A sorbet is a frozen dessert made with fruit juice or purée, sugar, and sometimes other flavourings , but without any dairy products. It’s known for its refreshing, icy texture something akin to the ‘Gola’ which is a very popular street food in India .
Ingredients:
1 orange per person
1 tsp sugar or you may skip it.
Method:
Peel the orange. Remove seeds if any. Place the segments in a plate and freeze them overnight. Blitz them in a blender. They turn into soft fluff which can be scooped up. Serve immediately.
One of the easiest way to satiate those cravings for a dessert is to make this payasam which is ready in no time. With coconut milk readily available these days, it takes just ten minutes to make it.
Ingredients:
3 tbsps thick poha/ flattened rice
200 ml thick coconut milk
250 ml water
5 cashews halved
10 raisins
1 tsp cardamom powder
Jaggery as per taste
1 tbsp ghee.
Method:
Tip the coconut milk and 250 ml water into a pan. Bring to a boil on a very low flame. Heat the ghee in a pan. Add the cashews and roast to a golden brown. Remove. Add the raisins and roast till they fluff up. Remove and keep aside. Roast the poha in the remaining ghee till it changes colour. Add all the roasted ingredients and jaggery into the boiling coconut milk. Add the cardamom powder and simmer for a couple of minutes. Switch off. Serve hot . You can also refrigerate it and enjoy it cold.
When you have a large batch of pears, they can be stewed or turned into a salad. The stewed Pears can be eaten as a dessert with some fresh cream or used over ice cream.
Ingredients:
500 gms firm pears
250 ml water
250 gms sugar
7 cloves
2 inch piece of cinnamon
2 star anise
Juice of two large lemons.
Method:
Peel the pears and slice . Tip them along with water and the spices mentioned, into a vessel and bring to a boil. Lower heat and continue to simmer for five minutes. Add sugar and lemon juice and continue to cook till it turns into a thick syrup. Switch off. Allow to cool and store in an airtight tight glass jar .
Ice apple is known by various names in India. Nungu is the Kannada word which literally means segment. It is used in making milkshake, icecream and payasam.. Here is a payasam which is very popular when Ice apple is in season.
Ingredients:
5 pieces of Ice apple chopped fine
250 ml thick coconut milk
Sugar as per requirement
1/2 tsp cardamom powder
Dry fruits for garnish.
Method:
Chop the ice apple into bits and cook it in a glass of water till done. Add the coconut milk, sugar and cardamom powder and bring to a boil. Adjust consistency as required. Serve hot or chilled garnished with finely chopped dry fruits.
One of the most delicious of icecreams is the one made with Lychees. It’s mild fragrance and sweet undertones make it an icecream lover’s delight! You may add sugar as per your choice or totally skip it. Here I have added a little since I was serving guests.
Ingredients:
1/2 litre full cream milk
2tsps corn flour
30 lychees peeled and deseeded
2 heaped tbsps sugar.
Method:
Bring the milk to a boil. Keep three tbsps of milk aside. Keep on boiling the remaining milk till it is reduced to three fourth of the quantity. Add the cornflour to the milk kept aside and mix it well. Pour it into the boiling milk in a steady stream, continuously stirring the milk. Allow to simmer for about three minutes. Switch off, cover and allow the milk to come to room temperature.
Puree the deseeded lychees along with the sugar in a blender. Add it to the milk and mix thoroughly. Transfer this mixture to an airtight container and put it in the freezer.
After an hour, mix it again. This has to be repeated again after another hour. Allow the ice cream to set for 5 hours. Remove and run it through the blender one last time. This is done to prevent crystallization. Pour it back into the container. Cover tightly and allow to set in the freezer. Home made lychee icecream is ready to serve.
Jackfruit Mullik is a delicacy prepared by the Konkani community of South Canara. I have already posted one which uses coconut, but without cashew nuts. One can use rice, wheat flour or semolina for binding the puree of the jackfruit segments made. I prefer using semolina as it turns crisp on the outside but deliciously soft inside.
Ingredients:
2 cups jackfruit segments chopped
1/2 cup jaggery or as per preference
1 cup semolina
3/4 tsp cardamom powder
4 cashewnuts chopped fine
A pinch of salt
Coconut oil to fry.
Method:
Puree the jackfruit along with the jaggery without adding water. Tip this paste into a bowl. Add salt, cashew bits and the semolina. Mix thoroughly and allow to stand for ten minutes. Heat coconut oil in a pan. Take small portions of this batter and drop them into the hot oil. Fry on a medium flame to a golden brown. Serve hot.
