Shahi Tukda

Shahi Tukda 

Sometimes I make a dish quite out of the blue without any reason and this Shahi Tukda is one such dish. Basically I had milk which I had reduced by mistake and then on a lazy Saturday afternoon I was fidgeting with the idea of a dessert but I knew I did not want kheer aka Indian rice pudding and then I remembered Shahi Tukda . This is one of the first desserts which I had made for a huge dinner party while in college. 

This time I adapted the recipe given in Adil Ahmed's book 'Tehzeeb' You see I believe ghee is the answer to superior quality better tasting Indian desserts. You simply cannot get the same taste when you are using refined oil which has no flavour of its own. Not to mention the immense flavour imparted by ghee. The ghee makes all the difference along with the kewda water and using full fat milk.

The thing thing is this does not use saffron but uses Kewra water. I love saffron and love using it which is why using Kewda water was  such a  refreshing change for me and the flavour it imparts is truly amazing.

So this Shahi Tukda is royal indeed the recipe adapted from a semi royal family's cookbook

Serves 4 to 5

What you need :-

6 to 7 small slices of milk bread their crusts cut out
500ml full cream milk
130gm sugar
A few drops of screwpine ittar or a tiny sprinkle of screwpine water
A handful of pistachio blanched and chopped
You may also use raisins which I left out
6 to 8 heaped tsp of unmelted ghee

Start by reducing the milk with the sugar . When doing so add 1/2 tsp ghee. This addition of ghee prevents the milk from sticking to the bottom easily. keep stirring from time to time. Reduce it till it thickens. Takes about 30 minutes to 40 minutes. Once reduced add the screwpine water aka kewda water.

Blanch the pistachio and chop them up.

 Slice the slices of bread diagonally. Fry them till golden brown on both sides. Do this over medium to low heat lest the slices of bread burns.

Once all the slices of bread are fried arrange them on a serving dish and pour the reduced milk on top. garnish with the pistachio and chill this for a good 2 hours to 3 hours and then serve this decadent dessert which is sure to impress your guests.

Chocolate Indulgent Cake

Chocolate Indulgent Cake 

I shall be honest. Lately I have come to find chocolate cake to be highly overused mostly because most good Indian bakeries mostly keep two to three variants of cakes , one with a lot of fresh cream and then there are 3 to 4 variants of chocolate cake.

To be fair while one can never get tired of a good slice of chocolate cake it can be tiring at times. While growing up I would see my aunt bake chocolate cakes which were the typical buttercakes which meant it was butter based and used a bit of cocoa powder for that taste of chocolate which somehow did not really click.

To be fair the ones you get at good bakeries are quite honestly very delicious but then again once you start baking at home and expand your knowledge you realize that you can actually customize a chocolate cake as per your liking.

What is 'my perfect chocolate cake' will perhaps not be your's. Anyway I have tried a good 6 variants of the good old butter based chocolate cakes. I am not even going into the sponges . So it turns out this cake is one of my favourites mostly because it is moist and light enough to stand out on its own with your cup of tea  and with a dollop of whipped cream it can be turned into a fabulous dinner time dessert. In my experience when one uses icing it is best to stick to sponge cakes because a butter based cake is quite heavy on its own and layers of buttercream or ganache makes it too rich an indulgent but then again there are those times when you simply just need some indulgence. And this cake happens to be one of them. Hence I named it the Chocolate Indulgent Cake.

I had already shared the recipe for the main cake in one of my earlier posts. Use the recipe for the cake and leave out the recipe for icing given there  So here is the link: My Perfect Chocolate Cake. Let it cool down and slice in half. Cut the top of the cake to level it out.

For the icing try this ganache , its rich , chocolaty and when fluffed up and used with the cake it becomes a pure sinful indulgence

Recipe adapted from Larousse Gastronomique

150ml fresh cream
225gm finely chopped chocolate (70% dark)
1 tbsp sugar syrup

Use the bain marie method to heat up the cream and add the chocolate and stir till you get a smooth creamy mixture and then keep whipping till it fluffs up. use this as a filling and then cover the cake and let it set at room temperature for an hour and then serve it up.

Important tip :-

A cake is meant to be eaten as fresh as possible so it is a good idea to finish it off within 2 days of it being baked. try not to refrigerate the cake but in case you do refrigerate it make sure you take it out 1 hour prior to serving. The cake if served straight from the refrigerator will be hard as lard. It needs to be soft hence it needs to come to room temperature.

Kesar Pista Malai Kulfi (Saffron pistachio cream kulfi)

Kesar Pista Malai Kulfi (Saffron pistachio cream kulfi) 

When it comes to traditional desserts I do not believe that a healthy version can do justice to the dish. Now I have always used whole milk to make my kulfis yet I was simply not satisfied till I tried this version. This is one of the reasons that I have not shared the recipe on my blog till now.

I have a book called the 'Classic Cooking of Punjab' by the legendary Jiggs Kalra and needless to say it contains quite a few recipes for kulfi but he adds eggs to his kulfi and since my grandmother is allergic to eggs I am not much in favour of using eggs for my kulfi.

So what I ultimately did was use his recipe as a base and after a short chat with my friend Somnath who is a food enthusiast I finally decided to give the kulfis one last shot at making it perfect for my taste buds. I had an idea of how I wanted it to taste which is smooth creamy silky .

The trick is in using the 'malai' aka extra cream

Its actually one of the simplest desserst that one might try

Makes 7 Kulfi when using the moulds :-

1 litre full cream milk
400ml cream (I used Amul cream which has 25% fat)
80gm sugar which you can change as per taste
1 green cardamom pounded well in a mortar an pestle
Half cup whole pistachios (Cup used holds 220ml liquid)
A fat pinch of saffron
1/2 tsp ghee
Ghee to prepare the kulfi moulds

Start by first blanching the pistachios and then chopping them.

Now one needs to make the rabri for the base of the kulfi.

Keep aside 1/4th cup milk and mix 200ml cream , ghee and the rest of the milk in a heavy bottomed pan (preferably aluminium or iron)

Now reduce this on low heat till it reaches half its content and then add the sugar and 100ml cream and add half the amount of chopped pistachios in the milk while you further reduce it. Keep checking every 7 minutes to 10 minutes and stir it well.

Reduce the milk till it reaches 1/3rd of its original content. In this case you are reducing 1.3 litres milk + cream which means you need to reduce it till it reaches 433ml.

This process of reducing the milk took me 1 hour 45 minutes.

Let the rabri base rest for 15 minutes and then add the saffron an mix well and add the remaining 100ml cream and gentle mix everything.

Use a tiny bit of ghee to grease the moulds and then pour in the kulfi to be frozen. Freeze it till its just about frozen (takes me 2 hours to 3 hours but the time require largely depends on your freezer and the amount of things it is storing when you are freezing the kulfi)  and then de-mould and serve garnished with the remaining chopped pistachios.

Important Note

1. The ghee used when reducing the milk prevents the milk from sticking to the bottom of the pan keeping it smooth and silky. This is a valuable tip I have learnt from my aunt.
2. The ghee used to grease the moulds helps you easily demould the kulfi .
3. From my experience with ice-creams freezing it till its just about frozen gives you the most creamy and silky tasting kulfi. Excessive freezing makes it very hard in consistency and prevents you from enjoying the creaminess.