Shahi Falooda using Homemade Rose Syrup

Falooda is a dessert beverage which we all like the most. In India, during summertime, we used to have falooda often. I never tried making this at home, as we will be getting falooda in India in almost all the restaurants.

Only after coming to the US, I realized that it is difficult to get falooda in restaurants and if we get also, it’s not the same as India. So I decided to make this at home. But to make this falooda, the main ingredient required is the rose syrup or rose milk. Many will use roohafza, but as we don’t like the taste of roohafza, I tried to make rose syrup, which we can use for other different beverages as well. I googled and got the recipe for rose syrup from Raks Kitchen. Which we can easily make and store in a glass jar in the refrigerator. Whenever required we can make it to our convenience.

Once when I made the rose syrup, the search for falooda sev/ corn sev started and I got it from the Indian store. The other main ingredient is the sabja seeds/ tukmaria which is soaked and added to juices. Which is also a perfect coolant.

Falooda is a combination of corn sev, soaked sabja seeds, chilled milk and rose syrup. No need of adding sugar as the rose syrup contains enough sugar for the falooda. All the other like the jelly, ice cream and nuts are optional.

This is a best-layered dessert in a tall glass which will be loved by all and enjoyed during a hot day. Just try this out and let me know.

Ingredients:

For making Rose Syrup:

1. Sugar- 1 ½ Cups
2. Water- 1 ½ Cups
3. Rose Essence- 2 tsp
4. Red Food Colour- 2 tsp

Method:

1. Mix sugar in water and heat it up on a medium flame, till it boils.
2. When it starts boiling, check for a one string consistency. Slowly add the red food color. Stir.
3. Switch off the flame and add the rose essence. Mix and let this cool.
4. Once when it cools, store in a glass bottle in the refrigerator and use as required.

Ingredients for Falooda:

1. Corn Vermicelli/ Falooda Sev- 1 Packet
2. Sabja Seeds/ Basil Seeds/ Tukmaria- 2 tbsp
3. Milk- 3 Cups
4. Pistachios, Almonds, and Cashews- ½ Cup crushed
5. Rose Syrup- 3 tbsp
6. Jello/ Jelly- 1 packet (optional)
7. Ice Cream- 1 Cup (optional)

Method:

1. Prepare jelly according to packet instructions and cut into small pieces. Keep this aside.
2. Soak the sabja seeds in water till it blooms. Drain and reserve.
3. Boil the milk and keep this aside to cool. Add 4 tbsp rose syrup, mix well. When cooled, keep this in the refrigerator.
4. Crush the nuts and keep this aside.

Assembling:

• In a tall glass add 2 tsp soaked sabja seeds followed by jelly pieces, corn vermicelli, refrigerated rose syrup mixed milk and then again repeat the above process and at last add a scoop of vanilla ice cream topped with nuts. Serve immediately.

Rice Kheer/ Indian Rice Pudding

Rice Kheer is a traditional Indian dessert loved by all. Recently we had a small get together in my house, with a bunch of friends visiting after a long time. And my friend brought some kheer for me, which is one of my favorite dishes since childhood. My dad used to make this rice kheer, whenever he bought milkmaid. Yeah, you heard it right, my dad used to make desserts, so that my mom could take a breather after preparing the main course, or else on some Sundays it would be my dad’s cooking with many varieties, including desserts. We (mom, my brothers and me) used to relish on all the dishes he made. It used to taste completely different from my mom’s cooking.

When my friend brought this kheer, I felt a bit nostalgic and remembered all the things which we did as kids, like sneaking into the kitchen and finishing off the kheer.

This rice kheer is simple and easy to make but requires much patience, for the milk to thicken. This can be prepared for any festive occasions or any celebrations.

Ingredients:

1. Basmati Rice- ½ Cup
2. Whole milk- 1 litre
3. Saffron Strands- a pinch
4. Sugar- 6 tbsp or as required
5. Cardamom Powder- 1 tsp
6. Chopped Almonds, Cashews and Pistachios- ½ Cup

Method:

1. Boil the milk in a heavy bottom vessel on a high flame. Meanwhile, wash and soak the rice for about 30 minutes.
2. Add the drained rice in the boiled milk, along with few saffron strands and required amount of sugar.
3. On a low flame, let the rice cook in the milk by stirring occasionally. Just mash rice with your fingers to see whether it is cooked or not. Meanwhile, the milk also gets reduced.
4. Add the chopped nuts in the above rice- milk mixture and stir for about 30- 35 minutes.
5. Switch off and enjoy warm or keep this refrigerated till served.

