Kaju Katli/ Kaju Burfi/ Cashew burfi for a Happy Diwali and a Chai party announcement !

Its Diwali again and I am super thrilled about it for many reasons. School is splitting up for a half term break and I am going to get a one week break from work and secondly I am looking forward to my social life with Diwali potluck and parties.  The School I work is a multi -cultural school and we do give importance to all festivals and this term the focus is on Diwali. Children are having mehendi design competition which I thought was really cool. My son also goes to same School and he has designed a cool Mehendi which he is hoping that he will win. No matter how many times I tell him it’s not winning that matters but taking part is he really won’t listen and always wants to win !! Anyway coming to topic , I wanted to give my collegues something special for Diwali and after asking my blogger gals they suggested that Kaju Burfi. I am so happy that I made this as they are so easy to put together and tastes so yummy !

Before I go to the recipe let me  draw your attention ( particularly London peeps) to an Indian Chai party the Bloggers Buzz is hosting at the end of November, a traditional tea party with an Indian twist. The tickets are going on sale soon and are limited so I suggest don’t waste the opportunity and buy them as soon as you can. Talking about venue, its Jenius Social conveniently located for all. I promise you that  it’s going to be a fun afternoon with lots of good food , festive games, mehendi corne, dance and music !! If you would like read more about the event head onto Mykitchenantics, Nisha has more details about the event.

Ingredients 

Cashew nuts – 1 cup

Sugar – ½ cup+ 1 tbs

Water – 1/4 cup

Ghee – 1 tbs

Rose water – 1 tsp 

Method

• Powder cashew nuts in a mixie with 1 tbs of sugar
• Place sugar and water in a saucepan and keep it on a low flame until the sugar has dissolved.
• Add in the powdered cashew, keep stirring it until the mixture thickens and comes together, might take up to 7-10 minutes.
• Remove from fire and add rose water, ghee  and  transfer it onto a big mixing bowl and knead it.
• Transfer the dough to a greased plate and flatten it. Place a grease proof paper on top and roll it thin (3-5 mm thickness).
• Peel of the grease proof paper and let it cool.
• Once completely cool, cut them into diamond shape. 

Gulab Jamun, A guest post for Rafeeda of Big Sweet Tooth

 

Rafeeda or Rafee as I fondly call her who blogs at Big sweet tooth is one of the sweetest friend virtual friend has gifted me. She has been a great support and encouragement for my blog through her beautiful comments which comes straight from her heart. I owe it to Rafee for  making my blog's font to a readable size as they were really really small before and it was she pointed out that I should make it a bit bigger. So after lots of experiments finally I figured out everything and changed it but what surprised me was  even before mentioning that to her  she noticed the difference  and got back to me ! Such genuine friends are rare to find right ??

I look up to Rafee’s blog not just for recipes, I enjoy reading her lovely write ups and beautiful quotes she posts in her blog. Rafees recipes has left me drooling several times, especially all her typical Malabar dishes and various Biriyani’s. When Rafee hosted a cook out in kerala kitchen I joined her and tried her Attipathiri recipe. She gave all the directions precisely in post, so it was so easy to follow her recipe and it tasted soo delicious too !

When Rafee asked whether  I could do a guest post for her I was more than happy to do it for her and knowing me well, she gave 3 months time, so I got ample time to plan and do this post for her. Since she she left everything to me and I choose this gulab jamun for the Big sweet tooth girl J 

Coming to the  post, making Gulab jamuns were  not really easy peasy as I thought or maybe I should say it’s so easy to  screw it up  if u don’t follow the recipe to dot and that’s what my over confidence did to me. First time I made this I added a  little extra baking soda so even though jamuns tasted good, it didn’t hold the round shape after it was fried.  Second time I reduced the baking soda but I think I added one spoon extra butter moreover the baking soda was still more so it had to be  binned straight away as it didn’t hold shape at all. So by the third time I had better idea and the jamus came out soo perfect ! So the key to get a good jamun is to add just a pinch of baking soda which  doesn’t mean  ¼ tsp or 1/8 tsp as I  thought ( silly me ! ). A pinch really does mean a pinch in gulab jamun recipe !! If you would like to see  the recipe head over to Rafee's blog and while you are there please dont forget to check out her blog.

Ras Malai ( with step by step pictures)

I have never been so busy in my life, lots of thing happening and I am working really hard after ages. Blogging should be the last thing I should be doing now, but sometimes for a break I find blogging and cooking therapeutic. I really wish I could spend more time on styling the picture and taking beautiful pictures but if I go for that doing a post might not happen for another few more weeks and I don’t want to ignore my blog that long. Let me get straight to the recipe before my hubby catches me doing a blog post when I have lots of pending work to finish.

