Balushahi

Balushahi is a sweet dish which we got to relish very rarely during Diwali.  I liked the soft and flakey ones.  And always thought it was very difficult to make. But believe me it is one of the easiest sweet to make, if you know to how the dough should be knead.  Now days, I make it regularly and try to make variations with flavors.

So please try making it!

Ingredients

For Balushahi

Maida – 1½ cup

Baking soda / meeta soda – ¼ tsp

Ghee / clarified butter – 6tbsp

Curd – 4tbsp

Salt a pinch

Ghee /oil to deep fry

  

For sugar syrup

Sugar - 2 cups

Water - 1 cup

Cardamom powder

 Method

For Syrup

1.      In a sauce pan add water and sugar and bring it to boil over medium heat.

2.      Let it simmer until the syrup is almost one thread.

3.      Add cardamom and mix.

4.      Set aside and let it be warm.

For Balushahi

1.      In a bowl mix the flour and baking soda ( best is to swift it together).

2.      To this add the ghee and mix it with your finger till it has a crumby texture.

3.      Now add the yogurt and mix into a dough (do not knead it into soft dough).

4.      Cover the dough and let it sit for about an hour.

5.      Knead it twice or thrice. (Not more than that).

6.      Divide the dough in lemon size portions ( about 12 balls)

7.      Roll in your palm to make small ball (Balls should not be  very smooth and should have cracks all       around).

8.      Flatten in by pressing it between you palms and make a deep dent in the center.

9.      Heat the oil in a fry pan  (don’t over heat it, let it be on medium heat throughout the frying                   process).

10.  Now fry the prepared balushahi in batches of 5.  Don’t over crowd it.  Fry it slowly till both the           sides are golden brown.  It would take about 10 min to get this done. If you do it in high flame,         the inside of the balushahi will not get cooked properly.

11.  Take it out and place in on paper towel to let the extra oil get absorbed.

12.  Now dip the fried balushai in the sugar syrup, let it coat all through and remove it. (Don’t leave           them in the syrup)

13.  Garnish them with pistachios.

Coconut Cookies

When we were kids we never had banded fancy cookies like today.  For us in the 70ies and 80ies there was biscuit-wala who got nankathai, coconut cookies, pista cookies etc. in his tin boxes on his cycles. Remembering childhood days days here is coconut cookies of those days.

Ingredients

Butter – 150gm

Castor sugar – 150gm

Desiccated coconut – 100gm

Refined flour/maida – 150gm

Egg – 1

Desiccated coconut – for dusting

 Method

1.      Mix butter and sugar with beater. 

2.      To this add the egg. 

3.      Now mix the desiccated coconut and flour.

4.      Make a dough of the above mixture.

5.      Cover the dough and keep it in a refrigerator for 30 min.

6.      Now take a lemon size portion of this dough, make a ball and flatten (let it be thick).

7.      Light dust desiccated coconut on top.

8.      Line the baking tray with parchment paper and place the cookies in it.

9.      Repeat from step six with the rest of the dough.

10.  Preheat the oven for 150⁰C.

11.  Bake the cookies for 15 min.  

Strawberry with Whipped Cream

Ingredients

Whipping cream – ½ cup

Fresh Strawberry – 1 cup

Strawberry crush – 4 tbsp

 Method

1.      Use cold liquid whipping cream. ( note : don’t use whipping cream immediately from the freezer, it should be cold and liquid. 

2.      Whip it, till it is 3 times the quantity with an electric beater (about 10-15 min), don’t make it very stiff.

3.      Cut the strawberry into small pieces. ( I like it very small, it’s you choice).

4.      Mix the whipped cream and the cut strawberry.

5.      Take a big glass; pour half a tbsp. of strawberry crush from the side by tilting the glass.

6.      To this add the whipped cream mixture.

7.       Now pour the remaining ½ tbsp. of strawberry crush on top of the cream mixture.

8.      Decorate it with a whole strawberry.

9.      You can repeat it for 3 more glass.  

Serve it cold. Kids love this.