Traditional Indian sweet dish Archives

Sooji Ka Halwa

Sooji ka Halwa is one of those sweet dishes in India which is prepared in all the states with different names and with slight variations. Sooji ka Halwa is mostly made during festivals, but sometimes during winter or rainy season it goes very well to accompany any pakodas, Pyaaz ke pakode(crispy onion bhajji)

Sooji ka Halwa has main four ingredients. Rava/sooji, water/milk, desi ghee (clarified butter) and sugar. The whole taste depends on how wholeheartedly you add desi ghee here. Of course, the balance of other ingredients matters a lot as well, but desi ghee makes it very rich in taste.

Nowadays, people are more calories conscious, and kids also don’t have a lot of interest and taste for traditional sweet dishes. So Sooji ka Halwa is also restricted to fewer/limited occasions only.

Recently, I had prepared this traditional sweet dish at the occasion of Navmi prasaad during the nine days of Navratri festival along with Kale Chane for Navratri prasad. Kala Chana and Sooji ka Halwa, are both part of Ashtmi or Navmi pooja prasad.

The preparation for Sooji ka Halwa is not time consuming if we keep dry sooji/ rava roasted one day before. Next day, add ghee, roast for 3-4 minutes and proceed to the further steps.

The perfect balance between the quantity of sooji, water and sugar gives a perfect result. Take any cup or bowl from the kitchen and use the same bowl to measure all three ingredients. The ratio is quite simple. If you are taking 1/2 cup of rava/sooji, sugar will be twice that, which is one cup. Water will be 4 times more than rava/sooji, which will be 2 cups.

If you are preparing Halwa for any auspicious occasion, this ratio is perfect. By the time you will finish pooja after cooking, halwa will set properly. But if you are preparing to consume immediately after, reduce quantity to 1: 3.5 of sooji and water. Sugar can be reduced according to personal taste.

Ingredients:

Sooji /rava/ samolina 400 grams

Desi ghee 200 grams

Water 1600 grams (1.6 litres)

Sugar 800 grams

Cardamom powder, coarsely grinded nuts and dry fruits and grated coconut powder.

Process:

In a wok on medium heat add pure ghee and melt it.

Add sooji in melted ghee and start roasting it with the help of a spatula.

Slowly sooji will start becoming dark in colour. Keep roasting it till it reaches a nice brown colour.

Slowly start adding water in roasted sooji. Soon, sooji will absorb all the liquid and will turn into a thick consistency. Don’t stop stirring.

Once halwa is thick, add sugar and mix it properly.

As sugar will start melting, the consistency of halwa will be thin again and halwa will turn into beautiful brown colour.

Reduce the heat on sim and let halwa cook slowly till it becomes thick again. Don’t forget to stir in between. When halwa becomes thick, switch off the heat and add a little bit of desi ghee on top to give a nice fragrance.

Sprinkle, cardamom powder, grated coconut powder and coarsely chopped dry nuts. Sooji ka Halwa is ready to be served.

April 22, 2022

Deeksha Pathak35 Comments

Rajbhog

To celebrate the festival of Basant Panchmi this year, I decided to prepare Rajbhog. The below pictures of Rajbhog are when the first time I had successfully prepared this sweet dish. I was so thrilled with the outcome that I had clicked and sent these pictures to my mother!

Basant Panchami festival in India signifies the arrival of spring season. Goddess Saraswati is worshipped and everyone wears yellow coloured clothes. One dish is cooked which has yellow colour – either savory or sweet. In North India this time mustard crops are in full bloom and fields are full of yellow mustard flowers.

To carry on this yellow coloured sweet dish preparation, Rajbhog was perfect .It is prepared with chenna/ paneer (curdled milk). It is very close to Rasgulla (Rasgulla) , and the only difference between these two is that Rajbhog is slightly stuffed with dry nuts and saffron is added for colour and fragrance.

Ingredients:

1 litre full fat milk
I lemon juice (can be replaced with 1 tbsp vinegar)
2 cups sugar (granulated)
4 1/2 cup water
1 tbsp finely chopped mixed dry nuts and cardamom powder
a few strands of saffron
Seeds of 2-3 whole cardamom
Keep ready one tray of ice cubes

Method:

In one tbsp of hot milk, add some strands of saffron in a small bowl and keep it aside. Cut dry nuts finely and keep them along with cardamom powder in a bowl. In a separate bowl, keep whole cardamom seeds.

Take one big bowl and on top of it keep strainer covered with muslin cloth to sieve curdled milk. The whey water can be used to knead dough or use it for curries.

Squeeze out lemon juice, sieve it, add equal amount of water to the lemon juice and keep it separately.

