Apricot Truffles - rustle up in no time!! For SBS photos,please go to http://www.indusladies.com/forums/968510-post75.html This is a slight variation of the above recipe & equally easy. Dried apricots - 100 gms Nuts (of your choice) - 50 gms Desiccated coconut - 50 gms Lemon rind - 1 tbsp Orange juice - for binding To coat: Powdered nuts Put the apricots & nuts through a mincer or chop fine. Mix with coconut, orange rind & just enough orange juice to moisten. Form into small balls & coat in powdered nuts or desiccated coconut.
Lapsi-Mango Halwa - one more halwa in the parade! Lapsi-Mango Halwa is more flavourful than Wheat Halwa: Here, we can use frozen or fresh mango pulp. Lapsi (wheat rawa) - 1 cup Mango pulp - 1 cup Sugar - 2 ½ cups Ghee - 3 tbsp Cardamom powder - 1 tsp Cashewnuts - ¼ cup Saffron - a pinch ( warm & powder) Edible camphor (pachai kalpuram) - 2 grains, powdered with saffron Soak wheat rawa in plenty of water for 5-6 hours. Strain add 1 cup of water. Grind in the mixi and extract the milk. Do this 3,4 times adding fresh water every time. (4-5 cups) Allow the extracted water to settle for atleast 2 hours in a tall vessel, undisturbed. Then remove the top water and scum. To this thick milk add sugar & mix very well. Pour in a vessel, keep inside a pressure cooker & cook for 45 mts, after the first whistle comes. Cool, open, add mango pulp and blend thoroughly. Cook on a non-stick kadai, adding ghee little by little, till it becomes one whole mass. Add cashews & spices. Empty on a greased plate. Cut into pieces.
Chocolate Truffles (1) - this is the cooked way! I used the locally available cream powder for this recipe. For 200 gms powder, add 150 ml cold water & blend. You can use fresh cream also,if available. Cream - 1 cup Chocolate - 450 gms Butter - 1 tbsp Grate & keep chocolate ready in a bowl. Heat cream & when it rises, remove from stove and pour it on the chocolate kept ready (grated), mixing butter also. Beat thoroughly without any lump. Cover with a cling film & refrigerate for 2-3 hrs till hard. Keep drinking chocolate powder ready in a plate. Scoop out balls of the mixture with a melon baler or a spoon & roll in chocolate powder. Arrange in a plate & serve.
Chocolate Truffles (2) – no cooking, just mixing! Sweetened condensed milk - 100 ml Cocoa powder - 30 gms Butter - 30 gms Milk powder - 30 gms Any dried fruit, chopped - 30 gms Ruam & raisin essence - ½ tsp (optional) To coat: Chocolate vermicelli or powdered nuts or desiccated coconut Mix all ingredients together to a dough consistency – add either little condensed milk or a little milk powder to get the rolling consistency. Make small balls & roll in Chocolate vermicelli.
Peta - Agra Peta is very famous ! Select fully grown white pumpkin. Remove skin and the soft inner portions and seeds. Cut into 2” pieces. Prick holes all over with a sharp needle on all sides.. Pieces - 500 gms Sugar - 400 gms Powdered alum or lime (chunnam) - 1 tsp Pour boiling water over lime water or powdered alum water & keep the clear water. Immerse the pieces in water to which lime or alum has been added, for 24 hrs. Drain & wash well. Boil just enough water to immerse the pieces completely. Keep the washed pieces in a vessel, pour boiling water over & keep covered. Leave for 24 hrs. Drain the next day & keep ready. Boil 500 ml of water with sugar. When it boils, remove, pour on the drained pieces & cover. Drain the water after a little while. Meanwhile dissolve sugar in 250 ml of water & keep on a low fire. Just when it begins to boil, add vegetable pieces. When it begins to boil, remove from fire & keep it overnight. Next day, drain the pieces, remove the syrup, boil again & remove from fire. Keep this overnight. On the third day, again remove slices and boil syrup to 2-3 string consistency nearly crystalline. Put in the gourd, boil for a few mts & remove from fire. When cool, take the pieces out and dry them in the sun for a few hrs. When dry, roll in lightly powdered sugar.
