Jalebi and a giveaway

For those who missed out on my last giveaway, here is a chance to win a gift voucher again. CSN stores have offered another chance to our readers to win a £60 gift voucher that can be used on one of their 6 UK websites. They have a huge collection of items on their stores ranging from cookware to lights to furniture. And they even have their summer sale going on, so you can grab a lot more for the money!

The giveaway ends 4-Sep, and the rules are the same as before

• Visit CSN stores, and comment here what would you like to win? You don't have to necessarily buy the item in case you are the winner..just ..you know ..no harm dreaming ..

• Follow Snacksgiving publicly - Just click on the "Follow" button on the right pane of this blog and leave a comment to this post

To have extra entries

• Tweet about this giveaway. Just copy and paste this on twitter.RT @Snacksgiving : Win a gift card from CSN stores http://bit.ly/a8oor2 #giveaway #contest

• "Like" Snacksgiving on Facebook. And then comment here again.

Now on to the recipe.

Question: What does a jalebi mean to you?

1. Heaven on a plate..I could eat a kilo without a blink!
2. meh..yet another syrupy sweet from India
3. never heard it, never tried it..

My vote would always go to "Heaven on a plate". And I did eat a kilo. Ok not exactly a kilo, but very close - about 25 pieces of jalebi :-) And I could have eaten more. But there weren't any left. They aren't healthy stuff, but when you have been craving for something for a few days, then healthy , nutritous and all their synonyms just go out-the window.

I had been wanting to eat these, but hadn't found the perfect jalebi in any of the restaurants I had eaten in here in Zurich. This is not something that I have made in the past, so had to search a bit for the perfect recipe. The traditional method involves fermentation for 24 hours (!), but I really didn't have the patience or a long weekend to wait that long. So what did I do? Hmm..I feel guilty saying this on a food blog - but I opened up a packet of "Jalebi mix" :-)

All I had to do then was to add water to make the batter, fry it, and dip it in sugar syrup. But you see, I can't just leave that as the recipe here :-)

So I'll write the recipe that I'll use the next time - I hope that isn't any time soon though. This is from the wonderful Manjula aunty from Manjula's kitchen. Umm..I want to eat them again right now!

INGREDIENTS:

Batter:

• 1/2 cup All Purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon besan (gram flour)
• 1/2 teaspoon yeast
• 1/2 teaspoon oil
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• About 1/3 cup of lukewarm water (as needed)

Syrup:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• Pinch of cardamom powder
• Few strands of saffron
• 1 teaspoon of lemon juice

Also needed:

• Oil to fry

INSTRUCTIONS:

Batter:

1. Dissolve the yeast in warm water and let it sit for about five minutes.
2. Mix the flour, besan (gram flour), oil, and sugar together.
3. Add the yeast solution and mix well, making sure that there are no lumps and the batter is smooth.
4. Set the batter aside and let it sit in a warm place for one hour.
5. Make sure the batter is fermented, but do not over ferment. After fermenting batter will be little lacy.

Syrup:

1. Boil the sugar and water together. Add the lemon juice and saffron and close the heat.

Making Jalebis:

1. Heat the oil in a flat frying pan about 1 1/2″ deep. To check if the oil is ready, put ont drop of batter in the oil, the batter should sizzle and come up without changing in color right away.
2. Fill the Jalebi batter into a piping bag with a number 3 nozzle.
3. Squeeze the Jalebi batter out in the hot oil in a pretzel shape to about 2 inches in diameter.
4. Fry the Jalebis until golden-brown on both sides.
5. Transfer into the warm syrup.
6. Let jalebi soak in the hot syrup for a few seconds and take out.
7. Serve hot.

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Easy Chocolate Chip cookie, and a prelude to a giveaway!

