Makha
Shondesh/Sandesh is basically a grandma staple from Bengali kitchens that got
lost in the race to become modern. It’s an extremely easy recipe, involving
just 2 ingredients, and no fuss or elbow grease. I am sure it takes less time
than your microwaveable cakes, it contains less calories than those mug cakes
and has better nutrition than any pastry or cakes at all. So I bring to you all
lovely people, a simple dish, which is as delectable as bongs themselves.
Ingredients
200
Gms paneer or cottage cheese.
2
to 3 Tbsp. of melted date or palm jaggery. In fact a friend pointed out date
syrup, and even that works for this.
A
mixer grinder
A
splash of milk
A
pinch of salt.
I
bet you already have all these ingredients in home. Just whizz it up and
believe me, you would just thank me for it. CHEEERS!!
This week, we made my toddler’s favourite snack- smileys. For
any mother the above plate is blasphemous and she would cringe at the thought
of giving this to her toddler to eat for Sunday lunch. But believe it or not, I
did give this to my toddler on Sunday, and yet we were a happy duo. He was
happy because he loves to have tasty finger food. I was happy because each and
every component was made at home, and provided a balance nutrition to my child.
The fish fingers were marinated and coated in a bread crumb mixture at home,
and then stored in freezer bags. Sometimes I deep fry them, and sometimes I bake
them. In any case it provides a healthy protein in my fussy toddler’s plate.
The smileys in question had carrots, green leaves and
potatoes together. It was extremely tasty and my toddler finished all of these
on Sunday. I saw he enjoyed feeding himself at intervals. I kept these neatly
stacked in a see through glass jar. He would play, and come to grab one from
the jar, eat as a snack, and back to his cars to play. It’s a sheer joy to see
him feed himself, and it’s a nice feeling to be away from the chore of
mandatorily sitting to feed him a meal. I let him enjoy his day, his way. And that
let us both enjoy the holiday a bit better!!
I have posted the videos on my YouTube channel as well as on
my FB page. Please feel free to like comment and share! Cheers!!
Ingredients
2medium carrot
and 2 medium potatoes boiled and smashed to bits
Salt to taste
1 cup Cornflour, to make a dough
Pepper to taste
Flavourings fresh or dried herbs to taste- I used chopped leaves of parsley, onion and garlic from
my garden.
1 tbsp of oil
Tools required
A rolling pin to evenly roll out the dough
A chopstick with a round bottom to make eyes of the smileys
I start today with tradition. If the picture up there seems salavatingly amazing, then you got to try these recipes one after another. Today I bring to you the most integral part of any big Bengali Bhoj (BBB) - ILISH or Hilsa or Indian Shad or Hilsa Herring. This is a great recipe for a relaxed sunday lunch. Very few ingredients in the best part of the dish, followed by the time taken from start to finish is just 10 Minutes.
Indian Shad, Hilsa or Ilish, Bangladesh’s national fish is a pride for any bong ever born. From the Pride that a Kaku (uncle) feels when he walks past the envious stares of his neighbours and mates, with a big ilish tail peeking through his fish-carrying-bag; to the pride of a Kakima’s(aunty’s) fish filleting skills with a sharp iron cutting device (Boti); its pride all the way!!! And the best of it all has to be, when their young child starts eating the fish, without the fine bones stuck to his throat. I remember when I did that, and till date my dad looks at me with pride in his eyes!! :-P
Enough of jibber-jabber about bongs, now to the fish in question; ‘Ilish’. A perfectly cooked piece of ilish is ideally soft, flaky and full of flavour. I prefer making steamed ilish in a mustard sauce (Ilish Bhanpe) over and over again. In fact I repurposed my introduction to the dish on it. It tastes the best when the fish is freshest. The flavour of this flaky white fish lies in the numerous tiny bones all around its body, which makes eating this fish a skill that bongs have mastered. Ilish is an acquired taste, but trust me, when u do acquire the taste, you wont be able to let it go...
But now, let's talk of the times when you have those last few pieces lying in the freezer; since a week or 2. That would be the perfect time to make this simple dish. The fresh milk in the stew will keep the fish moist and flavourful all along. It's a pride of a dish, for a pride of the fish!!! Respect it the most tomorrow, because come Monday, and its time for the vegetarian navratra to start.
Ingredients
Unlike Baking, where the measurement of each component is related to science behind it being made properly, stove-top cooking is much relaxed and based on taste. I am going to provide you with a basic measurement idea, but suit yourself and tailor make this dish based on your and your family's taste buds.
1 Cup Milk
1 tsp Turmeric
Salt to taste
Green chillies to taste
2 big pinches of Kalonji/Kala Jeera/Nigella Seeds
1 small dry red chilly
2 tbsp of Mustard Oil
4 steak kind pieces of Hilsa, which needs to be marinated in salt and turmeric for minimum of 30 minutes.
