Shhh Cooking Secretly Challenge - BASUNDHI / BASANTHI - TRADITIONAL GUJARATHI SWEET

Serving size - 5 to 6 persons

Preparation time - 5 minutes

Cooking time - 2 hours

Basundhi is an authentic rich and delicious dessert from Gujarat which is similar to Rabdi. I love this thickened milk dessert to the core. It is very simple to prepare and no way to go wrong. For the first time, I made this yummy cold dessert for my friend Gayathri on her birthday to make her day special.

Now coming to the Shhhhh Cooking Secretly Challenge (SCSC) which is started by Priya Suresh akka from Priya's versatile Recipes. This is the first post of this challenge. My Partner for March month is Prathima Shivaraj from Prathu's food. She gave me 2 secret ingredients which are milk and cheese.

 I have to choose any one or both. I have taken milk as my secret ingredient and also I want to start this challenge with sweet. So I made this wonderful creamy dessert as my first post of this SCSC. This is the logo for shhhhh cooking

Let me share this delicious recipe which I got from my grand ma(Ilamathi Paatti). When I was pregnant, She made this favorite dessert specially for me.

Ingredients

Milk - 6 cups
Sugar - 1/2 cup
saffron - 10 to 12 strands
Almond - 1 tbsp
Pistachio - 2 tbsp
Cashew - 1 tbsp
Cardamom powder - 1/8 tsp

Method

• Take milk in a wide mouth and heavy bottomed vessel, allow it to boil.
• Once the milk started to raise up, reduce the flame to low and  stir occasionally.
• In the mean time, chop all the nuts I have mentioned.
• There is a thin layer formed on the top of the milk. You should  remove those layers into a small bowl and keep it aside for future use. Repeat this step until the milk is reduced into 1/2 of its quantity.
• Add all the nuts, cardamom powder and crushed saffron to the reduced 1/2 quantity.
• After 5 minutes, just stir the milk and add the removed layers from the milk which are stored in the small bowl for the future use. 
• Keep on stirring occasionally and scraping the sides until the milk reduced to 1/3 of the quantity.
• Basanthi is ready now. Allow it to get cool and store it in the refrigerator. 
• While serving, garnish it with nuts again and serve chill. It will be more delicious.

NOTE

• Here I used the traditional method to made this delicious sweet. You can also use the combination of milk and condensed milk to prepare quickly.
• But I always love this traditional method. It gives the fabulous taste than the quicker method.
• Please make sure don't allow the milk to get burn in the bottom.
• The flame must be low for the whole process. 

MAWA GHUJIYA - SNC -16

Serving size - 10 to 15 pieces

Preparation time - 30 minutes

Cooking time - 1 hour

Mawa Ghujiya is a very popular north Indian sweet during their festive time. But it is also more famous in south India as somas. But the filling is different. I like this sweet very much , but I din't try this yet. Because in our families there is no habit of doing this kind sweets. I used to eat this sweet from my friend's home. I love this to the core. 

This Mawa ghujiya is the 16th challenge of SNC from our north team friend Santhosh Bhangar from Santosh's Kitchen.  Actually SNC is the event run by Divya Pramil from YOU TOO CAN COOK. IF you want to be the part of this event from now, please visit SNC CHALLENGE. 

Lets go to the recipe,

Ingredients

For Filling

Milk solids/ khoya - 1/2 cup

Grated coconut - 1/4 cup

Almonds - 6 (grated into flakes)

Sugar - 1/3 cup

Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp

For Ghujiyas

All Purpose flour - 2 cups

Water - 1 + 2tbsp( I used)

Hot oil - 1 tbsp

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Oil - for deep frying

For Sealing

All purpose flour - 1 tsp

Water - 1 1/2 tsp

Method 

For Filling 

• Fry Khoya in a pan until it gets brown color. 
• Add grated coconut, almond flakes, sugar and cardamom powder into the brown khoya and mix well.
• Keep it aside for filling.

For Ghujiyas

• Mix the flour, salt and hot oil and then add water to knead a smooth dough.
• Cover the bowl and keep it for atleast half an hour.
• In the mean time, make a paste for sealing the ghujiyas by mixing flour and water in a small bowl.

MAWA GHUJIYAS

• Make the dough into small balls and make them into thin round using rolling pin.
• Keep enough filling on the center of the round and apply the flour paste on one side of the thin round sheet, then fold it.
• close it strong and press it using fork for more strong.
• Do the remaining dough balls into ghujiyas and keep them under the wet cloth.
• Heat oil in a pan, pls don't over heat because the ghuijays will be in light brown not dark brown.
• Once the oil gets ready, please add 3 or 4 ghujiyas and fry until light brown. Do the rest as the same and store them in the air tight container.

Note

• Actually I made thicker sheets, so it went bit harder not much. 
• It also takes much time to get cook, so it turns dark brown color. Please keep these points in your mind while doing this sweet.
• But this is the first time I tried this kind of sweet, so hope I will be better while making somas. Let me share that experience with you in the future. 

