Mysore Pak

I've never been able to perfect sweets and I meant never until last week. It was a conscious decision to now try something new every Friday. Having totally messed up the cooking a few months ago, I am now trying to get it back on track. My GP knows why.

The mysorepak / mysurpa has always been a favorite - the Krishna Sweets melt in the mouth variety or the slightly hard home made variety. I am a sucker for sweets and have always been wanting to try this one over the last few years.

I used minimal quantities and made about 10 pieces. This way, I didn't have the guilt of wasting much. Not that I wasted anything. It was delicious, if I may say so :-)

Ingredients:

Besan / Chickpea flour / kadala maavu - 1/2 cup
Ghee - 1/2 cup (melted)
Sugar - 1/4 cup (I found the end result wanting for more sweetness, so you might want to increase the quantity here)
Water - 1/4 cup

greased pan / tray / dish - 1

Method:

1. Dry roast the besan and sieve it well. Do not miss this step.

2. Now comes the hard part - the sugar syrup. Among the myriad of consistencies, this particular dish calls for the single thread consistency. Add the water and sugar to the pan. Once the sugar dissolves completely, lower the heat to medium and let it bubble for a minute. After this, start checking for consistency. Wet your fingers and take a drop of the sugar syrup between your thumb and index finger. Stretch it slowly. It should form a single thread. Did you get it? No? Let it bubble for some more time. Just be super careful at this stage because if it crosses this stage, then you'd need to add more water, thin the syrup and again check for consistency. It's sheer patience and trial and error. Psst: I was sweating and nervous at this stage.

3. Once the desired consistency is reached, add the besan and keep stirring. Do not, I repeat, do not slacken here. As all the syrup gets absorbed, slowly start pouring the ghee. Let it absorb completely into the besan. Keep stirring with one hand, as you pour the ghee with another hand. This would take about 3-4 minutes on medium heat.  (Yes it's a fab arm toning exercise)

When it starts leaving the sides of the pan, pour it into the greased dish prepared earlier. (I am not sure how this stage is determined. It's purely instinct and practice. I used a non stick pan and it never stuck to the sides in any case.)

That's it. We are done. Make pieces when it's warm and eat right away.

Note: When I googled for "Besan in English", google promptly said Besan = Kiss in Spanish. I wonder..... :P :P 

This post is dedicated to S' dad who turns 70.

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Dal Makhni - Rich and Luscious

I've always loved the dal makhni served in restaurants and can simply polish off the bowl without any accompaniments. With the rains in Madras almost every evening, there's a craving for something hot and delicious. This rich and creamy soup can be eaten as is or with steamed jeera rice / chapatis.

Ingredients

Black urad (whole urad) - 1/2 cup
Tomato puree - 1 cup
ginger - 1" - peeled and chopped
garlic cloves - 2 - 3 peeled
green chilli - 2 - 3
salt - to taste

Fresh cream - 2 tbsp
Butter - 1tbsp
Garam masala - 1/2 tsp
Red Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
cumin - 1/2 tsp


Method:

Soak the lentils overnight and change the water at least twice.

Pressure cook the lentils along with green chilli, ginger and garlic. Drain the excess water and mash the lentils well.

In a saucepan, melt some butter, add cumin. Once it splutters, add the tomato puree and bring it to a boil. Add the mashed lentils, chilli powder, garam masala powder, salt and let it simmer. Add the fresh cream and butter and cook covered for 15 minutes, until the gravy thickens into a creamy luscious soup.

To get the rich brown color, you can either add food color or saffron soaked in warm milk. 

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Falafels

I had a sudden craving for falafels and seeing a friend post pictures on Facebook didn't quite help the cause. I'd decided to make it over the weekend that went by in such a dizzying speed that I hardly had the time to breathe. Monday dawned and I'd made chapati and chole for lunch. A bowl of chole was left over and stuck into the fridge.

 This evening, as I was coming back from work, I suddenly remembered the chole. Why not, right?

This is what I did. Mashed the chole in a blender. It already had all the spices and salt; so I really didn't need to add anything extra. For the binding, I added some whole wheat flour and blended into a nice sticky dough. I made little balls out of those and fried them in oil. So simple, is it not?

I enjoyed this with a bit of horseradish sauce and some thick curd. 

This also reminds me of a dish that S made when I was stuck in the salon for a few hours. Previous day's paneer masala was ground in the blender, mixed with some rice flour for binding and deep fried into cutlets. It was delicious, especially after the grueling beauty treatments in the salon. :) :)

What better way to use up leftovers!

PS: As I was frying the falafels, I also rolled a small chunk of the dough into a thin parantha and cooked it in the tava. The result was just fabulous.

Falafels

The falafel parantha ;-)

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