A food blog can never really be complete without at least one recipe of the 'perfect' chocolate chip cookie, or at least the journey to finding one. I was myself a bit surprised that the one that I had made many moons ago, was not posted yet on the blog. Partly because it wasn't that perfect soft, chewy, decadent, satisfying recipe that I had been on the lookout for. But it was a very very easy recipe . A simple one pot cookie recipe. I picked up this one from 'Two Peas and their pod' , who in turn had adapted it from the book 'The Weekend Baker'

One Pot Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from Abigail Johnson Dodge in The Weekend Baker

Makes 26 cookies

8 tablespoons (4 ounces/113 grams) unsalted butter, cut in 4 pieces
½ cup (4 ounces/113 grams) firmly packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup (2 ½ ounces/71 grams) granulated sugar
1 ½ cups (6 ¾ ounces/191 grams) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup (6 ounces/170 grams) semisweet chocolate chips or if you are in Switzerland aka 'the-land-where-you-cant-buy-chocolate-chips', then a bar of chocolate broken into small chunks would be fine.

1 – Position an oven rack on the middle rung. Heat the oven to 350 degrees (180 C). Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment or nonstick baking liners( eg. Silpat)

2 – Put the butter in a medium saucepan and set over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the butter is melted. Slide the pan from the heat and add the brown sugar and granulated sugar. Whisk until no lumps remain. Set aside to let cool, about 5 minutes.

3 – In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Whisk until well blended. Once the butter mixture has cooled, add the egg and vanilla and whisk until blended. Pour in the flour mixture and stir with a rubber spatula until blended. Stir in the chocolate chips and the nuts, if using.

4 – Using a small ice-cream scoop (about 1 2/3 inches/4.25 cm in diameter) or 2 tablespoons, drop scant 2-tablespoon mounds of the dough onto the prepared cookie sheets, arranging them about 1 1/2 inches (4cm) apart. (At this point, the loaded cookie sheets can be slipped into the freezer until the cookies are frozen, about 1 hour. Then transfer the cookies to heavy-duty freezer bags and freeze for up to 3 months. To bake, remove from the freezer, arrange on lined cookie sheets, and leave on the counter to thaw slightly while the oven heats.)

5 – Bake 1 sheet at a time (make sure to use a cooled sheet for the second batch until the cookies are light golden around the edges and puffed, about 12 minutes. If these cookies are over baked, the won’t come out chewy. Transfer the cookie sheet to a rack to cool for about 10 minutes. Using a spatula, lift the cookies from the sheet onto a rack and let cool completely.

Stay tuned for a giveaway in my next post!

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Cherry Crumble

Hope the summer is finding you happy, eating loads of ice-cream, and planning, or maybe enjoying a good summer break. Or returning from one, and planning for the next one?. Isn't planning for vacation as enjoyable as the vacation itself? I love dreaming about and looking forward to a nice break every few months - it's just what sometimes keeps me sane! Come back from one, and immediately look at the calender for the next available opportunity for another mini- break :-)

This past weekend we had planned for a weekend break to Colmar, but it didn't happen thanks to the rainy Saturday. Instead, we just headed for the very colourful farmer's market later in the day, and loaded up on cherries, blueberries, melons and honey mangoes and ...

I used up most of the cherries in a delicious crumble. Fruit crumble really is such an easy, quick to put together dessert, so versatile, and you can rarely go wrong with it. This cherry crumble is more about the fresh fruit rather than the butter and cream. Just the perfect dessert for a beautiful summer evening.

INGREDIENTS (per ramekin)

• 7-8 pitted cherries

For the streusel topping/crumble

• 2 tablespoons rolled oats
• 1 tablespoon of all purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons slivered/chopped almonds
• 1 tablespoon demerara or turbinado sugar. Light brown sugar would also be fine.
• a pinch of salt
• a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
• a tablespoon of cold butter
• softened butter for greasing the cups

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Generously butter each ramekin
2. Preheat the oven to 400F
3. throw in the pitted cherries in the ramekin
4. In a bowl, add in all the ingredients for the crumble except butter. Mix them slightly with your hands
5. Now add in the cold butter and combine with the dry ingredients with your fingers. The crumble should look and feel like ..well..a crumble..or coarse bread crumbs.
6. Place this crumb mixture on top of the fruit in each ramekin
7. Bake for about 25 minutes

