Ingredients -
All purpose flour ( maida) - 1.5 cup
Butter - 100 gm
Eggs - 3
Castor or granulated sugar - 1 cup
Lemon juice - 2 tbsp
Lemon zest - 1 tbsp
Buttermilk - 1/2 cup
Baking powder - 2 tsp
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
Vanilla essence - few drops
For frosting -
Cream cheese - 1 cup
Unsalted butter - 85 g
Icing or granulated sugar - 1 cup
Lemon juice - 3 tbsp
Vanilla essence - few drops
To make home made cream cheese -
Milk full cream - 1/2 ltr
white vinegar - 1 tbsp
Boil 1/2 ltr full cream milk, when it comes to rolling boil, switch off the flame, add vinegar and stir it nicely till the mixture has separated completely . when it curdles put the mixture into a sieve, let it strain and cool completely for 10-15 minutes.
Transfer it into a blender and blend it until its smooth and creamy.
Blend it further if it's grainy. it is ready to use.
Method -
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees, sieve flour, baking powder
and baking soda.
2. In a big bowl take butter and beat it on a high speed for
2 minutes with an electric beater.
3. Add sugar beating it continuously.
4. Add eggs beating nicely after each addition.
5. Gradually add half of the flour, add the lemon zest, lemon
juice and buttermilk, give it all a good mix, then add
remaining half, little at a time and mix it thoroughly.
6. Grease and line two baking tins of 6 inch and 8 inches.
7. Divide the batter into it and bake it in a preheated oven
until it is thoroughly baked. Insert a toothpick to confirm
it's done, if it comes out clean then take it out and
let it come to room temperature.
Frosting and assemble -
1. In a big bowl beat butter for few minutes until very light.
2. Add cream cheese and beat it further until well combined.
3. Add sugar, lemon juice and vanilla and beat it from low
speed to high speed for 2 minutes until smooth and fluffy
and of spreading consistency.
4. The cake is ready to assemble, in a serving plate place the
bigger layer of cake, trim some of the upper part of the
cake to level it, spread the cream cheese frosting on it
generously to cover it from the top and sides.
5. Place the smaller cake right on top of it, trim it too, cover
it with the lemon cheese cream frosting from the top and
sides completely.
6. Transfer the remaining frosting in a piping bag with a
star nozzle fitted into it.
7. Pipe big swirls on the edges of the cake and place a lemon
slice on each of the swirls to complete the look of it.
8. Your beautiful lemon cheese cake is ready to serve, just put
it in fridge for an hour before serving.
It's a beautiful cake, can be enjoyed on any summer afternoon.
If you want to skip the frosting the cake can be enjoyed
without it as well. It has a great tangy flavour.
Ingredients -
Milk - 1 ltr full cream
Sewai laccha (fine seawai) - 60 gm, around 1 cup broken
Sugar - 3 -4 Tbsp
Cardamom - 3-4 crushed
Saffron strands - 4-5 soaked in 4 tbsp warm milk
Condensed milk - 2-3 Tbsp
Almonds - 10- 12
Cashews - 8-10
Raisin - 3- 4 Tbsp
Dry dates - 5-6
Pistachio - 4-5
Charoli nuts - 1 Tbsp
Dry coconut - 3-4 Tbsp
Ghee - 2 Tbsp
Method -
1. Take a heavy bottomed Karahi and heat 1 tbsp ghee in it.
2. Break sewai into small pieces and fry in karahi
in a low heat for 5 minutes until it turns golden brown
colour, keep it aside,
3. Chop all almonds, raisins, pistachios and cashews into
small pieces and dates and coconut into long thin strips.
4. Put remaining ghee and lightly fry the almond, cashews
and coconut, taking great care not to burn it.
5. Take a heavy bottomed pan and boil the milk in it.
6. Let it boil for 3-4 minutes, put sugar and dry fruits after
saving some dry fruits for garnishing.
7. Let it boil for 5-7 minutes on a low heat until the dates are
tender and the milk is slightly reduced.
