Ice Cream Sandwich

Last week Daddy bought sandwich ice cream from the ice cream shop downstairs. It was soft and yummy. I thought to try out this simple recipe at home using Bour Bon biscuit and vanilla ice cream.

It is super quick recipe and you can just grab your mouthful with it. Kids are going to love this ice cream sandwich. Also if you add on your creativity to it, it can turn out to be an unusual dessert for your guests.

You can try it with any of the combinations like your favourite ice cream, chocolate sauce, chocolate sprinklers and biscuits.

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Making time: 10 minutes

Serves- 6 sandwich ice cream

What goes in it:

Vanilla ice cream- 1 cup

Bour Bon biscuit- 1 small packet

How did I make it:

Twist open the biscuit and lay them on the plate such that you can put ice cream on the cream layered biscuit.

Using a small spoon, put ample of vanilla ice cream on the biscuit. Level it properly from the edges.

[Foodies’ Note: Don’t be too slow at this point because you would not want your ice cream to melt.]

Put second layer of the biscuit on the ice cream and press a bit gently.

You can grab it right there and then. Or refrigerate it for few hours and then eat this yummy biscuit sandwich ice cream.

I personally liked after freezing. I refrigerated it for 6 hours. You will feel the delicious cool vanilla-chocolaty taste.

Try and experiment with different biscuits. Oreo biscuits will also be a tempting combination with vanilla ice cream... 

Rasgulla

I never thought I would be cooking rasgulla myself at home when until recently I was at my uncle’s place for lunch. Any meal is incomplete without a sweet; yummy rasgulla completed the perfect Gujju meal. It was then and there, I was tempted to cook rasgulla myself at home.

I browsed through various rasgulla recipes on internet. And came across this simple recipe for making rasgulla on sharmis passion blog.

I cooked it once but was not successful as they cracked while cooking in sugar syrup. Second time I again tried cooking it with a little change in the ingredients. This time I added cornflour as binding agent and a little sugar while rounding paneer balls. And Yipeee I was successful making round and soft rasgulla.

Cooking time: 40 minutes

Makes: 12-14 nos

What goes in it:

Milk- ½ ltr

Lemon juice- 1 ½ tbl spn

Sugar- ½ cup

Water- 1 ½ cup

Cornflour- ½ tbl spn

Cardamom powder- ¼ tbl spn (infact less than that, a pinch)

Ice cubes- 4 to 5 nos

How did I make it:

Take milk in a cooking pot. Switch on the gas on high flame and boil milk. As milk boils, add lemon drops one by one. Keep on stirring the milk as you add lemon drops.

As you will stir continuously, milk will slowly curdle up.

As milk curdles up, switch off the gas stove.  Add 4 to 5 ice cubes and let them melt completely. Drain off the whey water using a strainer or channi.

Tie this curdled milk in a cloth. Hang it for 30-40 minutes.

[Foodies’ Note: After half hour when you open up the colth. It will be paneer (cottage cheese).]

After hanging it for sufficient time squeeze in the extra water. Open up the cloth and put it in a plate.

Crumble the paneer. Add cornflour to it. Cornflour will act as a binding agent so rasgulla does not break when you cook it in sugar syrup or chasni.

Knead the paneer with cornflour properly for about 10-15 minutes till you get smooth pliable dough. More properly you knead the paneer, softer the rasgulla will be.

Make 10-12 small balls out of it. While making balls put very little sugar (less than a pinch) in it and make round balls. Keep it aside. See to it there are no cracks while you round the balls.

In a heavy bottomed vessel, put water and sugar. And heat them till it boils. Sprinkle a pinch of cardamom powder for flavour. As the sugar syrup boils, slowly add balls one by one to it.

Cook rasgulla on medium flame keeping it covered for 10 minutes. As you will see, the rasgulla will grow in size. The rasgullas are then done and let it cool.

After sometime transfer to a small container and refrigerate it.  Take out of refrigerator after 1 or 2 hours and Rasgulla is ready to be served.

Bari (Colostrum milk sweet dish)

I am sure many of you must be wondering what is Bari. Well it is a food dish not the bari which is given on karvachauth. It also has a different name which I came across on the World Wide Web; it is known as Posu in south India. Now the next question will be what exactly colostrum milk is? Well it is the first milk which is produced by the cow after delivery of calf.

Bari or Posu is a sweet dish which is delicious, soft, fluffy and rich in calcium.

This is my favourite and mom always makes it when our milkman delivers colostrum milk. Yesterday morning when I went to kitchen I saw yellowish thick milk in a cooking pot. My next sentence was, “Mummy, yippee Bari...” This sweet dish is made by my mom and I was there only to assist her. It is cooked within 30 minutes and when served cool to your guests they are surely going to love this not so regular sweet dish. Just try this for this is healthy too...

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Serves: 30-40 small squares (from 2 dhokla plates)

What goes in it:

Colostrum milk (Cow’s first milk after delivery) - 1 ltr

Milk, boiled- ¼ ltr

Sugar, grinded- 3 to 4 cups

Caradom powder- ¼ cup

How did mom make it:

Grind sugar in mixture.

