Saffron | Aapplemint

Eid Mubarak & A Sweet Treat – Firni

Aug 302011

The holy & spiritual month of Ramadan has finally come to an end, and as this wonderful day of celebration sets in, I would like to wish you all Eid Mubarakh ! Eid-ul-Fitr is a joyous occasion and marks not only the end of a month full of fasting, sacrifice, commitment and steadfast prayers but its also a day of gratitude for the everyday blessings in life. It brings together friends and families, and encourages Muslims to continue the teachings from the month of Ramadan throughout rest of the year, particularly the lessons of giving, kindness, tolerance and generosity to the less fortunate. The month of Ramadan has helped us all to generate thoughts that are pure such that we are able to spread sentiments of love. We need to spread the message of peace, first peace within one self, then of course peace that should be shared amongst all around us.

“May the Blessings of Allah keep your heart and home happy and wishing you all once again a joyous Eid Mubarak !”

And speaking of which, no celebration would be complete without something sweet.Usually its Sheer Korma or Kheer for Eid, but for me, Firni hits the spot ! Served chilled, this rich rice and milk dessert is difficult not to like. It is traditionally served up in an earthenware bowls – and not just because that’s the way it’s always been done. The clay absorbs the excess moisture, keeping the rice pudding firm and creamy. Firni seems to have made it way in our hearts, and has been around for long. One of the lovely things the Mughals did was, introduce this delectable dish to us. The origins of it are said to be somewhere in Persia or the Middle East, but these days it’s gaining too much popularity in our nation. And it’s no longer the good old plain Firni. Its taken on may flavours, infused with seasonal fruits and preferred toppings. Firni’s are whole new rage now.The other variations of Firni include Kesar, Badam, Mango, Coconut, Rose, Strawberry and these days I even hear there is a Blueberry! From posh restaurants and to roadside joints, Firni’s are everywhere.

Though there’s nothing quite like the homemade taste and it’s enormously satisfying to make these sweets from scratch. This recipe unlike the traditional rich and heavy ones is a cheat’s version (and I’ve got to thank my best friend’s mum in law for this recipe). I’ve omitted the cream and khoya and opted for toned milk rather than full fat. So it’s easy on the calories and yet it delivers. Flavourful, creamy and every bit festive. I do insist however to try and get some earthen pots. The taste of the clay bowls is irreplaceable and the Firni would be incomplete without them. Inshallah you will love this dessert

Ingredients

1 lt Toned Milk

3 Heaped tablespoons Basmati rice

3 tablespoons Sugar ( adjust to your liking)

1 tsp Kewra Essence ( you can get creative here and substitute for Vanilla essence or any other of your choice)

Handful of Almonds soaked and slivered

Handful of Pistachios soaked and slivered

4-5 Cardamom pods peeled and powdered

Few strands of Saffron for garnish

Silver Warkh (optional)

Begin with soaking the basmati rice for a few hours. 3 to 4 should be enough. If you are using the earthen pots, soak them in a bucket of water overnight. If not, regular glass bowls would also do just fine. Coarsely grind the rice making sure you do not churn it into a paste. Remember the rice will further break on cooking and you do want a little bite to the Firni rather than having it taste like custard. Use some of the milk to grind it. When you have achieved the right consistency, mix it with the remaining milk and pour it in a heavy based saucepan. Start to cook it on medium fire stirring continuously. When it reaches a boil add the sugar and kewra essence and further cook it till it begins to thicken and reduces in quantity. Be patient this could take a while. It shouldn’t be too dry but rather a bit runny. It will further thicken on cooling. Now mix in most of the prepared dry fruit, leaving some for garnishing. Bring to room temperature and pour out in the individual bowls and wrap tightly with cling film and chill in the refrigerator till set. When serving top up with the remaining almonds, pistachios, cardamom powder and saffron. For that extra bit you could garnish with some silver warkh( Silver paper)

Carrot Pudding (Gajar Ka Halwa)

All, Dessert, Featured 18 Responses »

Apr 012011

Ever wonder why we Indian’s are crazy about our Gajar ka Halwa (Carrot Pudding) ? Its hard to resist its rich sensuous red colour, the flavour of fresh seasonal carrots, the smell of ghee and cardamom rising with a soft sizzle, the contrasting texture of crunchy nuts and the saffrony sweetness which engulfs your senses. All this served up hot with a scoop of a vanilla ice cream … I have seen people with with a stiff resistance to sweets dissolve into a simpering helplessness and ask for more !