8. Add fried sewai, crushed cardamom, saffron strands,
condensed milk and let it cook on a very low heat for
7-8 minutes without covering the pan.
9. Transfer it into serving bowls and garnish it with the
remaining dry fruits.
10. Serve it warm, it can be chilled also if you like to eat
it that way.
11. It tends to get thicker when it comes to room temperature,
add some milk if the sheer khurma gets too thick.
12. If you want to turn this dessert into creamy and heavenly
delight, use of full fat milk is a must.
13. As the dates and raisins increase the sweetness of sheer
khurma be careful with sugar, first put 2-3 tbsp only
then increase according to your taste.
Ingredients -
Chicken boneless - 250 g cut into bite size cubes
Curd thick - 2 tbsp
Cream - 3 tbsp
Garlic paste - 2 tsp
Ginger Paste - 1 tsp
Lemon juice - 2-3 tbsp
Garam masala - 1 tsp
Red chili powder - 1/2 tsp
Coriander leaves - 1/2 cup + Green chilies - 2 (make a paste)
Chili flakes - 1/4 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Egg - 1 beaten
Bread crumbs - 1 cup
Oil - for frying
Skewers - few dipped in water to prevent burning
Method -
1. Wash and clean chicken, dry it in a kitchen towel.
2. Replace it in a big dry bowl.
3. Marinate the chicken by first putting
lemon juice in it then followed by all the listed
ingredients, except cream .
4. Mix it nicely and keep it for 4-5 hours or overnight
in fridge. If using chicken breasts, it needs a longer
marination time, preferably overnight.
5. Take it out and mix it again, adjust the salt, Mix the
cream in it nicely until incorporated well.
6. Thread the chicken pieces into wooden skewers, 3 to 4 pieces.
7. Take a non stick frying pan and heat oil in it.
8. Cover the chicken into bread crumbs and with the help
of a knife pat it to bring it in shape.
9. Dip it in beaten egg and put it in the frying pan, cover for
a while and shallow fry it in a medium low heat, tossing
and turning in between until cooked well from both the
sides and turns a golden brown colour.
Ingrdients -
Gram Flour ( besan ) - 1 cup
Curd - 2 cups
Fresh ginger garlic paste - 2 tsp
Cumin powder - 1 tsp
Red chili powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Baking Soda - a pinch
Oil - for frying
Sugar granulated - 1 tbsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp or to taste
Black Salt - 1/4 tsp
for tempering
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Asafoetida - a pinch
Whole red chilies - 2
Clarified butter ( ghee) - 2 tsp
Method -
1. Sieve the gram flour in a bowl, add ginger garlic paste,
turmeric, little cumin powder and chili powder and salt
to taste. Beat it with your hands for five minutes, so that
it's light and fluffy, check by putting 1/2 tsp batter into
water, if it floats, its good to go, add a pinch of baking
soda and give it a good mix.
2. Heat oil in a karahi. Deep fry all the pakoras, till light
golden brown, little at a time in two - three batches.
3. Take a bowl half filled with normal water, dip the pakoras
in it just for a minute as soon as they are fried, squeeze
the water out of it, and keep it aside.
4. Mix the curd nicely to avoid any lumps, mix little water
if it's too thick. Add sugar, salt, black salt, 1/4 tsp of
cumin powder and red chilli powder in it, saving some
for the garnish.
5. Take a serving bowl, arrange all the pakoras in it, pour all
curd over it, sprinkle cumin and red chili powder, garnish
with coriander leaves.
6. Take a small frying pan, heat ghee in it, add cumin seeds,
whole chilies and asafoetida, temper it, spreading it all
over the dahi fulk. Chill it before serving.
Ingredients -
Milk full cream - 1 ltr
Sugar - 100 gm
Lemon juice - 1/2 tsp diluted in 1 tsp water
Ghee - 2 tbsp
Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp
Method -
1. Heat a heavy bottomed karahi or pan, preferably an
iron karahi.
2. Pour the milk in it and let it come to a boil on a medium
high heat, stirring it continuously.