Gulab Jamun Using milk powder

In India, festival season is in full swing and everyone are busy making sweets or snacks. Kids will be enjoying the delicious sweets/ savories made by their moms. Bakeries are filled with mouthwatering, scrumptious ghee sweets. Those who want to try their hands at making these sweets from scratch will be searching the internet or from recipe books.

In my house as my kids love sweets/ desserts the most, I thought of making these gulab jamuns, which are my childhood favorite sweet.

As a kid, when my dad prepared these gulab jamuns, I used to finish them one by one without my brothers noticing me. You heard it right, my dad used to prepare all the sweets at home as he loved making them and to give my mom some rest from cooking, he used to prepare most of the sweets and we (my brothers and myself) used to assist him in the cooking. Those were the days we used to enjoy the food made at home. Nowadays it's a very busy life and everything will be readymade/ store bought.

Gulab jamun got its name because the sugar syrup is rose scented and the deep fried balls are the size of jamun berries. Traditionally these gulab jamuns are made in pure ghee for the richness and for taste, but mostly these are deep fried in oil. The process of making these jamuns look tedious but once you get the right consistency of the sugar syrup and the not so dry dough, then all the remaining steps are very easy.

Before I used to make these using gulab jamun mix. I never thought that I would make gulab jamuns from scratch, but I tried it for my little one’s birthday and they came out perfect. Just make sure, the dough balls must be smooth without any cracks.

Try these and let me know….

Ingredients:

1. Milk Powder- 1 Cup
2. Maida- 2 tbsp
3. Yogurt- 2 tbsp
4. Salt- a pinch
5. Bakin Soda- a pinch
6. Oil/ Ghee- 1 tbsp
7. Sugar-1 Cup
8. Water- 2 cups
9. Lemon Juice- 1 tbsp
10. Cardamom Powder- 1 tsp
11. Rose essence- 1 tsp (optional)
12. Pistachios(powdered)- for garnish

Method:

For the sugar syrup:

1. Mix the sugar along with water and cardamom powder in a bowl. On a medium flame stir, the mixture till the sugar dissolves completely. Add lemon juice to prevent syrup from crystallizing. After some time this will form a syrupy/ sticky consistency, stirring occasionally. When it is ready, switch off the flame.

For the Jamuns:

1. Mix the milk powder, maida and soda in a bowl using a spoon.
2. Add ghee/ oil rub well with fingers. Add yogurt 1 spoon at a time and mix. Keep on adding yogurt and mix gently until the dough is soft and sticky. Don’t add too much of yogurt or else it will absorb more oil while frying.
3. Do not over mix the mixture or else the jamuns will become dense and will not absorb sugar syrup.
4. Grease your palms with oil or ghee and make round, crack- free ball from it. Make small balls out of the dough.
5. Heat oil for deep frying and when it becomes hot, drop the balls one by one. On a medium to low flame, let the jamun balls fry till it becomes golden brown color.
6. Transfer them to a kitchen towel. Drop these fried, drained jamun balls into the prepared sugar syrup.
7. Let them soak for about 1- 2 hours. Serve them hot or cold by garnishing them with powdered pistachios.

Danish Chocolate Swirled Streusel

After coming to US, I started visiting the library for my little one as there are lots of activities for them. Usually I will be behind him in the library. He enjoys going there as there are other kids of his age and as he is a big hide and seek player, he likes to hide behind the bookshelves.

One such visit, I took a glance on the cooking books and there were huge varieties of cook books. I got really confused as which one to check. Though we get everything from net, but cooking from a cookbook is a different experience for me. While I was checking some books, this book “Coffee Cakes”, caught my attention and I loved different varieties of cakes baked in this book which looked easy and new to me. So I grabbed it.

There are many collections of cake recipes in the book, but I tried to make this “Danish Chocolate streusel” as it looks unique and also it is a bread as well as a cake. The next thing I did was to collect all the ingredients for the streusel and baked this to a perfect bread. The recipe is really fantastic. With the layers of the chocolate, the bread tastes more like a danish pastry. The texture is so soft and the chocolate streusel inside the bread is pure bliss. Just a bite and you will love the buttery chocolaty flavour.

