Flavour Diary: June 2016

Anjeer Kalakand | Dry Fig Indian Milk Fudge | Indian Dessert Recipe | Flavour Diary

Anjeeri Kalakand Indian Milk Fudge kalakand Recipe

Kalakand is one of my favourite dessert hmmm may be all desserts are my favourite, can't decide which one is my most favourite...may be jalebi or halwa or sheer khurma or rasgulla or .....so on. But in Kalakand i love the Anjeer Kalakand the most..I love those tiny bits/seeds of Anjeer/Dry Fig in my kalakand with grainy texture...chewing them is like heavenly feeling.
Basically Kalakand is made with full fat milk and is smooth and grainy in texture. That grainy texture comes from freshly made paneer and smooth texture from the milk. You can add your favourite fruit puree and flavour it with cardamom or rosewater or any flavouring.Today's recipe is made from scratch it means no shortcuts, needs time and but you can relish it to full extent....one good thing is you can do parallel steps like soaking of Anjeer, boiling milk for paneer and boiling milk for kalakand at a time and wide up in 40 - 50 mins...You can make Anjeer kalakand with fresh Anjeer too check tips, but i like dry Anjeer version.
Here are few recipes using dry fruits which you may like it

Shahi Meetha Paratha

Khubani ka Meetha (Dry Apricot dessert)

Stuffed Dates

Level: Medium

Total time: 40-50 mins

Makes:12-14 slices
1 Cup = 250ml

Ingredients

Milk: 1.5 liters (or 6 cups)
Dry Fig/Anjeer: 8
Lime/lemon Juice: 1-2 tablespoon
Sugar: 2-4 tablespoons(to taste)
Cardamom/Elaichi Powder: 1/4 th teaspoon
Butter/Ghee for greasing

Directions
Make Paneer:
In a bowl add 3 cups(750ml) of milk and bring it to boil. Turn off the heat and add lime juice and mix well. Turn the heat on to medium heat and keep stirring the milk after some time the paneer/milk solids separated from the whey.
Drain the water using muslin cloth and squeeze the excess water out.keep a side.

Make Fig Puree:
In a small bowl add dry figs and add hot water to immerse the fig in and keep it aside for 20-30 mins and then blend to puree with little or no water.

Make Kalakand:
Take wide heavy bottom pan and remaining milk(3 cups/750ml) and bring it boil on high heat and keep stirring in between and continue to boil milk until it becomes 1/4th quantity of it.

When milk is 1/4th of its quantity then add paneer, fig puree, sugar, cardamom powder and mix well. On high continue cooking until all water is absorbed and the mixture comes together.

Take a pan/plate and grease the butter/ghee and spread the mixture equally on it.Let it cool down completely and refrigerate for 2 hours and then slice the kalakand in desired shapes. Keep refrigerated and enjoy for 3-4 days...if it is still left.

Tips
You can make use fresh figs to: slice and blend the figs with some water add sugar and cook the figs until the mixture comes together.Add it just like dry fig puree. Don't add sugar while making kalakand as we have already added sugar with figs.
You can also add crushed nuts of your choice along with paneer to kalakand...but i would love to enjoy as it is.

Anjeer Kalakand is going to be part of 46 #foodiemonday #dryfruit #bloghop recipes

Random Recipes

Hyderabadi Dahi Vada

Badusha

Egg Mayo Sandwich

Palak Gosht(spinach with lamb)

Cornbread is common bread in United States cuisine and comes in both sweet and savoury version depending on the origin of it.Cornbread can be baked, fried or, rarely, steamed. Skillet-fried or skillet-baked cornbread is a traditional staple in the rural United States, especially in the South. This involves heating oil/butter in a heavy, well-seasoned cast iron skillet in an oven, and then pouring a batter made from cornmeal, egg, and milk directly into the hot grease. The mixture is returned to the oven to bake into a large, crumbly and sometimes very moist cake with a crunchy crust.In addition to the skillet method, such cornbread also may be made in sticks, muffins, or loaves.
Southern cornbread has traditionally been made with little or no sugar and smaller amounts flour or no flour.Southern cornbread traditionally used white cornmeal and buttermilk.Cornbread is occasionally crumbled and served with cold milk or clabber (buttermilk), similar to cold cereal. In Texas, cornbread is made with fresh or creamed corn kernels and jalapeño peppers and topped with shredded cheese.
A slightly different variety, cooked in a simple baking dish, is associated with northern U.S. cuisine; it tends to be sweeter and lighter than southern-style cornbread.A typical contemporary northern U.S. cornbread recipe contains half wheat flour, half cornmeal, milk or buttermilk, eggs, leavening agent, salt, and usually sugar, resulting in a bread that is somewhat lighter and sweeter than the traditional southern version.
Today's recipe is Northern style Cornbread a small sweet treat...includes very few ingredients and steps to follow..