3. Put the flame on a medium low and keep simmering
and stirring until it is reduced to half and is thickened.
4. Pour the diluted lemon water into the milk, keep it on
low flame, stirring it at the same time as the milk will
start curdling at this point.
5. Simmer it for few more minutes, add sugar in it.
6. Keep cooking and stirring as the sugar is dissolved, add
ghee, keeping it on low flame as the milk splutters a lot.
7. keep working on it until milk thickens completely
and leaves the sides of the pan.
8. Add cardamom powder and let it cook for 2 minutes to
let it turn into light golden brown.
9. Grease a loaf tin and transfer the mixture into it, wrap the
loaf tin with a heavy kitchen towel so that the heat is trapped
into it. It will ensure a golden colour when cooled down.
10. Let it remain like that for 3-4 hours until it is cooled and
comes to a room temperature.
11. Separate the sides with a knife and unmould it into a plate,
cut it into pieces and serve.
Shahi Tukda as the name suggests, this sweet creamy delight
has its connection with the royals. Having it's root in the Mughlai cuisine, Shahi tukda is a rich creamy royal dessert. It is made up
of fried bread which is coated in sugar syrup and is topped and soaked with fragrant creamy sweet thickened milk or rabri and garnished with dry fruits.
The dessert is rich in taste, aroma and flavour and is particularly prepared during the festive months of Ramadan, making it very desirable dish at iftar, and a meetha famously served at Eid and a must in marriage functions.
Shahi Tukda also has a hyderabadi cousin, resembling each other
in taste and presentation, there is not much difference between the two except in terms of thickness of the bread. In Hyderabad, the dish is baked after the bread and rabri are combined, and it's referred to as "Hyederabadi Double ka Meetha" after the local
word for bread which is double roti.
I want to share with you a truly luscious recipe of shahi tukde, though i have changed the dish a bit, in keeping in mind, the
health conscious friends of mine, so instead of deep fry, the
breads are shallow fried to avoid the extra calories and i used
a whole wheat bread instead of white bread....so happy
cooking and a happy Ramadan in advance to you all.......!!
Ingredients -
whole wheat bread - 8
Milk - 1/2 ltr
sugar - 4 tbsp + 2 tsp
Almond chopped- 5-6
Pistachio chopped - 3-4
Cashews chopped - 4-5
Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp
Condensed milk - 2 tbsp
Rose essence - 2 drops
Saffron strands - 2-3
Clarified butter ( Ghee) - for frying 3-4 tbsp
Silver foil /Chandi vark - 1 (optional)
Method -
1. Take the bread and remove all it's edges, cut it diagonally.
2. Take a shallow non stick frying pan and heat little ghee in it.
3. Shallow fry the bread slices in batches, in a low heat until
crisp golden brown on both the sides, turning it in between
and sprinkling with some ghee when it's turned.
4. Fry the chopped dry fruits lightly in ghee too.
5. Make sugar syrup heating one cup of water and 4 tbsp
of sugar until its half in quantity, add the saffron strand and
keep it aside.
6. Heat a heavy bottomed pan with milk in it. Keep boiling it
on a low medium heat stirring it continuously till the milk
is reduced and resembles a thick rabri. Add 2 tbsp sugar,
2 tbsp condensed milk, cardamom powder and rose essence
into it.
7. To assemble the shahi tukda, take a rectangular tray,
dip the fried bread slices into the sugar syrup and arrange
it on the tray.
8. Pour the thickened milk ( rabri) over the soaked bread
slices, decorate it with chandi ka vark and dry fruits.
Dribble a little bit of sugar syrup also on the breads.
9. The recipe can be doubled according to your need, the
present recipe serves 3-4.
Ingredients -
Biscuit (any butter cookies or digestive cookies ) - 1 pac of 200 g
Almond brittle - 1/2 cup
Cream cheese - 1 cup
Butter - 9 tbsp melted
Dulche De Leche - 1/2 cup
Vanilla essence - few drops
Heavy cream - 100 ml
Gelatin - 2 tsp mixed in 3 tbsp of hot water
Salt - a pinch
Almond brittle -
Almond toasted and chopped - 1/2 cup
Butter - 2 tbsp
Sugar - 1/4 cup
Salt - a pinch
1. In a pan heat butter and sugar over a medium heat,
stirring in between.