It’s the weekend again… And I had been working very hard to
get you covered for the weekend pangs completely. I have in the week uploaded
quite a lot of videos, made and ate those things to gain weight considerably. But
hey, we live one life only. And these luxurious enjoyments are the most satisfying,
in the most inexpensive way possible. So if you are like me, and you feel the
same; then I have got you covered with amazing video recipes for the full 2
days.
Firstly, I want to thank my favourite person in the world
for a thoughtful gift in these packets of freshly milled flour. I still have no clue as to who and/or why sent this gift towards me, but I thank that unknown figure for the happiness it got to so many people. I made a sweet
braided bread and brownies with it. And I thought it would be perfect to share
with friends and family, considering it’s a gift I loved the most. So my friend
Sourabh thanks you for the amazing brownies he ate, and his lovely wife thanks
you for instilling in the desire to bake again. She did bake actually, and took it
for her mother in law’s birthday bash. Speaking of mother in laws, mine is
pretty happy too. She enjoyed the pillowy softness of the strawberry braided
bread, and revelled on compliments given to her in a small kitty party she
organized. So, you see, you actually caught the good will of many people, by
this act! Thanking you to the moon and back.
I have the Sunday morning baking sorted with this luscious pillowy
strawberry filled braided bread that is perfect for packing on the go breakfast
or snack tiffin’s throughout the week.
But right now, let’s talk about the Friday night hunger pangs,
that you know you would start feeling when the kids are packed off to bed. We are
all the same, at the end, we just want to relax with nice low music, and a creamy
little kind-of-guilt-free treat. It is my- 2 Ingredient Kaju Barfi.
Now I call it 2 ingredients as it is majorly just 2, but a
pinch of salt is mandatory for better flavour. So count that in always. Let’s switch
to the pointers, I know so many of you love that about my recipes. So here we
go-
This is not baking, so really measurements are
not that important. Taste while you make, and sweeten it to your liking. I am
more of a dark chocolate and black coffee kind of person, so feel free if you
need to add more or less of condensed milk.
Don’t be scared of making nut butters. It just
is whizzed up nuts in a mixer grinder. And cashew nuts are easiest to make
butters of as the fat content in cashew nut is way more in comparison to other
nuts. Even if you don’t dry roast the cashews, you would still have a very
flavourful butter at your hand. Dry roasting, or warming the nuts just aid the
butter formation, but it isn’t extremely important.
Condensed milk is your friend if you want to maintain
a healthy weight, and yet enjoy these occasional treats. Why do you ask? Well condensed
milk is made of milk solids and sugar, firstly a very clean product, sans any
addition of chemicals. Secondly, if you mix condensed milk to fibres of some
sort, and heat it up, it releases out a lot of fat. You will see in the video
how much fat I removed out of these barfi’s. And yet it stays perfectly moist
and fudgy for a week at room temperature. In fact, I still have some nutty
laddus that I made 2 to 3 weeks back, and it is perfectly holding its shape and
flavour. It is a processed, but stable product. But, please refrain from licking
the full tin on its own. Then, I am afraid, I cant be blamed for it.
So I have covered all the points. And now all there is to it
is for me to write the ingredients, and send you off to my YouTube Channel for
the easy process of making these Fudgy Barfies.
Ingredients
½ cup + ¼ cup of broken kaju
/ Cashewnuts
¼ cup condensed milk
A pinch of salt
Optional is to add a pinch of elaichi powder/ cardamom Powder
Who in their right mind can deny a piece of fudgy brownie? Even the steel like determination wager, when you have this tower of leaning brownies in front of you. Its not a sin to dive your teeth into these deliciousness, but it would be a sin if I hadn't shared my Fool Proof Oooey gooey brownie recipe with you. And I am scared of sins!!!
So here it is.. The method is on Youtube! AND WHILE YOU ARE THERE, DO NOT FORGET TO LIKE AND SUBSCRIBE TO MY CHANNEL. Cheers!! Ingredients 1 Cup Milk 80 gms chopped Dark Chocolate, the darkest is better. Refrain from using milk chocolate. 100 gms of Salted Butter 1/2 cup Cocoa Powder 1.5 tsp Instant Coffee 2 Eggs 1/2 cup Oil 1 cup White Sugar 1 handful of Chocolate Chips 1 handful of Walnuts 1 cup All Purpose Flour
All purpose flour is your biggest enemy, so get the batter consistency right; just as shown in the video.
Coffee helps enhance the chocolatey flavour of the brownies, so do not omit adding it.
Oil and butter are key to the recipe. Oil provides a squeeshy softness, while butter provides thew richness.
And a minimum of 50 % dark cocoa based chocolates should be used to make these brownies. More the cocoa content, more darker and complex the taste of the brownies become. I mostly use 70 % dark chocolate. And I love the bitter complex taste it provides. Even, after adding a cup of sugar.