Mind you, this halwa is an Indian speciality and is made only a few months a year. The star here being the ‘Red Carrot.’ For the longest time I’ve believed that these red carrots grew only in India, and are available only in winter. And its the showing of red carrots in the markets that apprises us that winter is here, and so is the halwa season. This post comes really late as we’ve stepped into summer and these are the last of the red carrots. As you can see the difference in the regular orange carrots and the red ones, you can imagine that the latter is no substitute, in colour and in taste. I haven’t really been very regular with my blogging and my apologies for that. Been busy with a few things,but above all been busy renovations and with home furnishings… you know this can take up so much time and energy.

Now back to the pudding … the usual recipe calls for cooking together the grated carrots, milk n sugar, but I do it differently. My way guarantees a glowing red colour and a very light and not too sweet halwa.

Ingredients

1 kg Red Carrots – grated
1 cup Whole Milk
8 tbsps Ghee
1/2 cup granulated Sugar
1/2 cup slivered Almonds and Pistachios
2 tablespoons Golden Raisins
1 tsp powered Cardamom
Few strands of Saffron

Take a heavy based pan. Place all the grated carrots in the pot on low fire and cover it with a lid, will its water releases. After about 10 mins increase the fire and dry fry it till all the water from the carrots dries up. This brings out its rich red colour. Now to give it body, add the milk, sugar, and cardamom ( you can add more to suit your taste) and let it boil together stirring continuously. As it begins to dry up, add the ghee and raisins. Further fry continuously till all the milk evaporates and the ghee begins to separate from the carrots. By now the halwa will be of a fiery red colour. Serve in a dish and garnish with saffron and slivered dry fruits. Serve hot as it is or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Rosé Chikki

All, Dessert, Featured 25 Responses »

Dec 042010

I cannot find an appropriate enough excuse for having disappeared for so long. But not blogging for all these months made me realize one thing … I couldn’t stay away. Its something I’ve been doing for over 3 years now, and its become a part of my life. I missed it. And so I’m back …*crossing my fingers* … and as always its got to be with something sweet !

I’ve been in India for the past 9 months now and being in this part of the world only means one thing – FOOD FOOD FOOD ! Lots of it ! I cannot begin to tell you how I’ve been eating, be it street food, ethnic cuisines, lovely home cooked meals by my mamma or simply stuff I’ve been making with all the great local produce. “Chikki” is Indian for ‘Brittle’. It is very popular all over my country and is traditionally made with jaggery but there are soft brown sugar and white sugar versions too. Actually the variety available these days is insane starting from peanuts, to ground peanuts, sesame, almonds, pistachios, cashews, mixed dry fruits, khus khus, with shredded coconuts, split chickpeas, puffed rice etc … Chikki is very easy to make and is made in many households all over. Though its easily available in shops at every nook and corner, there’s nothing like making your own. And you don’t even need a candy thermometer. We do it the old fashioned way. Below you can see the different kinds of chikki’s that are available and above is Rosé Chikki. Made with mixed dry fruits, saffron, rose extract and topped with dried rose petals. These taste so wonderful and addition of Rose just makes it so much classier. Perfect to impress served just the way they are, or sprinkled on some home made ice cream-it adds that extra crackle and crunch or they are even great as give away presents.

Ingredients

1 tbsp Clarified Butter (Ghee)
1 cup fine white sugar
2 cups mixed dry nuts – cashews, almonds and pistachios
1 tsp pure rose extract
dried rose petals for topping

You will need a heavy bottom pan for making the chikki in and either a marble surface or a rectangular tin well greased with ghee to set it in. Start with heating the ghee in the pan and then add the rose extract and sugar. As soon as it melts and get a light amber colour add the nuts and give it a good stir. Immediately pour it all out on the cold surface or in the tin and evenly and thinly spread it out at a 1 cm thickness. Be careful as its very hot. Either use a rolling pin or grease the bottom of a steel cup and use it to press the chikki evenly. Now very gently lay the dried rose petal leaves on top and gently press them in so they set in. While its still warm use a sharp knife to made the desired sized shapes so its easier to break off once they cool. Store in airtight container.

