Gajar Peda / Carrot Fudge - Step by Step

Somehow couldn't push myself to post in the last two weeks. It has been a roller coaster ride of events, some good and some not so. My childhood best friend made a surprise visit to Toronto from California, during her east coast vacation. It was such a treat meeting her after more than decade making old memories come afresh.

Coming to the present, it seems Christmas just went and now Good Friday is already gone and Easter in a day..It is true that in a Christian's life all these three events must have tremendous meaning every single day..but I'm thankful that we observe them outwardly also to proclaim and to seal the truth of Jesus Christ coming into this world. Especially the message of Good Friday helps me to revive, re-commit and re-dedicate myself to follow our Lord to re-fill the gratitude in me for what He has done and Easter re-assures us the power of salvation with the Resurrection of our Lord. Thinking about Easter also makes me so nostalgic about the childhood days when my family used to attend the early morning 4.30 worship service and yes those Easter Saturdays where special too. Preparing for Easter Sunday, threadling the fresh jasmine flowers into garlands to decorate our braids, new set of clothes, waking up at 3.00am midnight to get ready to go church and checking into some star hotel restaurant for after service breakfast with family. Amma, Nanagaru thanks for giving me those precious moments which I will always treasure down the lane. Happy Easter to you and to all our family.


So, celebrating the occassion with a sweet treat. I know, I know, I said I will post more vegan recipes this month, but since i didn't publish last two weeks, guess will have to do a pattern now. Recently one of our friend from our building send some home made Carrot halwa for us. It tasted so good that I was inspired me to try my own. I went a step ahead to make Carrot Fudge/kova or Gajar Peda by adding dry milk or khoya to the regular gajar halwa and making pedas from it which really helps in portion control too. You can freshly prepare khoya from scratch or use store bought or like me use the instant mix.

Ingredients :
1 lb carrots
5 tbsp ghee
1 cup sugar
1 can Evaporated milk
1 pkt Carrot halwa Khoya mix
Nuts of choice.
Here is the step by step making of it:
Shred 1 lb carrots around 3 big ones.

Heat 1 Tbsp of Ghee to a wide pan and then roast the crated carrots for a minute or two.

Now add 1 cup of sugar and cook till the sugar is dissolved into the carrots.

Add 1 can evaporated milk and cook till it is fully absorbed into the carrot mixture.

Once the milk is evaporated, add 2 tbsp of ghee and choice of cashew or pista a handful.

Cook till the mixture leaves ghee.

At this stage carrot halwa is ready, if you want to continue to carrot kova add the sweetened dry milk powder or khoya.

I used the instant khoya mix. Here is how it looks after adding and mixing it thoroughly.

After the khoya mix is totally incorporated into the halwa, add another tbsp of ghee mix and transfer to a greased bowl.


Now grease hand with ghee and take small lemon size balls and press them into pedas and decorate with almond in the middle.

Mango Kesari

AKA Mango Sujji Halwa / Mango Rawa Kesari
Can't believe its December already and we have less than a month to start another new year. December brings the sweet memories of preparing and celebrating Christmas back home..oh how I miss home especially this season. Thought it would be nice to post a sweet dish to kick start this festive month.

Regular readers of my blog would have followed my desserts with semolina. Its like I started making kesari with different fruit flavours..pineapple, banana and now mango..yea blog hopping one day lead me to Mango kesari..and boy it was simply delicious, though i was not welcoming the idea in the beginning, this turned out to be a really flavourful fudge like dessert. Choose ripe sweet mangoes or good quality sweet mango puree for better results.

Ingredients :
3 to 4 Tbsp - Ghee
1 cup - Semolina/Suji/Rawa
3 cups - Pureed Alfonso Mango pulp (I prefer Kesar brand)
1 cup Sugar
1/4 Tsp Cardamom powder
Few Saffron strands
2 Tbsp - Choice of nuts and dry fruits( I used cashew and raisin)

Method :
In a wide pan, melt ghee and fry cashew and raisin till color change, strain and remove. Keep aside.
In the same pan, add one more tbsp of ghee and add rawa to roast evenly till semolina turns the color slightly.
Now add mango pulp, slowly and mix thoroughly into the rawa. Keep adding and mixing till all the mango puree is incorporated into the semolina.
Add sugar and saffron milk and mix till sugar caramelizes and dissolves into the mango rawa mixture.
Add salt and cardamom powder.
Add the remaining ghee and continue mixing till the kesari leaves the surface.
Add half of the nuts and raisins. Remove from heat.
Pour into a greased tray. Cut into desired shapes or just scoop into serving dessert bowls and garnish with remaining cashew and raisins.

