Sweet rice(Binach. Marwari name)

                                                             Sweet Rice

                                                     

Rice is staple food in most of the states in India.Day to day meal rice is eaten in its simplest form i,e.
Rice cooked in water. By using this white grain and adding different spices or seasoning numerous dishes can be prepared viz. spicy or sweet.In southern part of India Tamarind rice,Lemon rice,
Curd rice and so on. In northern part spicy rice dishes are commonly known as Pulao or Tehari in marwar area.A rich rice preparation is also called as Rajasthani Kabuli. Recipe for this can be find in this blog.In this post I am telling about rice as a desert.Party is never complete without desert and these modern times in most of the parties readymade desert is being served to save time and energy of the organisers.


This is very simple and all the ingredients are available easily in our pantry.


Ingredients required
Basmati rice        1 cup
Sugar.                   1/8.  cup
Ghee.                     4 tablespoon
Cardamom powder.   1 teaspoon
Saffron.  Soaked in water or milk.    Few strands

Cloves.                     8
Cashews.                  8
Raisins.                     8
Almonds.    (Slivered).  8
     
Wash rice in water.    

In a pressure cooker add one cup water and add rice .Put lid and after one whistle remove cooker from stove.Let it cool and open the cooker.
In a thick bottom or non stick pan pour ghee and put on burner.When ghee is hot enough to give aroma then add cloves and cashews ,almonds now add rice and stir gently then add sugar ,saffron and cardamom powder .Stir gently till all the seasoning get mixed with rice now add raisins.
Sweet rice is ready to serve.
Enjoy this desert with your family.

Gujiya

With same ingredients one can make so many varieties of dishes .Is not it amazing?
I will be making gujiyas today which is prepared mostly during festivals .These are not easily available in shops except during holi at few places.
Ingredients required

125 gms maida
50 gms mawa
25 gms sugar powder
25 gms ghee for Moyan
Ghee for frying
2 teaspoon cardamom powder
4 tab spoon sliced almonds and pistachio
Making stuffing

In a thick bottom pan roast mawa on slow burner till it turns pink and gives a good aroma .Let it cool and mix sugar powder and sliced dry fruits and cardamom powder.





Covering for gujiya

Mix ghee in maida and rub in between two hands till ghee is thoroughly  mixed with maida.Now knead the maida with little water and make a dough of puri consistency.  Cover the dough with a moist cloth for 20 minutes.Knead and reknead it to make it a soft dough.Make 12  equal balls out of



this dough.Roll these into a 3"diameter puri.With a spoon put stuffing in the centre and fold it to get a shape of semi circle.Sealthe edges with the help of water and pressing it.Now keep on turning the edge in single direction to give a shape to the edge.Make all gujiyas this way and keep aside.In a thick bottom pan heat ghee for frying .Fry gujiya in a slow heat till these are golden brown.
Let these gujiya cool and then store in an airtight container.Should consumed in a week.
Happy Diwali to all.

Gujiya molds are in market and can be used for making but I prefer the shape given by hands.

kheer chawal ki (Rice pudding)

                                                                               

 Whenever some guests arrive in the house without prior notice or we have desire to eat some sweet dish then either halwa or kheer which can be made in a short notice as all the ingredients are easily available in our pantry.So let us make chawal ki kheer (rice pudding) today.

Ingredients  
  1 litre milk 
 25 gms rice
4 tab spoon sugar


1/2teaspoon cardamom powder
a pinch of saffron (soaked in water or milk)
8 almonds chopped
8 pistachio  chopped

  In a thick bottomed pan pour milk and put it on the burner.When milk starts boiling then add rice .Stir occasionally.Lower the flame to avoid milk from spilling out of the vessel.after 10 or 15 minutes rice will be cooked.Then add sugar and stir .Switch off the flame after adding the sugar.Add cardamom and saffron.
Now garnish with pistachio and almonds.
Kheer is ready to serve.If you want to eat cold then let it get chilled by keeping in refrigerator for 1 hour and then serve.