Recipe adapted from - Show me the curry

Ingredients ( serves 6 )

For paneer

Milk – 6 cups

Lime juice – 3 tbsp.

For making Malai

Water – 5 cup

Sugar – cup

Paneer patties

For Ras

Milk – 5 cups

Sugar – 1 cup or as required

Cardamom crushed – ¼ tsp.

Saffron strand – few

Nuts- Almonds and Pistachios

Method

Making Paneer

• Boil milk and add 3 tbsp. of lime juice.
• Milk curdles and whey separates, strain it in colander lined with muslin cloth and rinse few times in cold water to remove lime flavour.
• Squeeze it hard and hang the muslin cloth under the tap for 30 minutes to strain any water left.
• Place a small weight on top of the muslin cloth to remove the water completely.

Making Paneer patties

• In a food processor or mixie blitz the Paneer for few seconds and knead until it’s soft or alternatively knead them well for 5- 10 minutes until soft.                              
  
• Divide the dough into 15- 20 equal sized balls and press them gently and make patties.                                                                                                                  
  

• Meanwhile add 5 cups of water and 1 cup of sugar in a pressure cooker. Place it on a medium flame until sugar I dissolved. Now carefully add the patties to the sugar water and close the lid and pressure cook it for 1 whistle and remove from fire.                                                                                                                         
  

• After 5 minutes take the pressure to kitchen sink and pour cold water to it so release the pressure, once the pressure is released open the cooker and take out the patties one by one with a ladle or spoon and gently give it squeeze to remove the excess water.                                                                                                       
           

• Let it cool down.

Making Ras

•  Boil milk with saffron strands in a thick bottomed vessel or a non-stick vessel and simmer it for 30- 45  minutes stirring every now and then until milk reduces to half.   
  
•  Add crushed cardamom and in the end and remove from fire once sugar is dissolved. Let it cool down a little bit.                                                                   
  

Chilling and serving

• Add the patties to Ras (Reduced milk) and chill it the fridge for 3-4 hours.
• Add Pistachios and Almond shavings on top before serving. 

Notes
When I made paneer I added a bit too much lime juice than 3 tbs so my paneer had a subtle ime flavour, but neverthless it was delicious. So please stick to 3 tbs. if you dont want a paneer with lime flavour :)

Rice Krispy treats and a small carving attempt !

This is one of the easiest treat that you can fix for ur lil ones in a jiffy..My boy used to get this from nursery sometimes on some special days when they cook in the nursery and he brings his share home and after that always used to ask for more,so I have been thinking to try this at home for sometime now and today finally I got some time and made this.Lil A loved it and as the quantity I made was quite a lot for him , I thought to be creative with the rest ! And this is what I came up with,his favoutite Mc Queen Car from Disney cars movie :) I carved the rice krispy treats with a sharp knife and then coated it with a little buttercream icing and covered it with fondant.Its nothing great but it bought a big smile on his face !

Ingredients

Rice krispies - 1 1/2 cup

Mini marshmallows - 1 cup

Butter - 1 1/2 tbs

Method

1. Melt butter in a pan and add marshmallows.

2.Stir until marshmallows are completely melted.Switch off the flame.

3.Add rice Krispies and mix until well coated.

4.Transfer this into a greased dish and press it .

5.Allow it to set and cut them to desired shapes.

Milk Peda for Diwali !

Yay..Diwali is almost around the corner !!When we dont have anything really exciting to look forward too until the winter passes its good to celebrate all the festivals that comes along.Diwali,Halloween,Christmas,New Year,Valentines Day... we have something to celebrate till February.
In Kerala(especially in Malabar) we dont celebrate Diwali like other states of India.During my college days I used to take tuition to a small boy from Rajasthan who lived nearby.One Diwali day his family came to our house for wishing Diwali and giving some sweets ,they were soo surprised to see that it was just a normal day for us.From that day onwards I felt that we should celebrate Diwali too..After that somany Diwalis passed by and I think I only celebrated 1-2 till now :( Anyway this year we are celebrating it.I will light some candles ,make some sweets and prepare some special food.
So here is a sweet treat for all my friends as a Diwali Special !!

I adapted this recipe from Show me the curry.com.
Here goes the recipe

Ingredients

Milk powder - 2 cup
Sweetened Condensed milk - 1 tin
Butter -5 tbs

Preparation

Melt the butter in microwave and add milk powder and condensed milk,mix it well and cook in the microwave for 1 min.Take it out and mix well again and cook it again for 1 minute,Do the same one more time and mix well.Allow it cool down and then roll it to desired shape and size and decorate according to your wish.