests lavender or rose water , I used vanilla)

Step 6: When cake is done (it pulls away from the sides)- pour the syrup(yes, all of it) on the cake evenly. Let cool and then cut along the pre-scored shapes.

Eat with coffee or wine

Sooji Halwa/Shira with Mango

Posted on June 9, 2020 by delhigrl

This is a childhood favorite for every Indian child. It’s a pudding I guess but with more structure. The mango is completely optional, add bananas or raisins or pineapple or almonds to the halwa if you wish. it’s traditionally made with cashews and raisins. The cardamom is essential, the saffron is delicious but not essential.

Roast one cup of rava (coarse semolina) in a quarter cup of butter or ghee. The rava will become pale brown and nutty and burns very fast. Roast the cashews with the rava towards the end. Maybe a quarter cup or so of cashews.

Add 2 cups of milk and 1 cup of water with 1 tbsp of ground cardamon and a pinch of saffron. Add about 10oz of mango (I had a bag of frozen mangos) and cover and steam for 10 minutes. Stir every few minutes to prevent sticking. Then add 3/4 cup of sugar. Stir, turn off heat and cover for 5 minutes. That’s it ! Serve with coffee or tea.

Frozen Berry Cake

Posted on May 30, 2020 by delhigrl

The quarantine has changed my baking. The creaming and the whisking and the finicky angel food and genoise sponges are in the past. Give me a good solid oil cake using the muffin method anyday. If the cake can use up the frozen berries that have been in the freezer since the smoothie phase years ago- even better! This is based off a NYT Dawn Perry recipe. Couple of things to remember- don’t defrost your berries, this is a slow cooking cake and the berries form their own jammy pockets. Also poking this cake with a skewer to see if it is done may or may not work- you may hit some fruit which will be wet. The sugar on top is essential- the crackly crust goes brilliantly with the jammy fruit. I’ve used a 10 oz bag of just rasperries and a 10 oz bag of mixed berries- works great with both. Cut the strawberries into rasperry size bites.

Heat oven to 350 F and prep a 9 inch square or round pan (butter and flour/PAM spray/parchment). Parchment works best for this cake- it is a soft cake.

Dry ingredients- whisk with a fork to combine: 1.5 cups all purpose flour, 1.5 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp kosher salt

Wet ingredients: whisk well till sugar dissolved: 1cup sugar, 1/2 cup buttermilk (or milk with 1/2 tsp vinegar) , 1/2 cup neutral oil (canola, vegetable etc), 2 eggs and 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Mix dry and wet ingredients till just mixed (there will be lumps- such is life) . Toss a 10 oz bag of frozen berries with 1 tbsp of flour -gently fold into batter.

Add batter to pan, sprinkle 2 tablespoons of sugar evenly on top and bake for 55 minutes or so till the top is golden. Eat with whipped cream if you are feeling particularly indulgent and the news has been really depressing.

Lemon olive oil cake

Posted on May 30, 2020 by delhigrl

Olive oil makes cakes moist and savory and altogether delicious in a very different way from butter. I’ve tried so many combinations of olive oil cakes and lemon pound cakes. This one is a winner every single time. It is a Melissa Clark recipe and the taste/effort ratio is off the charts.

Heat oven to 350 F and prep a 1 lb loaf pan (8 inch) with your anti-stick prep of choice (butter/flour, PAM baking spray, parchment)

Get dry ingredients ready and mix them around with a fork : 1 3/4 cup all purpose flour, 1.5 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp fine sea salt

Get wet ingredients and combine with a whisk till sugar is dissolved- 1 cup sugar, 2 tsp lemon (or lime) zest, 3 tablespoons lemon (or lime) juice, 1 tablespoon poppy seeds, 1/2 cup buttermilk (or milk with 1/2 tsp vinegar) and 3/4 cup olive oil (the fruitier the better) with 3 large eggs

Mix the wet and dry ingredients till they just come together- don’t overmix! An occasional lump is fine. Pour in prepared pan and bake for 1 hour or so. Let your whole house smell of cake and deliciousness. Cool for 10 minutes and remove from pan

Make a glaze with 1/2 cup confectioners sugar and 1.5 tbsp lemon (or lime) juice. Poke holes with a skewer in the cake and pour glaze on top. You should let it cool before eating but this cake is impossible to resist.

Pound cake by Alton Brown

Posted on January 20, 2020 by delhigrl

Somedays you need the comfort of a good old fashioned pound cake. This one from Alton’s lovely “I’m just here for more food” which is my most used cookbook works every single time! It is the buttermilk that gives this cake its super tender but still firm crumb. This cake is also sensational toasted a few days later (if it lasts that long)

I use a 10 cup bundt pan for this- but you can use any pan you wish- I’ve never tried cupcakes with this recipe but they should work fine as well- just go down on baking time. This is a good 1st cake recipe for kids or anyone new to baking.

Step 1 is essential (several hours before baking): Bring 2 sticks of butter, 3 eggs and 1 cup of buttermilk to room temperature

Step 2: Heat oven to 325F and Cream 2 cups of sugar and 2 sticks of butter. This is the most vital step and my stand mixer makes this a breeze. Alton in his book explains that creaming means a) the mixture looks homogenous and fluffy b) you can still feel the individual grains of sugar between your fingers. Always scrape the bowl once

Step 3: Add the eggs one by one and add 1tsp of good vanilla extract. Beat on high for 3-4 minutes untill the mixture is well incorporated and fluffy. Remember to scrape the bowl.

