Chocolate Risotto

An experiment that worked! The starchy texture of risotto rice really works well for this pudding. You can substitute arborio rice with pudding rice as well. A really interesting twist.

Ingredients (serves 6)

1/3 cup risotto(arborio) rice
75 gm dark (cooking) chocolate,chopped
500 ml milk
1 tablespoon butter
1/3 can condensed milk
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1. Soak the rice for an hour.
2. In a heavy bottomed pan, add the butter, milk and rice and bring to a boil on a medium flame, stirring intermittently.
3. When milk boils, reduce the flame to sim and let the mixture simmer till the rice is cooked.
4. Add the condensed milk and the chocolate and stir till dissolved.
5. Let the mixture simmer till the pudding is thick and creamy.
6. Stir in the walnuts and serve the pudding chilled.

Gujarati Panki

For those who don't know, Panki is the only reason people can wait forever to be seated in Swati snacks and I cant blame them..it is one of my absolute favourite Gujju snacks . Rice flour pancakes cooked between banana leaves, they are an addiction! Had seen this recipe on TV once where the owner of Swati snacks was a guest chef, so I am confident this is as authentic as it gets. They taste almost the same too :)

Ingredients (makes about 15 pankis)

2 cups rice flour
1 cup curd
1 cup water
2 teaspoons ginger-green chilli paste
1 teaspoon haldi powder
salt to taste
1 garlic pod,crushed
1 teaspoon dhanya powder

Banana leaves
Oil
Green chutney

1. Mix all the ingredients for the batter and leave overnight (or 8 hours atleast) to ferment. The batter should be thin, thinner than dosa batter.
2. Cut the banana leaves as per the size of your tawa. Wash the leaves and pat them dry.
3. Heat a large non stick tawa/pan. Grease the leaves with oil on the darker, shiny side of the leaves.
4. Reduce flame to slow, place one leaf on the tawa, pour 2-3 spoons of the batter and spread over the leaf. Do not pour too much batter, the batter should appear translucent after pouring.
5. Place the matching leaf on top ,with the greased side touching the batter and increase the flame to medium high.
6. When the lower leaf shrinks and turns burn, flip the leaves over so that the panki is cooked from both sides. When both leaves have shrunk and turned brown, the panki is ready
7. Remove from the gas and serve with chutney or green chilli pickle. The aroma when the panki is opened is really divine!

First leaf with batter on the tawa

Second leaf on top

6 Katori Barfi

Happy Ganesh Chaturthi everyone !! The festival that really brings Mumbai to life ..one of my favourites too. Yes , modak is the traditional favourite but you can appease Him with anything sweet :) Hooked on to this super easy barfi recipe as easy as 1-2-3( well till 6 actually) . Learnt it from my friend's mom-in-law who calls it the 6 katori barfi as that's how easy it is to remember

Ingredients (makes about 24 squares)

1 katori milk (I use skimmed milk)
1 katori besan
1 katori ghee
1 katori dessicated coconut
2 katoris sugar

1. In a thick bottomed kadai (important), mix all the ingredients together.
2. Then place the kadai on a slow flame and start mixing the ingredients again slowly. This is all you need to do for about 20-25 minutes, with mixing required less in the beginning and more towards the end.
3. The mixture is ready when you notice the sides and the bottom of the kadhai turning brown and you need to scrape the sides more often. The mixture would have also reduced by almost half by now into a sticky mixture.
4. Pour onto a greased thali and spread out to to about 1 cm thickness. Garnish with coconut and elaichi powder
5. Cool and cut into squares.

Veg Seekh Kabab

An all time veg favourite appetiser of mine..finally decided to have a go at it myself! Mighty pleased with the results..going to be on most of my party menus henceforth.
I used an electric tandoor for this dish, you can use whatever you use at home for baking/grilling etc..nothing better than an outdoor barbecue grill!

Ingredients
2 medium boiled potatoes,mashed
1/2 cup grated paneer
1/2 cup mixed boiled vegetables (carrot ,peas) , mashed
1/2 teaspoon garlic paste
1 teaspoon ginger paste
2 chopped green chillies
salt to taste

For the dry paste
1 tablepsoon khus khus (poppy seeds)
3 tablespoons besan
1 tablespoon shahi jeera
1 badi elaichi
2 green elaichi
1 teaspoon chaat masala

To serve
Green chutney
Chat masala

1. Pre-heat oven to 250 deg Celcius or tandoor.
2. Dry roast the paste ingredients on a tawa on a medium flame till the besan turns into a medium brown color (or when you can smell the roasted besan )
2. Cool and grind into a fine powder
3. Add the paste to other ingredients and mix well.
4. Divide into small balls.
5. Take the kabab wooden sticks and grease each one lightly.
6. Place the mixture ball on your palm, flatten slightly . Press the stick onto the mxiture. Then close the mixture around the stick and using both hands spread the mixture along the length of the stick taking care not to let it break..can take a little pratice!
7. Spread the sticks onto the greased tray of the oven/tandoor and brush the top with oil/butter.
8. Bake till it looks like a tandoori dish :) (slighylty charred ) ..time depends on the heat and temperature settings of your tandoor/grill/oven
9. Remove from the sticks with a fork and cut into finger sized pieces and serve hot !

Chocolate Gulab Jamun

Re-starting my blog with a sweet surprise ..chocolate filled gulab jamuns! There is no recipe really..the name is what the recipe is.
I read this recipe in an in-flight magazine once and was waiting to try it out..came out as delicious as expected. I use Chitale Gulab Jamun mix for the recipe, you can try the same with any other mix, follow the measurements for the water as printed on the pack. I used regular dark cooking chocolate, you can use any chocolate you like. Serve hot ! That way the chocolate inside has melted when you bite into these delights :)

Ingredients

For the gulab jamun

One packet (200 gms) gulab jamun mix
120 ml water
1 cup chopped chocolate pieces, size of chick pea grains

For the sugar syrup
3 cups water
3 cups sugar
2 elaichi
1 cinnamon stick
1 clove

Oil for frying

1. Heat the oil in a heave bottomed pan.
2. Mix the water and the powder mix and knead into a soft dough. The mixture dries quickly so you need to be quick.
3. Take a small amount of dough, flatten it on your palm, place the chocolate piece on it and then roll the edges over the chocolate piece. (See photo below)
4. Do the same step for the entire dough. Fry the balls on a medium flame till a dark brown colour on all sides.
5. For the sugar syrup boil all ingredients till you get a one thread sugar syrup (to test place a drop of syrup and your thumb, press your index finger over it and then separate the fingers slowly. The syrup between the fingers should form an unbroken single thread)
6. Soak the gulab jamuns in the syrup till nice and fluffy and then serve hot. Even better really hot with ice cream !