Cornbread info is taken from wikipedia

Level: Easy

Total time: 60mins

Makes:1 loaf
1 Cup = 250ml

Ingredients

Whole wheat flour/Plain Flour: 1 cup
Cornmeal: 1 cup
Milk: 1 cup
Sugar: 1/2 cup
Oil/butter: 1/3 cup
Baking Powder: 1 tablespoon
Salt: a pinch
Eggs: 1 large (2 small)

Directions
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F/200 degrees C. Prepare the pans by greasing and dusting.
In a large bowl, mix together the cornmeal, wheat flour, baking powder and salt.
In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs and sugar and then add milk, and oil/melted butter.
Pour the egg mixture into the cornmeal mixture and fold together.
Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish.
Bake until the top is golden brown and tester/toothpick inserted into the middle of the cornbread comes out clean, takes around 40-50 minutes for a loaf.
Remove the cornbread from the oven and let it cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Tips
You can make use of 8"square, 8"round or muffin pans but baking time varies depending on pan used.

You might be interested in other Cake treats, here are few to list.

Whole Wheat Banana Bread

Custard Powder Lava Cake

Orange Cake

Mango Mousse Cake

Healthy Ragi Chocolate Cake

Whole Wheat Cornbread is going to be part of 45 #foodiemonday #Cornbread #bloghop recipes

Do you want to make your beverage more healthy by adding some beautiful pink to it....if your answer is yes then try my Beetroot Lassi. I am not fond of eating beets raw, so i just choose options to have it in different form like Beetroot fritters/Pakoda or like Beetroot Dosa or in Juice or in Chutney form. I loved the way my lassi turned out, it was yum...it's healthy but the downside of it is we get cooked beetroot smell which i have covered up by adding some Rose syrup to it.
Even if you don't like beets have it, it's healthy...Beetroot is low in fat and is full of vitamins and minerals and are packed with antioxidants. The fiber in beets increases the antioxidant enzymes and increase the white blood cells.

You might be interested in other beverage

Persimmon Lassi

Mint Ginger Chaanch

Shikanji/Lemonade

Level: Easy

Total time: 5 mins
Serves: 2

Ingredients

Boiled Beetroot: 1 small (peeled boiled/cooked beetroot)
Yogurt/Curd: 1 1/2 cup
Chilled Milk : 1/2 cup
Sugar to taste
Rose Syrup(Rooh Afza) to taste

Directions
Chop the boiled/cooked beetroot.
For layered presentation
In a blender add beetroot and 1/3 cup milk and blend to smooth paste.
In a bowl add rest of the milk, thick yogurt and sugar and beet to smooth.
Now pour the yogurt mix at the bottom of the serving glass and slowly pour in the beetroot puree.
For single pink presentation
Puree the beetroot and add rest of the ingredients in the blender and serve in the glass along with ice cubes.

Wanna try....let set go....

Random treats for you...

Bread Bonda

Basbousa (Semolina Coconut Cake)

Hyderabadi Bagara Baingan

Paneer Butter Masala

Its been more than a week that Ramadan has started and doing fasts for almost 20hrs is bit tough and tiresome...it's like if days are longer your fasts will be longer, i just wonder how the people on totally north of the world are fasting. Yes if you are doing for the sake of the creator your hardship will be easier on them, so do for us.
Our appetite goes down as we have odd times of having meals and duration of meals...so I always make sure we are hydrated and have healthy meals at suhoor and Iftar. My family loves to have more veggies and desserts than meat...so if you observe my recipe list you will get to know about it.
Today's recipe is Badam ka Harira is rich almond milk with lots of almonds going in it. This is a thick beverage which is flavoured up with Cardamon and clove and is naturally coloured with saffron. Badam ka harira is healthy way to have almonds and tastes great and this can accompanied with roti's or for breakfast.This is going to be part of our #foodiemonday #bloghop under #indianspicessorted theme. Once the theme was decided, i thought of doing something spicy but because of sweet tooth i finally ended up with this healthy beverage.

Level: Easy

Total time: 10mins

Serves: 2

Ingredients

Butter/Ghee: 1 tablespoon
Plain Flour/Maida: 1 tablespoon
Almond/Badam Powder: 1/4 cup (Blend around 30 almonds to fine powder)
Milk: 2 cups
Saffron/Kesar a big pinch
Sugar : 3 tablespoons (to taste)
Cardamom/Elaichi: 2
Clove/Laung: 2

Directions
In pestle add cardamom and clove and crush them to powder.
In a pan add butter and add Plain flour and roast for few secs until you get beautiful aroma.Now add the almond flour and stir for 10-20 secs.
Add milk to the mixture and bring it to boil...keep stirring in between and turn the flame to low, add saffron,sugar and cardamom,clove powder. Mix well and turn the heat off.

Tips
Keep stirring throughout the making otherwise it will stick to the bottom.
You can blanch almonds and remove the peel and blend it fine paste and use instead of almond powder.
As this is thick beverage, you can add more milk if you want thin consistency.

You might be interested in other Hyderabadi treats, here are few to list.