Boil milk, switch off the heat and pour lemon juice or vinegar. Milk will curdle as it is very hot.

When whole milk is curdled nicely, pour immediately in the strainer which is covered with muslin cloth and add ice cubes.

Let the chenna remain in muslin cloth and wash it nicely in the running water so that no taste of lemon or vinegar remains. Squeeze out all water from chenna.

Now hang this chenna in muslin cloth for 15 min, so that the rest of the the water drains out. If you feel that chenna still has moisture after hanging also, squeeze it with your hands along with muslin cloth.

Now chenna is completely dry. Sieve saffron milk (keep saffron strands safe) and add this into chenna to add moisture and beautiful yellow colour. Mix it properly so that whole chenna gets absorbed in yellow colour.

Rub it nicely with your palms so that all the grains of chenna become soft and it can be collected like a dough.

Prepare equal sized small balls from this whole chenna dough. There should not be any cracks in the balls. If you are getting cracks, rub the chenna ball between your palms and again make the ball.

Press the chenna ball with your finger and add little amount of finely cut mixture of dry nuts mixed with cardamom powder and again roll the ball neatly to seal the stuffing.

Now in a big size vessel or pressure cooker add water, sugar, saffron strands and cardamom seeds. Switch on the heat on high flame.

Keep stirring water till whole sugar is dissolved. The moment water starts boiling, add all chenna balls into this syrup and cover the vessel and keep some weight on the cover (if using cooker, let it boil till first whistle and then sim the flame for next 5-7 min.) Gas flame should be high for the first five minutes – then reduce it to sim for the next 5-7 minutes.

Switch off heat and let the steam cool down completely and then open the lid of the cooker. You will see that small balls of chenna have doubled in size.

Shift them to another bowl along with sugar syrup. Let them cool down completely. Once cooled, keep them in the fridge for 3 to 4 hours.

Serve chilled and garnish with dry nuts.

Spongy bright yellow coloured Rajbhog is ready to relish!!

February 4, 2022February 4, 2022

Deeksha Pathak72 Comments

Naariyal Ke Laddoo

Even though I usually prefer to follow traditional method for any sweet dish, Naariyal ke Laddoo with condensed milk is a very quick way to prepare these traditional laddoos. However, this time condensed milk was also Homemade Condensed Milk/Milkmade during Janamashtmi festival, so I decided to go ahead with this no-fail quick-fix recipe for preparing Naariyal ke laddoo.

While celebrating Janmashtmi, we keep fast (vrat) for whole day. This fasting is different than our usual fasting days as this day we don’t use grains and white salt to prepare prasad and food. Everything is prepared with milk or milk based products, dry fruits, fresh fruits and fruit based flours. So I prepared these laddoos for prasad.

This best part about this recipe is that there are no difficult steps to follow. We can make our kids also join-in in the preparation. Just prepare condensed milk one day in advance and next day delicious Naariyal ke laddoo will be ready within 30 to 40 minutes! We can add Khoya/Mawa also to enhance the taste.

Just like Naariyal ki burfi (coconut burfi), I used desiccated coconut powder in laddoos too. But if you want, you can use fresh coconut also. If so, remember that as fresh coconut has a lot of moisture, you will need more quantity of fresh coconut powder than written in the recipe.

Ingredients :

Condensed Milk 250 gms

Desiccated coconut powder 250 gms

1/4th cup extra coconut powder to roll out laddoos

Process :

Pour condensed milk in a big broad pan so that mixing is easy. Add coconut powder in condensed milk and mix it well. Mixture should be thick enough to roll it as firm round balls. If required, add some more coconut powder to get the right consistency.

Now take a little amount of mixture and give it a round shape of laddoo with your palms.

Roll this laddoo in dry coconut powder and repeat the process for all laddoos. And job done!

Isn’t this the fastest way to prepare delicious naariyal ke laddoo!! For longer shelf life keep these laddoos in the fridge.

September 1, 2020October 27, 2021

Deeksha Pathak113 Comments

Rabdi / Rabri

Rabdi /Rabri is milk based sweet dessert. In India milk sweets are prepared with a wide range of varieties. Some are done by curdling the milk, like Rasgulla , or by thickening milk, like Rasmalai or by thickening and then curdling the milk and so on…

Rabdi/ Rabri is prepared by thickening the milk and simultaneously collecting the milk cream (malai in Hindi) during the process of thickening and later adding it in the milk. Rabdi/ Rabri is generally served with other sweets such as ghevar, malpua, sweet bread toast, gulab jamun etc to enhance the taste, flavor and richness of sweets. But you can have it independently too. It has a thick creamy consistency of milk with small chunks of malai (milk cream). Rabdi tastes best if served chilled. So for your guests you can prepare it one day in advance.

