Anjali's Nankhatai

The most significant part of our trip to Delhi was our visit to Abhijeet & Anjali's place; our very dear friends.

Whats more significant is the distinct taste of Anjali's nakhatais that still linger in our lips.

Heres her master recipe -

This makes about 40 small size biscuits and they are the zhat pat type.

You will need -

Wheat flour - 1 1/2 cup

Gram flour/besan - 1/2 cup

Liquified ghee - 1 cup

Sugar [whole/granulate] - 1 cup

Vanilla essence - 2 tsp

Cardamom - 1 tsp

Almonds chopped - optional

*My small addition - 1/2 tsp salt

Push it in the microwave oven-

Mix all the ingredients. Always remember to sift flours/powders.

Divide the dough into small portions using measuring spoon of 1tbs. [I had place small pieces of cut almonds on the biscuits before baking. The biscuits had a nice crunchy almond topping. remember to make a well in your dough if you decide to add toppings]

Place on a greased and dusted microwave tray and set the temperature to 200 degrees.

Yummy nankhatais will be ready in about 4 minutes.

Thanks a ton Anjali. Our neighbours enjoyed the Nankhatais.

Please do add your other topping and mixing tips to this recipe through the comment box.

Hide & seek the dessert

Fine, if you think the sinful cake is too much work, then for the kitchen lazy people, heres a super easy recipe with absolutely zilch effort. Well, no exactly zilch!!

Make your regular open the pack, pour milk and stir custard. Leave it to cool and make sure it is slightly cool. Not cold.

Buy a pack or two of Hide N Seek biscuits.

Thats it!!

Take a square glass bowl and pour in the custard. The layer the biscuit. Continue this till the last layer is custard.

Place it in freezer till its JUST frozen. Mind you freezing it like ice cream ruins the taste [my experience :)]

Grate some chocolate OR add chocolate chips OR simply sprinkle cocoa powder.

Nigella inspires me with this deadly chocolate truffle

Am a huge fan of Nigella Lawson, well, who isn't :) For all reasons under the sun, she is most admired and adored.

At one potluck dinner, I went all the way and made Nigella's chocolate truffle desi style and it was just as good. Ofcourse, it had to be! Anything with chocolate and whipped cream better be sinfully tasty.

Its a little tedious and you might have a lot of cleaning up to do after its ready, but its worth all the trouble you take.

This truffle is working woman friendly you can even choose to just assemble everything and serve it up.

Be ready with -

1. 2 small chocolate sponge cakes [buy it or bake it]

2. Small carton of Cranberry juice

3. Blue berry jam or strawberry jam [as desi as I might get, I would avoid the Kissan jams as they don't have the fruit portions] So you can use Mapro or any kind of preserve

4. Whipped cream - 4-5 small cartons [each is about 200ml]

5. Fresh strawberries - 250gms & pitted cherries 10-15

6. Chocolate bar [sweet or bitter]

7. Custard of thick consistency [home made from scratch with eggs or the packed powder kind]

8. Chopped walnuts - 12-15

Time to assemble -

You will need a HUGE, WIDE bowl.

Slice the sponge cake into 4 layers to give you thin circular pieces.

Layer half of this on your wide dessert bowl.

After layering, pour in the cranberry juice.

Now layer the remaining cake pieces and spread the strawberry or blueberry preserve

After doing this, pour in a layer custard.

After the custard, line the bowl with fresh strawberries and some pitted cherries and the walnuts.

Finally smother the cake with whipped cream and grate the chocolate bar generously.

Place the bowl in the fridge. Its best when all the layers set in and are seen when you carry the dessert bowl to your friends.

Since this is a sinful cake, I believe, one must commit the whole sin and go that extra mile in loading it with calories :)

My friends and the fruit punch

I have really really solid memories of ordering Fruit Punch everytime I went to a restaurant and wanting to have it at home

As time passed by, I learnt to cook and more importantly, I developed a new ability; the ability to taste and tell!! The first thing I decided to make then was my favourite drink, the FRUIT PUNCH.

Its very simple and I guarantee it will be a hit at your parties and the ones with little kids, it will be rocking!

This makes about 4 -5 glasses

You need -

Mango - 1 [if & when available available]

Mixed fruit juice - 1 carton of Tropicana

[IF YOU WISH TO GO ALL THE WAY - You can bend in your own juices if you like - orange, sweet lime, pomegranate, watermelon, apple, pineapple in equal proportions]

Vanilla ice cream - 3 scoops

Strawberry crush - 4 tablespoons

Blend them all together in and serve cold

Once started making it at home, all our friends who don't drink alcohol, always demand for the ever favourite fruit punch.