61st Indepencence Day

All, Dessert 47 Responses »

Aug 152008

Today is a great day to celebrate. After more than two hundred years of British rule, India , after a great struggle, won backs its freedom on 15th August, 1947 and that my friends was 61 yrs ago.
As i awoke this morning i realized how much i was missing being in India, as mum used to always make us wonderful traditional feasts with some really fancy sweets to celebrate today. Being in a far away land and all nostalgic, i couldn’t help but get up n try to recreate the magic. Now getting up last minute does have its advantages and no time to go shopping, and considering the ingredients on hand, i opted for ” Shahi Tukda ” – directly translated to Royal Bite/Piece. Its basically fried bread soaked in rich Rabri. Rabri is milk with dry fruits boiled for hours together until its all evaporated and thick. And besides I’ve seen that almost everybody has a bread dessert in their culture, so what better time to show off mine

I remember making Rabri used to be such a big deal at home. It was dad’s specialty, but he used to make me slog my ass off on it n take all the credit it. He’d put a giant pot of milk to boil over the gas and have me sit right in front as it required constant stirring – FOR HOURS !!! n i absolutely hate milk, n I’d be like dad … i need to go play, its my play time, i don’t want to sit n stir this, n he would be like, every girl should know how to work patiently in the kitchen, playing will not help you in the future, your skills in the kitchen will !! I would sit there with a swollen face stirring that damn Rabri … and the best part was i didn’t even like it back then ! Ha ha, see how times change, and i do thank my dad for all that he taught me, he would be so happy to see this today. But honestly i cant stand for hours together to make it, so I’m doing a cheats version, just as good as the real thing :p

Ingredients

200 ml sweetened condensed milk
200 ml milk ( i used semi skimmed as that’s what was available, you could use whole )
100 ml cream
handful of pistachios and almonds slivers
2-3 pods cardamon
few strands of saffron
4 slices of bread – used brown … at least something should be healthy in here
1 tbsp ghee

In a pot mix the crushed cardamon seeds, milk and condensed milk and boil it for about 10 mins. Add a few strands of saffron, slivered almonds and pistachios reserving some to garnish. When its reduced and thick remove from gas, and cool. Beat the cream lightly to thicken in a bit, but not to much and fold it in the milk mixture. Set aside. Cut the corners of the slice bread and cut it diagonally, leaving with you with triangles. In a frying pan, put the ghee and toast the slices of bread till they are crisp n well browned. Now soak these in the Rabri and leave in the fridge to chill. When ready to serve, place the slices of bread on the plate, pour over the Rabri and garnish with the remaining dry fruits.

And i’m entering this dish for Mona’s Hydrabadi Cuisine Event @ her blog Zaiqa , afterall this dessert originated from Hydrabad !

Diwali Greetings and a Meme

All, Dessert 44 Responses »

Nov 072007

So much for me staying away from sweets … Ha ! Well but u cant blame me its Diwali . Hindus all over the world are celebrating the New Year on Friday. I was supposed to be back home by now celebrating with my family, but here i am, thinking about all the fun i am missing out on. Diwali would at par with Christams- for Christians , Eid Al Fitr – for Muslims , The Chinese New Year – for the Chinese, and so on …. i guess u get the idea
I remember when i was younger, i would really look forward to Diwali … firstly for the 15 days of holidays, and then the new clothes, visiting my cousins and grandparents , getting together n bursting fire crackers at night, lighting lanterns and little diyas( little mud n oil candles) that would sparkle in the dark, distributing sweets, and the best part of it all would be collecting money from our elders. All of us 8 cousins used to shower n wear our new clothes and be ready early in the morning and as soon as our grandparents, n uncles n aunties used to come we used to make them line up them and start touching their feet for blessings ( thats a traditional thing ) and then in return collect brand new crisp notes of 10 /20/50 rupees. Hehe … n during these 2-3 days all relatives come to greet u , so we would be asking for everyones blessings .. n ofcourse blessings came with a 20 buck note tucked in … so by the end of the season we used to all be rich . Well now tables have turned … i find myself giving money to the little rascals in my family now … , but yes its alawys fun .

Well so heres wishing all my dear friends a Happy Diwali n a Prosperous new year. May you have the best year ahead with gr8 joy n happiness, gr8 health and of course tons of wealth

Its a festival of light, love, sharing and caring and now i miss my mum She used to make Shrikhand and Puri along with a lot of other delicacies on the big day. Shrikhand would be fresh curd tied in a muslin cloth and hung overnight in the fridge till all the water drained out, leaving a thick rich creamy curd. I wanted to make some my self but i used mascarpone instead … thought triple cream would be a nice substitute to hung curd. I made 2 flavours here. The first would be pureed mango, saffron a bit of caster sugar n mascarpone. And the second is mascarpone, cream , caster sugar , cardamom , pistachios and caster sugar. Layer them in the glass and top up with sliced pistachios and saffron. Chill and serve.

http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/5020/thinkingbloggerpf8.jpg

And now for the Meme ! Last week Francesco of The Food Traveller nominated me for the “Thinking Blogger Award”. Its my first time ever participating in one , and this one is pretty simple. Just have to name 5 blogs that make you think, say a few things about them and invite them to do the same. Francesco is far to kind to put me on top of his list. Its truly an honour to know that someone who has such a fantastic blog himself thinks my blog is worthy of praise. I am humbled by his kind words. And now to talk about my 5 , the ones that really inspire me and make me think … (BTW look here for the rules.)