Chaney Ki Dal

Hyderabadi Dahi wada

Hyderabadi Haleem

Shahjahani Meetha( Tomato halwa)

Hyderabadi Kesar Badam ka Harira is going to be part of 44 #foodiemonday #IndianSpicesSorted #bloghop recipes

Spinach is wonder green which is very low in calories and fats and its leaves hold good amount of soluble dietary fiber.The health benefits of spinach include improved eyesight, healthy blood pressure, stronger muscles, the prevention of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), cataracts, atherosclerosis, heart attacks, neurological benefits, bone mineralization, anti-ulcerative and anti-cancerous benefits, skin protection, healthy fetal development, and boosted growth for infants.
Spinach is native to the Middle East, and was cultivated in Persia thousands of years ago. From there, it was brought east into China, approximately 1,500 years ago. It made its way into Europe a few hundred years later and quickly became a staple in a number of cultural cuisines. It can be eaten raw as a part of many salads, and it can also be cooked or sauteed down into a reduced form. This can be eaten as a side dish vegetable, or included in a number of recipes for soups, stews, and casseroles.
Spinach is one of the commonly used leafy veggie in my kitchen...Spinach is such a versatile veggie that we can combine it lamb (Palak Ghost) or with lentils (Palak Lobia) or you can use it in fritters (Spinach Oats Pakora) or along with cottage cheese (Palak Paneer) or in dips.
Todays recipe is one common recipe with spinach which i cook now and then, it's easy, no stress, tasty and goes well with both rice and roti's. With no further delay lets check the Ingredients and process.....
You might be interested in other Everyday cooking curries and here are few to list

Potato with Onion Fry

Bhindi/Okra Fry

Cabbage Carrot Kofta Curry

Spinach Info is from here
Level: Easy
Total time: 30 mins
Soaking time: 3-4 hrs
Serves: 2-3
1 Cup: 250ml

Ingredients

Spinach/Palak : 200 gm
Yellow Moong Dal: 1/2 cup
Onion: 1 medium
Garlic Pods: 2
Cumin seeds: 1 teaspoon
Chilli powder: 1 teaspoon ( to taste)
Cumin Powder: 1/4 teaspoon
Turmeric Powder: 1/8 teaspoon
Oil : 2 tablespoon
Salt to taste

Directions

Preparations:
Soak Moong Dal for 4-5 hrs.
Chop Onion and spinach.

method:

Take a pan add oil, when it is warm add cumin seeds and add Onions,Chopped Garlic, salt and fry until transparent.

Add drain soaked Moong Dal,turmeric,chilli powder and fry for a minute and then add 3/4th cup of water and cook on medium flame until Dal is cooked and now it's time to add the chopped spinach.

Add roasted cumin powder and stir fry on medium flame until spinach is cooked.

Wanna try....let set go..

Random Yumminess

Babousa Semolina Cake

Egg Mayo Sandwich

Lemon Pickle

Lauki Ki Puri

Ramadan Kareem to all the friends... hope you had a great start.
Brief Intro of Ramadan:Ramadan is a special month in the Islamic calendar where Muslims fast worldwide to commemorate the first revelation of the Quran to Muhammad, fasts lasts from dawn to dusk for whole month.The start and end dates of Ramadan vary depending upon the moon sighting. This month is a detox month for our sins and get closer to the creator and escape from the pace of everyday life.In this month, muslims give certain percentage of savings as charity called zakat and end of the month is celebrated with a special prayer and exchange of gifts and visiting the near and dear.Fasting times across the world is different and for different seasons it's different. The place where i live fasting time around 20hrs...yes it's 20 ...with no water,no food and beautiful strong summer heat.Practicing the fast has lots of benefits in scientifically and spiritually. May god bless all of us with goodness of worldly and hereafter...

Traditionally fast is broken with a date and water but now a days a big feast plates are arranged with lot of fried snacks, beverages, fruits and water....i always try to have more healthy snacks than oil dripping snacks...here is one of the simple snack which is found regularly in Hyderabad on iftar(feast after break) tables...This snack is made out of chana dal /split bengal gram which is soaked for few hours and then boiled and then it's spiced up and is ready to serve.

You might be interested in other Hyderabadi treats, here are few to list.

Hyderabadi Dahi wada

Hyderabadi Haleem

Shahjahani Meetha( Tomato halwa)

Level: Easy

Soaking: 4 hrs

Cook time: 15mins

Prep TIme:5 mins
Serves: 4

Ingredients

Chana Dal: 1/2 cup
Lemon juice: 2 teaspoons (to taste)
Black Pepper: 1 teaspoon
Crushed Green Chilli: 1 teaspoon (i skipped it)
Finely chopped Coriander and Mint : 1 tablespoon
Salt to taste

Directions
Wash and Soak Chana Dal in 1 cup of water for min 4 hrs or overnight.Pressure cook dal for 2 whistles or add 1 more cup of water and cook until the dal is cooked and retains it shape.
Wash the dal with cold water and drain the excess water. Place the dal on muslin cloth and let it sit for 10mins.Transfer to the bowl.
Just before serving add all the ingredients and mix well and serve immediately.

Tips
You can replace lemon juice with amchoor powder or anaar dana.