Cheers!!

Simple white kidney beans with mushroom

Now, most of us Maharashtrians must be tired of chawli/white kidney beans usal, Tam Brams must be tried of the usual karamani sambar or sundal. I thought of trying out something new with Chawli that you can carry in your lunch box on any ordinary day.

You will need -

Soak and steamed chawli - 1 1/2 cup

Diced onion - 2 small

150gm mushrooms cleaned and chopped

Cinnamon - 2 inch stick

Pepper and salt to taste

Soak one cup of chawli/karamani/white eyed beans overnight.

Pressure cook it the till they soften.

In a pan, add some oil and cinnamon. Then add the onions. Add half a teaspoon sugar.

Let the onions turn transparent.

You can now add the mushrooms and saute till they are just about soft. You can shut the pan and let it cook for about a couple of minutes.

Finally add the chawli and salt and pepper to taste. Add a little water depending on how dry or gravy like you like your roti accompaniment.

Simple and tastes really good with hot rotis with ghee on top or with cold rotis in your dabba.

Kashmir ka Kawah

Our Leh experience introduced us to their special tea; Kawah.

Sitting in the portico of a house boat, watching the beauty of the Dal lake with the backdrop of the Himalayas and sipping Kawah...bliss! The taste is still vivid on my lips just as vivid as the experience of that trip.

We asked Bashir Bhai to share his Kawah recipe. The recipe he did not share, instead, he took us to the Dal lake market and helped us pick a packet of Kashmiri tea leaves and some really good saffron. I religiously drank the tea 2-3 times in a day and different places to figure out the exact taste.

Heres my take on the Kawah -

This is a recipe for 4 cups as its best enjoyed with friends.

All you need -

4 small cups of water [mind you, dont use the fashionable coffee mugs which as extremely famous these days]

3 cardamom pods cracked

2 inch cinnamon stick

2-3 strands of saffron

4-5 teaspoons of sugar

3-4 almonds crushed coarsely with the skin*

Kawah chai patti

On the stove -

Bring to boil water along with cardamom, cinnamon, saffron and sugar. This will give out a sweet aroma.

On another stove, add a few teaspoons of this mixture and add crushed almonds and lets them soften for a minute.

When the water boils, add 4 pinches of the Kwah tea leaves [remember its a ratio of 1 pinch per cup]

Let the tea leaves settle.

The liquid you now have will be slightly golden brown.

Strain it out and add the almond mixture [you don't boil the almond with tea so that you dont lose almonds after straining the tea leaves]

Pour out into mini Kawah tea cups and serve.

*Some people also add roasted pumpkin seeds, but let me tell you, it doesn't taste good!! So stick to your old friend almond.

Sip away!

Our family favourite carrot cake

One of the family favourite cakes is the carrot cake! The poor carrot cake was ragged and made fun of before entering the oven, but once out, it was off in minutes!

Its easy to make, tasty and goes very well as a post brunch dessert on a Sunday.

The recipe is below for all of you.

All you need -

1 cup castor sugar [sifted]

3/4 cup refined odourless oil

2 eggs whole

1 cup grated carrot [use smallest grate for this]

1-2tsp cinnamon powder

1 cup flour [maida]

3/4 cup coarsely ground almonds or pecan nuts [choice is yours] In India, lets use almonds. Its easily available and tastes just as good.

1 tsp baking powder

Mix & stir -

Whisk together sugar and oil till it is creamy

Then add the eggs one by one and whisk

Add in cinnamon powder and the grated carrots and mix

Add sifted flour little by little and mix.

Finally add the almonds.

Grease a baking tray with refined oil/butter and dust some flour.

Just before pouring the batter add baking powder. Adding baking powder at the end will make a fluffy cake. If you add way in the beginning, you might get a heavy cake.

Bake in preheated oven at 180 degrees or 350F for about 1 hour or till the center is baked.

Glaze -

Boil together 1:1 ratio or orange juice [out from fresh orange or a juice carton] and sugar

Once the cake cools, glaze it with this syrup till it seeps into the spongy cake :D Dust with castor sugar...ENJOY!!

Thanks to Rachel Allen for inspiring me.