Sujir Halwa

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Durga Puja is a big occasion for all Bengalis and for that matter anybody who has a Bengali friend or acquaintance. Everyone who is a Bengali by heart looks out for those few days of the year when the mother goddess comes down to earth and showers her blessing. Durga Puja is also a great occasion to me too, but especially I like the Sandhi Puja night. There is of course a reason behind this liking. It is the night when the goddess is offered Sujir halwa and luchi. It just tastes so good in that combination and my mom cooks it just the way I love; not to flaccid not too condensed, just the right consistency to have it.

Not only during Durga Puja, Sujir halwa always has a soft corner in all our hearts, so throughout the year, mom prepares it often. Mom is not there now with me here in my Bangalore flat, so when it comes to having something typically Bengali I have to enter the kitchen. The other day I prepared Sujir halwa, though I couldn’t get the feeling of my mom’s love in it, but yes it satisfied my taste buds.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

Semolina (Suji / Rava): 4 heaped tablespoons

Clarified Butter (Ghee): ½ teaspoon

Milk (Dudh): 2cups (300ml)

Sugar (Chini): 2 tablespoons

Cardamon (Elaichi): Seeds of 2 or 3 crushed to form powder

Dry fruits for garnishing

Preparation:

• In a wok heat the ghee in simmering flame
• Add the semolina along with 2 bay leaves to it and toss for a minute or two
• Pour in the milk along with sugar and let it boil, stir every two to three minutes to ensure that the semolina doesn’t get stick to the bottom of the wok
• When half cooked add the cardamom powder to it and stir well so that it gets mixed to the halwa
• As the semolina thickens take it out of flame and serve with dry fruit garnishing

Sujir payes serves as a good accompaniment with luchi or even can be had hot or cold as a dessert. Depending on how you like it, you can also add more or less milk to make the consistency of your choice. I like it uncondensed and so I have added more milk to it.

NB: Be very careful when you are frying the semolina in ghee, because with heat just above the optimum heat, semolina tends to get burnt. It is better to fry it in low flame with constant stirring, and ensuring that the milk is within your reach.

Check for my fiftieth post here on this blog, till then Happy Cooking, Happy Eating

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Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth: Round Up

We’ve moved to own domain name – bengalicuisine.net. You can follow me on Twitter, visit my Flickr photostream.

Round ups of events are always fun, be that I am reading or creating them. Just for one single thing its great to learn how everybody makes a different recipe of his or her own. Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth was not an exception. Sweets in different styles and ingredients made this event a success.
You all know WordPress.com doesn’t support advertisements and so I cannot announce a prize for the best entry, but to make it a bit more fun, there is a poll at the end of this post, so feel free and vote for your favorite recipes doe this event.

Payesam or Payesa or Kheer

• Semolina Sheera– Hetal
• Paalkhova with Ricotta Cheese-Priya
• Carrot Payasam-Uma
• Rava Kesari– Sireesha
• Chanadal and Broken Wheat Payasam– Taste of Mysore
• Shavige Payasa– Taste of Mysore

Laddus:

• Moong Dal Laddu-Cham
• Badusha– Priya
• Narkel Nadu– Navita
• Coconut Ladoo-Priya
• Rava Laddu– Uma

Fried sweets:

• Gulab Jamun– Sharmila
• Gulab Jamun-Priya
• Athirasam-Divya
• Banana Dosa– Radhika
• Puran Poli– Suma

Baked sweets:

• Espresso Brownie Bars– Cham
• Coconut Macaroons– Radhika
• Spiced Rum Sweet Bread– Soma
• Coffee Chiffon Marble Cake-Navita

Burfi:

• Badam Burfi-Cham
• Tapioca Coconut Burfi– Priya
• Kalakand– Bhawana

Others:

• Rasmalai– Arundhuti

• Kala paturi from me

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Vanilla Rabdi

We’ve moved to own domain name – bengalicuisine.net. You can follow me on Twitter, visit my Flickr photostream

Birthdays are special to everybody. Where ever you are and whatever state you are in everybody wants to celebrate ones birthday in the possible way. I am absolutely no exception to this. Yesterday was my birthday and of course I enjoyed it. Enjoyment and cooking – I can not keep these two words separately, so had to cook something. The festival season and also for my blog event in mind it was an unanimous decision to prepare something sweet.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

Milk (Dudh): 1 litre

Caster Sugar (Guro Chini): 50 gms

Eggs (Dim): 4, yolks taken out

Milk powder (Guro Dudh): 4 tablespoons

Vanilla essence: ½ teaspoon

Dry fruits of choice preferably almonds, cashew and raisins

Preparation:

• Boil the milk in low flame till it becomes almost half the original volume.
• Take the egg whites in a bowl and milk powder to it. Beat the egg vigorously so that the milk powder doesn’t form any lumps.
• Once the egg is properly beaten add vanilla essence to it.
• With a tablespoon add the beaten egg to the milk and as it forms a lump take it out. Do it repeatedly till the egg is exhausted.
• If extra milk is left out then simmer and lessen the volume.
• Add dry fruits to the rabid and pour in the left out milk over it.

Alternately, if you don’t want to work so much then just pour in the beaten egg in the milk and boil till the milk forms a lump.

Chill and serve garnished with dry fruits.

Chilled Vanilla Rabdi with dry fruits

Among all these festivities I share this recipe with Pallavi for her new blog event Yummy Festival Feast- Diwali

Happy Cooking and Happy Eating

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Kala Paturi

I had been writing about different dishes, fish, chicken , vegetables and everything but nothing about desserts. So thought of writing about a sweet for those who have that extra sweet tooth and even if you don’t have , I’m sure you’ll definitely like this one. This is a special sweet, typically Bengali, which you will never find in any shop throughout India I bet.

The sweet gets its name from the banana bowls it is served on, and if you don’t find any banana leaf to serve then just call it “Chhenar Sandesh”.

Ingredients:

Milk (Dudh) : 2 litres

Lemon (Lebu): 1

Caster sugar (Guro chini): 2 tablespoons

Raisins (kismis): 10 /15

Rose water (Golap jal): 2 taespoons

Banana leaves (Kala pata)

Preparation:

• Heat the milk in a pan, as it starts boiling pour in lemon juice or calcium lactate.
• The milk will form farmer’s cheese or chhena, drain out the water.
• Take the chhena in a plate and mash it well, and continue doing so till the surface becomes oily. You can feel with your fingertips that there are no lumps in it.
• Add the caster sugar and the rose water and mash again till it is well mixed.
• Make small round balls and add a raisin over each ball.
• Put the balls in small banana leaf bowls. You can also serve it without the bowls, those are only for decoration.

Serve at the dinner table and enjoy that great Bengali feeling, anywhere anytime. Happy cooking and happy eating.
Sending it for Monthly Mingle – Low Sugar Treats
Picture: Courtesy my Sis, PUPU