Friday, July 31, 2009

Carrot Halwa

Ingredients:
1 kg - carrot (peel the skin,wash and grate)
1 litre - milk
450 g - sugar
5 tbsp - ghee
1/2 cup - dry fruits (sliced almond, Cashew and raisin-fry in ghee)
pinch - salt
1 tsp - cardmom(crushed
Method:

1. Wash and grate the carrots.

2. In a pan put 3 tbsp of ghee and carrot and fry till 5 to 8 mins.

3. Add the milk. Cook on a low flame for 1 hour stirring occasionally.

4. Add sugar, salt, mix well and cook till the sugar has dissolved and all the milk has been absorbed.

5. Add ghee and simmer for 2-3 minutes.

6. Add the slightly crushed cardamoms.

7. Mix well.

8. Remove the gajjar halwa from heat and arrange in a serving dish.

9. Garnish with almonds, cashew and raisins.

Pista Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup or 2 sticks unsalted butter
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups all-purpose flour (plus additional for tolling the dough)
1/2 cup chopped pista
Method:

1. Beat together the butter, sugar, vanilla and salt until smooth and fluffy for about 5 minutes.

2. Slowly add the flour now while keeping the mixer at low speed, and mix until combined and it forms a dough. Mix in the chopped pistachios.

3. Divide the dough into two halves. Place each half on a piece of floured or wax paper. Take a small portion of flour in your hands and roll the dough until a 1 1/2 inch log forms. Wrap the logs firmly in the paper and refrigerate until firm for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. The logs can be refrigerated for upto 4 days or even frozen for upto a month.

4. Preheat the oven to 350F. Remove the logs from the refrigerator, and using a serrated knife, slice the dough into 3/4 or 3/8 inch slices. Arrange the slices about 1 inch apart on the sheet.

5. Bake for about 15 minutes until lightly golden brown around the edges. Cool on baking sheets or transfer to a wire rack.

Maida Halwa

Ingredients:
Maida (all purpose flour) - 1 cup
sugar - 1 &1/2 cup (change the quantity as per your taste)
red orange food color - 2 pinches
Cashew nuts - 15-20 broken and roasted
Ghee - 2 cups
Cardamom powder --1 தசப்
METHOD:

1. Shift the maida in to a big bowl and add water to make a thin batter and add food color to this maida batter. Keep aside for some time.

2. Add little water to sugar and boil it to make a sticky syrup(add a little water to sugar don't add too much water ).

3. Add maida mixture to the sugar syrup keep stirring well. with in 6-8 min it will start getting thick.

4. Start adding the ghee to the maida and sugar syrup mixture and keep stirring. The halwa would absorb all the ghee then again add some more ghee and keep stirring,by the time you finish the ghee halwa starts to leave the sides of the pan and it will become like a ball around to your laddle.

5.Add cardamom powder and mix well.

6. Transfer it in to a greased plate and level it with a spoon and let it cool and cut in to pieces with a greased knife and garnish with roasted cashew nuts.

7. Storage life is about 1 week to 10 days.