Desi Fiesta

Desserts

Pineapple sandesh

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A light creamy delicacy from west bengal made with curdled milk or paneer- “Sandesh”  . Sandesh is a delicacy, served as a dessert. Made several different ways using freshly made paneer. But today’s recipe will be “Pineapple sandesh”  🙂 ..

 

 

Let’s look at the ingredients and method to make this dessert 🙂
(Adapeted from tarla dalal recipes)

Ingredients:

Paneer  or chenna – 750 gms
(make fresh paneer see my rasgulla recipe for preparing chenna click here)
Sugar – 1 cup
Pineapple Slices – 1 cup
Pineapple Essence – 1/4 tsp

For Garnish:
Sugar – 1 tblsp
Kesar strands few

Method:

1. Knead paneer with sugar for 2-3 minutes.
2. Heat it in low flame in a heavy pan for 2 minutes until sugar melts.
3. Remove and allow it to cool.
4. Add the pineapple essence and knead again till paneer becomes smooth. Add few drops of soaked kesar in warm milk to the panner if you want to give them colour..
5. Chop pineapples
6. Mix it with sugar and heat till sugar melts.
7. Add kesar strands and remove from fire.
8. Prepare small balls from this mixture.
9. Flatten each balls and top them with chopped pineapple . You can even stuff pineapple in each sandesh..
10. Granish with kesar strands.

 

Tips

we can try making these sandesh with different fruits like orange , mango  …..

 

Sandwich chocolate pancakes

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Tall, fluffy pancakes are delicious  and scrumptious if served with butter and syrup or topped with strawberries and whipped cream for a real treat.. My daughter is not a dessert lover but was yumm  yumm having these pancakes only by seeing the strawberries which i used for garnish .. he he she is crazy about fruits and whenever she is hungry she either ask for grapes or apple or strawberry and nooo to other foods .. so i specially made these pancakes for my fruit baby / my angel .. she enjoyed these scrumptious pan cakes a lot..so lets  see the ingredients and method needed to prepare these “sandwich chocolate pancakes ”

 

Recipe Inspired from Tarla dalal
Ingredients
1/4 cup plain flour (maida)
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 tbsp melted butter
a pinch of salt
1/2 tsp fruit salt
For the yoghurt 1/2 cup yoghurt (dahi)
1/4 cup cream
2 tbsp castor sugar
a few drops of vanilla essence
To be mixed into a soaking syrup 
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup water
Other ingredients
1 mango, chopped
melted butter for cooking
Method
 Pancakes:
  • Combine the plain flour, cornflour, cocoa powder, milk, salt, butter and ¼ cup of water. Mix very well until no lumps remain. Add the fruit salt and mix well.
  • Grease a 125 mm. (5″) diameter non-stick pan with a little butter.
  • Pour 1 tablespoon of the batter to make a pancake of 50 mm. (2″) in diameter.
  • Turn over gently and cook till both sides are lightly browned.
  • Repeat for the remaining batter to make 5 more pancakes, greasing the pan with butter when required.
 Yoghurt:
Whip the cream with the sugar and vanilla essence and keep aside
Beat the yoghurt well ensuring there are no lumps.
Now Gently fold whipped cream into the yogurt.
Assembling :
  • Place the pancake on a serving plate and sprinkle with a little soaking syrup on top.
  • Spoon some of the yogurt mixture on top.
  • Place a few mango slices and top with one more pancake.
  • Sprinkle some more sugar syrup on top and serve immediately.
  • Repeat to make 2 more servings.
  • Serve immediately.
I gave the pan cake triangle shape by cutting them from the sides. and also made a Santa Claus hat using  strawberry and the yogurt which i prepared  for decorating these yummy sandwich chocolate pancakes..  Also made a fan out of strawberry for garnishing…

Apple Strudel

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This apple strudel  is a classic, from the scrumptious filling to the flaky pastry crust. It is the  homemade goodness at its very best. Well, If you want to make this in authentic way of German/Austrian style,It is quite of work, I learned.You need to roll out the dough into a very thin layer.It has to be translucent enough to read newspaper behind it.You can not do this on the counter top you have to use your dinning table. I decided to do the easier way using a puff pastry..

