How to make Veg Momo..

Ingredients: • 2 cups Maida • 1/2 Cabbage, grated) • 1/2 tbsp Salt • 3 medium-sized Onions (chopped) • 1/2 tsp Ginger paste • A pinch of Baking Powder For Chutney 5 Garlic flakes, chopped • 5 Red Chillies, chopped • Little amount of Vinegar
How to make Momos:
• Mix maida, baking powder and water to make smooth dough. Leave the dough overnight. • Roll out medium sized chapattis from dough. • Cut into two halves from the middle like samosas. • Now make a mixture of grated cabbage, onion, ginger paste and salt to taste to stuff in. • Stuff the half-piece chapatti with this mixture. Repeat the step to make all the momos. • Steam these momos in an idli utensil for about 10 minutes. Or you can also fry them. • To prepare chutney, churn garlic, red chilli and vinegar in a mixer. • Serve the momos with chutney.

How To make Rasmalai...

Ingredients:

• 4 lbs Cows Milk or Ricotta cheese
• 1 cup sugar
• 64 oz half & half milk
• 1/4 tsp crushed cardamom seeds
• A pinch of saffron
• 1 cup blanched almonds
• 4 tbsp crushed green pistachios

Method:

• Mix sugar & cardamom powder with cheese.
• Spread out the mixture on a baking tray.
• Now bake the mixture at 350° for 1/2 an hour till it gets light brown.
• Take out the mixture from oven & keep it cool at normal temperature.
• Cut into 2" squares and place them at a desset bowl.
• Now in a seperate dish mix all the other ingredients well except the pistachios.
• Decorate with pistachios, chill for 2-3 hours.
• Ready to server.

How to make Jalebi.....

Ingredients:
• 2 cups All Purpose Flour                                   • 1-1/2 tbsp Rice flour • 1/4th tsp Baking powder • 2 tbsp Curd • 3 cups Sugar • 2-1/2 cups Water • 1/2 tsp Cardamom (powdered) • Ghee or Vegetable oil for frying
How to make Jalebi:
• Mix the flour, rice flour, baking powder, curd in a bowl. • Mix well, add water and whisk until smooth. • Set aside for about 2 hours to ferment. • Whisk thoroughly before use. • Prepare one string syrup by dissolving sugar in the water. • Just before the syrup is ready add cardamom powder. • Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan or kadhai. • Pour the batter in a steady stream into the kadhai to form coils. • Make 4-5 at a time. • Deep fry them until they are golden and crisp all over but not brown. • Remove from the kadhai and drain on kitchen paper and immerse in the sugar syrup. • Leave for at least 4-5 minutes so that they soak the syrup. • Take them out of syrup and serve hot. • Jalebi is ready.

Badam Burfi

Badam (almond) Burfi is a healthy substitute for candy but is rich in flavor. Almond burfi can be served as dessert or snack.

Recipe makes 20 pieces.

 





Ingredients:

• 1 cup whole almonds
  
• 1 cup sugar
• Pinch of Cardamom powder
• 2 tablespoons butter or ghee (clear butter)
• 1/3 cup milk

Method

1. Soak the almonds in hot water for 30 minutes.
2. Peel the skin off the almonds. Blend the almonds into a fine paste using just enough milk as needed to blend.
3. Add the sugar and whip it for a couple of minutes.
4. Heat the ghee in the frying pan on low-medium heat.
5. As the ghee melts, add the almond paste and cook on medium heat, stirring continuously.
6. Continue stirring until the mixture thickens to the consistency of bread batter, and starts leaving the sides of the pan.
7. Add the cardamom powder. Remove the frying pan from the heat.
8. Whip the batter using a spoon in a circular motion for about two to three minutes.
9. Pour it into the prepared greased pan.
10. Smoothen the surface of the mixture to about a quarter inch thick.
11. Let cool for about 20 minutes until burfi is just look warm.
12. Cut into 1-inch squares or any shape you like.
13. Cool to the room temperature and store burfi in an airtight container.
14. Almond burfi has a long shelf life and can be kept outside for up to one week. When refrigerated, almond burfi will last a couple of months.

Suggestions:
You can make burfi using almond meal or almond flour. If you are using almond meal, mix one cup almond meal with the sugar and milk and knead the mixture for two minutes. Let the mixture sit for 10 to 15 minutes. Then follow the directions above. The almond flour burfi will be a little chewy.

