Christmas Mawa Gujiyas

Growing up in Delhi, we would go over to Appa’s friend’s home on Christmas. I remember the lunch spread being extensive and delicious. But what I most looked forward to were the desserts. They would have the usual suspects of course – Plum cake, Christmas cake, cookies, rum cake, and candies and then there was Gujiya. In our family we made gujiyas during Holi but at uncle’s home it was their tradition to have gujiyas at Christmas. It has been many years since I attended a Christmas lunch at uncle and aunty’s place but those memories still linger on in my heart. N this Christmas as a tribute to them and the fun we had I share the recipe for ‘Mawa Gujiyas’ with you and hope you all have a wonderful & blessed Holiday Season 🙂

Mawa Gujiyas

Ingredients for the filling

400 gms – Mawa (khoya)
100 gm – Semolina
2 Tbsp – Ghee (melted)
400 gms – Powdered white sugar
100 gms chopped – Cashews
50 gms chopped – Raisins
2 tsp – Green cardamom powder
100 gms – Coconut (frozen or dry and grated)

Ingredients for Gujiya shell

500 gms – All purpose flour
50 gms – Milk
125 gms melted – Ghee
A pinch of salt

Ghee for frying gujiyas

Method

1. In a heavy bottom pan add a tsp of ghee and add the dry fruits and fry till light brown in color.
2. Take out of the pan and keep aside on paper towel to drain excess ghee
3. Add the rest of the ghee and then add the semolina to it and roast till light brown in color. Remove from pan and cool on a plate
4. Mix the dry fruits, mawa, sugar, semolina, coconut, green cardamom powder together in a bowl and keep aside the cotton
5. Sieve the flour with the salt into a large bowl
6. Add the ghee and rub together with the flour to form a crumbly mixture
7. Now add the milk and mix and then add slightly warm water to form a tight dough
8. Dampen a cotton cloth and cover the dough and let it rest for an hour
9. Remove the cloth and then knead the dough once again to make it soft and pliable
10. Make small roundels of the dough and make sure to cover the roundels with a damp cloth
11. Take a roundel and roll it out with a rolling pin to a small poori (approx 4 inches in diameter)
12. Place the flattened dough into the gujiya mould and put a tablespoon of mixture. dampen one end of the dough poori and close the mould to seal the gujiya
13. Open the mould and place the gujiya onto a plate
14. Make the rest of the gujiyas and place on the plate
15. Heat ghee in a heavy bottomed pan and once hot add a few gujiyas and fry till light brown
16. Remove and drain onto a paper towel and cool for 10 mins and serve to family & friends

TIPS :

1. If you don’t have a gujiya mould you can place the flattened dough onto your hand and add the mixture and then once you seal the gujiya, you can pinch the edges with your fingers
2. You can choose to add yogurt to the dough mixture instead of milk
3. You can also add saffron to the gujiya mixture

‘Mishti Doi’ A.K.A. ‘Bengali Style Sweetened Yogurt ’

I remember growing up Appa used to bring this mishti for us from Kolkata as it wasn’t available in Delhi. The first time I tasted it I didn’t like it as found it too sweet for my Tamil taste buds. However as Amma and baby bro were in love with this mishti Appa kept bringing it even after my protests against it :-(. To be fair, he also got me Rasagullas to balance it out :-). Then I moved away to the US and of course started missing everything that tied me to home / my culture and traditions. Then 2 years back I had this mishti at a friend’s home after many years and maybe it was my developed taste buds or the fact that I hadn’t had it in a very long time but I loved the dish. I got the recipe immediately and on my next trip to the grocery store picked up the ingredients and tried to make it at home. Lo and Behold, the dessert turned out perfect and has since then became a go to dessert for moi and the family :-). I have shared this recipe with my husbands side of the family in the US and it is their fav too ;-). Sharing the recipe for ‘Jhatpat Mishti Doi’ A.K.A. ‘Sweetened Yogurt Bengali Style’ from my kitchen to yours.

