Sirkhand (Safforn Yogurt)

A light and refreshing dessert that helps digestion after a heavy meal. It can be frozen in summer.

Ingredients

1 kg plain smooth yogurt (dahi)
1/4 tsp or to taste ground saffron
a pinch of cardamom (elachi) powder
2/3 cup or to taste powdered (icing) sugar
1/2 cup chopped green pistachios, chopped

Method

Put three layers of cheese cloth in a colander. Add the yogurt and hang up or at least 5 hours - you want the consistency of soft cream cheese.

Put the yogurt cream in a bowl, add all the other ingredients and beat well.

Chill and serve in small bowls, decorated with more pistachios.

Tip: Collect the liquid from the yogurt and use to make paneer, chana (chenna) or new yogurt.

Best Ever Oat Cookies

These are very fast and easy to prepare and will turn out great even for beginner bakers. They are crispy and crumbly, chewy and delicious and keep well in an airtight container for up to 10 days.

Ingredients

3 tbsp butter, softened
2 tbsp oil (I use light olive)
1 large egg
2/3 cup caster sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
a pinch of nutmeg
a pinch of salt
1.5 cup porridge oats
1/3 cup self-raising flour
1/3 cup or more raisins
milk as needed
oil to grease the tray

Method

Preheat oven to 180 C. Grease a cookie sheet or oven tray with a bit of oil.

Mix butter and cugar until creamy. Add oil and egg and beat until smooth.

Add all the other ingredients until mixed well, adding abit of milk as needed to make thick dough.

Drop large spoonfuls on the tray leaving some space in between. This should make 9 large cookies.

Bake in the pre-heated oven 15-20 min and cool on the tray.

Tip: Do not attempt to take cookies of the sheet until completely cooled - they will break as they harden when they cool.

Mango Lassi

One of the best drinks ever!

Ingredients

Per person:
1/3 cup plain yoghurt
1/3 cup milk
1/3 cup sweet mango pulp
sugar to taste
few drops of rose water if desired

Method

Mix all the ingredients well (doing it in your blender will create a great frothy lassi) and enjoy!

Tip: this recipe can be used for any lassi. Try banana insted of mango (or peaches, or apricots, or apples and pears) or replace frit with mint and coriander and add salt and pepper instead of sugar.

Rosogolla (Rasgulla)

This is a quick way to prepare this traditional Bengali sweet (without making the chenna at home). If you have the time, you can prepare it from scratch following the same recipe with your own chenna/paneer. This is quite a light sweet and full of calcium!

Ingredients

250 g block of shop-bought paneer cheese
1/2 cup dry milk powder
5 tbsp (or as needed) milk
2 tbsp plain flour (maida)

350 g white sugar
3 cups of water

1 cup of water
2 tsp plain flour (maida)

2 tbsp rosewater (or to taste)

Method

Mash the paneer with your hands until smooth and mix in the dry milk, normal milk and 2 tbsp flour. Knead until very smooth. Add milk as needed for pliable but firm dough.

Form small smooth balls out of the mixture (no larger than a gold ball). Make sure there are no cracks as they will cause the rosogollas to break when cooking. Keep aside.

In a wide deep pan mix the sugar and 3 cups of water. Bring to boil on high and boil rapidly for 10 minutes.

Now mix 2 tsp flour and 1 cup of water. Pour half of this into the syrup and bring to high boil again. Gently drop in the paneer balls. Do not stir - they are very fragile.

Boil on high for 15-20 minutes, sprinkling the flour-water mixture from time to time in small amounts. When rosogollas are ready they are spongy and firm to the touch.

Put rosogollas in a serving bowl and sprinkle with the rosewater and some syrup from the pan until just covered.

Cool and refrigerate. Serve hot or cold.

You can also make rasmalai with these - recipe coming soon!

Enjoy and feel free to ask any questions!

Tip: if you drain the rosogollas, split them horizontally and sandwich together with some khoya (beng.: kheer), you will get delicious new sweet - ChamCham!