Gulab Jamun

                                           

Naming a mithai is as important as its creation because part of the allure of a mithai is the anticipation of eating it.  Imarti (Amrati), Naan Khataai, Rasgulla are good examples of successful Naamkaran of mithais. In this discussion, Gulab Jamun is an interesting name.  Gulab means rose, although  Gulab could also mean the essence (water) of flowers.  Jamuns are berries that grow on tall trees, dark purple in color and juicy and sweet when ripe.  So perhaps a Halwaai, seeing these sweet delights swimming in scented(perhaps with the

J)

 essence of rose) sweet water was reminded of the juiciness of the dark jamuns. Gulab Jamuns are the best mithai item for a winter day or night party.  Served warm with some ice cream on the side, they are the perfect finish for a perfect lunch or dinner.
You can make Gulab Jamuns really fast with Gits packets that can be bought from Indian stores but if you really want to make them taste like Junta Sweet Home (Jodhpur's famous sweet shop) then you have to put a little bit of effort and have to set aside some calories, because no self respecting Marwari makes mithai in oil.  Gulab Jamuns have to be fried in Ghee for the real Marwari taste.
So, the most important ingredient for Gulab Jamuns is mawa which should be fresh and pure and smooth, i.e. without any lumps. If you cannot get it from the stores then it can be made at home which of course is a bit time consuming process. However, as I like to remind my daughters, compared to what I had to do in the 80s and 90s for making mawa at home, today it takes no time at all given the availability of half and half, and nonstick pans. 
Ingredients

250 gms fresh mawa

40 gms maida

1 1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 cup ghee (clarified butter) for frying

Making syrup

In a thick bottomed pan put sugar and add 1/2 cup water and let it boil. Keep on stirring it till sugar dissolves and starts boiling. Switch off the flame after two minutes. Syrup is ready.

In a bowl take mawa and maida and knead thoroughly to make a homogegous mixture. Now make twenty balls of this mixture. In a frying pan preferably with two handles (kadahi) pour ghee and let it heat. When ghee is ready for frying then put balls in the pan and fry on slow fire. These balls will be very soft initially so be carefull while turning them. Instead of stirring hold the pan with both hands and move it so these can be fried uniformally. When they are golden brown take out and put in the syrup. Gulab jamuns are ready to serve .

Kheer sewaiyan ki

Here's another quick and easy Mithai recipe.

Kheer is the integral part of Indian festive thali.The main ingredients of kheer is milk.And the taste can be varied by changing the combination. It can be of rice .makhana ,sabudana ,and sewaiyan..Let us make sewaiyan kheer.
Ingredients:

 whole milk 1 litre
sewaiyan   or vermicelli  1/2 cup
1 table spoon ghee
Sugar  1/2 cup
saffron  a pinch
10 almonds
10 pistachios
6 pods of cardamom
Soak the saffron in a cup with 2 teaspoon of water
micowave the almonds and pistachio for 20 minutes and then break  or cut into pieces .Remove the cardamom seeds from the pods and ground in fine powder.

In a non stick pan pour ghee and put it on the flame. Add sewaiyan and start stirring till the sewaiyan turns golden brown. It will take less than 5 minutes. Remove from the flame.

Pour the milk in big thick bottomed pan and put it on the flame. When milk starts boiling then pour roasted sewaiyan in the boiling milk. Stir occasionally taking care that it does not stick to the bottom.Let it boil for next 10 minutes so the kheer gets a thick consistency. Now remove from the flame add soaked saffron,cardamom powder.Stir and then garnish with almonds and pistachios.
Kheer can be served hot or cold depending on the time of the day and personal preferences.  Either way, you can not serve a more festive mithai!

Gajar Halwa (carrot halwa)

This being lower in calories than other sweet dishes is more popular .During winter best quality of carrots are available.This is the best dessert one can have in winter without being bothered about calories as amount of fat is very less.

Ingredients:-

                             




                        
Carrots  1 kg 

milk 11/2 kg

sugar 1 cup

10 pods of cardamom 

roasted and sliced almonds and pistachio

wash carrots and scrape and Grate 

In a non stick thick bottom pan pour the milk and add  grated carrots

Let the milk boil and evaporate  this mixture of carrots and milk.Keep stirring occasionally so that it does not stick to the bottom of the pan. It will take 50 minutes for milk to evaporate .This will turn into a semi solid mass.Now in another pan put 4 table spoon ghee and add this semi solid mass.

Stir it for ten miutes and then add 1 cup of sugar.Now add cardamoom and mix well.Switch off the flame and garnish with dry fruits.

Enjoy gajar halwa on a winter lunch or dinner.

