Sweets have always been an important part of Indian food. Most Indian sweets are aids in digestion. A Indian food is incomplete without a sweet dish at the end of a meal.
Kheer
Ingredients
• Milk 2 liters
• Sugar 4 tbs
• Rice 3-4 tbsp
• Raisins
• Sliced almonds
• Chopped cashew nuts
• Pistachio (optional)
Method
• Heat milk in a large pan.
• Simmer until it is reduced to 3 quarters its original volume.
• Add sugar and continue cooking until milk is reduced to half and thickens.
• Add the raisins, almonds and chopped cashew nuts.
• Remove from heat.
• Cool and serve
Jalebi
Ingredients
• 2 cups (refined flour)maida • • 11/2 tbsp. fine grained semolina or rice flour
• 1/4th tsp. baking powder
• 2 tbsp curd ( yogurt)
• 11/4th cups warm water
• Edible yellow colour powder
• 3 cups sugar
• 2 2/3rd cups water
1/2 tsp green cardamom seeds powder
Ghee (clarified butter) or oil for deep frying
Method
Mix the flour, semolina or rice flour, baking powder, curd and 3/4th cup of the water in a bowl . Mix well.
And then add remaining water and yellow colour powder, and whisk until smooth. Set aside for about 2 hours to ferment.
Whisk thoroughly before use.
Prepare one string sugar syrup by dissolving sugar in the water. Just before the syrup is ready add cardamom powder.
Heat oil in a pani. Pour the batter in a steady stream (The nozzle of the easy squeeze bottle should have a hole the thickness of a knitting needle.
Into the pan to form coils. Make a few at a time.
Deep fry them until they are golden and crisp.
Remove from the pan and drain on kitchen paper and immerse in the syrup.
Leave for at least 4-5 minutes so that they soak the syrup.
Take them out of syrup.
Almond phirni
Ingredients
• 12 nos. Almonds
• 4 tablespoons Rice flour
• 21/2 cups Milk
• 5 tablespoons Sugar
• 8 strands Saffron
• 1 teaspoon Cardamom powder
Method
Blanch and grind the almonds to a fine paste with 1/2 cup milk. Mix together the ground almond paste and rice flour and keep aside.
Bring the milk to a boil. Add the sugar and stir till the sugar dissolves. Keep aside a tablespoon of hot milk and dissolve the saffron in it. Add the almond-rice mixture into the boiling milk along with the saffron.
Stir continuously for a few mintues till the milk thickens and attains a custard-like consistency. Sprinkle in the cardamom powder. Take off fire and cool to room temperature.
Pour into individual bowls, garnish with almonds and pistachios and refrigerate it and serve.
Rasagolla
The recipe for making rasagollas eventually spread from Orissa to neighbouring West Bengal. This was during the Bengal renaissance when brahmin cooks from Orissa, especially from Puri, were routinely employed in richer Bengali households. They were famed for their culinary skills and commonly referred to as Ude Thakurs (Oriya brahmin-cooks). As a result, many Oriya delicacies got incorporated into the Bengali kitchen
Ingredients
• 2 litres full cream milk
• 2-3 tbsps lime/lemon juice
• 5 tsps flour
• v4 cups water%
• 2 cups sugar
• 2-3 tbsps rose water or a few strands of saffron
Preparation
Bring the milk to a boil over a medium flame. Stir occassionally to ensure the milk does not burn. When the milk begins to boil, add the lime juice and mix well. When the curds begin to separate from the milk, turn off the fire and leave the millk aside for 10 minutes to let the curdling process finish.
Strain the cheese and wash it well under running water - to remove all the lime juice from it.
Now put the cheese in a cheesecloth and hang for 1 hour to completely drain all the liquid from it.
Put the drained cheese into a mixing bowl and begin to knead it. Continue till all the lumps are removed and the cheese is absolutely smooth. When this happens the cheese will begin to release its fat and your hands will feel greasy. The success of your Rasgulla making effort depends on how smooth you knead the cheese, so give it your best shot!
Now sprinkle the flour over the surface of the cheese and work it into the cheese to mix thoroughly.
Mix the sugar and water in a pressure cooker and bring the mixture to a boil (without covering the pressure cooker). Make sure the cooker is large enough to accomodate the finished Rasgullas, as they will expand to double their size while cooking in the syrup!
While the sugar syrup boils, divide the dough into small marble-sized balls and roll between your palms till smooth.
Gently add the balls to the sugar syrup and cover the pressure cooker. Add the cooker weight and wait for the first whistle. Once the first whistle blows, wait another 8-10 minutes and then turn off the fire. Release the steam from the pressure cooker and allow the Rasgullas to cool completely before touching them. They will have expanded to almost double their original size and will be delicate when hot.
When cool, pour the rose water or saffron syrup (made by soaking the saffron strands in a little warm water) on the Rasgullas and chill for a few hours before serving.
Gulab Jamun
• These round, dark, syrupy jamuns taste as good as they look.
Ingredients:
• 1 Cup heaped flour
• 2 Pinch soda powder
• 3 Cups Sugar
• 3 Cups Water
• 100 gms Ghee
• 3/4 Litre milk
• 6 Crushed cardamom
• 1 tbsp Sugar
• 1 tsp Rose essence
• 2 Pinch saffron
Method
• Boil the milk till it reduces to half cup.
• Cool and add soda powder and 1tbsp sugar.
• Mix properly and make it smooth.
• Slowly add flour and prepare a fine dough. Leave it for an hour.
• Apply little ghee on the your palms.
• Make small balls from the prepared mixture.
• Pour ghee in a pan and heat. Fry the balls in ghee on a low flame.
• Boil 3 cups of water with equal amout of sugar. Also add cardamom and saffron.
• Filter and add rose essence to it.
• Put the fried balls in this solution.
• Remove after 3-4 hours.
• Gulab Jamuns are ready to serve.
Rasmalai
Rasmalai originated somewhere in east India including Orissa, Bihar or the region of Bengal which includes the state West Bengal and modern day Bangladesh. Sometimes it is pronounced as shown as Rassmalai or Roshomalay in Bengali
Ingredients
• 4 Measuring cup milk for channa (2 milk)%
• 3 measuring cup milk for Ras
• 4 - 4 1/2 tbsp. sugar for Ras
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 cups of water
• saffron, cardamom, pista, almonds
• lemon juice
Method
First keep the 3 cups of milk for ras to boil until it remains 1 3/4 cup.
Bring 4 cups of milk to boil. Now to curdle the milk add lemon juice to it stirring continuously.
Then drain it in a thin muslin cloth or handkerchief.
Hold it covered with cloth in the running water. Drain the excess water by pressing the cloth there must not be water remaining.
In a pressure cooker take 3 cups of water and 1 cup of sugar.
Take the channa out of the cloth in a dish, mash it and make around 15 small size of balls out of it
Toss that balls in the pressure cooker and bring two whistles.
In the mean time see the milk for ras may be ready.
Add the sugar for ras to it and add cardamom, pista, almond and saffron to it. Let it cool aside
As the pressure cooker is warm now open it take out the balls of channa with the spoon in a dish and let the water drain by pressing it little and let it cook.
When the milk is cool add channa balls to it.
Refrigerate it.
And it is ready to serve.
References: diwalicelebrations.net, about.com, Wikipedia
Images: Kaushal Karkhanis, mswine, Kaustav Bhattacharya, steveleenow, seungpyo, crazystitch, Mr. Lobo, alasam.
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