1 . Matt from Matt Bites

Who is one of the sweetest person i’ve come to know through blogging. He is extremely talented, kind, helpful, funny, honest and all that reflects on his blog.

2. Nolan from Chef Ledarney

A Canadian Chef in Japan, an artists soul trapped in a chefs body and a super chef in the making …( wow did i just “chef” 3 times in a sentence!) … gr8 now go chk out his blog …

3. Keiko from Nordjlus

Without whom i dont think i would’ve had this blog today. I stumbled onto her blog last year
and was so inspired by it , i had to make my own, i was so excited i even wrote to her before i started off and then of course as soon as i did she was there to support me with her kind words

4. Mohini from Mango Power Girl

Is from Seattle and has come to become a very close friend, all thanks to blogging. She has a fine vegetarian blog, and personally i think its a gr8 challenge to be veg !

5. Bea from La Tartine Gourmade

Who’s creations and photography are spectacular. Always an inspiration to me .

There are many more wonderful blogs that i’d like to nominate but that would be breaking the rules … aww i wish it were’nt only 5 !!!

Dry Fruit Roll

All, Miscellaneous 24 Responses »

Oct 012007

With the Ramadan going on there is abundance of beautiful dry fruits available around here these days. I think I’ve mentioned earlier that in Ghana we have a good population of the Lebanese community, and thankfully they have 2 supermarkets here in Accra/Tema without which i don’t think i would’ve survived this country. So being the holy month of Ramadan, they have filled up the supermarkets with exotic Lebanese sweets, tasty traditional treats and wonderful imports of dried figs and dates. When i saw these of course like any food junkie had to buy some right away. And after eating more than half of them just the way they came, and bursting into a face full of zits (oh yes…this stuff is pretty heaty !) i thought now what else can i do with these ? Before i could give it 2 mins of thought, once again it was my hubby to come up with something. He said i used to make these date ” mithai ” (sweet) with all the dry fruits in it … why dont we make that. Its pretty easy, requires nuthing really … just a little bit of effort. I was game, so on a Sunday afternoon with nothing better to do we started making these beautiful discs of goodness. Of course with both of us tucking our hands into the jars and mixing everything up , the measurements flew out of the window. So I’m really sorry i wouldn’t be able to give u some. But then again in u don’t really need them anyways. Just follow your heart.
water to prevent your hands from getting sticky.Ok now i think i covered everything :p . Take the wooden board and place a big piece of cling film on it. Start by spreading out the date paste onto it in a rectangular shape. Make sure its even and we’re going to have to roll it up later. If your hands get sticky dip them in water , and continue. Once we’ve achieved that place the mixed almonds, walnuts, pinenuts in the center and sprinkle the saffron over it. Carefully bring up the sides of the cling film and form a roll/log, enclosing all the nuts in the center. Smooth out the surface and put it in the fridge for about 1/2 an hour just to firm it up a bit. Then get it out of the cling film , sprinkle all the pistachios on a wooden board surface and roll the log in it , covering every bit of it in the beautiful green pistachios. Put in back into the cling film and into the fridge for another 1/2 hr , so that it is firm again. When youStart with a few dried dates- remove the seed and a few dried figs. Roll up your sleeves and on a wooden chopping board start squishing them with your fingers. Yes its a messy affair but its absolutely worth it. Keep going on and on till they have both amalgamated into one fine paste. Keep aside . Now comes the chopping bit. Take 2 handfuls of pistachios and chop them finely as we need these for the finishing touch. Set aside. And now take some almonds, walnuts, and pinenuts, roughly chop them up , this we will use as the center filling. So now with everything ready … oops i forgot, we need some Saffron strands as well , some cling film and also a bowl of are ready bring it out and cut them into even slices. Thats it ! All natural, all healthy and stays in the fridge almost forever , thats if you’ve devoured them by night fall :p .