Rabdi is prepared using full fat milk. It is a long time process and it needs our complete attention. Once milk is boiled, it is left on sim heat till the volume reduces to 1/4th quantity of the initial volume. While milk is becoming thick or concentrated, a layer of milk cream (malai) keeps appearing on the top of the milk. We have to collect this milk cream at regular intervals all around the sides of the milk vessel.

Now if you are using a light weight vessel, then this cream might get burnt and even milk will be stuck at the bottom of the vessel despite stirring. So always use thick heavy bottomed vessel to prepare Rabdi /Rabri.

While milk is thickening, it will change its colour to pale yellow and it can be served just like that after adding cardamom powder. But you can make it more flavored and attractive by adding saffron and by garnishing with a few dry fruits.

Doing some workout is advisable after relishing this delicious milk sweet as it will add on a lot of calories!!

INGREDIENTS :

Full fat milk 1 litre

Sugar 1/4 cup

Saffron strands 5-6

Cardamom powder and your choice of finely chopped dry fruits.

PROCESS:

Boil milk in a big heavy bottomed broad vessel. Usually in India we use kadai/ wok. It is a broad vessel and is helpful in collecting the milk cream around its edges and in making the milk evaporate faster.

Once milk is boiled, take out 2 tbsp milk in a bowl and add saffron strands to it. Reduce the heat to sim and let the milk become thick. After 5 minutes, add 2 tbsp saffron milk in the vessel. Keep stirring in between to avoid it sticking or burning at the bottom of the vessel (kadai/wok) . Simultaneously keep collecting the milk cream (malai) around the sides of the vessel.

Add sugar once milk has reduced to half of the quantity you originally started with. With the addition of sugar, milk will again become diluted. So let it keep boiling for some more time and when milk remains 1/4th of the of the initial quantity, switch off the heat.

With flat spatula slowly remove all milk cream from the edges of the vessel. If you are having difficulty in removing the milk cream, then pour thick milk from the vessel on it and it will come out easily.

Add cardamom powder after the cream cools down and add a few chopped nuts while serving.

May 1, 2020October 31, 2021

Deeksha Pathak53 Comments

Rasmalai

Rasmalai is that one sweet dish which my father-in-law loves the most. Now because of his health issues he is staying with us in Bangalore. But until two years back whenever we used to go visit him in Jaipur, he would always buy and keep one pack of rasmalai in the fridge. If some guest is coming home for lunch or dinner… dessert was always rasmalai!!

So when I learned to prepare rasgulla, I decided to try rasmalai also.

Like rasgulla, rasmalai is also prepared with paneer but here additional ingredient is milk, making it different from rasgulla.

If you can prepare rasgulla, then trust me…. 90% work is done here!

So, again I am posting the recipe of Rasgulla here (just in case if anyone has missed it) as it is the main ingredient in rasmalai. Next, we will turn these rasgullas into rasmalai.

Ingredients

Rasgulla :
1 kg full fat milk
1 lemon juice (can be replaced with 1 tbsp vinegar)
2 cups sugar (granulated)
4-1/2 cups water
2 to 3 whole cardamom seeds (optional)
Keep ready one tray of ice cubes

Rasmalai:
1 litre low fat milk
Sugar, as per your taste
Few saffron strands (optional)
Cardamom powder
Mixed dry fruits (chopped)

Method

Squeeze out lemon juice, sieve it, add equal amount of water to the lemon juice and keep this mixture separately.

Boil milk and pour lemon juice into it. The moment milk starts curdling (milk is so hot that it will curdle quickly), switch off gas.

When whole milk is curdled nicely, pour that immediately in a strainer covered with muslin cloth and add ice cubes to it.

Let this chhena remain in muslin cloth and wash it nicely in running water so that no taste of lemon or vinegar remains. Squeeze out all water from chhena. Finally, hang this chhena in the muslin cloth for 10-15 minutes so that the rest of the water drains out. If you feel that chhena is too wet, squeeze it with your hands.

Mash chhena properly. Rub it nicely with your hands so that all the grains of chhena become soft and you can collect it like a dough.

Prepare small balls of this whole chhena dough. There should not be any cracks in the balls. If you are still gettings cracks, rub the chhena ball between your palms and again make the ball.

Actually, for rasmalai we can gently press the ball of chhena to look like patties. Now, in a big sized vessel or cooker add water, sugar, and cardamom seeds. Switch on gas on high flame. Keep stirring water till whole sugar is dissolved. The moment the water starts boiling, add all your chhena balls into this syrup.

If you are using cooker, let it boil till first whistle and then sim the flame for next 5-7 minutes.

