Easy peasy Kalakand recipe

Very popular Kalakand sweet is a favourite of  me and PB. Made from Paneer this sweet is very easy to prepare with minimum ingredients and less time & effort.  I have made kalakand many times before for family and guests as well also and it turned out to be good only but i was never satisfied much with the result. Something I always found incomplete in the recipe. But this time I finally  nailed it! Exactly the way it should be tastewise texture wise. This one has to be my no fail recipe of kalakand. Feeling great that the husband ate happily thinking I got them from the nearby shop.

In this recipe I used store bought packaged paneer which is why you may see the colour a bit off white. While You can always  use the fresh home-made paneer as well for that perfect white colour.

Ingredients:

Paneer/cottage cheese: 200 gms
Sweetened condensed milk: 200 gms (I used Amul mithai mate)
Cardamom powder: few pinches
pistachios : for decorating (I used 5 and sliced according to the number of kalakand pieces)
Ghee: to grease the plate/tin


Method:

Grease a square tin/plate. I placed an aluminium foil sheet on a plate and grease the foil sheet with some ghee.

Cut the paneer into small cubes and in a blender crumble it.

If you are using fresh paneer do keep it in mind to squeeze water from the paneer while putting in blender. You can crumble it with your hands as well if you are using home-made paneer.

Transfer the crumbled paneer to a large bowl. Add the condensed milk, cardamom powder and mix everything well.

Heat a non-stick pan and pour the paneer mixture. Keep stirring the mixture continuously in low to medium heat. It took me about 4-5 minutes when the mixture starts leaving the sides of the pan and it starts binding.  Once you reach that stage, put the flame off.

Now transfer the mixture to the greased tin/plate and spread evenly.

Grease a knife and cut into squares. Decorate the individual squares by pressing the pistachios on the top. Keep it in the refrigerator to set for about half an hour.

 

Bengali Mishti Pulao

Having been stayed for 6 years in the city of joy I was totally in love with Bengali food culture, foodies around each and every corner of the city , their love for GOOD food. Today's recipe is a traditional Bengali rice dish. It is rich flavourful with a mild sweetness and simple to prepare.

Even before I started developing my passion for cooking, the only blog I was following at that time was Preeoccupied : http://preeoccupied.blogspot.in/
I followed the recipe of Bengali mishti pulao from her blog and made it on a weekend for my family and in the first attempt only it came out just perfect with the colour, flavour everything!! ANd then there was no stopping. Made it many times for family & friends and I was always been appreciated by everyone.  Today after a long time I have made this pulao with chicken curry and we relished it totally.

This  aromatic sweet rice dish goes very well with mutton curry specially. Try out this awesome pulao preparation , I am sure you are gonna love it.


You may find a slight variation in the measurements of the ingredients from the original recipe ,because of me & my family's taste and requirement.

Ingredients:

Basmati Rice: 1 cup
Green peas: 1/2 cup
Ghee: 1 tbsp.
Freshly Grated ginger: 2 tsp
Raisin/cashew nut: A handful of them altogether
Cardamom/cinnamon/cloves: 2-3 of each
Bay leaves: 2
Turmeric powder: 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Sugar: 1 tsp
Few drops of lemon
Water 2 cups

Method:

Wash and soak the basmati rice for about half an hour. Then sieve for 10-15 minutes.

Heat the ghee in a pan/kadhai . Add bay leaves, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and allow them to crackle. Now add the raisins, cashews and fry them till golden brown. Remember to keep the flame at low.  Add rice once the dry fruits turn to golden brown. Mix everything well and keep stirring for about 2-3 minutes . Add the peas, ginger & turmeric powder at this stage. Keep mixing everything for another 2-3 minutes and then add sugar & salt in low to  medium flame and keep mixing again for say about a minute.

Now add 2 cups of water , few drops of lemon juice and give it a nice stir and cover it. Keep the flame between low to medium. Check in between and mix with gentle hands and cover again. Repeat the same procedure until the rice is cooked.

Once the pulao is ready  sprinkle few more drops of lemon again & give a mix so that the rice does not get stick. Serve hot with chicken or mutton curry.

You can cook this pulao in pressure cooker as well following the same procedure. Water requirement would vary.