Take colostrum milk in a cooking pot. Put grinded sugar in it and mix them well by stirring milk with spoon. Add your routine boiled milk to it. Stir well.

[Foodies Note: You add normal milk to colostrums milk so that bari turns out to be soft and yummy.]

Now take a dhokla cooker. 

Pour down this mixture in different dhokla plates. Sprinkle a pinch of cardamom powder on the milk in each plate. Place them one by one inside the cooker. 

Close the lid of the cooker so that it cooks inside the steam like you cook idli or dhokla. Let it cook for about 15-20 minutes.

Turn off the stove. Take out the plates and let it cool.

After it cools cut into squares.

Transfer them to a container and refrigerator for 2-3 hours.

Whenever you want to eat it just bring out the container form refrigerator and serve/ eat it. And store in refrigerator only.

Wheat Atta Sheera/ Wheat Atta Halwa

Today is Sunday and Mahavir Jayanti (Birthday of 24^th Tirthankar God as according to Jain religion). Remember told that Jain festival- Paryusan is going on.  On the eve of Mahavir Jayanti, sweet toh banta hai. So at home prepared Wheat Sheera- again one of my favourite sweet.

This sheera when served hot tastes delicious and easily goes down from your throat to tummy. J

What goes in it:

Wheat flour- 1 cup

Water- 2 ½ cup

Jaggery- 1 cup

Ghee- ½ cup

Raisins (kismis)- ¼ cup

Fennel seeds (Variyali)- ¼ cup

To make it look yummy:

Cashew nuts (Kaju), sliced- 2-3 pieces

Almond (Badam), sliced- 2-3 pieces

How did I make it:

Boil water and jaggery in a cooking pot.  Once jaggery is melted, keep it aside.

Take a cooking pot, put ghee and wheat flour in it. Roast the flour in ghee till it turns dark brown. Cook it by continuously stirring it.

[Foodies Note: Keep on stirring properly to avoid formation of lumps and to keep it soft.]

Initial step when you heat ghee and wheat flour

As you heat, wheat flour will turn dark brown

Once the wheat flour is roasted, add melted jaggery, fennel seeds and kismis to it. And stir it continuously for about 10-15 minutes as the mixture thickens up. Turn off the stove then.

Transfer the warm sheera in a bowl or plate and garnish with sliced badam and kajju.

Serve delicious sheera hot.

Wheat Chapatti Ladoo

We all eat chapatti’s. I suppose everyone of us knows how to make chapatti. Ok, I am not going to share how to make chapatti. But I am sharing with you guys one of my favourite food recipe and is also dear to me as my granny always makes roti ladoo for me.

It’s simple, super quick and easy to make. You just need wheat flour, ghee and jaggery and it’s ready. There is also variance to it. You can also add grinded sugar to it, roll the chapatti and eat.

I always eat the earlier version. Just try this sweet tempting chapatti ladoo. And share your experience...

Preparation time: 7 minutes (to prepare the dough)

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Makes: 1 ladoo (out of 4 chapatti)

What goes in it:

Wheat flour- 2 cup

Water- 1 glass

Ghee- ½ cup

Jaggery- ¼ cup

How did I make it:

Put wheat flour in a wide bowl to make the dough. Add about ½ tbl spn of ghee and then keep on adding water little by little till the dough becomes soft and pliable. Divide it into 4 portions and make rounds.

[Foodies Note: You can use ghee and jaggery as per your taste.]

Switch on the stove and heat the pan. Side by side roll the dough on chapatti maker to make chapatti. Cook both the sides of chapatti properly.

While they are hot, cut them into small pieces, pour ghee and add jaggery to it. 

Cut roti into small pieces

Keep on mixing roti, ghee and jaggery

Mix it more

Mix them all well. Keep on mixing it till it becomes a round or ladoo.

And its ready...

And here hot, tempting sweet ladoo is ready to be served.

It tastes really good (try it if you are love sweets) and is filling for your tummy. 

Golpapdi

Golpapdi or paak or sukhdi is one of my favourite sweet since childhood. It tastes all the more yummy when served hot. This is always made by my mom for me. So today I tried my hands on it. It’s simple and quick to make plus the ingredients are easily available in our kitchen.

Next time if guests arrive on short notice, you always have a simple and tempting dessert/sweet recipe on mind.

Preparation time:  5 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Makes: 20 pieces

What goes in it:

Wheat Flour- 2 cup

Ghee- 1 cup

Edible Gum (Gond), crushed- 100 gms

Jaggery, diced- ½ cup

How did I make it:

Take a kadai. Put wheat flour & ghee in it. Keep on stirring it on low flame till the mixture turns golden brown.

Add crushed gond to it. Stir it gently on low flame till pop sound of gond disappears.

Keep it aside till we melt jaggery.

Now in another kadai, take jaggery. Melt it with the help of ghee. Stir jaggery and ghee together on a low flame till it dissolves completely.

Add this melted jaggery to the original wheat flour mixture and mix them both properly.

Pour it in a plate and Spread it evenly.

Cut into square pieces while still warm.

Serve this warm and tempting paak/ sukhdi/ golpapdi...