Some of the characteristics and serving suggestions

• I love desserts, but I don't like them to be too sweet. When it comes to a crumble, made with summer fruits, eaten on a hot day, I much prefer the dish to be light and fruity, slightly tart served with a good quality vanilla bean ice-cream, rather than a rich and heavy cobbler-esque dessert.
• If you are making this dish on a cold winter day, eating it warm straight out of the oven, with a dollop of whipped cream would be perfect.
• But on a hot and sunny beautiful summer's say - one of the few that we in Zurich are blessed with this season, I say reduce the sugar, chill the crumble and eat with a scoop of ice cream. Or better, have it for breakfast the next day - that's what we did, and loved it :)

The slight tartness and juiciness of the cherries, the crumbly texture of the streusel topping, and the smoothness and coolness of the ice-cream - now that is a beautiful and refreshing dish that is very satisfying as well!

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Shahi Tukra - Emperor's morsel

As you can tell, I am still keeping my promise. Another Indian dish. The dish is called "Shahi Tukra" or Emperor's Morsel. The very name speaks of royalty, decadence and richness. It is all of these, only easier than it sounds!

This is a type of bread pudding that has its origins in the Mughlai cuisine. Mughlai cuisine is a South Asian cuisine, influenced by the imperial kitchens of the Mughal Empire. The cuisine is strongly influenced by Persian, and Turkic cuisines of Central Asia.
Shahi Tukra is a rich dessert made with bread, ghee, saffron, sugar, rabri(a cardamom flavored reduction of whole milk), almonds and an optional gold or silver leaf for added opulence!

Another not-so-royal name that it is known with is "Double ka meetha". Double here referring to bread - just an Indian name of bread - Double Roti, while "meetha" meaning sweet.

With a name so rich and opulent sounding, there is no way I am going to try to make it healthy. It must be eaten with all the fat, cream, sugar and white bread that you can eat! So here is the recipe





INGREDIENTS
For the Rabri
• 3 cups whole milk
• 3 Cardamom pods, crushed

For the sugar syrup
• 1/4 cup Sugar
• 1/4 cup Water

• 4 slices Bread
• 3 tbsp Ghee
• 4-5 Pistachios, blanched and chopped
• 4-5 Almonds, toasted and sliced
• 4-5 raisins(optional)
• Few strands of saffron

DIRECTIONS

1. Cut each slice of bread into 4 pieces . A day or two old bread works best for this recipe. If using fresh bread, keep it in a very low oven for about 10 minutes until the bread dries up a bit. This is in order to avoid the bread from soaking up too much ghee.
2. To make the sugar syrup, mix sugar and water and set the mixture to boil. Now, simmer the solution for about 10 minutes.
3. Take a pan and set the milk to boil. Simmer it until it reduces to 1/4th quantity. Keep stirring occasionally so that it does not stick to the pan. Now, add the crushed cardamom, pistachios and few strands of saffron to the thickened milk. This is our rabri.
4. Add in the ghee to a non-stick pan and lightly fry the bread until golden brown on both sides.
5. Dip the fried bread in the sugar syrup for about a minute.
6. Arrange the slices on the serving dish
7. Now, spread the rabri onto the bread and sprinkle some almonds, and saffron strands over it.

Oh, and before I forget - thanks to the last month's DMBLGIT judges for judging one of our pictures amongst the winners. The "Life After Coffee" picture was awarded the 3rd place in the March 2010 edition of DMBLGIT. Here is a link to the post with all the winners.


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Coconut burfi

I continue from my last post on my love and craving for 'desi' sweets and desserts around this time of the year. The celebratory atmosphere is just infectious, isn't it? A time to let go and forget about the calories for a change - after all the time to make new resolutions is not far!