Ingredients

1 pastry sheet (It can be store bought else you can make  home made pastry sheets  )

For making HOME MADE PASTRY CLICK HERE

Filling (Apple pie filling )

1/4 cup sugar
 1 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
a pinch of salt
4 cups chopped peeled tart apples (8 medium)
1 tablespoons butter or margarine

Method

  • In a large bowl, mix sugar, 1 tbsp  flour,  cinnamon, nutmeg and a pinch of salt. Stir in apples until well mixed.  Cut butter into small pieces; sprinkle over filling.
  • Take a rectangular strip of rolled out puff pasty sheet and spoon in some filling on one end, leaving enough space on all sides to ‘seal’ the puff.You can also fill the whole pastry sheet and fold the corners like a log shaped or give them any shape as you want. I even made them in Christmas tree shape using a cookie cutter.. 
  • Bring in the other end and seal off the sides. The puff pastry is usually sticky so you wouldn’t need anything else to seal it up.But  if you feel its not sticking then you can spread water in the  corners of the sheet and try to seal them..
  • Bake in a preheated oven at 350 Centigrade for 40-45 mins until the top is golden brown. 
  •  Serve warm if desired with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream .

 Tips

For a pretty glazed top crust, brush this with milk or cream and sprinkle with sugar before baking.

3 minutes Milk peda

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I love milk peda’s and made these peda’s for first time for diwali and it was a great hit.. Now we had invited some of our friends to our home and it was a sudden invitation i was thinking about what to do for dessert  then thought that peda’s must be perfect … Easy to make and tasty too. All you need is 3 ingredients and microwave for 3 minutes and your yummy peda’s will be ready to taste .. 

 

 

lets look for simple ingredients to prepare these simple peda’s
Ingredients 
1 3/4th cup Milk powder (I used Low Fat)
1 can sweetened condensed milk (14 oz.),
1 tbsp. butter, at room temperature
1/4th tsp. cardamom/elaichi pd
few strings saffron (soak the safforn strands in little warm milk for 5 mins and then use)
Method:
 
  • Whisk together milk powder, condensed milk n cardamom pd  (you can use a ladle or fork to whisk).
  • Add butter n whisk again for a min.
  •  Stir in the saffron n mix well . Now microwave this mixture on high for 1 min  give it a stir and again microwave for 1 min .Repeat this process for 1 more min.. Remove, let it cool slightly, so that you can handle it with your hands.
  • Grease your hands a bit with ghee and make equal portion of the peda mixture for turning them it balls or discs shape . As Christmas  is nearing i shaped my peda’s to a snowman , gingerbread men and  Christmas tree using a cookie cutter..
  •  If the peda mixture is too loose and you are having difficulty shaping them you can add some more milk powder to get the right consistency
  • You can store these peda’s but it becomes too dry….I would say prepare these instant peda’s in no time and make them fresh don’t store them ..

Banana malpua topped with Rabdi

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Make this simple and tasty treat on any occasion…  i know every sweet tooth will like this variety malpua  .. Tried malpua’s using banana .. yummm … it was super soft than the original malpua … more over the rabdi add so much of flavor and yummm factor… sinfulll treat !!! 🙂

lets look for the ingredients and method of this delicious dessert..

Ingredients
For Batter
1/2 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 cup All-Purpose Flour or maida
1/4 cup Sooji (Semolina)
1 big one mashed well Banana
1 1/2 cups Milk (add more or less depending upon on how thick it looks)
1/2 cup Sugar

For Sugar Syrup
 11/2 cups Sugar
1.5 cups Water
For Garnishing
Pistachios
Rabdi ( You can refer my Rasmalai for Rabdi recipe click here)