2. Keep stirring the pan and cooking until it is caramelized
and turns golden brown.
3. Add the chopped and toasted almonds, vanilla essence
and the salt into it.
4. Grease a foil or a plate and pour the mixture over it.
Let it sit for 10 minutes and break it into pieces .
Store in an airtight container, it's ready to use.
Dulce De Leche -
Milk full cream - 1/2 litr
Sugar - 1 cup
vanilla essence - 1/2 tsp
1. In a heavy bottomed pan pour the milk and sugar and
bring it to boil.
2. when it comes to boil slow the heat and simmer it in
a low heat stirring it occasionally.
3. Keep simmering it until it thickens and caramelizes ,
stirring it more often to avoid sticking. It will taken
almost an hour to reduce it
4. Remove from heat and stir vanilla essence.
Cream Cheese -
Full cream milk - 1/2 ltr
White vinegar - 2 tbsp
Boil the milk in a heavy bottomed pan, when it comes
to boil , pour the vinegar and stir it until the milk curdles
and is separated fully. Take a fine sieve or a cheese cloth
and strain it completely. keep it like that for 15 to 20 minutes
until it is completely drained and ready to use.
This recipe yields 1 cup of cream cheese. If you want more
of it the quantity of milk can be increased.
Cheese cake Method -
1. Grind the biscuit in a blender until it resembles fine crumb.
2. Add 9 tbsp butter in it and mix it thoroughly.
3. Take a 6 inch springform tin and grease it with butter.
4. Spread the biscuit crumbs in it evenly and pat it nicely.
5. Put it in the fridge to set until the filling is ready.
6. Blend the cream cheese in a big jar until it is mixed
well for 1 minute and is creamy and smooth, add the
dulce de leche, whipping cream, gelatin, vanilla essence
and blitz it until all are incorporated well.
7. Pour it over the set biscuit crust evenly, sprinkle the
almond brittle over it generously.
8. Let it set it in a fridge for 4-5 hours. decorate it with
some almond brittle and dulce de leche or whipped cream.
It can be garnished with fresh fruits like cherries, kiwi,
apple slices etc.
Ingredients -
Til (sesame seeds) - 1/2 kg
Gud (jaggery ) - 1/2 kg
Peanuts - 250 gm
Dry Coconut ( desicated ) - 100 g
Method -
1. Take a shallow Frying pan or karahi and dry roast
the til on a low heat for few minutes until it slightly
changes the colour. Take special care not to over fry it.
Replace it in a big plate and let it cool.
2. In the same karahi roast the peanuts too until it just
begins to turn brown and is evenly roasted. Take it out
and let it cool.
3. Grind the til and peanuts separately in a grinder.
4. Grind the gud also in a grinder. Put 2-3 tbsp ground til
along with the gud into the jar to prevent sticking in the jar.
5. Take a big bowl and put all the grounded ingredients into it
with the dry coconut.
6. Mix it all nicely until incorporated well.
7. Make small size laddus and store in an airtight jar.
Ingredients -
Peanut - 1 cup
Rock salt - 1/2 tsp + for adjusting
Cumin whole - 1/2 tsp
Red chilli whole - 1
Pure ghee/ clarified butter - 1 tbsp
water - 2 cups
Red chilli powder - 1/4 tsp
Pepper powder - a pinch
Cumin powder - 1/4 tsp
For chat -
Curd - 1 cup
Sugar - 1 tsp
Tamarind ( Imli) Chutney- 1/2 cup
Red chilli powder- a pinch
Beetroot grated - 1
Pomegranate seeds 3-4 tbsp (optional)
Green chilli - chopped 2 tbsp
Method-
1. Boil the peanuts in 2 cup of water in pressure cooker
until it's soft and cooked. Peanuts take time to cook,
let it whistle for 4-5 times on a medium heat.
