Ras Malai: Best + easiest ever!

Literal translation: Liquid Cream.

Actually it has nothing to do with cream and it definitely has nothing to do with liquid cream or even liquid + cream. It’s just an absurd name- if you make it my way!

Ras malai is a traditional Indian sweet, originating from West Bengal. God I love the Bengalis for having invented this. It’s my favourite dessert ever.

These tiny balls of cottage cheese are soaked in a creamy milk and sugar and eaten with the milk.

It’s a tricky and complicated recipe BUT this version (handed down by my aunt) is easy, breezy and beautiful (yes it’s a cover-worthy dessert)

What you need:

For the Malai: Creamy balls

1 cup of Nido milk powder (or any other brand)

1 egg

1 + 1/2 tsp baking powder

For the Ras: Milk Syrup

1lt milk

1/2 can unsweetened evaporated milk

1/2 cup sugar

Saffron strands

1 tsp cardamom powder

What to do:

1. Make Ras. Boil everything together and make sure that the flame is med, do not let it burn!

2. Make the malai. Sift the milk powder with baking powder, beat in the egg and knead to form a sticky dough. You may be tempted to add water, but resist the temptation. Form tiny balls (they will swell)

3. Put the balls in the boiling milk and simmer for 15-20 minutes till balls swell up and are soft in the centre.

4. Cool and serve nice and cold.

The balls can be flattened- the more traditional shape.

Good example of Watermark gone awry.

hard working cook, lazy blogger

Writing a blog is hard work. Ever so often I find my self cooking away or even clicking away but never get the patience to blog about any of it.

I’m going to be reall-ly busy the next one month, it’s Ramadan plus I will be studying like a crazy nut (or at least I should be!) for all the damned exams that I have to give. I’m quite addicted to social networking and useless browsing so I might even unplug my Internet for the month (yikes!)

So I’m scheduling a couple of posts. hopefully you wont miss me too much

Ohh here’s the Cinnamon french toast with poached caramel flavoured apples that I turned out the other day. Ok Ok so I couldn’t resist. I took a bite before I could click the pic, trust me- you would do the same.

Cinnamon toast + poached apple

What you need:

for the french toast:

1 egg

2 slices of white bread

1/2 tsp cinnamon powder

2 tsp sugar

1/8 tsp salt

1/4 cup cold milk

For the poached apples

1 red apple; peeled, cored and sliced(whichever type)

1 small cinnamon stick

3 tbs sugar

1 cup water

1/2 tsp lemon juice

What to do:

1. Make the poached apples. Caramelize 3tbs of sugar in a saucepan and pour a cup of water once caramelized. Reduce heat.

2. Put the lemon juice, cinnamon and apple slices in the saucepan and cook covered for 15 minutes till done.

3. Make the french toast. Beat eggs, cinnamon, sugar, salt and milk. Dip slices of bread and fry in a non stick pan till golden brown on both sides.

4. Serve both together. Pour some of the caramel liquid over the apples and the toast. YUM!

I sat down on my pretty little (new!) carpet to enjoy this massive breakfast. ahh soft soft carpet.

Miniature Pancakes

OK why miniature??

I don’t know! just a whim! but they were super cute. I like pancakes once in a while. If I crave for pancakes as a main course, it’s got to be the paper-thin no rise kind.

But If it’s a  decadent Sunday Morning breakfast, I go for the fluffy baking powder kind.

What you need

1 large egg (the fluffier the pancake, the better)

1 cup flour (I used whole)

3/4 cup milk (I used soy)

1/4 tsp baking powder

Salt to taste

What to do:

1. Sift flour with baking powder.

2. Mix everything in a bowl and whisk till a thick-ish consistency is obtained

3. Pour in small ladleful’s onto a hot greased skillet

4. Cover and cook on low for a minute on each side.

5. Serve warm

More veg less egg frittata

I really love frittata. It’s way better than eating a boring omelet. Also, veggies in any form are welcome in my usual high carb high protien diet.

So anyway, I made a fritata with just one egg but a lot of veg and it was surprisingly good. Also I could afford to reduce the egg and use low fat cottage cheese as topping. That stuff even melted!

More Veg Less Egg Frittata

What you need:

1 large egg

4-5 large mushrooms

1-2 baby corn (obviously) on  the cobs

1 small red onion, sliced

1 clove of garlic, finely chopped

1 green chili, finely chopped (modify if you want)

¼ cup of low fat cottage cheese (or any cheese you like)

2 tbs milk

Salt to taste

Chopped cilantro

 

 

What to do:

1. Beat the egg with salt pepper and milk.
2. Stir-fry the veggies with salt and pepper
3. Pour beaten egg over veggies cover and let it cook till bottom is firm
4. Remove from flame and top with crushed cottage cheese
5. Bake on 180C for 10 minutes to brown the top
6. top with cilantro and serve

 

GUEST BLOGGER

My sister is always surprising me with her wonderful desserts, actually, I get a preview when tantalizing smells emanate from the kitchen (also because of the sounds of the rebuke she gets from mommy for disrupting her kitchen!) so its not really a surprise, but I always anticipate the finished product. This little item which she conjured (and i say conjured because she made it in 20 minutes with scraps for ingredients!) was quick to make and QUICKER to finish. the biscuit base had some oats, walnut powder, butter and some other items (I only recall the crunching sounds which were made by this crisp, light (?) and taste bud pleasuring base)…oh ya! it had everything but biscuits!!
but what really got me going was the gooey from the inside and crisp from the outside filling which was made from butter, chocolate (er….this chocolate was the remnants of a big slab…it actually had some of my teeth imprints on it), coco powder to intensify the flavour (laa dee dah!), and an egg, yolk first followed by the white (i dont get why they are separated to eventually meet!) anyway, all this was put into the oven and baked for sometime (which felt like eternity people!) and, excuse the cliche, VOILA….. sintitilating chocolate tarty-thingie (hey i just do the eating!)
wanna know more about this sweet tooth’s narcotic? ask the chef….I’m just a junkie.