 

Maida (Flour) Barfi

Making perfect sweets at home is something very exciting and satisfying.  Since the day I started making sweets at home, we had stopped buying them from shops except on few occasions where i am not able take out time to make them. Kalakand, Rasgulla, rabri, rasmalai, kala jamun, gulab jamun, sondesh etc are few such examples i tried at home and they came out pretty well, still trying to excel in it. Yesterday i suddenly thought of making some sweet but not the ones I made before. Then i remember once I saw this maida barfi recipe in the blog Rak's kitechen (http://www.rakskitchen.net/2009/01/maida-burfi-simple-sweet-for-fic-yellow.html)
. I was so amazed by  the colour of the barfi she made that i decided to go with it. Moreover the minimum ingredients required for this particular barfi is readily available at one's home. This delicious barfi loaded with dry fruits is very soft and its just melts in mouth and you can actually make it in a jiffy.
When i was serving this to PB with tea after he got back home from work, he ate it thinking I bought it from our nearby halwai shop. He didnot even believe initially  that it was made by me looking at the colour & texture. Well I have taken that  happily as a big compliment :)


You may refer the original recipe as well from the link I have mentioned above as slightest changes I have made here.

Ingredients:

Maida/plain flour: 1/2 cup
Ghee: 1/3 cup
Sugar: 1/2 cup
Cashew nuts/almond/pista: 5-6 of each roughly chopped.
Vanilla essence: few drops
food colour: few drops - I used green colour . You can use any colour of your choice or without colour also you can make
Ghee: as required to grease the tin
sufficient water to make the sugar syrup


Method:

Heat the ghee in a pan and fry the chopped dry fruits till they are turned into light golden brown colour. Add the maida and mix everything well and stir continuously till the maida is fried completely in low flame. Put the flame off and transfer it to a bowl.

On the other hand in a heavy bottomed pan add the sugar and water to make the sugar syrup till you get the one -string consistency. Add vanilla essence & food colour and mix. Put the flame off and add the maida mixture to it and mix everything well. Once the mixture starts getting thickened and still loose enough to be able to spread on the tin then transfer it to the greased tin and spread evenly with the help of a flat spatula or knife. At this stage I greased the knife with some ghee and cut into equal sized shapes and kept in the refrigerator to set for about half an hour. You can let this cool down and set in room temperature as well.

You can store this sweet in air-tight container for 2-3 days.

 

Paneer Pulao

So the girl's school reopens after a long vacation and I am back to my work. Its been a relaxed vacation for both me n my girl. We only ate slept had lots  of fun time together. So last night's dinner I prepared with lot of effort and love for the little one specially. She wanted to have some yummy food and I thought of making some paneer pulao . We as a hard core non-vegetarian I hardly cook paneer/cottage cheese at home. Mostly on Thursdays I get it home being it a vegetarian day for us. So I freezed the menu with a paneer Pulao and corn capsicum masala gravy. Easy to prepare this pulav is lick-smacking that you can always serve your guests with any main course side dish of chicken / fish. I made this pulav in a very small quantity of ghee than the usual amount required in a Pulao. You can increase it as per your taste or requirement.


Ingredients:

Basmati rice: 1 cup
Paneer: 150 gms
Carrot/beans/capsicum: 1/2 cup chopped (you can add veggies of your choice)
Onion: 1 large finely sliced
Ginger & garlic paste: 2 tsp - I made the paste at home only
Green chilli: 1-2 (optional)
Cardamm/Cinnamon/clove: 2-3 of each
Cumin seed or Shah jeera: 1 tsp
Curry leaves: 5-6 leaves
Salt to taste
Ghee: 2 tsp
Oil: 1 tsp
Water as required

Method:

Wash and soak the basmati rice for about half an hour.

Heat 1 tsp of ghee in a pressure cooker.  Strain the soaked rice and roast it for about a min or so till it becomes dry. Transfer the rice to a bowl. Now add the remaining 1 tsp ghee in the pressure cooker and add the jeera, chillies, curry leaves, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon and allow them to splutter. Add the sliced onion, ginger garlic paste and fry till light golden brown. Now add the chopped vegetables and mix everything well. Cook the vegetables for about 2-3 minutes by stirring continuously to avoid burning. At this stage add the rice and salt and give it a nice mix. Add sufficient water to cook the rice. Pressure cook  up to 2 whistles.

By the time heat 1 tsp of oil in  a non-stick pan. Cut the paneer/cottage cheese into small sized cubes and fry in the oil till golden brown from sides. Once done keep them aside.

Let the pressure releases on its own after 2 whistles. Open the lid and transfer the pulao to a large bowl so that the rice doesn't stick, with a spatula or ladle softly. Now add the fried paneer , garnish with fresh coriander and serve hot .