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Paan Rasmalai

Rasmalai is a delicious Bengali sweet which is popular all over India. Boiled Paneer( malai) patties soaked into flavorful milk syrup called rasmalai. Making rasmalai is easy however the key step of making soft paneer is little tricky. If paneer is not soft then paneer patties will become hard. Earlier I have shared traditional saffron, cardamom and mango flavored rasmalai. In India, people love to eat paan after lunch or dinner as mouth refresher. This recipe is made with paneer, sugar, paan leaves, kewra and rose essence milk syrup. Adding paan leaves (betel leaves) into this recipe gives a piquant aroma and refreshing taste to the rasmali. Paan flavored rasmalai comes out very tasty. if you like paan, do try this recipe I am sure you will love this unique flavored rasmalai. 

Pumpkin Kheer

Pumpkin is a multipurpose vegetable which can be used to prepare curries as well as sweet dishes. Earlier in my blog, I have shared pumpkin cupcakes and pumpkin curry recipe. This recipe is a sweet dish popularly known as pumpkin kheer in North India and pumpkin payasam in Southern India. Freshly grated pumpkin is cooked into milk and flavoured with nutmeg powder, cardamom powder. Garnished with pista and saffron, the pumpkin kheer tastes awesome. It’s good to use fresh pumpkin however if it’s not available, you can use canned. This is very easy recipe and can be prepared on any occasion. 

Strawberry Modak

Wishing you all a very happy Ganesh Chaturthi!!

Ukadiche Modak is a very famous Maharashtra sweet dumpling which is offered to Lord Ganesha during Ganesh Chaturthi festival celebration. Modak is made using rice flour shell which is filled with a sweet mixture of grated coconut, jaggery, poppy seeds and flavored with green cardamon and nutmeg powder. The Ukadiche modak is steam cooked. As such there are varieties of modak’s recipes like mava modak, puran modak, kesari modak and dry fruit modak. I have also published couple of modak recipes Ukadiche Modak and Indian blackberry Modak. This recipe is a another variation of modak recipe which has a filling based on strawberry. Straberry gives a unique fruit flavor as well as sweet and sour taste to the modak. Rest of the filling ingredients are same like coconut, mava and jaggery. Preparing modak first time or first few time could be a daunting task as it requires patience and some practice to get the right texture and shape. There are some modak mold available and you can try that. Strawberries

 

Churma Ladoo

Churma is a popular and traditional Rajasthani delicacy. Churma is part of a main meal known as Daal Baati Churama which is very famous in Rajasthan, India. Churma is a prepared using coarse ground wheat flour, cooked with ghee and sugar/jaggry. Although it is a very simple recipe however it takes long time to prepare and requires patience. The Churma balls are cooked on low to medium flame to ensure it is cooked well. There are two ways it can be served as a Churma granules or made as a Ladoo. These ladoo looks very similar to besan ladoo and takes time to make each one of them. These delicious ladoos are also used to worship Lord Ganesha. I am very thankful to my friend for sharing this delicious recipe.

Motichoor Ladoo

Motichoor ladoo is a delicious mouthwatering sweet which is famous in Northern part of India. Ladoo is commonly offered to GOD during worship as well as served on festival or occasions. These ladoos are all time favorite of my kids favorite. The ladoos are made from batter made of besan flour and deep fried in oil/ghee, then simmered in sugar syrup to thicken for final preparation. The laddos are flavored with rose essences and cardamon powder. The most important part of the recipe is the batter consistency and temperature of oil/ghee. Batter consistency should be medium thin so that it easily pass through Jhara. The process is little complex as you need to tap Jhara over the heated oil/ghee pot at a consistent speed to get the boondi shape. To make fine boondi you need Jhara with fine holes.

Motichoor laddo and boondi ladoo are little different with each other as boondis for motichoor is much finer than boondis of boondi ladoo. Preparing these ladoos is a bit time consuming and involved process and requires little practice and patience to get it perfect. I was able to get it right in my second attempt. I prepared these for Diwali and it came out perfect.

 

Strawberry Chum Chum

Chum chum is delicious Bengali sweet similar to Rasogulla which is prepared using home made paneer balls soaked in to sugar syrup. Chum chum is little different as it has mawa filling and then rolled into desiccated coconut. Chum chums is generally made in oval shape. This recipe attempts to give a fruit flavored taste to Chum Chum using strawberry. If you don’t like strawberry, you can use any other fruit or skip that too. The recipe uses homemade mawa for chum chum filling. You can buy ready made mava from the store although homemade is always fresh and tastes better.

Besan Laddoo

Besan laddoo is one of the most popular delicious Indian sweet across all over India. Besan (gram flour) laddoo made with ingredients like roasted besan, ghee or butter, sugar and flavored with green cardamom powder and pistachios. Besan laddoo is all time favorite of my kids. The aroma of roasted besan is awesome. Normally, the sweets like laddoos are made on special occasions like Diwali, Ganesh chaturthi and other festivals, however you can make any time. The recipe for besan laddoo is very simple and easy. The most important part of recipe is right level of roasting, consistency and texture of the mix. The texture of the besan ladoo is soft however you could still feel the granularity of roasted besan. You could share laddos as gift pack to family & friends and it could last for about a month.