Rose Shrikhand | Wishing All A Rosy Sweet Year Ahead

This is a simple recipe easy to make but looks and taste different. A bit like life I feel. I started making this shrikhand with dried rose petals and rose preserve (gulkhand) expecting a rosy pink dish. But it was still pure white thanks to the curd cheese. But one taste it bursted rose in my mouth.

Appearances can be deceiving in dishes as well.:).

But taste is an all important factor and hence my rose version is good to go when you are celebrating Ugadi/Gudi Padva/Cheti Chand. A celebration of the year ahead expecting a happy fun filled or rosy year with little bitterness or thorns thrown in.

Feel free to increase the amount of sugar and rose jam/gulkhand. All depends on the taste/sourness of the yogurt as well. These days yogurt turns sour fast as its hot. Anyway its upto you.The recipe is adapted from Sanjeev Kapoor. The recipe makes 1-2 big bowls depending on how big your bowl is.

Ingredients:
Hung Curd: almost 2 cups
Powdered Sugar: 8 tbsp +

Dried Rose Petals : 3-5 tsp + more for garnishing
Gulkhand/ Rose Preserves: 2 tbsp+

Preparation:
I had drained the normal full fat yogurt overnight and had used around 3/4 cup of the curd cheese for this.

Mix together dried rose petals and gulkhand into a paste and keep aside.

Mix together powdered sugar and hung yogurt/curd cheese to blend into a smooth paste.Mix in the rose petal and gulkhand paste and adjust the sweetness. 

Serve well garnished with remaining rose petals as a sweet ending for Ugadi lunch.

A simple dessert for a rosy year ahead. Don't expect pink colour in this dish. You can use rose syrup for a pink colour and also drizzle rose oil for a more enriching aroma and flavour.

Shrikhand

Shrikhand is a traditional Indian sweet made using hung yogurt or yogurt cheese. It is originally from Gujarathi and Marathi (Western Indian) cuisine but its equally popular in other states as well. There are several variations or flavours available these days and the one I made is traditional. Shrikhand is also eaten as a side dish with rotis and puris similar to shrikarani, but is actually thicker than the latter.In fact the mango version in Maharashtra is called Amrakhand. Shrikhand is also called matho in some places as well.

Ingredients:
Hung yogurt : 1.5 cup almost

Powdered Sugar: 2 tbsp + as per taste

Warm Milk: 1 tbsp
Saffron: Few strands almost 1/4 tsp

Cardamom: powdered: 1/4 tsp + as per your taste
Nutmeg: a pinch

Garnish:
Saffron strands: few (optional)
Pistachios or Other nuts: chopped : 1-2 tbsp

Preparation:

I had hung homemade yogurt to obtain the hung yogurt or yogurt cheese or 'chakka'  as it is also known. I had not measured/weighed the yogurt but the chakka came to around 1.5 cups which I had entirely used for the dessert.

Mix together warm milk and saffron and you can see a yellowy milk forming. Keep aside.Rather you can heat the saffron strands in a spoon by holding it above the gas flame and then mixing with milk.

Mix together powdered sugar and hung yogurt.Do this with a spoon or a whisk. Add sugar little by little and whisk in completely before adding more. You can actually do this process by rubbing the yogurt and sugar through the cheese cloth so that the sweetened yogurt falls through the cheese cloth smoothly without lumps. A bit time consuming, but worth the dessert that we will be having.Else you can go whisk whisk whisk ... till you get a smooth sweet yogurt.

To this whisk in the saffron milk mixture and the powdered cardamom and pinch nutmeg to obtain a smooth creamy yellow dessert/side.

Serve chilled garnished with chopped pistachios and saffron strands.

Simple and sweet and cooling.A perfect dessert in summer. 

Dates & Sesame Poli

I rarely try out traditional festive dishes. I am not so confident in these. I might make these tasty. But always compare them to my mom's and feel inferior. But sometimes I feel I should make some of these atleast so that I might make these festivals memorable to my daughter. And almost all festivals have more food associated with them than rituals.

Last week was Holi  the festival of colours. People colour each others and obviously enjoy food and drinks like Thandaai. More than being a participant, I like to watch the celebrations. I somehow can't imagine myself drenched in colours. Puran poli is an excellent dish associated with this festival. Its a pan fried flatbread stuffed with a sweet lentil filling and you serve it as a dessert. You can learn more about it here. 