If you are using a vessel, keep the flame high for the first five minutes and then reduce it to sim for the next 5-7 minutes. Keep some weight on the cover.

Don’t let the rasgullas boil for more than the required time, else they will turn chewy instead of spongy.

Let the steam cool down and then open the lid of the cooker. You will see that your small balls of chhena have doubled in size.

Your spongy rasgullas are ready or we can say that the first step of rasmalai preparation is over.

Shift them to another bowl along with sugar syrup. Let them cool down completely and later keep them in the fridge for 2-3 hours so that rasgullas becomes slightly firm.

Rasmalai:

Boil low fat milk kept for rasmalai. Once milk starts boiling, keep the heat on sim. Keep the milk stirring so as to avoid it sticking to the bottom of the vessel. Boil it till the volume of the milk is reduced to half of the original. Add sugar and stir till sugar dissolves completely and switch the off gas. Milk consistency will be thin now. If interested, add cardamom powder and saffron strands for flavor and let the milk cool down completely.

After 2-3 hours take rasgullas out from the fridge. Squeeze each one by one gently between your palms to take the syrup out from them and keep them on a strainer so that rest of the syrup drains out.

Remember not to squeeze hard, otherwise rasgulla will break.

Add these rasgullas in ready milk and keep them in the fridge for 3-4 hours so that rasgullas will absorb the milk. Add finely chopped mixed dry fruits.

In half of the milk I added some strands of saffron and left the other half as it. That is why you can see the difference in color in both the bowls below.

Serve chilled, creamy, delicious rasmalai to your and dear friends and enjoy the showers of appreciation.. 💃💃💃💃

April 13, 2019October 27, 2021

Deeksha Pathak66 Comments

Rasgulla

I am a complete chenna based dessert person who doesn’t need any excuse to gorge on Rasgulla or Rasmalai sweets. And if I have homemade dessert, I just keep on searching for an excuse to go again and again into the kitchen.

During summer you just don’t feel like having high calories sweets. You crave for something light which can be digested easily. So I prefer to prepare sweets from paneer during the summer season.

Rasgulla from paneer can be the base dish for many sweets. So you first learn to prepare Rasgulla (believe me, its not so difficult as it seems) and the rest of the varieties will be very easy to prepare.

The secret of preparing the best spongy Rasgulla is in the right technique for preparing paneer. While searching for a good recipe for Rasgulla, I found a video by Vahvah chef about preparing Rasmalai. After watching this video i mastered (not at all exaggerating) the way to prepare Rasgulla. This is the picture of when I made Rasgulla successfully for the first time…

Later I tried rasmalai, rajbhog and cham- cham (malai-sandwich) successfully with the base of all these sweet dishes as rasgulla with little variations. I will be posting all of them in the blog, but first I am starting with Rasgulla recipe …..

Ingredients :

I kg full fat milk
I lemon juice(can be replaced with 1 tbsp vinegar)
2 cups sugar (granulated)
4 1/2 cup water
Seeds of 2-3 whole cardamom(optional)
Keep ready one tray of ice cubes
Method:
Squeeze out lemon juice, sieve it, add equal amount of water to the lemon juice and keep it separately.
Boil milk and pour lemon juice into it..
The moment milk starts curdling switch off gas…milk is so hot that it will curdle.

When whole milk is curdled nicely, immediately pour this in a strainer which is covered with muslin cloth and add ice cubes.

Let the chenna remain in muslin cloth and wash this nicely in running water so that no taste of lemon or vinegar remains. Squeeze out all water from chenna.
Now hang this chenna in muslin cloth for 10-15 min..so that rest of the water drains out.
Still If you feel that chenna is too wet, squeeze it with your hands

Mash chenna properly.
Rub it nicely with your hands so that all the grains of chenna become soft and you can collect it like a dough.

Prepare small balls of this whole chenna dough. There should not be any cracks in the balls.
And still if you are getting cracks, rub the chenna ball between your palms and again make the ball, or give it any other shape.

Now in a big size vessel or cooker add water, sugar, and cardamom seeds. Switch on gas on high flame.
Keep stirring water till whole sugar is dissolved, and the moment the water starts boiling, put all your chenna balls into this syrup and cover the vessel and keep some weight on the cover (if using cooker, let it boil till first whistle and then sim the flame for next 5-7 min). Gas flame should be high for the first five minuets and then reduce it to sim for next 5-7 minutes .

Let the steam cool down and then open the lid of the cooker. You will see that your small balls of chenna have doubled in size.

Your spongy Rasgullas are ready….!!
Shift them in another bowl along with sugar syrup. Let them cool down completely and later keep them in the fridge for 3-4 hours.