Coconut burfi is what's on the menu today. Another one of my childhood favourites. Although we rarely made it at home, it was regularly seen around the house when we would have guests over. And I would wait for the guests to leave so I could eat them all up! Haha! Fun times!
Anyways, for those not familiar with a burfi - it is a fudge like Indian sweet and is prepared with a lot of different ingredients and flavours - the popular ones being cashew, almond, coconut, or just with thickened milk.

So here is the recipe.
4 cups finely grated coconut
1 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk
4-5 cardamom pods - seeded and crushed
Pistachios for garnish

Traditionally, a fresh coconut is used, and of course it gives the best results. But since it is not so readily available here, the dry one from the grocery store works fine and is quick and convenient.
Dry roast the coconut on medium-low heat for a couple of minutes until it releases the typical coconut-y aroma (around 8-10 minutes). Sprinkle the crushed cardamom seeds and stir. Add in the condensed milk and stir. Continue stirring until it all starts to clump up - this should take only about 3 - 4 minutes. At this time, pour it onto a greased plate. Flatten it out evenly and let it rest for about 10 minutes. Allow it to set in the refrigerator for about 45 minutes to an hour. Take it out, cut it into squares and garnish with pistachios. Share

Malpua - Sweet Indian pancakes in syrup

Amidst all the Christmas festivities and the numerous cakes and desserts to be seen at this time of the year, there are days when I crave something totally ..well, "Desi"! By 'desi', I mean Indian. There are so many amazing desserts and sweets that we make during our festival season, that I am finding myself craving for so many of those these days!
Malpua - a sweet pancake dipped in syrup, and served with milk pudding(kheer), is one of my favourite dishes that my mom makes on some special occasions. The way we make it at home is way too cumbersome for me, and yes, I have tried it a few times, and failed on every occasion :-)
So I took the shorter route, and I can proudly say that it has been successful in each attempt. This one uses condensed milk. Here is the recipe

For the pancake
1/2 can sweetened condensed milk (200 g/7 oz)
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 cup semolina. (You can substitute it with all purpose flour if you can't find semolina)
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup water
a pinch of salt
oil for deep frying
pistachios/nuts for garnish

For the syrup
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup water.

Prepare the syrup by bringing sugar and water to a boil. Keep it aside. I don't make my syrup too thick. Most people recommend a single thread consistency for this syrup. But I like it to be thin, and don't soak my pancakes in it for longer than a minute either. The condensed milk adds sufficient sweetness for my taste.
For the pancake - mix in all the dry ingredients. Then add the condensed milk, and water to form the batter. Deep fry these pancakes in hot oil for a about a minute each side - until they turn golden brown.
Dip these in syrup for about a minute. Serve them on a plate and garnish with pistachios.
These are served with milk pudding, but I didn't make any. So I served it with ice-cream. Vanilla ice-cream would be just perfect with these babies. Share

Almond Tuile..or is it a Taco!

I had discovered the 'tuiles aux amandes' while on a visit to Paris 2 years ago. I shall blog about it in another post, but since that day, I am in love with this yet another French treat! But a wonderful twist to this biscuit came in the form of a dessert at a restaurant here in Zurich. It was a giant tuile - probably better to call it a taco, filled with fresh fruits, served with some chocolate sauce! It was wonderful! And the tuile was very light! The entire dessert made for such a wonderful end to an excellent meal.
I looked up the net, and found just the perfect dessert for the odd day when I have a lot of fresh fruit that I want to deck up and serve. Here is the quick and easy (of course!) recipe

- 1/2 cup almond meal
- 3 tablespoons sugar(of course you could double or triple(quadruple?) the sugar!)
- 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons water
- Fresh fruit
- Chocolate sauce - either a ready made one - or melt your favourite chocolate!