Kada Prasad is the offering at all the Gurudwaras all over India. The Sikh community holds ‘Langar’ or free food for anyone wishing to partake food at the Gurudwara. A rich and fragrant offering of wheat flour roasted in Ghee is prepared and distributed to all the devotees. The term Kada comes from the huge Kadhai in which it is prepared. Kada in Punjabi means to scrape. Scraping the sides of the Kadhai to roast the flour resulted in the offering being named Kada Prasad.
Ingredients:
Equal quantities of
Ghee/ clarified butter
Wheat flour
Sugar
Water
Method:
Pour the ghee into a pan. Add the wheat flour and keep roasting it on a gentle flame till it turns golden brown and fragrant. Add boiling water into it and allow it to cook for a minute. Add the sugar and keep stirring till the entire mixture comes together. Remove and serve .
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Kashmir famous for its scenic beauty and the variety of dried fruits is also a food lover’s paradise.
Amidst the love for the famous ultimate banquet wazwan, the Kashmiris also have a special place in their heart for bakery items. . Kashmiri cuisine also known as “Kashur Kyon” in the native language has a heavy influence from the Central Asian and Persian cuisine. The custom of having these breads for breakfast and dinner was adapted from them. In the local language, Tsot is a bread which is enjoyed with fresh apricot jam.. Out of the many, most sought out are the Katlamas, Sheermal, Lavas, Tsot and Tsotchovru. These are either had for breakfast tea or had as snack.
Ingredients:
250 ml Warm milk
2 tsps Sugar
1 tsp Saffron
300 gms Maida
1/2 tsp yeast
1/2 tsp Salt
100 gms melted Ghee
Dried fruits of choice slivered to garnish the Sheermal
1 tsp Ghee to apply on each Sheermal.
Method:
Dissolve saffron in a quarter cup of milk . Keep it aside. Dissolve the sugar and yeast in the remaining milk. Allow the yeast to rise for about five minutes. Tip the flour and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the center and pour in the milk sugar mixture, two teaspoons of saffron milk, and the melted ghee. Start mixing gently and knead to make a soft dough. Cover with a damp kitchen towel and set aside for about an hour. In colder climates you would need to rest it for about two hours or till the dough doubles in size. Divide the dough into eight equal-sized portions. Shape them into balls. Cover with a damp kitchen towel for a further fifteen minutes. Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease a baking tray or line with parchment paper. Working with one ball at a time, roll it out into a disc about 5 inches in diameter. These should be rolled thick . Place the discs on the prepared tray and bake for 5 minutes. Take the tray out, brush the flatbreads with saffron-infused milk. Immediately return to the oven for another 7 minutes or until the breads are golden and done. Smear with ghee as soon as you take them out of the oven, top it with the slivered dried fruits and serve warm.
Alternatively, you may roast the Sheermal on a tava/ griddle as I have. Roast it till the side turns light golden yellow. Flip. Roast the other side as well. Brush both sides with the saffron milk and roast to a golden brown.
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Til Bugga is a traditional dessert prepared in North India on Makar Sankranti . It is specially prepared in the winter season as Til/ sesame is believed to keep the body warm. It consists of dry roasted sesame/til seeds with mava/khoya and sugar. Only with these three ingredients a delectable dessert is ready in no time.
Ingredients:
250 gms Til/ sesame
200 gms Khoya/ mava
1 tsp cardamom powder
200 gms powdered sugar
Cashewnuts and kishmish as required.
Method:
Dry roast the sesame seeds on a low flame till they turn golden brown and start to splutter. Tip them on a large plate and allow them to cool. Keep aside two tablespoons of the sesame seeds for garnishing and powder the remaining coarsely. Heat a pan and roast the khoya on a low flame . At first it melts and then starts coming together leaving the sides of the pan. Allow it to cool. Tip the powdered sesame seeds, sugar, khoya and cardamom powder into a bowl. Knead well. Roll into balls and garnish with cashewnuts, raisins and a sprinkling of roasted sesame seeds as shown in the above picture.
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Bhura Ghee Roti is a sweet, savory dish made with bhura (powdered sugar), ghee and leftover rotis. Haryanvis often indulge in this dish after a meal as dessert.
It took me back to my childhood days when Amma would roast chapati with ghee and top it with sugar…. We would tuck into it before the sugar could melt…. The slight crunch of sugar, the fragrance of home made ghee ……Nirvana!
In Bhura ghee roti, a generous amount of ghee is applied over the leftover Roti and it is sprinkled with powdered sugar.
Posting the link to the roti/ chapati. Just sprinkle powdered sugar on it and enjoy it.