Sweet Potato Laddus/Balls

In my previous post of sweet potato, I had mentioned all the goodness that this root vegetable has to offer us. So to find a way or two to include this in our diet helps. In my childhood, apart from eating it just in boiled form, we use to enjoy it when granny adds it to a curry or my dearest aunt used to make these sweet laddus.

In fact once when I was visiting my cousins for a vacation in childhood, my Aunt made these laddus, with which I totally fell in love with. I was all praises for her that she could transform the just boiled sweet potato into this flavourful dessert treat in no time.

After marriage I too try to make these laddus once in a while.

Ingredients:
1 large sweet potato
1 tbsp + 1 tsp Ghee
1 Tbsp Sugar
or
1 Tbsp Condensed milk
1/4 cup grated Coconut
Little salt to add while boiling the potatoes

Directions:
Cut the Sweet Potatoes into large chunks add enough water and salt and Pressure cook for 10 - 15 minutes.
Check to see if the potatoes are done by passing a knife through chunks.
If the knife passes freely, then remove from heat and discard water.
Remove skin once the potatoes can be touched without burning fingers.
Mash them a little and keep aside.
Roast the grated coconut in 1/2 tsp of ghee for a minute or so and add it to the mashed potato.
Now add ghee, sugar, condensed milk to the potato mixture and thoroughly mash and mix till all evenly mixed and the sugar is melted.
Grease fingers with the remaining ghee time to time and make small lemon size balls and serve immediately.
Good accompaniment for breakfasts.

Rava Laddu with Grated Coconut

Though I have a sweet tooth, when it comes to making traditional sweets I have always enjoyed them store bought or prepared by someone else.

As working women we some how squeeze time to cook for our daily meals. So taking time to make something extra like sweets or savouries is not much in my dictionary. I feel investing so much time on making these sweets is not much worth when we can get professionally made ones in sweet stores. More over sugar is one thing that is out of the menu list when it comes to a healthy diet. Nevertheless, blog hopping always inspires us to try new dishes. All the more when it is raining traditional Indian sweets in all the Indian Food blogs.

So this weekend I adventured on Rava laddu. Rava laddu is a traditional sweet made in South India..I think most of our South Indian food blogs have this in their "Sweets Recipe Index". Growing up I was not much a fan of this sweet, except when made by one of my aunt as a must for very Christmas.

Unlike most traditional sweets which take time and difficult steps to make, "rava laddu" can be made in a jiffy. It takes less than thirty minutes to make a plate full of laddus, provided all ingredients are available in our pantry. Its like you just thought to make them and in the next half hour they are ready for the family to enjoy, if you put your thought into action.

There a few different ways to make this sweet. Addition of ghee, grated coconut and milk make it moist and to enhance the flavour cardamom powder is added. After trying for a couple of times I really dicovered the secret of making moist firm laddus which are not too soft or too brittle to break. So here is the test and tried version of my Rava laddus.

Ingredients :
1 cup Semolina/Rava
1/2 cup Shredded Coconut
2/3 cup Sugar
2 Tbsp Ghee
1 Tsp Cardamom powder
2-3 Tbsp milk
2 Tbsp Cashew nuts and Raisins mixed



Directions:
Heat 1 Tbsp of ghee in a pot/Kadai/Pan, add cashew and raisins and fry till raisins are puffed up and cashew changes color slightly. Drain and remove. Set aside
Now add Grated Coconut and roast for a minute or two and then add 1/2 tbsp more ghee and add the rava to roast it thoroughly.
Keep stirring continually for 5 - 7 minutes coating the rava with ghee and mixing it with coconut. Add the cardamom powder and mix well.
Add sugar and keep stirring till the sugar is almost dissolved.
Add the roasted cashew and raisins.
Now add 1 Tbsp of milk and mix thoroughly as the rava tends to thicken up.
Remove the container from heat and spread a part of the rava mixture on a greased plate.
To this part add enough milk when still hot and mix to keep the rava moist and to make the laddus easily and to retain their shape.
With the remaining ghee keep greasing the fingers and quickly make ladoos of small lemon size.
Repeat the same with the reamining portion of rava mixture.
Usually for one cup of rava you can get 8- 10 laddus.
Store in a air tight container for up to a week.
Sending the Rava laddus for the Food blog events Sweet Series hosted by Sirisha and FIL -Ghee Sweets hosted by Sanghi

Gulab Jamun

As yet another Mother's day is just here...I thank the Lord for giving me mothers in my mom & grandmothers and blessing me to be wholesome women by making me mother to two sweet little sons. Incidently mother's day is more special in our family as my fisrt son Josh's b'day also falls during this time.

