The Authentic Bengali Malpua

We shifted to our new house about twelve days back. This is my first post here since I managed to get the broadband connection yesterday only after much follow up. There are several other works piled up, setting up of a new house is so much trouble and labour. Carton full of clothes, books, other household items etc. are lying around but nothing can keep me off my passion, cooking and blogging for long.

Authentic Bong Malpua

Rava Kesari (Golden Semolina)

Rava Kesari is a delicious South-Indian sweet dish mainly in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka made usually on religious festivals or auspicious occasions. This is the simplest of desserts that can be made and one of the regulars in my kitchen. The addition of saffron or kesar, the most expensive spice in the world makes the dish breathtakingly beautiful and gorgeous. Naturally it conquered the hearts of Indians from other parts of the country as well, gained fame and is now loved all over India. Though the golden semolina is thought to be most befitting as an offering to the Almighty, you can treat this vegetarian dessert to your guests too any time because it’s so easy to make and is ready in a jiffy.   

 

Rava Kesari

Alton Brown's Free Range Fruit Cake

This is an adaptation of Alton Brown’s Free Range Fruit Cake for the Christmas and New Year. I came to know about this brilliant recipe from Bong Mom’s CookBook and instantly fell in love with it. Couldn’t wait much further and baked this new year rum fruit cake for my family straight away after acquiring the ingredients and it turned out as awesome as the recipe promised it to be. Thank you Sandeepa and those of you who haven’t tried it yet make it today…..

Fruit Cake

Carrot Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting

My next experiment with baking is a double layered carrot cake. Make this delicious, super moist, melt-in-mouth, spicy carrot cake with cream cheese frosting this Christmas and surprise your near and dear ones. This cake is rich and flavourful and the cream cheese frosting gives another dimension to the cake, a must try for all the cake and bake lovers. Got this recipe from the net and with all those red juicy sweet carrots of the winter the recipe was simply irresistible….so off I went with it.

Carrot Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting

Pound cake

Christmas is nearing and getting inspired by all the awesome bakes being posted on various food groups couldn’t resist myself. This is a simple bake, nothing too rich and heavy. A pound cake is something you enjoy at anytime, delicious, moist and fluffy, a good accompaniment with tea or coffee which often becomes the saviour in this cold season.

Pound Cake

Though maa n grandma’s pound cakes were typically old school, I baked this using my imagination, added some cashews, dark raisins n tootty truity to make it more appealing to my son. I’m not a baker by any means but this tasted superb. So those of you looking for an easy bake before the real Christmas stuff, this is the recipe for you.

Pound Cake

What you’ll need:

• 11/2 cups of all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 11/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 3 eggs at room temperature
• ¾ cups of granulated sugar
• 15 tablespoons of salted butter melted
• 1/3 cup of whole milk at room temperature
• A fistful of tootty fruity
• A fistful of dark raisins
• A fistful of cashews

 

Pound Cake

Process:

Step1:
 

First soak the cashew and raisins in warm water for  5-7 minutes and strain the water.

Step 2:

Sift flour and baking powder together 2 times.

Step 3:

Now in an electric mixer, mix these along with the sugar on low speed until nicely blended.

Step 4:

Beat the eggs, and add to it the milk and the vanilla essence and mix well.

Step 5:
 

Now mix the dry ingredients in the mixer with melted butter and half the egg mix on low speed for 10 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the container and mix again on low speed for 20 seconds. By now the dry ingredients will be moistened. Pour in the remaining egg mix and again blend on low speed for 30 seconds twice at an interval. Your batter is ready by now.

Step 6:
 

Gently mix the cashew, raisins and tootty fruity with a ladle and pour the batter in a well greased and powdered baking dish.

Step 7:

Preheat the oven to 180 degree centigrade and bake for 55 minutes-1 hour. Do the toothpick test, before removing. The toothpick should come out clean when inserted at the centre.

Pound cake

Step 8:

Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack before removing from the baking dish.

Nolen Gur diye Sewainer Payesh (Vermicelli Pudding With Date Palm Jaggery)

Date Palm Jaggery/ sugar is a special sweetener made from the juice/sap of date palm trees. The sap is collected by tying a pot with the tree trunk, and later boiled to make date palm sugar or jaggery. You associate the name with Bengal only because of the availability and as this state has been producing sweets of incredible variety and taste with date palm jaggery since time immemorial. The uniqueness and popularity of the flavour of this special jaggery have made it reach places outside Bengal and India. Now available almost at all the places nested by Bongs, I manage to get hold of it from C.R.Park a predominantly Bong inhabited region in Delhi.

Nolen Gur Diye Sewainer Payesh

Date Palm Jaggery is available as both syrup and solid. I usually use the solidified form better known as ‘Patali Gur’ for payesh/pudding/kheer. This pudding is most often cooked with rice, but other variants like suji/semolina, sewain/vermicelli prove to be equally delectable.