Drain and keep it aside.
2. Take a frying pan or karahi and put ghee in it,
when it's hot put whole chilli and whole cumin and
let it splutter.
3. Put boiled peanuts with red chilli powder, pepper
and cumin powder, sauté for few minutes.
4. Adjust the salt according to your taste. Keep it aside
and let it cool down.
How to plate -
1. Beat curd with one tsp sugar and a pinch of rock salt.
2. Take a plate and spread the fried peanuts in it.
3. Spread the curd over it and the tamarind chutney also.
4. Garnish it with grated beetroot, pomegranate seeds
and chopped chillies.
5. Peanuts are low in carbs and are excellent source of
vitamins, minerals, and protein and are rich energy source. Moreover it's more beneficial as it is not fried
but boiled so it can be included in your daily diet while
fasting.
In India on Hindu fasting days, people fasting in
northern states of India eat items made of buckwheat
flour. Eating cereals such as wheat or rice is prohibited during such fasting days.
However, since buckwheat is not a cereal, it is considered
acceptable for consumption during fasting.The preparation of buckwheat flour varies across India.The famous ones are kuttu ki poori or kuttu pakoras...today i am going to share the recipe of kuttu atta pooris....happy fasting n happy cooking my dear friends....
Ingredients -
Kuttu aata ( buckwheat flour) - 1 1/2 cup
Boiled and grated potatoes - 2
Warm Water - 1/2 cup
Rock salt - 1/2 tsp
Coriander leaves chopped - 2 tbsp
Oil - to fry
Method-
1. Take the flour in a plate and mix it with grated
potatoes, salt and coriander leaves.
2. Mix it well, sprinkle some water to make a
pliable dough. Keep it to rest for 10 minutes.
3. Make small balls out of the dough, dust it with the
dry flour and with its help make medium size pooris.
4. Heat oil in a griddle and fry the pooris into it,
serve it hot with jeera - aalo fry.
Lauki (gourd) - 1/2 kg
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Mawa - 100 g
Condensed Milk - 4-5 tbsp
Milk - 250 ml
Cardamom - 2-3
Almonds - 8-10
Cashews - 6-8
Raisins - 2-3 tbsp
Coconut grated - 2-3 tbsp
Ghee ( clarified Butter ) - 2-3 tbsp
Method -
1. Peel and wash the gourd and grate it finely.
2. Heat a big griddle or karahi and put the ghee in it.
3. Put the grated gourd and fry it nicely for 8-10 minutes
in a low heat.
4. Add the milk and cover it so that the gourd is soft
and cooked, keep stirring in between so it does not stick.
5. Add the sugar and fry it for few minutes so the moisture
is dried completely.
6. Add the mawa and fry for a while, add the condensed
milk and all the dry fruits saving some for garnishing.
7. Take out on a serving bowl and garnish it with the
remaining dry fruits.
Enjoy this sweet dish on fasting or any special occasion.
Ingredients -
Sabudana (Sago) - 1 1/2 cup
Peanuts - 1/2 cup
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Chillies green cut - 2
Coriander leaves chopped - a bunch
Fresh coconut grated - 2-3 tbsp
Rock salt - to taste
Oil - to fry peanuts
Pure ghee ( clarified butter) 3-4 tbsp
Lemon juice - optional 2 tbsp
Method -
1. Wash the sabudana and soak in a pan for 3-4 hours.
it must be soft and moist.
2. Drain it and put it in a sieve to drain the water
completely from it.
3. Fry the peanuts and keep it aside.
5. Take a griddle or karahi and put ghee in it, when hot
put the cumin seeds, when it crackles put the green
chillies in it, when it's fried add the drained sabudana
in it, the heat should be on a medium high flame.
6. Saute the sabudanas for 5 minutes until it's soft, and
cooked, stirring well.
7. Be very careful not to overcook it more than 5-6
minutes otherwise it will be sticky.
8. Add the grated coconut, lemon juice, fried peanuts
and sprinkle rock salt according to your taste.
Garnish it with chopped coriander leaves and serve it hot.