The dough with alternating slices

Try this out and let me know...

Ingredients:

1. All Purpose Flour- 3 Cups
2. Yeast- 1 ½ tsp
3. Sugar- 1 tbsp
4. Salt- as required
5. Warm water- ¼ Cup
6. Butter- 1 stick or ½ Cup
7. Sugar- ¼ Cup
8. Eggs- 2 nos
9. Vanilla extract- 1 tsp
10. Warm Milk- ½ Cup

Chocolate Streusel:

Ingredients:

1. Sugar- ⅓ Cup
2. Cocoa Powder- 2 tbsp
3. Cold Butter- 2 tbsp
4. Ground Cinnamon- 1 tbsp
5. Egg- 1 no ( egg wash)
6. Chopped Nuts- 1 tbsp

Method:

1. Sprinkle the yeast in warm water and let it rest for about 5 minutes. In this add the sugar and salt. Stir to dissolve and wait till it becomes foamy.
2. In a bowl, beat the sugar along with butter. Till light and fluffy. Add eggs, vanilla extract and 1 Cup of flour. Beat well using electric blender.
3. Gradually add the milk alternating with flour along with the yeast dissolved water. If the dough is too sticky add some flour to make a soft dough.
4. Transfer to a floured surface and knead until smooth i.e upto 8 minutes.
5. Place this in a greased bowl, covered with a cling film until double in size, about 1- 2 hours.
6. Meanwhile for the chocolate streusel, mix the sugar, flour, butter, cocoa powder and cinnamon together using fingers till crumbly.
7. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
8. Punch the raised dough and knead lightly until smooth. If you feel the dough is too big, cut it into half.
9. Roll one half into a even rectangle over a floured surface using a rolling pin. Spread with half of the chocolate streusel and roll up and place the seam side down on a greased baking pan.
10. Repeat with the remaining dough and filling, placing that on a separate baking pan.
11. Using a knife, snip each loaf at ¾ inch intervals. Starting at one end, pull the alternate cut slice on to the other side.
12. Brush each loaves with egg wash and sprinkle the powdered nuts on top.
13. Bake the loaves for about 30 - 35 minutes or until golden brown. When done place the loaves on a wire rack to cool completely.
14. Cut into ¾ thick slices and serve with coffee or tea.

Shahi Tukda- Ramadan Special

Eid Mubarak to all…..

Every eid I will be trying out different dishes and so for this time, I made a delicious dessert which will be loved by all.

Eid is a time where we will be celebrating with family and friends. In the morning we will do our prayers, exchange eid greetings, then after breakfast we will be busy with lunch preparations. Who doesn’t love to have an amazing dessert after a heavy lunch. In the evening will go out to meet  friends and family.

Shahi tukda is a sweet made of bread, milk, sugar, saffron and garnished with nuts. I didn’t had saffron. It is a most famous dessert in Hyderabadi weddings. As I grew up in Andhra, when I was a child, I used to love to visit weddings especially for this dessert. It is a must have dessert for weddings in Hyderabad.

This is similar to that of Double ka Meeta, another dessert. The ingredients are same only the preparation varies.

My husband and my kid also love this and so I made it for Ramadan. We can also use condensed milk, but here I reduced milk and added.

The aroma of the fried bread pieces soaking in the sugar syrup is to die for… This is so easy to make and with very less ingredients, within minutes we will be having a perfect royal dessert.

Try this out and let me know….

Ingredients:

1. Bread slices- 10 nos
2. Sugar- ½ Cup
3. Water- ¾ cup
4. Milk- 1 Cup
5. Cardamom Powder- 1 tsp
6. Nuts- ¼ Cup
7. Ghee- 2 tbsp

Method:

1. Dry the bread slices , cut the edges and also diagonally. Shallow fry the diagonal bread pieces in ghee to golden brown color and keep this aside.
2. Arrange these fried bread slices in a rectangular pan. Heat sugar along with water and cardamom powder. Let this boil for about 10- 15 minutes.
3. Pour the sugar syrup on the arranged bread slices evenly. Heat milk in a bowl and reduce it on a slow flame till it becomes ½ of the original amount.
4. Pour this on top of the syrup covered bread slices. Garnish with crushed nuts and dive into the amazing dessert.