Step 4: Add 3 cups of flour (14.5oz) and 1 cup of buttermilk to the mixture gradually. I add each in thirds- alternating the flour and the buttermilk. Scrape the blade and the bowl at least once to make sure you don’t have unmixed batter

Step 4: Pour into prepped bundt pan (I use Pam baking spray) and bake for an hour. Cool fo 15 minutes

This is delicious plain or with any toppings. I served this last week with rasperry coulis (1 bag of frozen rasperries, 3 tbsp of sugar, the zest of one orange and 1/4 cup of fresh orage juice) and orange whipped cream (whip 1 cup of heavy whipping cream with 1/4 cup of sugar and zest of one orange)

Portugese Egg Custard Tarts

Posted on January 15, 2020 by delhigrl

When my favorite youtuber Babish released an egg tart video, I knew I had to make these. But unusually for me, I decided to go with the simpler approach of using store bought puff pastry rather than making my own puff (something I have tried and failed at in the past). These seemed to be delightful morsels of buttery crust with a jelly like custard interior and everyone online kept using superlatives to describe them. So instead of going to Portugal or actually finding a Portuguese bakery, we took these on as a snowy day weekend project inspired by this Melissa Clark NYT recipe. I also watched and re-watched cupcake Jemma make these, because she is lovely and soothing. The trick seems to be keeping the pastry cold and using an extremely hot oven to develop a shatteringly crisp crust. These would be good with any filling – I plan to try lemon curd next.

Makes 24 small tarts- start 2 days before you actually wish to consume the pasteis de nata

Step 1: Buy some all butter puff pastry (I used Trader joes) and buy a mini muffin pan ( I used Sur La Table where I also spent an unnecessary amount of money buying cooking tchotchkes)

Step 2: Roll out half your puff pastry (about 7-8 oz) into a 13×13 inch square or an 18×9 inch rectangle. Start rolling into a log from the larger side- so you should have an 18 inch log about an inch in diameter. Wrap in parchment and chill for several hours (or overnight)

Step 3- divide pastry log into half and then quarters and then thirds to get 24 pieces, Press the flat discs down and then along the side of the mini muffin pan. Cover with cling film and chill

Step 4- make the custard

Step 4a: read the instructions multiple times so you don’t goof up and have to throw away your first 2 attempts- hey, eggs are cheap, it’s ok. In retrospect- I should have made this in the blender- notes for next time.

Step 4b: There are 3 parts to this custard- assemble the 3 parts first. A cinnamon syrup ( 1/2 cup of sugar, 1/2 a cinnamon stick and 1/3 cup water- heat till sugar dissolves- take off heat, discard cinnamon), 3 egg yolks and a flour paste (start with 1/4 cup of all purpose flour and 3 tbsp of milk- whisk in 1/2 cup of scalding whole milk- heated till bubbles just form- this is tougher than it looks and requires quite a lot of upper body strength)

Step 4c: Add sugar syrup to the flour mixture and return to the heat- Whisk continuously for 5 minutes till mixture is thickened and paste like without any lumps

Step 4d: add some of the flour mixture to the egg yolks whisking continuously- then add more gradually till both are combined. If you do this correctly- you will NOT have scrambled eggs but a smooth custard. If any custard calls for straining- it is this one- strain it.

Step 5- You remembered to heat your oven to 500F right? and the cookie sheet is on the bottom 1/3rd- good!. Add custard to the tart shells and bake for 15-20 minutes till custard is puffed up and lovely with some char and the pastry is crisp

So this recipe is tough! I have made many custards from scratch and this one was difficult! Was it worth it? Yes! Did we finish 24 tarts in one sitting? Of course we did!

Mochi balls with puran

Posted on September 23, 2019 by delhigrl

My favorite sweet in the world is puran poli- the maharashtrian roti stuffed with sweetened chana dal. When I saw a Tasty video on sesame mochi balls with red bean paste inside- I knew I wanted to replicate the recipe with puran inside the mochi. Kadbu (a dish from Karnataka is after-all just puran inside steamed rice dough). Also I have an appe pan which is exactly the same as a takoyaki pan. It seems as though the stars were aligned.

Mochi is made from glutinous rice, an entirely different species of rice flour from what is commonly used in India. This has to be ordered off Amazon or bought from an Asian grocery store. I ordered the Mochiko flour brand.

Puran: Pressure cook 1 cup of washed chana dal for 15 minutes. Drain. Mash with 1/4 cup jaggery and 2-3 tbsp sugar. Add 1 tsp of cardamon powder and any dry fruits you wish ( I added chopped up dried apricots). Make balls of puran.

Mochi: Make a soft dough from 1 cup of glutinous rice flour with 1/2 a cup of warm water and 1/2 tsp of salt. Flatten a ball of mochi and fold around a smaller ball of puran. Roll the whole thing in sesame seeds. Repeat.

Cook the mochi gently in a takayoki pan or an appe patra or an abelskeiver pan (all freely availalbe on Amazon) for 5-7 minutes with a little oil. Rotate till all the sesame seeds are golden brown.

The mochi is super gelatinous when hot but becomes deliciously less sticky as it cools. This is a truly fabulous treat.

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Category Archives: Dessert