Almond Kheer

Kheer/Paayasam is somewhere between a pudding and a drink. It's a sweet, thickened drink. The exact consistency of it is subject to individual preference. In this variation, almond paste is cooked in milk and flavored with some cardamom and saffron.

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

1. 2 cups whole almonds (unroasted, unsalted)
2. 3-4 cups + 1 cup (whole milk or low fat)
3. 3/4 - 1 cup sugar
4. 1 teaspoon cardamom powder
5. pinch of saffron
6. a few pistachios 

Preparation:

1. Blanch the almonds to remove the outer peel. Immerse the almonds in 2 cups boiling water for 2 minutes. Drain and rinse the almonds in cold water. The peel will slide right off. 
2. Grind the blanched almonds to a smooth paste by adding about 1 cup of milk (or slightly lesser). 
3. Meanwhile, bring 3-4 cups of milk to a boil in a non-stick pot. The quantity of milk depends on how thin or thick you like the kheer to be.
4. Add the almond paste to the hot milk and stir on medium heat for 30-40 minutes until the milk reduces and thickens a bit (almost to the consistency of rich soup). Keep stirring often to avoid the kheer from burning. Halfway through the cooking add saffron. 
5. Finally add sugar and stir well. Stir for another 5-10 minutes on low-medium heat. 
6. Remove from heat and garnish with nuts and cardamom powder and stir well. 

 

Serve chilled. The kheer can either be sipped from a glass or had in a bowl (depending on the consistency that you settled on). It does thicken a bit over time. The consistency of my kheer is that of a rich soup. I serve it in a cup or bowl along with a spoon so people can choose how they want to take it. 

Carrot Halwa

Grated carrot thickened in milk and sugar can only amount to one thing - rich carrot halwa. I tried making this halwa in a non-traditional way and it kind of back fired. I used thinly sliced carrots (to save my wrist from repetitive strain injury from grating), added fat-free milk (to make it slightly lower in fat), added less sugar, and refrained from adding any ghee or clarified butter. The resulting halwa, if you can call it that, tasted like sweetened carrots, but it didn't look anywhere close to an appetizing dessert.

So, after a stern reprimand to myself, I redeemed the halwa by making it the traditional way -  using whole milk, some ghee, required amount of sugar, and most importantly - finely grated carrot. Do not even think of using the prepackaged thinly sliced carrots.

Serves 5-6

Ingredients:

1. 5 cups grated carrots
2. 4 tablespoons butter or ghee (clarified butter)
3. 5 cups whole milk (if you are adamant on trying lower fat milk, it will take forever to "thicken" and reduce)
4. 3/4 - 1 cup sugar (depending on how sweet the carrots are and how sweet you would like the halwa to be. I put 1 cup)
5. 1 teaspoon cardamom powder
6. handful of nuts and raisins (pistachios, cashews, raisins roasted in a couple of teaspoons of ghee)

Preparation:

1. Saute the grated carrots in butter/ghee for 10 minutes on medium heat. The carrots will soften and turn slightly yellow
2. In the meanwhile, boil the milk in a non-stick pot until the milk reduces to half its quantity. It took me 30 minutes on medium heat for the milk to reduce to half. Again, since there's hardly any fat in low fat milk, it will take longer for the milk to reduce. Keep stirring the milk every so often so that it doesn't burn or stick to the bottom of the pan.
3. Add the cooked carrot to the reduced milk and cook for another 30 minutes  or so on medium heat until the milk completely absorbs into the carrots. Keep stirring every few minutes.
4. Now, add the sugar and stir well. Keep stirring for 10 minutes or so (on medium heat) until the whole thing thickens and leaves the sides of the pan. 
5. Remove from heat. Add cardamom powder and roasted nuts and mix well. 

I personally think carrot halwa is better served warm than chilled.

Dhal Makhani

Dhal Makhani is a creamy, buttery gravy made with whole black gram. Originally, it is made with a generous amount of butter and cream. But for everyday cooking, the butter is substituted with olive oil, and the cream is substituted with some milk. Despite the substitutions, it makes for a homey, hardy side-dish. It's nice to experiment with different pulses and grams and not be stuck with yellow lentils all the time. 

At one of the restaurants here, I tasted kidney beans (rajma) in dhal makhani and really liked the combination. So I've added some rajma with this version.