I am going to link this to SNC host of this month from north team Santosh's Kitchen

LAVANGA LATIKA - BENGALI SWEET - SNC CHALLENGE - 14

Serving size - 5

Preparation time - 30 minutes

Cooking time - 10 minutes

Hi SNC Friends,

I am back to SNC challenges. Sorry friends.. As I told earlier in my post, due to some personal reasons I could not come to the blogging world. So I really missed this wonderful event SNC challenges. From this month, I will try to do all the challenges and also try to do the missed out challenges too. Though Divy (our baby boss) already gave chances to all of us to do the missed out recipes, I could not do them on that time. But some of our friends done a very good job by posting the missed out recipes. Sorry for not commenting on your spaces too. I will try to visit all your space for sure.

We all know that SNC is the event conducted by Divya pramil from youtoocancook. She successfully completed the first anniversary of the SNC two months ago. I am really happy for this brilliant event and wish her to get more and more success. I am very proud to be a member of this event. Thank you Divy for this awesome idea to learn recipes and get to know different people in this blogging world.

 To learn the regional recipes, Divya cleverly introduced this SNC event. The members of this group is divided into two groups. One is North team and another is the south team. The members are grouped according to their origin. Every month one member from each of the team will challenge the opponent team with their regional recipes. IF you want to know more about SNC, please click on the below image.

This month Sanoli from Sanoli's kitchen challenged this awesome bangali sweet Lavanga Latika for us.

Shama Nagarajan from easy to cook recipes challenged with our traditional sweet Surul boli for the the North team members.

I am a member of the southern team.

  Lavanga latika is a Bengali sweet which is the challenge for SNC event of this month. This is also known as labongo latika. Clove is called as labongo in Bengali and lavanga in tamil. Surya kala, chandra kala and lavanga latika are same but the folding are different. I made few changes from the original recipe of lavanga latika. Because surya kala and chandra kala sweet recipes are in my draft list. So I want to show some difference in this recipe. I used

•  wheat flour, instead of all purpose flour. All purpose flour is not good for health.
•  instant home made khoya instead of dry khoya.
•  din't use baking soda.
• Originally, they use ghee for deep frying. But I used oil for deep frying.

I kept the oil in high heat. So its color came darker but its taste is good.

I would like to tell you one truth. All purpose flour is always gives the rich taste, but it is not good for health. Wheat flour is very good for health but tastes is not as rich as the all purpose flour.

Ingredients

Oil - for deep frying

For outer Crust

Wheat flour - 1/2 cup

Sugar - 3/4 tsp

Salt - a pinch

Water - 1/4 cup 

For Stuffing

Khoya - 1/2 cup (Sweet)

Cashew - 2 (shred them)
Almond - 2 (shred them)
Cardamom powder - a pinch (optional, I din't use)

For Sugar syrup

Sugar - 1/4 cup
Water - 2 tbsp
Cardamom powder - a pinch

Method

For Stuffing

• Add the crushed moist khoya, cashews and almonds in a bowl. Mix well.
• Then divide them into five parts and keep it aside for filling.

For sugar syrup

• Add sugar and water in a pan, Mix well and heat that in a medium flame.
• Once it started boiling, add cardamom powder and switch off the flame once it gets one string consistency. 

For Outer crust

• Mix all the ingredients under the outer crust heading. Make a soft dough.
• Divide the dough into 5 equal sized parts.

How to make Lavanga Latika with all together?

• Take one ball of the dough, dip both the sides with wheat flour and start rolling it using the rolling pin to make a thin round.
• Keep one part of the filling in the middle of the round, fold it like envelope and seal the middle point with clove. See the below pictures for the clear understanding.

• Do the rest of the dough balls and fillings as same as the above procedure.

• Heat oil in a pan for deep frying, once the oil gets heated, add all the folded latikas into the oil and fry them until both the sides are well cooked. (Tips for heating the oil )
• Remove them from the oil and pour them into the sugar syrup. Allow them to stand in the sugar syrup for 1 or 2 mins.
• Then take them out and keep them in the plate or air tight box. 

It is very yummy and thanks to sanoli for giving us to cook this delicious recipe and enjoy to the core. 

PANEER PEDA / BALLS / BURFI - MY 100 th POST

Serving size - 12 to 15 mini balls

Preparation time - 15 to 20 minutes (before & after cooking)

Cooking time -  less than 10 minutes

 

 

PANEER BALLS/BURFI/PEDA is my 100th post. I'm very happy to share it with you all.  I thought of posting my 100th recipe must be sweet, simple and rich dish. I decided this recipe as my 100th post. Hope you all will enjoy my 100th post. Let me come to the into of paneer burfi/balls/peda. Before that I would like to say sorry for the delayed post due to my health issue.

I don't want to give intro about paneer. You all know very well about it. Let me tell you the differences between paneer peda, paneer balls and paneer burfi. 