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor, add in the almond meal (you could use almonds as well, and grind them to a powder), sugar, water and blitz for a few seconds. You should get a paste that is not too runny, but not stiff either - some sort of a goopy consistency means you are good to go. Line the baking sheet with wax/parchment paper. Drop the batter (batter?) onto the sheet, and spread it out into a thin circle - make the biscuit as thin as you can - the oven will do the rest.
Bake it for about 10 minutes. As soon as it is out of the oven, take the wax paper with the biscuit and make it into a U shape. Let it rest like that - you could place the sheet between 2 glasses or something. This is what will give you the taco shape.
Once cooled, place it on a plate with some chocolate sauce, fill in the taco with fruit, throw in a mint leaf for colour. There you have it. A light and refreshing dessert with all the goodness of almonds and chocolate. Share

Beetroot halwa

Do not forget to enter for the $100 giveaway on this blog. Open internationally! Link available here!

So who wants a dessert that is healthy too? And has more nutrients than you can count. Don't think too hard - I'll answer it for you - it is my latest favourite dessert - Beetroot halwa. A quick search on the holistic benefits of beetroot will enlighten you on how good it is for you, but I had been eyeing on turning this vegetable into something that I can fall in love with. I don't like it raw, I don't like it in salads, not in a vegetable curry, not in a soup..yeah I am quite choosy that way. But I need my iron. I will not turn this into a health bulletin but all you folks who don't eat red meat - you need your iron - which you'll find aplenty in this veggie.

So last weekend i tried turning it into a dessert - a halwa. Traditionally a halwa uses copious amounts of ghee(clarified butter), but since it is not so easily available in stores(except Indian and health food stores) I replaced it with a can of condensed milk. And it was ready in minutes. Of course after 30 mins of my work out in grating it very fine. So here is how I made it.



- 1 large beetroot washed, peeled and finely grated
- 1/2 can of sweetened condensed milk
- 2 and 1/2 tablespoons ghee/butter
- 4-5 cardamom pods or 1 teaspoon of cardamom powder
- 1 tablespoonful of cashews/pistachios/almonds
- 1 tablespoon raisins

Heat 1 and 1/2 tablespoon ghee or butter in a heavy bottomed pan. Add in the beetroot and fry it on medium heat for about 10 mins. Add in the cardamom. Then add the condensed milk and reduce the heat. Keep stirring for 20-25 mins. In a seperate pan, add in the remaining 1 tablespoon of ghee and then the nuts and raisins. Once the nuts get a light brown colour and the raisins puff up, add them to the halwa.
Add some more nuts for garnish while serving.

I made this last weekend just as a test since I am known for not liking this humble vegetable, but was surprised when my husband ate up 2 cup fulls of deliciousness and demanded I make it more often. And I couldn't be happier to finally start my love affair with this vegetable so understated! Share

Birchermüesli

Nothing can be as quintessential a swiss breakfast as a bowl of hearty Birchermüesli or simply Muesli. And those not all too familiar with the 'guttural CH' or the "gargled R" sounds of German, here is a bit of pronunciation course. Bir-kher-Mew-slee. And trust me, if you are not German, or Swiss German, you will NOT be able to pronounce it the way people here do. I was once told by a Swiss friend, that I should gargle and practice if I want to perfect it. Needless to say, I gave up right there!
For all you followers of the Quick Quaker Oats(or whatever it's called), this is my humble request to you. Just try this one out for once. It is almost as easy as getting stuff straight out of a box - just that you may need to open too many boxes :). And you need to pre-plan a bit.
This recipe was originally created by the physician Bircher-Benner, but has been now adapted to suit different tastes and lifestyles.



The kind that I made is just one variation. The traditional one uses apples - you could use whatever fruits you like or are in season. Also the choice of nuts is upto you. The important thing is to soak the oats the night before - or at least a couple of hours before serving. So here is how I made it.
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1/2 cup orange juice
- 1/2 cup yoghurt
- Some chopped and/or flaked almonds
- handful of raisins
- 1 cup blackberries
Soak the oats in juice and yoghurt and refrigerate it overnight.
Before serving, add in a few blackberries per serving in a bowl and crush them. Mix it with the oats-yoghurt mixture until you get the colour you like. Now add in the nuts, raisins, and more blackberries if you like.
There you have a healthy, nutritious and easy breakfast.