HOLIHAI!!!! And from today onwards, the
festivities start... I have a simple recipe of ‘not like elastic KarachiHalwa,’ to share with you tonight. I am very particular about food,
and this is the perfect blend of chewy softness, married with the crunch and
texture of nuts. It’s the perfect food gift to take to a Holi party, if you are
invited to one that is. I aren’t, so I am just going to play Holi with my cosy
family of 3, and then gorge on some homemade thadai and KarachiHalwa. Write to me about your plans for Holi
too.
I made this recipe on Thursday. My day was fully packed with meetings after meetings. I had no time to even drink some water, let alone
eating something. So when I came home exhausted, I rewound while making this
recipe in the night. It’s a labour intensive recipe, which just needs your
muscle power, while your mind wonders off to the crazy events for the day. If you haven't tried it already, trust me; cooking is the greatest stress relievers of
all times. The mind wanders off in the thick and thin of philosophy, while
hands grease off on the stove. It truly works for me. Try it, I am sure it
would for u too. And when the rewards are such sweets, then the family doesn’t complain
too.
Ingredients
½ cup Corn flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
3 tsp vinegar
6 to 7 tbsp melted ghee or butter.
A pinch of salt
¼ tsp cardamom powder, or to taste
1/3 tsp haldi orturmeric powder for colour
1 cup roughly chopped nuts (take all your favourites)
Optional is to add 3-4 drops of saffron essence (I am
absolutely obsessed with this find of mine. I added it and everyone loved it. You
can alternatively use crushed saffron strands too)
Clean & Deliciously tackling the festival calories, with Skinny Laddus.
Holi is right around the corner. And I am determined to show
you a way to enjoy this festival of colours in the cleanest and purest form
ever. By no means am I going to tell you to not play colours with your near and
dear ones. But why not colour this season yellow with turmeric powder. For a geela surprise, stain your friend a deep
crimson with fresh beetroot grated. I can go on and on about these clean
procedures, but it's food that’s on my mind, and it food I want to write about.
Festivals in India are deliciously decadent. Every corner of
this big country has a delicacy especially made for Holi. Neighbours take
packets of mithai and visit your
apartment. You too have to return the favour. But how about if you can add a
healthy twist to this favour? What if you tell people, especially the ones who
are struggling with weight issues that they can have this laddu without worrying about calories? Won’t there be a perfect
smile on their face, a big thank you to your soul? Just to take that
pleasureful thought in, I devised this healthy, yet decadent homemade sweet,
that I lovingly named Skinny Nutty
Laddus. It’s the technique that is important, and not substitution of
ingredients. As I told you earlier, I am not a big fan of counting calories,
but a bigger fan of devising such techniques that eliminate calories with
ingenious processes. These laddus are made of real ghee/butter, nuts, sugar and
condensed milk. It’s made of pure substances, yet you would see how I take out
calories off the final product by following simple steps. I am doing all this
to just make you understand that going sugar free doesn’t mean to start using chemicalized
sweeteners. Ghee and butter are not your enemies. But if you can follow
moderation, then enjoy these pleasureful decadence. After all we live just 1 life.
Before I get in with the recipe, let me jot down a few
pointers about 3 basic ingredients I have used in this recipe. This would allow
you to understand this revolutionary recipe, a bit better. :-P
First on the list had to be besan or chickpea flour. This is a flour made out of
garbanzo/chickpea which is notoriously lumpy in nature. It is actually a good
source of plant based protein, and contains a fair amount of minerals and
fibres. The sifting process does eliminate some fibres off the recipe, but hey-
this is still much healthier than a piece of cake, frosted or not. Now this
flour has a tendency of soaking in a lot of liquid. Like the ghee it soaked up
in the video below. But if you can cook it to the right temperature and provide
another source of liquid in that temperature, it would render out that ghee
that it soaked earlier. So now you know, it is one of the best flours to use in
a skinny recipe like this. And after the condensed milk was added, it rendered
out a considerable amount of fat off itself.
Nut butters are the second most important
ingredient. It’s the good fat in the nut which emulsifies with the fibres and
create nut butter. Mostly, you can make walnut and cashewnut butters without
adding any additional fat as these nuts are full of essential oils. In the
recipe I have used half of walnut and other half of peanut butter. Walnuts are
bitter, so decide on your own combination of nut butters. But having said that,
walnuts are undoubtedly the healthiest nut of the family. So choose wisely.
Condensed milk too makes to the list. I used Amul’s
tinned condensed milk. This article hasn’t been sponsored by amul at all, but I
still mentioned the company’s name as it is one of the cleanest products on
shelf. The ingredient list contains just 2 things, milk solids and sugar. And you
just need these 2 for the recipe. Also the little tin of 200 gms, is easy to
open and can be recycled. So it’s a win win for me.
Enough of gyaan. Hopefully you all feel much enlightened. Now
to the recipe---