Nothing like celebrating this time with some traditional Indian sweets and savouries.
Think about Indian snacks and desserts ...who won't long for those chatpat Pakoras(Hindi), Pakodi(Telugu), Pakoda(Tamil) and those mouth watering Gulab Jamuns.

These two have been my favourite savoury and sweet from childhood. To light up your evening there is this Pakora with the desi chai, and to round up a meal there is this Jamun
One is a Starter and the other a Dessert.

So wishing all the mothers a happy motherhood, here is a the most famous Indian sweet - Gulab Jamun.

You can check out my recipe for pakoras here

Recipe for Gulab Jamun:
Ingredients :
1 cup Whole Milk Powder
1/2 cup all purpose flour (Maida)
(Alternately you can use 2 packets of store bought ready made gulab jamun mix)
1/2 tsp baking soda
75 gms thickened cream
2 Tbsp Ghee
approx 1/3 Cup Whole warm milk to make the dough
Oil for deep frying
A pinch of salt

For the Sugar Syrup
2 cups Sugar
1 cup water
1/2 tsp Rose essence/extract
1 tsp cardamom powder
A few Saffron strands(Kesar) - optional

First prepare the sugar syrup :
Dissolve 2 cups of sugar to 1 cup of water and bring to boil on meduim heat.
Add the rose essence, cardamom powder and saffron strands to the syrup.
Keep warm on stove to add the fried gulab jamun.

Making Jamuns:
Combine the milk powder, flour, baking powder, ghee and a pinch of salt
Add thickened cream to this.
Add enough milk to make a medium-hard dough.
Grease to your hands and make even size balls and place them on separate plate, taking care that the balls have smooth finish.
If the balls appear to be dry and crackled, see that your hands are greasy enough and add a bit more milk to the dough to moist and smooth.
Heat the oil on high and then lower the heat to medium.
Now slip one ball into the hot oil, it should rise to the surface slowly and not at once.
If the ball rises at once that means the temperature of the oil is too high which will burnthe balls and not cook them from inside.
If the first ball rises slowly, then add the remaining balls and fry till they turn brown.
The balls must be fried very slowly under medium temperature to ensure completely cooked inside and even browning outside.
The balls swell and become bigger in size and surface up as they fry and cook.
Once the jamuns are cooked drop them in the prepared warm sugar syrup.
Soak the gulab jamun in the sugar syrup for atleast 2 to 3 hours. You can soak overnight too for best results.
Serve them warm or at room temperature.

This is one sweet I use to make a number of times from my teenage.

My two little brats and hubby always enjoy the gulab jamuns.

A good combo with gulab jamun is ice cream, topped with dried crated pistachio or almonds. In Indian buffet restaurants this is a staple both here and back home.

Mysore Pak .....JFS Festive Collection

I don't know how the name Mysore pak came, but since the recipe uses channa dhall flour I thought I will call this sweet Channa pak.

This is the first time I tried it. Though not upto my expectations the taste was not bad. I thought of sending in the Chakra pongal entry for the Event JFS:Diwali hosted by Past Present and Me . This event JFI was originally started by Indira

But this weekend when I called my Sister back home, she gave me the recipe for a sweet made with maida(all purpose flour) which she just viewed in a TV show. Quickly her MIL joined and narratted the Mysore pak recipe. Thats it, I told my Sis, to check up my blog in a few days for my version of Mysore pak and here it is.

Ingredients :

2 cups Gram Flour (Besan)
1-1/2 to 2 cups sugar
1 cup ghee ( increase if desired)
To garnish:
2 spoons chopped cashew peices fried in ghee.


Procedure:
Boil sugar with a little water to make the sugar syrup with the string like consistency.
Add the Channa dhall flour(Bengal Gram flour) little by little to this syrup continually mixing without allowing any lumps to be formed.
Once all the flour is added, add the ghee slowly in small amounts and continue mixing thoroughly till all the ghee is added gets into every molecule of the this channa flour mixed in sugar syrup.
Once the mixture leaves the container, and big wholes appear on the surface of this sweet mixture, remove from heat.
Now pour this mixture into a greased tray and flatten it evenly.
Sprinkle some crushed cashew peices if desired.
Let the mixture set for a few minutes and cut into into desired shapes and arrange for serving.

Please don't mind the shapes of my peices. I was just trying them for trail. Never thought I'll blog them. But didn't have time to give it another try. Taste was good. I'm sure I'll improve in the coming attempts.