Method

  • Mix all the ingredients under For batter . Add milk little by little after adding 11/4 cups by eyeballing it. The batter should not be very runny, it should be little bit thicker than usual dosa batter. Basically, when you pour a ladle in oil, it should hold shape of a circle and not run.
  • Keep it aside for 1 hour .
  • Prepare sugar syrup of 1 string consistency by mixing water and sugar..
  • Keep it warm (not hot) when you are ready to fry malpuas.
  • Take a small pan and add enough oil to be able to fry malpuas (make sure take u have enough oil  so tat when malupa’s are they rises up in the oil).
  • Once the oil is hot, slow the fire and keep it that way as we want to fry these malpuas in medium heat .
  • Now, take a ladle full of batter  and try to pour it in a circular form in the middle of your pan (. Make sure, it is not too thin, or else it will break apart. Let it be thick .
  • You will notice that it will slowly come up. Let it cook on both sides for about 1-2 min (depending on how hot your oil is). 
  • Please do not turn the malpua multiple times, so remember you flip only once. 
  • Once it is golden brown, drain it properly and dip it directly in the sugar syrup (if your malpua has lot of extra oil, then drain them in a  paper towel).
  • Let it be in the sugar syrup for about 5-10 seconds and remove it.
  • Serve it warm (warm is good as it has syrup or else the syrup will crystallize) garnishing with some sliced or chopped pistachios. I topped these banana malpua with rabdi  and drizzled some chocolate syrup on it..
sending tis to  sharan’s samayalarai
sending to siris food 
sending to lemon kurry
sending to yashodha’s kitchen
sending tis to cookbookjaleela

Thai style banana Recipe

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If any one want to try a quick an easy dessert  then this the one you are searching for taste like you had some rasgulla or gulab jamun .and the flavors are so wonderful that you will surely be making them again .. Todays recipe is easy to make thai dessert prepared in mins and tastes heavenly 🙂 Banana’s in thai style !!!! without any further ado lets see for the ingredients and method of this simple but yummmy dessert ..

Ingredients

For the orange zest
rind of 1 orange

Other ingredients
1 banana
1/4 tbsp ghee
1/4 tbsp butter
1/4 tsp grated ginger (adrak)
1/2 tbsp powdered sugar
1/8 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds (til)
1/3 tbsp orange juice (optional)
1/2 cup whipped cream or vanilla ice cream
Rose syrup few drops

Method

For the orange zest
Peel the orange and gently slice of all the white part out of the peel. Using a very sharp knife, chop the outer portion of the peel into fine pieces. Keep aside.

 

  • Peel and slice the bananas in to circles.
  • In a flat pan, heat the ghee and the butter.
  • Add the ginger and orange zest and cook over low heat till they release their flavors.
  • Add the bananas and powered sugar and simmer till the syrup is thick, keep turning the bananas so they are well coated with the syrup.
  • Add the lemon juice.
  • Add the orange juice and simmer till the syrup thickens.
  • Server garnished with sesame seeds and rose syrup .Top then with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream or whipped cream (i used whipped cream).

Tips

This recipe tastes as good with apples or pears.

Kesar Rasmalai

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Hello every one!!!! Am happily presenting my first ever guest post @ Random rambling!! Am happy that meenu anuty author of  the wonderful blog Random Rambling gave me a chance to parcipate in her guest series.. I know i have troubled her like anything asking her silly questions , confusing her and also getting  confused myself  while sending this guest post to her..  My apologies anuty 😛 .. Meenu anuty is having this lovely blog in which she shares a lots of yummy recipes and narrating her experiences while cooking them .. I should mention here she is very good story teller too..or i must say she is a muli tasker…  want to know more abt this amazing person ???  – do visit her blog which contain Random things to discover and follow her 🙂

So coming  to the guest series.. Many of my SNC  friends have taken part in tis series and have shared awesome recipes … Am happy that meenu anuty gave me chance … As am the last participant of her guest post series and wanted to share a dessert  ending with sweet note..

Am sharing my favorite dessert – “Kesar rasmalai” ..Ras Malai consists of sugary white, cream or yellow colored balls (or flattened balls) of paneer soaked in malai (clotted cream) flavored with cardamom.. yummm….    to look for the recipes of this yummy kesar  rasmalai  you have to visit  meenu anuty’s blog by just clicking here…

 

thanks once again meenu anuty for conducting such an wonderful guest series and also giving me a chance to partcipate….

Rasgulla

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Rasgulla is my favorite Bengali sweet… I have tried rasgulla many times n have been successful every time I made it .. lucky me… Rasgulla also know as roshogulla in Bengali is smooth, soft, spongy balls dipped in sugar syrup. They a very light and spongy in texture. Rasgulla tastes good when they served chilled. You can make a variation in rasgulla too, for instance, I made Kesar rasgulla n will be posting many more variations too in a separate post.Thanks to my Rasgulla to cooperate with me and every time giving me good results 😛

 

now let’s look for the ingredients and method to prepare this spongy delicacy 🙂

 


Ingredients:

4 cups milk
1/4 cup lemon juice
4 cups water
2 cups sugar
saffron strands (optional)
cardamon pd – 1/4 tsp (optional)
1/2 tsp rose essence

Method

Paneer / chenna :

  • Mix lemon juice in half cup of hot water and keep aside.
  • Boil the milk in a heavy bottomed pan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, making sure not to burn the milk.
  • As the milk comes to a boil, add lemon juice gradually and stir the milk gently. The milk will start curdling will separate from the whey, turn off the heat.
  • Once the milk fat has separated from the whey, drain the whey using a strainer line with cheesecloth or muslin cloth
  • Wrap the paneer in a muslin cloth, and rinse under cold water, and squeeze well.By doing this it removes all the sourness of lemon in paneer.
  • To take out the excess water squeeze the cloth, or press the wrapped paneer under a heavy pan for about one hour.Taking the right amount of water out from the chenna is the key for how soft your rasgullas turn.
  • To check if enough water is out of the paneer, take a little portion of paneer on your palm and rub with your fingers. After rubbing the paneer,  you should be able to make a firm but smooth ball.
  • Once the paneer/chenna is drained, place on a dry, clean surface and knead the paneer for 3-4 minutes until the paneer/chenna is almost rolled into the smooth soft dough.
  • Knead the chenna using your palm. Keep scraping the chenna/ paneer back to together and knead some more. If the paneer/chenna is too crumbly, add a teaspoon of water. Your palm will be little greasy.

Rasgulla:

1. Divide the dough into 12 equal parts and roll them into smooth balls.
2. When making the rasgulla balls, give some pressure in between your palm in the beginning and thenwhen the ball is smooth enough release the pressure.

3. Mix the sugar and water in a pan over medium heat and bring it to a boil. Add saffron strands if you want rasgullas yellow in color and also add cardamon pd.

 

4. Add the paneer balls and cover the pan with the lid. Let them cook in covered for 15- 20 mins

 
  • Make sure the pan is wide enough to accommodate the Rasgullas, as they will expand to about double in the volume while cooking in the syrup.
  • After 15-20 mins off the stove and wait a few minutes before you open the lid.
  • Rasgullas should be a little spongy.
  • Serve the Rasgullas chilled.

 

 

TIPS 

  • If the Rasgullas don’t turn out exactly the way you want, they are hard or not the right shape u can try cutting them into small pieces and mix with vanilla ice cream or cover with melted chocolate.
  • You can use the Rasgulla pieces to make kheer.
  • You can also can the shape of rasgulla to oval and that will become cham- cham.

 

Banana chocolate mousse

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When it comes to fruits I like each and every fruit and kids like them too .. so y not prepare a very simple but tasty dessert. A very popular Indian fruit which available in every household…guess?????  yeah, its banana ..Banana’s provides us so much of energy much more than other fruits.

The flavors of chocolate and banana blend beautifully to make this mouthwatering dessert. Kids and adults alike will relish this delicious dessert. As this mousse tastes best chilled, make sure to chill it well before serving.

Let’s look at the ingredients and method to prepare this simple yet delicious mousse…

 

x

 

Ingredients

1/2 cup mashed banana (approx. 1 1/2 bananas)
1/2 cup (75 grams) chocolate chips or dairy milk
1/2 cup cream
1/4 tsp vanilla essence

Method

 

  • Place the chocolate in an ovenproof pan add 1 tablespoon of cream and set the cook time to 50 sec or cook until the chocolate melt.
  • In another bowl, whisk the cream and vanilla essence till soft peaks form. Keep aside.
  • Pour the melted chocolate over the mashed banana and mix well till it is cool.
  • Slowly fold in the whipped cream, pour into 2 cupcake liner and freezer till they are set (approx 20 mins) .
  • After they are set u can remove the liner or serve with the liner.
  • Serve garnished with swirls of chocolate syrup on top of it and some sprinklers.

