Gajar Ka Halwa

Not a new name for any of you but I made it after a long time today so thought of sharing this recipe with you all. Many people call it as gajrela as well. My mom used to make it in winters and we all specially my dad is a big fan of gajar ka halwa. So I thought of making it for Aashna. May be she will remember this halwa and her mom after 20-30 years from now ;)

Tip : Please do not make it in a pressure cooker. Gajar halwa cooked in a pan without any lid and on sim flame gives the real taste of it :)

Ingredients :

1. 750 grams carrots grated
2. 2 tablespoon ghee
3. 200 grams khoya grated
4. 1 liter milk
5. 4 table spoon sugar
6. 3-4 green cardamom crushed
7. 100 grams mixed dry fruits (almonds, cashew, pistachios etc.) chopped

Method :

• Take a nonstick pan and heat ghee in it. 

• Add carrots to it and cooking them. Cook them on low flame for about 30 minutes and keep stirring it every two minutes. 

• Add sugar, green cardamons and milk to it and let it boil till its dried up.

• Add half of the khoya and mix well. Switch off the flame and add half of the dry fruits. Many people add dry fruits during cooking but I like dry fruits not to loose their crunch so I add them at the end.

• Put halwa in a bowl and garnish with leftover khoya and dry fruits.

Try this recipe and let me know your reviews :)

Yummy kulfi from leftover sweets

Whenever I go to Delhi to my mum's place, for one reason or the other I end up getting so many sweets that I have to bring to Bangalore. I am not a big fan of sweets so is Rakesh. I figured out what to do with these sweets now :D Rakesh loves kulfi and kulfi made with this leftover mithai is always awesome.

So this time I got a big box of Haldiram's peda. There are a few things that you will have to see before making kulfi with leftover mithai that can change ingredients for this kulfi. First and very important point to note here is the leftover sweet has to be made from khoya and dry fruits only for instance khoya burfi, kaju burfi, pista burfi, peda etc. Mostly all kinds of burfi can be used.

Ingredients :

1. 1/2 kg any khoya mithai.
2. 2 table spoon of pista (you can use almonds or cashews as well or if there is enough dry fruits in your sweets you can skip it)
3. 2 green cardamom
4. few strings of saffron (you can skip this also if there is kesar in your sweets)
5. 1 liter milk

Method :

• Soak saffron in two tablespoon of milk.
• Take a heavy bottom pan and add milk to it. Bring it to a boil.
• Crush green cardamoms and add them to milk. Reduce milk till it's half of the original quantity.
• Mash all the sweets and put it into milk. Keep stirring because there are more chances that it will start sticking on the bottom because of sweets.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Boil it for another 7-10 minutes on low flame.

• Switch off heat and add chopped pistachios. We add them after switching off heat so that they will remain crunchy.

• Let it cool down on room temperature. After that we fill this mixture into kulfi molds and refrigerate.

Try this recipe and share your reviews :) 

Rabdi Faluda

I tried rabdi a few days back and it turns out to be really really good. Rakesh loved it so I make it whenever he wants now :)

Would love to share this recipe with you all.

Ingredients :

For Rabadi :

2 liter milk (preferably full cream)
3-4 green caradomn
8-10 strings of saffron
handful of pistachios (you can use almonds or cashews also)
2 tablespoon sugar

For Faluda :

1 liter milk
Ruh Afza

Luckily I found instant faluda mix which contains

Faluda
Basil seeds
Dry fruits
Sugar

Method :

• Take a heavy bottom pan and put milk into it and start reducing it on a medium or low flame.
• Mix and soak saffron in 2-3 table spoon of milk (milk should be on room temperature or cold) for a few minutes.
• Add saffron mix into milk.
• Crush green cardamons and add it to milk.
• Reduce milk till it is 1/3rd of original quantity.
• Chop pistachios to small pieces. Remove milk pan from heat and add pistachios into it.
• Let it cool on room temperature. Pour it into in an aluminum bowl or kulfi molds for freezing.

Tip : If milk is not reduced to 1/3rd or lesser quantity the kulfi might result like an ice candy with ice in it. Boiling reduces water quantity in milk which makes final output to be more creamier than icy.

To prepare faluda :

• Boil milk with 500 ml of water in it. Add faluda mix and cook it for 7-8 minutes. 
• Turn off heat and let it cool down to room temperature before we chill it in fridge.

In a serving glass add some pieces of kulfi. Pour faluda mix on it and pour 1 tablespoon of ruhafza on top and serve.

Let me know your reviews for this recipe :)

Banana Walnut Bread

I visited my uncle in December 2011 and at his place I tried this Banana Walnut Bread and guess I loved it at very first bite. I came back to India and decided to buy an oven and with this bread I started my baking experience. We make this bread almost every alternate week now. Rakesh (my hubby) and Aashna (my cute daughter) just love it :)

This is how I make banana walnut bread in my kitchen :

Ingredients :

1. 100g butter
2. 120g sugar
3. 2 large eggs
4. 3 large ripe bananas
5. 200g all purpose flour (maida)
6. 4-5 drops of vanilla essence
7. 1/2 tea spoon of baking soda
8. 2 tea spoon of baking powder
9. Handful of walnuts

Method :

• Preheat oven on 175 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit). 
• Break eggs in a bowl. 
• Add vanilla essence to eggs and start beating them with an electric beater. Continue beating them for 3-4 minutes. 
• Take butter and sugar in another bowl and beat them together until this mixture becomes light and fluffy. It should take 5-7 minutes to reach this consistency. 
• Mix eggs into butter sugar mixture. DO NOT over mix anything after this step.
• Mash bananas and put into mixture. 
• Break walnuts into smaller pieces and mix it into the mixture.
• Sieve all purpose flour with baking powder and baking soda into mixture. Mix everything together (by cut and fold method)
• Grease and dust a baking pan. Put mixture into this pan and put into the pre heated oven.
• Bake for 60 minutes. Take it out of the oven and let it cool for 15 minutes. Take it out of the pan and serve.

I will post pictures very soon.

Tips :

1. Beat eggs first instead of butter sugar because if you beat butter sugar first, you have to wash beater before beating eggs. If you beat eggs with a dirty beater eggs won't become fluffy at all.
2.  Use electric beater because it helps in adding more air to butter sugar mixture and eggs which makes your bread fluffy.
3. Always make sure oven is pre heated for atleast 15-20 minutes before baking.



Try this recipe and let me know how you like with your comments. If you have any query regarding this recipe you can ask in comment box and I will get back to you as soon as possible.