Nut Rolls – a fool-proof easy sweet. For the covering: Powdered cashewnuts - 1 cup Sieved icing sugar - 1 cup Almond essence - 1-2 drops (optional) Milk - 5-6 tsp (approximately) Saffron - a pinch ( warm & powder) For the filling: Chopped glace cherries - 2 tbsp Chopped dates - 2 tbsp Chopped walnuts - 1 tbsp Chopped cashewnuts - 1 tbsp Chopped almonds - 1 tbsp ( optional) Butter & sugar - 1 tbsp each Heat the chopped fruits for a mte in 1 tbsp of butter and 1 tbsp of sugar. Mix powdered cashewnuts, icing sugar, essence & saffron with minimum milk . Knead thoroughly to a dough. Sprinkle rolling board with icing sugar. I rolled between 2 sheets of butter paper. Roll the dough into a rectangle 1 cm thick. Sprinkle nut-fruit mixture over it. Roll carefully starting from the end nearest to you. Cut the rolls into slices 1 ½ cm thick, using a sharp knife. Keep in pastry cups & serve. For step by step photos please go to Nut Rolls (1) Nut Rolls (2)
Shakkar Para - deep fried, sugar crispies Sieve together: Wheat flour - 1 ½ cups A pinch of salt Bring to a boil in a pan: Sugar - ¼ cup Milk - ¼ cup Ghee - 2 tbsp Add this gradually to flour, kneading to a firm dough. Divide into 2 balls. Roll each into ¼ “thick sheets. Prick all over & cut into 1” diamonds. Allow to dry for 30 mts. Deep fry in hot oil , on a slow flame so that the inside also gets cooked. Drop in hot oil & thereafter reduce the flame. Drain on absorbent paper, cool thoroughly & store airtight.
Pal Paniyaram - a Nagarathar speciality! Milk - ½ litre, boiled & added to equal amount of coconut milk (1 cup coconut+2 cups warm water) Sugar - ½ cup, heaped Cardamom powder - 1 tsp Raw rice - ½ cup Urad dhal - ½ cup – 1 tbsp Oil - to deep fry Wash & soak together rice & urad for 2 hrs. Drain & grind to as fine a paste as possible, adding water, very gradually in teaspoons. The dough should be like idli dough. Cut a tiny tip in a ziplock cover in a corner. Fill with the dough & press gently into very hot oil, to form tiny balls. Cook on medium low fire. Remove when the colour is off white – it should be cooked, but do not allow to become crisp. This will cook fairly fast. Keep these in a strainer & pour boiling over it to wash out the oil in the paniyarams. Repeat the above procedure till the entire dough is used up. Meanwhile boil milk & add coconut milk. Add sugar & cardamom powder & remove. Do not allow it to curdle. Drain the paniyarams compleely in a strainer. Add to the milk & mix. Allow to soak for 30 mts for the paniyarams to absorb sugar. Serve hot or cold.
C T Chocolate Fudge - candy thermometer gives right results!! My sister got me a book - “ 500 recipes for candies and sweets” in 1967 from London, where she lived for 6 yrs. The fudge recipes required a sugar thermometer. I am trying them out now successfully. Sugar (regular) - 450 gms Cocoa powder - 2 tbsp Sweetened condensed milk - 1 tin (400 gms) Butter - 60 gms Water - 200 ml Vanilla essence - 1 tsp Put all ingredients into a strong saucepan & blend well without lumps. Stir until the sugar has dissolved. Boil steadily, stirring only occasionally, until the mixture reaches 238 deg F or forms a soft ball, when a l;ittleis dropped in a tbsp of cold water. Remove from heat & beat until the mixture starts to thickrn. Put into a greased tin (preferably) lined with butter paper. When nearly set, cut into neat pieces with a sharp knife.
Semiya Kesari - call it seviyan ki sheera?? Pre-roasted Semiya - 1 cup Sugar - 1 cup Ghee - 3 tbsp Cardamompowder - ½ tsp To garnish - cashews & raisns Boil 2 cups of water with 1 tbsp ghee. When water boils, add semiya & cook on medium fire. When it thickens, add ½ cup more of water & 1 tbsp ghee. Coook for a few more mtes & add sugar with the last tbsp of ghee. Simmer, stirring till thick. Add cardamom powder & mix well. Garnish with cashews & raiins, rosted in 2 tsp ghee.