Besan ladoos

Besan ladoos are rich, sweet dessert-snack made from gently roasted gram flour (besan). Ladoos can be served any time of the day. Traditionally in Indian households ladoos and burfis are served as cookies and chocolate.
Recipe will make approximately 16 ladoos.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups gram flour (basen)
• 2 tablespoons semolina flour (fine sooji)
• 1/2 cup unsalted melted butter (ghee)
• 3/4 cups sugar
• 4 tablespoons sliced almonds (badam)
• 1/4 teaspoons coarsely grounded cardamom seeds (ilaichi)

For Garnish:

• 1 tablespoon melted butter or ghee
• 1 tablespoons sliced pistachios (pista)

Method

1. Put the basen (gram flour), sooji, and melted butter in a large frying pan and mix.
2. Turn the stove on to medium heat and begin to roast the basen mixture until basen becomes light golden brown in color.  Stir the mixture continuously with a spatula to prevent burning. Cooking on high heat will not allow the mixture to fully cook.
3. When the color has changed you will also start to smell the sweetness of roasted basen. This should take about 7 to 10 minutes.
4. Remove the pan from the heat and let the basen cool to a warm temperature. don’t let it become to room temperature.
5. While the mixture is warm add and mix cardamom seeds, almonds, and sugar.
6. To make the ladoos, take about 2 tablespoons of warm basen mixture into your palm. Gently press the mixture between your palms to form a smooth, round ball. The ladoos are usually about the size of a ping-pong ball, but you can adjust the as you prefer.
7. When you have finished making all of the ladoos, take one ladoo at a time and dip the ladoo a quarter inch into melted butter or ghee. Then lightly touch the part of the ladoo with the butter into the sliced pistachios just enough so some pistachios stick to the ladoo.
8. Put ladoos back on the plate with the pistachio side facing the top.
9. Leave the ladoos on a plate to cool to room temperature before putting into a covered container. The ladoos can be stored in an airtight container for 2 to 3 weeks.

Chola Tikki

Chola Tikki (chickpeas patties) is a spicy and yummy snack. Tikkis are also known as a chat. Just the smell of Tikki can make you hungry.

Makes 8 to 10.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of boiled chickpeas (kable chana)
• 3 medium potatoes
• 1 tablespoon shredded ginger
• 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro (hara dhania)
• 2 chopped green chili seeded, adjust to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• Oil to shallow fry

For Garnish:

• 1/4 cup plain yogurt, stirred until smooth
• 2 tablespoons hari chutney (cilantro chutney)
• 2 tablespoons tamarind chutney

Method:

1. Boil potatoes until they are tender.
2. Once cooked, drain the water and let the potatoes cool down. Note: Do not cool the potatoes under running water because the potatoes will absorb the extra water, making potatoes mushy.
3. After potatoes are cool, peel the skin off and mash the potatoes. 
4. Drain the water out of the chickpeas and dry the chickpeas using paper towel making sure there is no access water in chickpeas.
5. Mash the chickpeas coarsely; do not make smooth.
6. Mix all the ingredients together; adjust salt and pepper to your taste.
7. With oiled hands, divide the mixture into 8 to 10 equal portions.
8. Make them into the shape of patties keeping them about a half inch thick.
9. Heat the oil in a flat bottom saucepan on medium high heat (oil should cover the surface of the pan generously). To check the oil, place a little piece of tikki in the oil, this should make the oil sizzle.
10. Place the tikkis in the pan and shallow fry the Tikkis on both sides until both sides are golden brown. If the Tikki is very dry use more oil as needed without making them too greasy.
11. You may have to adjust the heat while cooking as needed.

Serving suggestions:

1. Serve Tikki hot. Drizzle some yogurt, tamarind chutney and hari chutney over the Tikki, or use any combination you prefer. See the recipes for chutney on this site.
2. Tikki can also be served with tomato ketchup.
3. Tikki can be made before needed and refrigerated for two or three days. Just before serving, heat the Tikki in the oven at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes or until they are hot.

Variations:
Baking in oven: heat the oven to 350 degrees, brush oil generously on both sides of the Tikki and bake them on a greased cookie sheet. Let them bake for about 20 minutes then turn and cook for another 10 minutes until the Tikki are golden brown.