Adhirasam Recipe

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I am glad to be a part of SNC hosted by our friend Divya pramil  from YOU TOO CAN COOK.. This is my first challenge recipe really exicited to take part in this challenge as it is learning experience for each and every blogger  including me .  am proud to be in north team and it is gud for me bcoz i can learn all south indian dishes with the help of our south indian team friends  🙂 This months challenge from south indian team is  “Adhirasam” by yashodha from YASHODHA’S KITCHEN ..As i was born n bought up at chennai , TN i knew this sweet and have tasted it so many times. Our neighbors used to share this sweet on any festival or occasion’s but did n’t get a chance to try this sweet on my own 🙂

 


Adhirasam is an south indian delight made generally for any festive or occasion .. This is a tricky sweet to make but looks really easy ..Not everybody get this sweet correct but if you follow certain tips keenly you will surely get the perfect adhirasams . I got certain tips from my neighbors back in India called them specially to know the exact recipe .. I took lot of time to research than in preparing adhirasam to get a perfect adhirasam and i hope i got it correct, now i leave tat to snc team to decide 🙂 . Lets see for the ingredients and method 🙂

Ingredients


  • Raw Rice: 2 cups ( i used sona masoori )
  • Jaggery : 1 cup (powdered)
  • Water : 1/2 cup
  • Cardamom Powder : 1 tsp
  • Ghee : 1-2 tsp
  • sesame seeds or til – 1/4 tsp
  • Oil for Frying
  • one ladle curd (optional)
  • milk 4-5 tsp (optional)
Method

  • Soak the raw rice for 30 minutes. After Which drain the rice and spread it in a clean cloth or tissue paper for about 10- 15 minutes.
  • Once you know the rice is dry ( not too dry but with little moist) and the excess water content is absorbed from the rice then it’s ready to grind.
  • Now I a mixie grind he rice to a very fine powder.
  • Sift this ground rice mixture and keep it aside.
  • In a wide pan add jaggery and 1/2 cup of water.  Once the jaggery powder is dissolved completely, remove from heat and strain the water.
  • Now boil jaggery water and keep stirring it in til it comes to a thick consistency.
  • Keep stirring it until the jaggery comes to soft ball consistency. This means when we take a drop of jaggery syrup and pour it in water, it should not dissolve rather we should be able to make a ball out of it. It should not be hard as well. This is the right consistency. When you allow the syrup more than the soft ball consistency, then the adhirasam will become hard. If the syrup is taken before the soft ball consistency, then the adhirasam will break while frying. You should be very careful at this stage.
  • Once you get the right consistency just remove from heat immediately and pour it into the rice flour, ghee and also add the cardamom powder.
  • NOTE : Add the flour into the syrup by batches and stir continously to avoid lump formation n also to maintain the consistency of the dough which should be soft . Don’t add all the flour in one go .
  • Mix everything together to form a soft dough.
  •  It can stay for 1 to 2 day at room temperature by naturally fermenting the dough for 24 hours and  the result will be soft adhirasams .
  • The next day, heat required amount of oil in a heavy bottomed pan.. Don’t fill your kadai full of oil bcoz if your adhirasam breaks it spreads into the oil .. so add oil only required amount  in which your adhirasam immerses .
  • Make a small ball of the adhirasam mixture and place it in a oil greased plastic paper or aluminium foil or even banana leaf and flatten the dough in to circle  using fingers. NOTE: Flatten the dough little thick so that u get soft adhirasams. If adhirasam’s are too thin then they become too crispy.
  • Deep fry the adhirasam till it becomes golden color. Don’t put more than two adhirasam in the oil for frying . I fried one at a time and pressed excess oil by squeezing it  with a flat bottomed bowl .
  • Repeat the above steps for the rest of the mixture.
My adhirasam’s turned out really yummmy and my hubby liked it so much 🙂 I had no adhirasam left for next day.. It took me long to post as i was busy with Diwali preparations .. oh yeah  “Happy Diwali to all my readers” .

Tips

If the dough is very sticky or too loose and you are unable to make balls, then add a little wheat flour to it to get the right consistency.Don’t add more rice flour bcoz it may become hard n very crispy.
If the dough is too tight, then add little more jaggery syrup or little milk to it.

After completing this long process i thought why not should i try the same recipe with other  flours like wheat or ragi or barley !!!!  so i experimented making adhirasam using barley flour .. This time i used store bought barley flour .. I just followed the same recipe and added 3 – 4 tsp of rice flour (home made rice flour which i had in extra ) to it ..woowi zoowie my experiment was a great success.. I made barley adhirasam a healthy version of adhirasam which was really soft and should  be consumed warm,  it will taste much better when have warm adhirasam’s .. Once again thanking Yashodha for her lovely recipe which inspired me to try something different 🙂

Barley Adhirasam

This is a twist in adhirasam …