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Tiramisu

Tiramisu - translated it means 'pick me up'. Just one look at it, and it will beckon you to sink your teeth into it! It is one of those very simple - no bake desserts and all you need to prepare it is assemble a few ingredients. And then wait. Wait patiently until it is ready to be 'picked up'. This is an Italian dessert and found in trattorias all over Italy, and of course much loved the world over. Here is how you make it. Of course there is no one way to make it, it is so versatile that you can alter it any way you like it. Here is how I make it, and it is quite close to the traditional way to prepare it. You need

250 gm Mascarpone cheese
3 eggs - seperated
5 tablespoons of sugar
1 and 1/2 cup coffee - freshly brewed, and cooled to room temperature
ladyfingers - 1 package containing 24 pieces
grated dark chocolate and/or unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons rum. Dark rum is usually used, but since I had run out of it, I used white rum.



Alcohol is optional, and also the amount added varies from person to person ;)
For variation, you could try Kahlua (coffee liqueur)or good quality marsala wine. For a slighltly fruit-flavoured tiramisu, you could use orange liqueur, cherry liqueur..the options are really all upto you I'd say.
Here is how to assemble it all together. Put some coffee to brew - make it a strong brew. Leave it to cool. Now beat the egg yolks and sugar. Slowly add the mascarpone and continue beating. Add 1 tablespoon of the espresso, and mix it as well.
In a seperate bowl, whip the egg whites until it forms stiff peaks. Now fold the egg whites into the yolk-cheese mixture.
Pour the coffee in a dish big enough so you can dip the lady fingers in them. Add the rum in the cooled coffee. Dip the ladyfingers in the coffee-rum mix and layer them in a 9x12 dish. Do not be tempted to dip the ladyfingers for too long. Just place it for no more than 3 seconds else it will break apart. After the first layer is done, spread the mascarpone, egg mixture evenly. Layer more coffee dipped ladyfingers, and then another layer of the mascarpone.
Cover it and place in the fridge for at least 4 hours before serving. Sprinkle generously with cocoa powder and grated chocolate. Bon appetit! Share

Sandesh

I made yet another batch of those whole wheat oatmeal cookies whole wheat oatmeal cookies yesterday - only this time, I doubled the amount of chocolate chips. And reduced the oatmeal. It's still not the same as a decadent double chocolate chip cookie that I was craving for. Actually I wanted to have something really sweet, and a lot of it! So today I made an Indian dessert. Who loves Indian food? Mee me me!!! This one is as simple as it gets, and it only uses a few ingredients. Creamy, soft, decadent. That's what it is. 'Sandesh' is what it's called. And it is made with an Indian cheese - paneer. I am sure you have had a dish with paneer at least once in an Indian restaurant. If you haven't, boy, are you missing something in life or what! Go try one. My recommendation - Paneer tikka masala (somebody's mouth is watering!)
So here is how you make paneer.


Take 8 cups of whole milk. Bring it to a boil, preferably in a non stick pot. Add in about a quarter cup freshly squeezed lemon juice, little at a time. Vinegar also works fine. Keep stirring - and in a matter of moments you will see the whey seperating from the milk. Once that happens, strain it through a cheesecloth, twist it so the water squeezes out. Dip this in a bowl of water(just to get rid of any lemony taste it may have). Twist the cheesecloth and try to squeeze out all the water. If needed, put some weight on it for about 10 minutes to help get rid of the water. Now it is ready to use.
Here are the rest of the ingredients you will need
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
Pistachios - about 20 pistachios. 1 for each piece of sandesh. And some very finely chopped, just to sprinkle on top.
A pinch of saffron soaked in warm milk

Mix the sugar, cardamom in the paneer. Knead it for a few minutes. Now put it on low heat, and stir it continuously for about 6-7 minutes. This step is important because stirring, and mashing it with a rubber spatula will ensure a soft and creamy texture. Once it is cool enough to work with, roll it into balls, or any shape you like. For the garnish add a drop of the saffron soaked milk and pistachios on each piece, and enjoy!
This post goes to the JFI Saffron Event Share