How To make Pani Puri (Ram Babu ko jasti)

Pani puris are a great snack, served as chat and found on roadside food carts (Ram Babu ko jasti). They are served filled with spicy water, chickpeas and potatoes.
Makes about 60 Puris.

Ingredients:

• Pani (Spicy Water):
• 1 cup mint leaves (Pudina)
• 2 to 4 green chilies (adjust to taste)
• 3 tablespoons tamarind paste (Imli)
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon black salt
• 1 teaspoon salt (adjust to taste)
• 1/4 teaspoon ginger powder
• 1/8 teaspoon asafetida (Hing)
• 1 tablespoon roasted cumin seed powder
• 1 tablespoon sugar (adjust to taste)
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 4 cups water (adjust to taste)
• Puris:
• 1/4 cup All Purpose flour (Maida or Plain Flour)
• 3/4 cup fine Sooji (Semolina Flour)
• 1/2 cup water (as needed)

Method:

1. Pani (Spicy Water):
   Blend everything except the water together to make a fine paste. While blending, add water as needed to blend.
2. Taste to adjust the green chilies as they can be mild or hot. Add more lemon juice, sugar, and salt as needed to your desired taste. Remember you will be adding more water to dilute so paste should be spicier. Strain the paste using water as needed.
3. After straining mix the paste with remaining water or adjusting to the taste.
4. The pani (water) will taste best if refrigerated for a day.

Puris:

1. Mix the flour and sooji. Add water as needed to make firm dough. Knead the dough until it is pliable. Cover the dough with a damp cloth for about ten minutes.
2. Damp two kitchen towels, spread one damp towel over a cookie sheet or plain surface, close to where you are going to fry the puris.
3. Divide the dough into about 60 small balls. Keep them under a damp cloth.
4. Start rolling each ball to about a 2-inch diameter circle. Place over a damp towel and cover with another damp towel. Do this for all 60 puris. TIP: Placing the puris between damp cloths helps the puris to puff evenly on all sides.
5. Heat the oil on medium high heat. Oil should be about 1 1/2 inch high in frying pan. To test the oil, put a little piece of dough in the oil. The oil is ready if the dough comes up right away and does not change color.
6. Start frying the puris, starting first with the puri you first rolled.
7. Put one puri in the oil and press lightly. When it puffs turn over and put another puri in the oil. Keep adding six to eight puris at a time. Fry the puris until they are golden-brown all around by turning a few times. You may adjust the heat as needed while frying.
8. Take the puris out and place over paper towel, so the excess oil is absorbed. TIP: When taking the puris out of the frying pan, make sure to tilt the skimmer so that the excess oil is drained before placing on the paper towel.
9. Fry all the puris. They should be crisp and puff like a ball.

How to Serve:
Pani puris are served by making a small hole in each puri. Fill the puris with boiled and chopped potatoes, or boiled chickpeas. Finish by filling each puri with the spicy pani (water). Enjoy!

Gulab Jamuns

Ingredients
•    Khova – 1-1/2 cups
•    Maida (all purpose flour) – 1 cup
•    Sugar – 3 cups
•    Water – 1 cup
•    Cooking/Baking Soda – 3 pinches ( 1 pinch would be 1/8th of tsp )
•    Cardamom – 4 pods ( I used 1/4 tsp cardamom powder )
•    Saffron – a few
•    Rose water/essence – 2-3 drops

For the Khova/Khoya
•See how to make Khoya here

Method- to Make Khoya
Making Khoya at home is extremely simple and a satisfying process. I find that freshly made Khoya is the best for this recipe and store bought ones do not work as well as home made ones. See how to make Khoya at home.

Method – For the Jamuns

Combine sugar and water in a flat bottomed broad pan and simmer on a low heat until sugar dissolves.

Add cardamom powder, rose essence and saffron and keep the sugar syrup on v low heat. We want the syrup warm not hot. Make sure it is near to where you are deep frying Jamuns. You want to make it easy to drop the jamuns directly into the syrup.

Heat oil on a medium flame. For that traditional rich taste, I used Ghee and oil 50-50 to deep fry.

Now mix the homemade Khova, all purpose flour (maida) and the cooking soda.