Ingredients (serves 6)

1. 1 cup  de-husked whole black gram - whole black urad dhal
2. 1/2 cup kidney beans - rajma beans
3. 1 big onion, chopped
4. 1/2 cup tomato paste or 1.5 cups tomato puree
5. 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
6. 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
7. 1.5 tablespoons ginger-garlic paste (better if it's freshly prepared with 4 cloves of garlic and a 1 inch block of ginger)
8. 1 bay leaf
9. 1 cinnamon stick
10. 3 whole cloves
11. 1 teaspoon cumin powder
12. 1.5 teaspoons coriander powder
13. 1 teaspoon garam masala
14. 1 teaspoon chilli powder (optional)
15. 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
16. 1 teaspoon cardamom powder
17. 1 tablespoon dried fenugreek leaves - kasuri methi
18. 2 tablespoons olive oil
19. 1 cup milk (fat free, 2%) or half-and-half
20. Salt as needed 
21. A few sprigs of cilantro
22. a squeeze of lemon juice

Preparation

1. Soak the black gram and kidney beans for 8-10 hours with enough water to cover the beans. Do not cover the soaking beans with a lid.
2. When the gram has soaked and plumped, rinse them and cook them well with as much water as needed until they are mushy. It takes at least 45 minutes to cook the gram without the aid of a pressure cooker. Do not worry about overcooking the gram... the more cooked, the better. When the gram is cooked, mash them with a ladle to make them mushy and soft. 
3. Meanwhile, as the gram cooks, heat oil (and a little bit of butter, if you prefer) in a separate pan. Add bay leaf, cinnamon, cloves, cumin seeds, and fennel seeds to the oil. 
4. When the cumin seeds begin to sizzle, add the chopped onion and saute on medium heat until the onions turn translucent and begin to fry. 
5. Add the ginger-garlic paste and fry for a minute. 
6. Add turmeric powder, cumin powder, coriander powder, garam masala, and chilli powder (optional) and saute for a minute. 
7. Add the tomato paste (or puree) and mix it into the spices and onion-ginger-garlic mixture. If using tomato paste, add 1/4 - 1/2 cup of water to dilute the paste. Add salt, cover the pan and let the tomato paste incorporate with the spices.
8. After 5-10 minutes of periodic checking and stirring, notice if the tomato gravy is well incorporated with the spices. There should be no raw tomato smell, that's the most important cue. 
9. Add the gravy to the cooked & mashed gram. Add more water if required, check for seasonings (salt, chilli), make adjustments, and let the whole thing simmer for 20 minutes. Periodically check if the gravy needs more water, and stir to make to sure the gram doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan. 
10. Finally, add the kasuri methi (dried methi leaves) and cardamom powder. Stir well. Top it off with a cup of milk (or cream, if you want to be indulgent). Stir well. 
11. After a couple of minutes, remove from heat and granish with cilantro. Before serving, squeeze a little bit of lemon juice to unify all the flavors. 
12. Serve with rice or roti. 

Dhal Makhani gets better with time. Black gram is quite bland, so the more they simmer and settle with the spices, the better they taste. 

Sour Cream Banana Cake

I had sour cream and over-ripened bananas waiting to be used. So, I found this lovely recipe that uses all the ingredients available in my pantry and refrigerator. It served as a decent potluck dessert. 

It is a supremely moist and mild cake. If you like bananas (or banana bread), I highly recommend this cake. 

My icing is melted dark chocolate chips mixed with some sour cream

German Chocolate Cake

I don't think I will ever run out of the wide spectrum of chocolate cakes and chocolate-based desserts. In keeping with tradition, I baked a German Chocolate cake recently. I have never had german chocolate cake before, but I have had the icecream version. I'm not a big fan of coconut and chocolate, but the cake turned out with a good balance between the two. I used this recipe as the base, and adapted it to make just two layers of chocolate cake (instead of three layers), and the creamy coconut-pecan filling. The filling recipe is straight forward and accurate. I didn't change anything except to use low-fat evaporated milk. 

I was quite excited about using special german chocolate for this cake (I used Baker's german chocolate bar), because I expected the chocolate to taste distinctly different. But there didn't seem to be anything different about german chocolate... in fact, I thought it wasn't as chocolately as Ghiradelli's dark chocolate bars. Still, the cake was extremely moist and mildly sweet. The filling/frosting makes up for the sweetness quotient. 

With a dusting of german chocolate

 The chocoholic husband approved this cake and recommends it.