Nolen Gur Diye Sewainer Payesh

Nolen Gur Diye Sewainer Payesh

Nolen Gur Diye Sewainer Payesh

Now the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 litre whole milk
• Date palm jaggery according to the sweetness you want
• A fistful of cashew
• A fistful of raisins/kishmish
• A fistful of vermicelli/sewain
• 1 tablespoon ghee/clarified butter

Process:

Step:1

Boil the milk and reduce it to two third. Now in a pan heat ghee and roast the vermicelli until it takes a brownish hue.

Step:2

Throw in the cashews and raisins, stir for a minute.

Step:3

Pour the whole thing (vermicelli, cashew, raisins) into the milk. Let them simmer in the milk until the vermicelli is done.

Step:4

Now add the date palm jaggery broken into small pieces and stir the milk until they are completely dissolved.

Nolen Gur Diye Sewainer Payesh

Step:5

Serve warm or chilled, it will taste divine.

Mango Basundi

In this gruelling heat with the temperature soaring high a much appreciated respite would be a delicious chilled dessert. Yesterday I made Mango Basundi which tasted divine besides providing a much welcome relief and was polished off within minutes I took it out of the refrigerator. Basundi is a traditional sweet dish of west India specially Gujarat, Maharashtra nevertheless it is enjoyed by all.

Hope you all will love it....

Mango Basundi

Mango Basundi

Mango Basundi

Recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 litre fullcream milk
• 200 gms (1/2 tin) condensed milk
• 10- 12 strands of saffron
• 2 ripe mangoes 1 pulp, 1 sliced
• almonds
• sugar as per requirement of sweetness ( I used 2 tblspns of sugar)
• 1 tsp cardamom powder

Procedure:

Boil fullcream milk in a container with 4-5 strands of saffron and let it get reduced to half on low heat. Stir occasionally. When the milk becomes dense add the condensed milk and sugar and let it simmer for some time until the sugar gets dissolved. Soak mangoes in water for half an hour prior to peeling and cutting to get rid of germs and pesticides. Now peel 1 mango and make pulp in the mixie. Add the pulp, cardamom powder and mix well. Let it cool before putting in the fridge. In the meanwhile peel and slice the 2nd mango. When chilled take it out serve garnished with few strands of saffron, almonds and mango slices.... bliss....

Nolen Gurer Payesh ( Rice kheer with Date Palm Jaggery)

Today is the Bong New Year's Day. Wishing everyone happiness, health and prosperity on this auspicious day. Here's a classic sweet dish with nolengur/notungur famous for its distinctive fragrance loved and relished by all Bengalis....

Recipe:

Nolen Gurer Payesh

Ingredients:

• 1 litre full cream milk
• 4 tblspns Gobindobhog/Basmati rice 
• 200 gms date palm jaggery
• a handful of cashew nuts
• a handful of raisins

Procedure:

Boil full cream milk and let it simmer on low heat for sometime. Wash gobindobhog rice ( in case not available you can use basmati) and add it to the milk. Let the rice get boiled in the milk on low heat. Stir from time to time. When the rice is done add the jaggery, cashews and raisins. Continue to stir. The jaggery will melt and the kheer/payesh will thicken. Now its done. Cool it and then serve. It tastes heavenly.

Banana Walnut Cake

A soft moist super delicious cake, can be enjoyed anytime throughout the year, very easy to make and a hit among kids. These pictures were taken when the cake was fresh out of the oven.

Recipe:

 

Banana Walnut Cake

Banana Walnut Cake

Ingredients:
 

• 2 medium sized ripe bananas mashed
• 1cup melted butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 cup walnuts
• 11/2 cups of all purpose flour (maida)
• ¼ cup full cream milk
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup of tutti frutti (optional)
• 1 tsp vanilla essence

Procedure:

Sieve flour and baking powder together and keep aside. Now beat sugar with butter till creamy. Add eggs one at a time and beat the mixture. When it becomes foamy add vanilla essence, mashed bananas, milk and mix well. Now add the dry ingredients (flour and baking powder) and fold slowly. Add the walnuts and tutti frutti. Grease a baking tray and pour the mixture. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and bake for 45-50 minutes. Do the toothpick test at the centre of the cake. If it comes out clean your cake is done. Enjoy with tea/coffee or just like that....

Good old Bread n Butter Pudding

Good old Bread n Butter Pudding in today’s dessert after quite a long time…just love this simple pudding….kinda soul food…Though most of you know how to make it…sharing the recipe nevertheless….

Recipe

                 

Bread n Butter Pudding

                 

Ingredients: 

• Bread 6 pcs
• Butter as per need
• Eggs 3
• Full cream milk 2 cups
• Milkmaid ½ tin (200gms)
• Powdered sugar 3-4 tbsps
• Vanilla essence 1-2 tsp
• Raisins n almonds
• Tutti frutti for garnishing
  
  

Process: 

Cut the edges of the bread pcs n knife them diagonally. Smear butter on both the sides of the pcs n arrange them taking two together on a square baking dish. Now mix milk, milkmaid, sugar, eggs n vanilla essence whisking lightly. Put raisins n almonds in between the bread pcs n pour the mixture over the breads. Preheat oven n bake at 160 deg. For 35-40 mins…take out once it starts turning golden brown…refrigerate for 3-4 hrs serve chilled garnished with tutti frutti/cherries or anything you want…divine!!!