chocklate barfi

chocklate barfi.

chocklate barfi

As Rakshabandhan approaches, I thought I would post a recipe for some Choc Barfi.   Raksha bandhan is celebrated by Hindu’s worldwide, it is a sacred festival for brothers and sisters.  Its significance is to strengthen the bond between the brother and sister and is recognised by the sister tying an amulet (rakhee) around the brother’s wrist whilst chanting the Gayatri Mantra.  She prays for that God grant him a long and peaceful life, safety and happiness and this fragile thread symbolises a deep relationship.  The brother in turn promises to love, safeguard and cherish his sister  and generally presents her with a gift to further endorse is promise.  Once the Rakhee has been tied, it is time for both siblings to gorge on the delicious home made sweets.

This year I will be making several mithais (sweets) amongst which will be this simple yet tempting chocolate barfi.

This is a delightful sweet without the traditional use of ghee (clarified butter).  It is very more..ish, simple to make using very few ingredients.

1 tin condesed milk

1 1/2 cup dry  ground nuts

1/2 cup dry coconut

1/2 cup cranberrys

Presher cook condensed milk (5/6 whisel)  Make sure you have enough water in the preshecooker as this could be potentially hazardous.  My suggestion to anyone who is not familiar with cooking condensed milk is to place an unopened tin of the condensed milk in a saucepan, fill the pan up with water and let the water come to a boil.  Then lower the heat to a gentle simmer for about an hour topping up the water level so that the tin of milk remains submerged at all times.  I cannot emphasise enough the importance of the water level.

Step 2:  let the tin of condensed milk cool then empty container in a big bowl,add above ingredints. Mix well and give any shape.

Melt the chocklate in the microvawe deep the barfi in the melted choklate.Can add any decoration on the top.

STREET FOOD AT HOME

Last week I made Pav Bhaji as I fancied something different for our Sunday lunch.  To those of you who dont know what this dish is,  allow me to introduce you to one of India’s most popular fast foods.

The dish hails from Maharashtra but is popular in most cities in India.  It is in essence, bread (pav) served with vegetables (bhaji).  The bhaji is a potato/peas/cauliflour curry cooked on a huge tava in a tomato based sauce and served with pav (bread) that is slightly toasted on the same tava.  The street vendor will be standing by the tava with bowls of vegetables and pavs buttered up (a bit too much).  The vegetables are sauted and mashed and the masalas added to create this heavenly mouthwatering dish.

There are various theories on the origins of this dish however, its popularity is such that it has gone from being a simple street food to being on the menu in most 5 star restaurants in and around India.

Recipes for this popular dish vary greatly but most use common ingredients such as tomatoes, potatoes, peas and onions.

 

Paw Bhaji :  

  1 medium onion 1/2 cauliflower  

1 small egg plant                                   

1 small potato                                   

1 tab sp butter                                   

1/4 cup peas                                   

2 ripe tomatoes                                  

  2/3 green chilli                                   

1/2 tea sp garlic paste                                   

1/2 tea sp ginger paste                                  

  1 tea sp salt                                   

1/2 tea sp turmeric powder                                  

  1 tea sp paw bhaji masala                                   

1 tea sp lemon juice                                   

1/2 tea sp kasoori methi ( fungreek leaves)                                   

 hand full cilentros

Heat butter in the pan.Add choped onians stir until onians turns little golden. Add garlic & ginger paste stir and add tomato cubes.Keep frying untill the tomatoes cooked and add all the boiled veg and all the above masala.mash with the smasher mix well.Add a small cube of butter on top and garnish with cilentro.         

The bhaji is best served in the traditional style with buttered tava (griddle) toasted pav

                          

BIRYANI

Now this recipe takes me back several years and reminds me of my dear friend Smita Manek.  The recipe belongs to Smita’s mom who taught her how to make this amazing biryani,

The flavours and spices are added

1 cup rice – washed and soaked in some water for about 1/2 an hour

1 cup peas – boiled  ( can mix peagen peas & corn too)

1 onion

1 potato (cut into chips and fried)

2 big crushed tomatoes.