Jhatpat Mishti Doi

Ingredients

1 cup – Fresh Yogurt

1 cup – Sweetened Condensed Milk

1 Cup – Evaporated Milk

Method:

1. Mix all the ingredients using a whisk in an oven safe bowl
2. Heat oven to 350 F
3. Place the bowl in the oven and bake for 20 mins (or until a toothpick comes out almost hundred percent clean)
4. Remove bowl from the oven and cool
5. Once cool , place bowl in refrigerator to chill
6. Serve chilled and enjoy

TIPS:

1. You can choose to add chopped dry fruits to the mixture to give it a different taste and flavor
2. You can choose to add any kind of flavoring (vanilla, orange, pineapple etc) to it for a flavored mishti doi
3. Make sure that the mishti doi is not completely set (oven temps n cooking times vary so check your oven) , it needs to be soft so that it can be set completely and yet be creamy
4. If you want to avoid the condensed milk, you can change the recipe to me 1 cup evaporated milk, ¾ cup brown sugar, 1 ½ cup fresh yogurt. Make sure to whisk and mix the ings well before setting in the oven

‘Chakro Phool Payesh’ A.K.A. ‘Star Anise Rice Pudding’

If there were ever a competition to judge which mishti could tie the whole of India in one strand, I think this mishti would win hands down. The basic ingredients might be the same however; there might be subtle differences in flavor and texture which make it unique to a particular state. I have had some very great and not so great variations of this mishti :-). The one variation that stands out and is fast becoming my fav is made by my mashi which features some ingredients which aren’t traditionally thought of as being part of mishtis. A little background on mashi – even though she has been in Canada for over 40 years, she still loves her Indian food and mishtis. She likes to experiment in her kitchen which works out great for the family as we are her tasting panel :-). She came up with this recipe while playing around with various flavors that one could add to a standard payesh and once we all tasted this dish, it became our family favorite. So after getting her permission n blessings am sharing my darling Mashi’s recipe for ‘Chakro Phool Payesh’ A.K.A. ‘Star Anise Rice Pudding’ on the auspicious occasion of Bijoya Dashami. Jai Maa Durga !

Chakro Phool Payesh

Ingredients

1 liter – Whole Milk
¾ cup – White rice
1 cup – Sugar
3 Tbsp blanched, peeled, slivered – Almonds
3 nos – Chakro Phool (Star Anise)
3 nos – Cloves
1pinch – Edible Camphor
½ tsp – Green cardamom powder

Method

1. Wash and soak rice in water for 20mins
2. Pour milk in heavy bottom pan and bring to a boil
3. Once the milk comes to a boil, reduce the heat to medium low and add the star anise, cloves and camphor
4. Boil for 7 mins and then add the rice (drained completely so as to not have any water) and almonds
5. Boil on low heat while stirring occasionally taking care not to let the milk boil over or get burnt from the bottom of the pan
6. After 30 – 40 mins add the sugar into the pan and mix well
7. Cook for another 10-15 mins after adding the sugar (in order to make the payesh thick and creamy)
8. Remove from flame and fish out the star anise and cloves
9. Let it cool to room temperature and then add the green cardamom powder and mix well
10. Chill in refrigerator for 1-2 hours and serve with luchis

TIPS:

1. In order to prevent the pan from burning rinse the pan with cold water and leave about 1 Tbsp of water in the pan. Roll it around to coat the pan well and then add the milk
2. You can choose to add raisins, cashews, pistachios to the payesh too
3. If you wish you can substitute the white sugar with brown sugar / Splenda / gur

Aatte ke Laddoo

I have never been fond of laddoos and thus never ever tried to learn how to make them from Amma or Nani. The only time I would eat a laddoo was if it was given as prasad at the temple or a pooja at home. However, my hubby loves laddoos and thus I decided to learn how to make them especially for him. Plus they are very auspicious and thus they are made at almost all UP poojas and celebrations. N being a true UP ki bahu, now I make laddoos for most of the poojas :-). For Ganesh Chaturthi I share with you the recipe for ‘Aatte ke laddoo’