Ofcourse there are lots of other festive dishes but this is most loved by me especially when made by my mother. Every time we plan a holiday, my daughter also requests for this. Anyways, being a bit short of time to make the original,I  tried a slightly different poli (flatbread) stuffed with dates and sesame filling and adapted  from Tarla Dalal site.

Ingredients:

Whole Wheat Flour: 1 cup

Milk: 4-6 tbsp 

Water: 1-2 tbsp as needed

Filling: 

Sesame: 2 tbsp toasted

Dates: finely chopped and slightly mashed : 1 cup loosely packed

Brown Sugar: 4 tbsp

Milk: 1-2 tbsp (optional)

Preparation:

Mix together flour and milk and knead to form a pliable dough adding more milk or water as needed.It should be like a roti dough -if you are familiar with rotis ie. Divide the dough into 3 medium pieces, shape each into a roud ball and keep aside.

Prepare the filling by mixing together toasted sesame,coarsely chopped and mashed dates and brown sugar or gur (jaggery) to form a stiff sticky yet mostly dry filling. Add milk if needed.You can use jaggery syrup or dates paste to make this and adjust accordingly. Divide the filling nto 3 small portions. The measurements for the filling gives you slightly more quantity than needed.

Take a rounded dough ball. Roll it out to a small disc, place a filling portion in the centre of the dough disc, bring together the edges of the disc towards the centre and seal tightly completely covering the filling.

Take this disc,dust it with little wheat flour and roll it out to a bigger disc,making sure the filling does not come out. Repeat with the other discs to get 3 stuffed flatbreads.

Cook each poli/bread disc on a non stick pan for a few seconds on each sides till brown.You can drizzle ghee/clarified butter during this or even while taking off the pan to make it more rich.

Serve warm as a dessert optionally garnished or cut into wedges ad serve to kids with milk as an healthy evening snack.

My polis were better than expected though I could have used more filling. I am somehow scared to roll out a stuffed poli and so went for a smaller amount of filling. But this being my first attempt at a stuffed poli  I am definitely happy. I would be repeating this again as it has definitely given me more confidence and its easy to make.

Khamang Kakdi- Nutty Cucumber Salad

Usually the cucumber salads/raithas I have seen will be having yogurt in them to make a refreshing side. But this is a nutty and mustardy salad from Maharashtra and I am totally in love with it. It is also known as kakdichi koshimbir (cucumber salad) in Marathi and as usual has several variations like with or without seasoning,with or without yougurt etc. I have adapted mine from Sanjeev Kapoor and it turned out just fine.

Here the cucumber should be of correct ripeness. You peel it unlike the regular salads where it is unpeeled and then check for bitterness by tasting the ends. If  the taste suits you or it is perfectly for the salad then you make this salad. I have used snake melon or the fruity and thin skinned Armenian cucumber which has no bitterness. Still going with the traditions, I have lightly peeled these. Just lightly ran a peeler on the skins and took whatever little skin it gave out. Omit this part if you want.

Ingredients:
Armenian Cucumber: 1-2 lightly peeled and chopped
Peanuts: handful, roasted and powdered
Coconut: 1-2 tbsp
Green Chillies: 1-2 as per taste and heat , chopped/slit
Lemon Juice: 1-2 tsp
Sugar: a pinch (optional)
Salt: as per taste
Coriander Leaves: chopped for garnish

Tempering/Seasoning:
Ghee: 1-2 tsp
Mustard: 1/2 -1 tsp
Cumin Seeds: 1/4 -1/2 tsp

Preparation:
Roast and powder a handful of peanuts.

Lightly peel and chop the cucumber into small pieces.You can omit this step if you are going for the armenian ones that I have used.

Mix together in a suitable bowl, chopped cucumbers,slit green chillies,peanut powder,coconut and sugar and salt as per taste.Drizzle lemon juice to this mix,do the taste test and keep aside.

Prepare the tempering,but heating the ghee and adding the mustard and cumin. Let the mustard splutter and cumin seeds sizzle. Remove from heat and pour on the salad saving some for garnish. Mix well and serve garnished with coriander leaves and remaining seasoning .

A simple hearty salad/koshimbir this turned out to be. Yogurt is never missed in this and you can have it a a side or even a snack.The taste was nutty and mustardy with crunchy cucumbers.The roasted peanut powder is called 'dhaanyache kut' (lentil powder). Peanuts are lentil and not nuts though the taste is of nuts -hence the  word 'nutty' in title :). Enjoy the salad.