Halwa

                                             

Halwa is one of the quickest and easiest mithais that can be whipped up with some very basic kitchen ingredients.  Halwa embodies the simplest, the most universal idea of mithai or sweets:  Flour, butter, milk, sugar, nuts and spices!  It is amazing just how many combinations of these ingredients can be put together in various processing steps to create hundreds of tried and tested sweet recipes around the world.
To be clear, the word Halwa/Halva is an Arabic word and the sweet confection Halva is known by etymologically similar words in multiple countries in North Africa, easter Europe, Middle East and South Asia.  In the middle east and beyond, it can also refer to sweets made by using various nut butters, the most popular being the Sesame Halva made with Tahini (Sesame Butter).
In North India, we commonly make Halva with Flour, not nuts.  In other parts of the country, Halva is referred to as Sheera/Seera etc.  The preparation can differ in the extent of flour roasting or the amount of sugar/butter etc. but the essence is the same.

What's specific to every region therefore is this proportion between flour, butter and sugar etc. The Marwari halwa is traditionally quite heavy on the sugar and butter as can be seen in the couplet below: 
आटे से जल चौगुना और खांड जो दुगुनी होय
घी बराबर डालिए और शीरा सखरा होय
In its defence, the traditional Halwa belongs to an era when young men and women engaged in physically demanding activities in a day's routine.  Unlike today, even the urban men walked miles in the course of a day.  Without buses and cars, they embraced the autonomy of a bicycle proudly rode miles in a day.  Similarly, women did equally demanding work at home.  Such active lifestyles demanded equally rich food, and halwa was a popular addition to a meal especially in the cold winter months.  Now with increasingly sedentary lifestyles within homes and outside, it has become essential to cut calories wherever possible, and thankfully halwa can be subjected to such scrutiny and alteration without any loss of flavor.
In this section we will make three different types of halwaa made with four different ingredients: Sooji, Aata, gajar and Daal.

1.Sooji ka halwa

Ingredients:
1 cup sooji (cream of wheat)

1 cup ghee

3/4 cup sugar

1 cup milk
10 pods of cardamom (powdered)
A pinch of saffron(soaked in a tablespoon of water)
20 almonds (microwave for 90 seconds and cut into pieces)
In a nonstick pan put ghee and sooji and roast the sooji by stirring continuously for ten minutes till the sooji is golden brown. 
Stir in hot milk.  After this add two cups of hot water and stir and add sugar.  Stir for next two minutes and you will see the halwa leaving the sides of the pan with ghee oozing out of it.
Add cardamom powder and saffron water. Switch off the flame and garnish with almonds pieces. Halwa should be served hot. In Rajasthan, the popular accompaniment to Halwa is papad which helps break the monotony of eating something sweet.

2. Atte ka halwa

This halwa has same recipe as is sooji ka halwa. Sooji is replaced by atta(Wheat flour).  Atta roasts faster than Sooji due to a smaller grain size -within 8 minutes compared to 10 minutes for Sooji.

3. Moong ki dal ka halwa   (A Winter Delicacy)

Being high in calories it is prepared in winter. Preparation requires time and energy both.  But the end result melts in mouth with a buttery taste and is definitely worth every ounce of effort. This is the traditional marwari dish that has finally gained recognition in all parts of the country.
1 cup yellow moong dal

1 cup ghee

1 1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup mawa

10 pods of cardamom

a pinch of saffaron  (soaked in water)

15 almonds

Soak the moong dal inwater for 4 hours.Drain the water and grind in a mixer making a smooth paste.
Roast the mawa in a thick bottom pan till it turns golden brown.
Making syrup
In separate pan put sugar with 1 cup of water put on the flame and stir till the sugar dissolves.When it starts boiling then take away from flame.Add cardamom powder and saffron water to it. Microwave the almonds for 90 seconds and cut into pieces.
In a separate thick bottom non stick pan put ghee and dal paste.Switch on the flame and start stirring continuously. The paste will tend to stick to the bottom of the pan but can be avoided by proper stirring and heavy bottom.It wil take full 5o minutes to roast it completely.At initial stage negligence may lead to lump formation.After 20 minutes of roasting it will become easy to stir as the water will evaporate and mixture will get fried in the ghee.Within next 25 minutes it will turn to golden  colour.At this stage put roasted mawa to it and stir.for next 5 minutes An aroma of fried moong dal paste and the color turning to brown  will tell you that it is ready.Now add sugar syrup to it stir for 2 minutes and turn off the flame .Garnish with roasted and sliced almonds.