Aatte ke laddoo

Ingredients

2 cups – Whole wheat flour

1 cup – Brown sugar

¾ cup – Desi ghee (clarified butter)

12 nos finely chopped – Cashew nuts

5 nos peeled and powdered – Green cardamom

Method

1. Heat heavy bottom pan and add ghee
2. When the ghee melts completely add flour and sauté well till they are completely mixed together and are a little crumbly
3. Add the sugar and mix well till mixture turns light brown
4. Remove from the flame and add the chopped cashew nuts and mix well
5. Cool for 5 minutes and then add the green cardamom powder
6. Now take a small amount of the dough and roll into a round shape (pressing every so lightly in order to get the perfect shape)
7. Set on plate and you can add a piece of cashew nut as decoration and serve

TIPS:

1. You can substitute ghee with Splenda / sugar free / white sugar/ coconut sugar
2. If you want you can use half ghee and half oil for the laddoos. However the smell of ghee makes them more enticing and thus I use ghee J
3. You can choose to add chopped pista (pistachios), chopped badam (almonds) instead of chopped cashew nuts or in addition to cashew nuts

 

 

 

‘Elo Jhelo’ A.K.A ‘Sweetness with a Twist’

As we get ready to celebrate Rakhi (Rakshabandhan), I am reminded of one of the mishtis my Nani and Amma would make for this occasion. I loved it and ever since I moved to North America hadn’t had it or made it as felt it was too lengthy a process. Yet, this time around something made me want to have this mishti which in turn had me on the phone calling India to get the recipe. I am not sure if my creation can be compared to Amma n Nani’s, however I was quite pleased with it and thus sharing the recipe of ‘Elo Jhelo’ A.K.A ‘Sweetness with a Twist’

Elo Jhelo

Ingredients

2 cups – Flour

3 tbsp – Desi ghee

½ cup – Milk

¼ tsp – Salt

Oil to fry

For the sugar syrup

2 cups – Sugar

4 nos – Green cardamom

Method

1. In a large bowl mix together the flour and salt
2. Add the desi ghee to the flour
3. Mix these ingredients well to form a crumbly dough
4. Then slowly keep adding the milk to the dough and kneading it to make a dough which is a hard dough
5. Dampen a piece of cloth and cover the dough and let it rest for 30 mins
6. Make the sugar syrup for the Elo Jhelo by taking the 2 cups of sugar and 1 cup of water
7. When the sugar dissolves completely in the water, check to ensure that the sugar syrup is of 2 string consistency (take a spoonful of the sugar syrup and let it cool for a minute. Then dip your thumb and fore finger into the sugar syrup. When you try to open the thumb and fore finger there should be a line of 2 strings between them)
8. Once ready add ground green cardamom powder and let the sugar syrup cool for a bit while you prepare all the Elo Jhelo
9. Mix the dough once more and then make small roundels of the dough.
10. Roll out these roundels into a circular roti
11. Make insertions / cuts / lines using a sharp knife on this roti (while leaving around ½ cm on both edges of circle)
12. Now start folding the roti making sure the lines overlap each other and keep pressing the ends as you keep rolling the roti
13. Make all the rotis and make into Elo Jhelo shape and keep aside
14. Heat oil in a heavy bottom pan and then once hot add batches of Elo Jhelo the oil
15. Take them out when they turn golden in color and add to the sugar syrup
16. Let the Elo Jhelo sit immersed in the sugar syrup for 1-2 mins
17. Remove and arrange on serving platter

TIPS:

1. In order to ensure the salt and flour mix together properly you can choose to pass them through a sieve which will ensure the salt is distributed thoroughly
2. Melt the ghee a little before adding it to the flour so that there are no lumps
3. You can choose to add silver wark/foil to the Elo Jhelo once ready to give it a more festive look