Paneer Peda - It should be very soft to eat.

Paneer Burfi - It should be less softer than pedas.

Paneer Balls - While making balls, it gets tighten. So, it should be bit harder than the burfi. It is also soft dish.

Hey please forgive me for not posting pictures of paneer peda. I made only 2 pedas. My little one had taken both before I took pictures. I'll post it in future :)

Ingredients

 

 

Paneer - 7 oz.
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Cardamom powder - 1/8 tsp
Saffron - 2 or 3 strings
Milk - 1 1/2 tbsp
Pistachio/ Almonds - few for garnishing
Ghee - little

Method

Paneer Balls / Burfi 

 

Grind all the ingredients

Correct stage for peda

 

Perfect consistency for Burfi

Paneer Ball

 

1. Take paneer out from the freezer and allow it to get softer.
2. In the mean time, take the boiled milk and add saffron to it. Milk color will change into yellow.
3. Slice paneer into pieces.
4. Grind paneer, sugar and cardamom powder using blender. Add saffron milk to the grounded paneer and grind again.
5. Transfer the grounded paneer into the non - stick pan. If you want add food color to the mixture.
6. Stir continuously until it absorbs all the water and it looks like a dough. Take out from the flame and spread it on the greased plate and garnish it with pistachios or almonds.
7. Allow it to cool for sometime. Cut it into desired pieces using knife or cookie cutter. Paneer burfis are ready.
8. Else, make them into balls using ghee if you prefer. Paneer balls are ready. 

Paneer Peda

1. Follow steps 1 - 5 of paneer balls/burfi.
2. stir continuously for 2 or 3 minutes. Allow it to absorbs water slightly and once it comes to semi solid consistency or not sticky more on the spatula pour it to the greased plate.
3. Allow it to cool for sometime. Note : It should be soft for pedas.
4. Divide them into small portions, make them into balls and finally press each of the balls in between 2 hands. Please use ghee before going to do
5. Press slightly on the center of the peda using thumb for placing almond or pistachio.

NOTE

You can also use home made paneer. But it is easy to prepare.

MOONG DAL BALLS/ PAYATHA URUNDAI

Ingredients

Moong flour - 1/2 cup (roasted)
Sugar powder - 1/2 to 3/4 cup
Ghee - 4 tbs
Cashews - 1 or 2 tbs
Cardomom powder - a pinch

Method

1. Put one tablespoon ghee in a pan and fry cashews, then keep it aside.
2. Add remaining ghee and fry the moong flour until the raw smell goes and good aroma comes.
3. Transfer the flour into another vessel and add sugar powder, cardomom powder, cashews. Mix well. The flour must me hot to touch.
4. Take flour in your handful and make them into small balls.
5. You can get around 10 balls.

Note:

• You should heat ghee in low flame.          
• Instead od Moong flour, you can fry moong dal in a dry pan and allow it cool, then grind it nicely.
• While making balls, flour is not hot enough, heat the ghee and mix it with flour to make the flour hot.
• You can also use fine granulated sugar too. Add sugar is upto your taste.

I'm sending this to

Cooking With Seeds Event - Yellow Moongdal and Priya's host page

3 MINUTE MICROWAVE COCONUT BURFI

Serving size - 4 burfis

Preparation time - 2 minutes

Cooking time - 3 minutes

 

 

3 minutes Microwave coconut burfi is my recipe name. Without sweets the festival is incomplete.  IT is festival season right. So I thought of sharing easy and authentic sweet recipe. You can prepare this dish within 3 minutes. Let us go to the easy and quick recipe.

Ingredients 

Shredded coconut – ½ cup

Sugar – ½ cup

Water – 2 tbsp

Ghee – ¼ tsp (optional)

Cardamom  powder – a pinch

Almonds and pistachio  are optional. I din’t use. Because my little one doesn’t like nuts. J

Method

Take sugar, cardamom powder and water in a microwave safe bowl and keep it for a minute.

(sugar syrup is ready once it started boiling. One string consistency is good but not important.)

Add ghee and shredded coconut to the sugar syrup and keep it for 2 more minutes. Stir it every one minute.

Once the coconut is fully mixed with sugar syrup, should leaves its side and goes to thicker consistency. The stage is perfect to pour the coconut mixture into the greased pan or vessel.

Garnish it with almonds and pistachio.

Allow it to cool for 5 to 10 minutes. Make them into pieces.

After  15 minutes, remove it from the pan and keep it in the air tight container.

Note:

1. If you eat this coconut burfi after 1 or 2 hours it will be more good to taste.
2. You can use fresh shredded coconut or frozen shredded coconut. 
3. If you use frozen shredded coconut, make sure it should be in room temperature.
4. If you use fresh shredded coconut, make sure to grind slightly in the mixie. Don't make it into paste, just half a round. That is it.

I'm sending this to

I'm sending this to Valli's Kid's delight happening as guest host

Sweet treats happening at Nivedhanam sowmya's place