My father-in-law loves sweets but is highly conscious about ghee and sugar. He insisted me to make Besan ke Laddoo and asked if they could be made with less ghee and sugar. This is my mother-in-law’s recipe. The original recipe calls for a 2:1:1 ratio of gram flour, ghee and sugar, but as I told you earlier, I modified the recipe to a lesser fatty one. So here in the recipe I will give you the original recipe as well as tell you how I modified it.

Ingredients:

3 cups coarse besan or gram flour,

1 1/2 cups ghee (I used only 1 cup),

1 3/4 cups powdered sugar (I used 1 1/4 cup),

1/2 cup crushed dry fruits like cashews, pistachios, almonds and raisins,

1/2 tsp ground elaichi (green cardamom).

Method:

Melt ghee in a heavy bottom kadhai and add the crushed nuts except raisins. Roast them on low flame for few minutes until they begin to brown. Drain them and set aside. Now add raisins and fry them in ghee for a minute. Drain and set them aside along with other fried nuts.

In the same kadhai, add gram flour and roast on low flame for around 20-25 minutes stirring continuously so that it does not burn. The sign to stop roasting flour would be that the flour becomes fragrant and turns very light brown in color. Do not over roast else it will burn and impart a bitter taste to the laddoos.

When done remove from flame and transfer to a big flattish plate (precisely a parat). If you have used 1 1/2 cups of ghee then wait for the mixture to cool down at room temperature before you add sugar. But if you are using 1 cup ghee as I did, add sugar to the flour immediately. I would suggest you to grind the powdered sugar for a few seconds before you add it to the flour. This way you ensure there are no lumps in sugar and it eases the mixing process.

Then add the fried nuts and mix well. Start rolling laddoos by holding a spoonful of mixture in between your palms and pressing it to fix.

With more quantity of ghee, rolling laddoos is very easy, but with lesser ghee, it make take up some efforts.

‘Kheer’ is an Indian pudding. There are different types of kheer and the preparation differs from state to state. Kheer in north indian subcontinent is thick with lots of dry fruits. This is one such rice kheer recipe from the place called Banaras/Benaras.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 liters or 8 cups of whole (100% fat) milk (you can also use low fat, but with whole milk kheer turns out a lot creamier),

3/4 cup rice (use any fragrant rice); soaked in water for an hour,

1 tin milkmaid or sweetened condensed milk,

1/2 tsp saffron strands (kesar),

20-25 almonds; blanched, peeled and chopped,

15-20 pistachios; chopped,

1/2 cup raisins,

1/2 tsp ground green cardamom (chhoti elaichi).

Method:

In a heavy bottom pot/deep pan, combine milk and rice and place on a medium heat.

Cook until the rice is done by stirring occasionally. Do not increase the flame else milk will spill over. Using a heavy spoon, mash the rice to break the grains. Do this only until the rice is broken and do not over do. Then add condensed milk, kesar and elaichi powder. Stir in the dry fruits (reserve some to garnish).

Serve the kheer while hot or chill before serving.

As we bid adieu to the year 2010, its time to list some popular recipes of foodatarian.com , throughout the year. Here is a list of 21 such recipes;

Quick Chicken Fritters

Cheese Fingers

Veg Cheese Croquettes

Green Baby Potatoes

Spanish Omelet

Roasted Mushrooms with Bean sprouts

Mediterranean Linguine with Vegetables

Pasta Marinara with Zucchini and Mozzarella

Thai Pineapple Fried Rice

Banana Strawberry Jam Muffins

Chocolate Coffee Cake

Chocolate Walnut Cake (Eggless)

Indian Cuisine

Corn Cutlets

Murgh Haryali Kebab

Methi Paneer (Indian-style Fenugreek with Cottage Cheese)

Undhiyu (Gujarati Mixed Vegetable)

No Fat Dal Makhani

Spicy Misal Pav

Sevaiyan or Sevai Kheer or Semiya

Anjeer Burfi (Fig Fudge)

How to reduce excess salt in food?

Which one is your favorite? Do write us back in the form of comments. Happy New Year!

My mom makes lovely sevai kheer, which I have been gorging on since my childhood. My mom-in-law also prepares delicious sevai kheer. The method is almost same with some minute difference. Today I thought of giving it a try and since none of them were actually present to guide me, I prepared Sevai Kheer with a mixture of both the recipes and it turned out really good. So I dedicate this recipe to both of them.

The preparation I made was not exactly kheer, you can called it just sevaiyan, which is bit dry than kheer. But you can increase the quantity of milk, if you like your kheer to be thinner.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups roasted or normal sevaiyan,

1 litre milk for dry sevaiyan and 1 1/2 litres milk for thinner sevai kheer,

1/2 cup sugar,

1/2 – 3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk,

3/4 tsp ground cardamom,

1/2 cup mixed dry fruits like cashew nuts, sliced almonds and raisins,

1/2 cup ghee or clarified butter,

Water as required.

Method:

Place milk on the stove and bring to boil. Then let it simmer until it reduces to almost 3/4th its quantity. Stir occasionally. Add sugar and when it dissolves remove from flame.

Then in a non-stick kadhai/pot, melt ghee on low flame. Add cashew nuts and roast them for 1-2 minutes until they start changing their color. Drain and transfer to a bowl. Similarly roast sliced almonds and raisins, one at a time. Drain and transfer to the same bowl. Then add sevaiyan to it and roast them stirring continuously. The sevaiyan should change their color to a lighter shade of brown if using roasted ones and to a lighter shade of pink. Take care that you do not burn sevaiyan. If you are using roasted sevaiyan, then you can roast them for 2-3 minutes and for normal sevaiyan, roast for around 5-6 minutes.

Then add little water to the sevaiyan, only to cover them up. Cover with a lid and let them cook for 1-2 minutes.

Uncover and mix with a spoon. You will find the sevaiyan are soft and separate from each other. Now add the reduced milk and give it a nice stir.

Add roasted dry fruits, ground cardamom and condensed milk.

Bring the mixture to boil. Serve hot or chilled.

TIP:
You need not reduce milk before adding to sevai, but adding reduced/thickened milk gives the kheer a nice creamy taste and texture. To thin out your kheer use 1 1/2 litres of milk.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 kg doodhi (bottlegourd),

250 gms khoya; crumbled,

300 gms sugar,

1/2 cup ghee,

8-10 elaichi (green cardamom) powdered,

A handful of dry fruits as per your choice,

Few drops of green food color (optional).

Method:

Peel and grate doodhi, then hold between your palms and press to drain out excess liquid. (Use this liquid is any vegetable or dal recipes as a replacement of water). Melt ghee in a pan and then add the grated doodhi and roast for few minutes on low flame. Cover and cook on low-medium flame till it is soft. Stir occasionally. Then add sugar and keep stirring till the mixture thickens.
Heat another pan and roast the khoya till it is fragrant and light brown in color. Then add to the dudhi mixture. Also add elaichi powder, green food color and dry fruits. Mix well, cover and cook for a minute and serve hot or chilled.