Moong dal halwa is ready to serve.
Check out the Gajar Halwa in a separate post.

Besan barfi

                                            Besan barfi

This burfi is unique as the besan takes on a granular form.  The rich taste of this barfi comes from these roasted granules which when soaked in syrup form a rich buttery texture. 
Ingredients:
Besan two cups
Sugar 1 1/2 cup
Ghee 1 1/2 cup
Khoya  1 cup
Cardamom 10 pods
Saffron a pinch soaked in water
Sliced almonds 4 tablespoons
In a pan roast khoya with three tablespoon ghee till it is golden brown.
Making granular besan

There are two methods for giving the granular texture to the besan.
1 By deep frying khurma
In the besan put moyan and mix well.With lukewarm water make a
puree consistency dough of besan. Divide the dough in twenty equal sized balls.Hold the ball in your palm and close it to give the
shape of a muthiya to the dough.make twenty muthiyas.Then deep fry these muthiyas in ghee and let these get cooled.Put the fried khurmas in a grinder and grind .Sieve the mixture which is now having a granular texture. 
2. By mogari method. (This procedure is called mogari making in marwari) In a vessel add besan and four table spoons ghee 
and rub the besan with your palm then sprinkle it with sixty ml of hot water and leave it for ten minutes.
Now rub the this mixture with your hands and pass it through a big hole sieve (I used a colander here).  The besan takes a granular form with help of ghee and water upon passing through the sieve.

Put this granular besan in a kadahi and add the remaining ghee. Roast the besan for next twenty minutes stirring it constantly till it turns to golden brown.Now add roasted khoya and stirr for two minutes. Remove from the flame.

Syrup
In a vessel add 3/4 cup of water and sugar put it on flame and stirr till it starts boiling .Now check the consistency of the syrup.Take a drop of syrup in between the thumb and forefinger and try to make a thread out of it by moving your finger .When a consistency of one thread is visible then the syrup is ready.
Now add the besan and khoya mixture in the syrup  and stir gently and add powdered cardamom and soaked saffron in it .
In a greased plate spread it and garnish it with sliced almonds.
After an hour barfi is ready to cut and serve .

Precautions:
 1.  while adding syrup to mixture both mixture and syrup should not be boiling hot .
2.After adding the mixture and syrup too much of stirring should be avoided to retain the granular texture.
3. Setting time of barfi varies according to the weather if it is dry then it is ready to cut soon but in humid weather it takes longer time to set.

Lapsi

Lapasee has not received its due place in the broader Indian cuisine.  It's a traditional Marwari dish that is synonymous with Ganesh pujan in any family.  Home warmings, the first day of marriage celebrations, Yagyopaveets or any occasion that warrants seeking Ganesh ji's blessings also warrants the need for cooking a pot of Laapsee in the kitchen! It's best served hot when the fragrance of cardamom and saffron best mix with the rich aroma of roasted wheat, to draw even the most satiated person's attention.

     

Ingredients
1 cup broken wheat (in marwaree it is called laapsee ka baat)
1/2 cup ghee
1 1 cup jaggery grated
3 cups water
6 pods of cardamom
3 tablespoons of sliced almonds
a pinch of saffron ( soakes in one tablespoon water)
Process:
Put a thick bottom pan on medium flame and put ghee and broken wheat and keep stirring it for 12 minutes till it is golden brown. Then add boiling water and let it cook  for next fifteen to twenty  minutes till it is tender.
Now add grated jaggery in it and stir.Let the jaggery melt in it and cook for next five minutes .
Then  add   powdered cardamom ,saffron  and almonds .In one teaspoon of  saffron water mix four teaspoon of sugar and garnish the dish with this yellow colored sugar.  It is ready to serve.

Tips
1 cooking time depends upon the size of wheat dalia.
  in market one can find medium cut ,big cut or fine dalia.do not use fine which is too small sized grains .One can use medium or big for getting good results

2 If you are short of time then you can take help of pressure cooker also
   use  pressure cooker for frying the bat in ghee and stir till it is golden brown.
   Now add  boiling water (twice the volume of bat ) in it.Cover with its lid and cook for two whistles and remove from burner.Let the steam get condensed for next ten minutes .Now open and add grated jiggery mix it and cook for two minutes till the jiggery melts and mixes well.