Knead all of them together. You might need few tsp. of water to form a smooth dough.

Add tsp at a time until you reach the correct dough consistency.

Form small balls of this dough. Make sure they are less than say small limes. This is important since they will become large while deep frying and larger when soaked in syrup. Another important point to note is to shape smooth balls. No cracks should be visible since this will cause the jamuns to disintegrate while soaked in the syrup. To make a smooth dough, one simple technique would be to grease your palms, either with ghee or oil while making the balls. ( Water works too but it would cause the oil to splutter all over)

Fry the jamuns till golden brown over a low to medium flame, keeping oil temperature uniform. Oil should not smoke.

You will find the jamuns go down, then in about 10 seconds or so, floating to the top. Its a wonder to see them rotating on their own in the oil. It seems that they like to brown uniformly well 

Once they get uniformly brown on all the sides, remove them from the oil making sure to drain the excess oil  and

drop it straightaway on the warm syrup on the side. The hot jamuns in the warm syrup (not hot) helps them to soak the syrup well making them incredibly soft. And if you made sure to keep the size and the smoothness intact, they will not fall apart either and hold their shape.

You can of course deep fry 3-4 jamuns together depending on the size. But make sure not to crowd them since it would bring down the temperature of the oil/ghee and the result would not be that good and the jamuns wont be cooked inside and might end up being soggy!

Drop all the fried jamuns in the syrup and let it soak for at least 1 -2 hours for them to soak the syrup. You can increase the syrup in the original recipe if you want the Jamuns to float in the syrup. Also if you live in a cold place, you will find the sugar syrup thickening up if you keep it for some time. I find that increasing the water to another 1 cup (that’s 2 cups water for 3 cups sugar), makes a thinner syrup in such cases. You know you have made the perfect jamuns when you see them absorbing the syrup but continuing to float in the syrup. If they are dense or heavy, they will sink to the bottom!

Gulab Jamuns can be stored in room temperature for a week. Store them closed with a plastic wrap.

More than that, then fridge is a good idea. Though they are good cold, they are best warm (not hot). If you have refrigerated them, warm them up in a microwave for few seconds before serving.

What are you still in this page for? Don’t you feel like making some now in your kitchen? Oh well suit yourself , while I enjoy these delicious soft Jamuns    ( Did I hear you just cursing me???  )

 Gulab Jamuns ( Tips and Tricks )
I have been getting many queries/doubts about Gulab Jamuns. Here are few more tips, I learnt from my exp. and also from other online source to get perfect spongy jamuns. Hope these help.
1.    If the jamuns are fried on high heat, then they will become hard on the inside though they may look perfect from outside and firther more they may not cook completely inside. Heat the oil on high and then reduce to medium high. Make sure you drop only enough jamuns to maintain this heat throughout the cooking process.
2.    Too much baking soda can cause the Jamuns to disintegrate in the oil and then in the syrup.
3.    While one set of experts warn you against dropping the jamuns immediately in the syrup, another says its a must. I usually drop it as soon as I fry them and have never faced issues till date.
4.    While kneading the jamuns into smooth balls, if you find lots of wrinkles on the surface of the jamuns, then you know that your dough is too tight.  Add a little more fresh Khova ( if you have on hand) or otherwise few tsp. of milk. Knead the dough again until smooth.
5.    This tip is from a friend of mine -If you find that sometimes your finished gulab jamuns are hard, then microwave them for few seconds. This helps to make the jamuns spongy.
6.    Another possible reason for the Jamuns to get hard is if you have rolled out your jamuns hard. They should be rolled out v smoothly without giving pressure and gently.

Kalakand

* How to make condensed milk?

Heat regular whole milk with sugar on a medium-low heat. The milk will condense into something like condense milk. While heating milk, dip a ladle into the milk so that the milk would not boil over

Ingredients

1 cup sweetened condensed milk
2 cup paneer (use Ricotta Cheese if paneer is not available)
5 powdered cardamom (Elaichi)

Preparation

1    Mix panner (Ricotta Cheese) with condensed milk.
2     Heat the above mixture in medium-low heat. Stir constantly while heating. Continue until the mixture becomes thick.
3     Spread it on a greased plate.
4     Sprinkle elaichi powder on the top.
5     Cool it and cut into square pieces.