1 capsicum – sliced and fried

cauliflower,carots,frenchbeans – all chopped  marinated overnight

1/2 cup yoghurt (for marinating the vegetables above

• In a bowl add yogurt, ginger,  garlic, green chili, salt, turmeric – mix it well.
• Add cauliflower peas and beans listed above

1/2 cup fried onians

1 tea sp ginger paste

1 tea sp garlic paste

1 tea sp green chili paste

1 tea sp salt

1/8 tea sp curmeric powder

soak 4 cardamon,

 

4 clove

few black pepper

2 sticks cinnamon

1 tea sp cumminseeds

live for appx 15 min,drain the water put in the paper towl to dry.

WAGHAR

2 tab sp ghee

2 tab sp oli

mix both toghter add above ingredients,as soon as it starts splutter add small cut onian keep stiring until golden add ,

1 tea sp garlic paste

1 tea sp ginger paste

1 tea sp chili paste

1 tea sp salt

1/4 tea sp garam masala

Prepare The Biryani:

2 cups water

3/4 tea sp salt

1 tea sp ghee

1/2 tea sp funegreak

Wash rice gently changing water several times until the water appears clear.For fluffier rice, the rice should be soaked for at least 15 minutes prior to cooking.Drain the rice and put it into the saucepan. Add water, oil, and salt, and bring to a boil. Once the water is boiling reduce the heat to low and cover the pan. Cook about 15 minutes, or until the rice is tender and the water has evaporated. Turn off the heat and fluff the rice with a fork.For a few minutes soak saffron in warm milk then gently fold the milk into the cooked rice.

Vegetables And Gravy:

Blend tomatoes to make a puree. In a bowl add yogurt, ginger, green chili, salt, turmeric, chili powder – mix it well. Add all the vegetables (cauliflower, beans, etc ginger and green chili) to the yogurt. Mix it well then let it marinate overnight.

Heat the oil in a saucepan. (add the Waghar ingredients) soaked cinnamon,  cardamonn, black pepper corns, cumin seeds etc. After the cumin seeds crack, add the tomato puree, and cook on medium-high heat. While cooking the tomato puree cover the pan so gravy does not splatter all over the burner. Cook until tomato mixture starts leaving oil and reduces to about half the volume.

Add the marinated vegetables to tomato puree. Let it cook covered for 10 to 12 minutes on medium heat until vegetables are tender but not mushy. Stir the vegetables in between so they cook evenly.

To  present and put together this dish layer some of the rice, then the veg and alternate finishing with the rice at the top.

Bread

BREAD

The aroma of freshly baked bread is something that creates a warm comfortable feeling throughout the house.  It is one of my favourite smells in the world.  Like most kids my youngest brother Nilesh and I adored bread. My early memories of freshly baked white loaf is sitting down to tea with Nilesh  where we would  easily demolish a crusty white loaf (boflo) with cups of chai.

In Dar-es-Salaam however, due to problems with electricity bakeries were not always able to supply breads to the city.  It was then I decided to give home baking a try.  I asked my neighbour, an expert at baking to share her recipe with me and from that day forward, baking bread has become something I enjoy very much.  It is a real pleasure to see something wonderful created out of yeast, flour and water however, it is a process that you cannot rush. The whole process of binding, kneading, proving, shaping should be coforting and relaxing in the anticipation of the warm rich aroma that will soon fill your kitchen and then your entire house.

These days, there are breadmakers, that make our lives pretty easy.  There are also bread mixes that are stocked on the supermarket shelves which take out the bother of measuring the ingredients however, bread is fairly easy to bake and once you grasp the process, you can add other ingredients such as seeds and herbs to make the bread even more interesting.

People often think it is difficult to bake bread at home but once you have tried and baked a decent loaf, you would never want to go back to the shop bought synthetic variety.  It is easy to have fresh bread whenever you want with my recipe.

Here is what you need

White fl all purpose          4 cups

Butter melted                     4 tab sp

water                                      1 cup

Salt                                       2 tea sp

Sugar                                   2 tea sp

Yeast                                    2 1/2 tea sp

Take a bowl add dry yeast to warm water and sugar mix well leave for 10 min.

In a big bowl put fl and salt add the yeast mixture and knead dough until very smooth. ( appx 10 min)add oil and punch the dough again for few min.Place bread dough in greased bawl,cover and let rise double in size for appx 1 hrs.

Nead the daugh again divede the dough in to small rolls place on the greased baking tray.Preheat the oven at 400 back for 15 to 20 min.