Sandhesh [ Bengali Sweet ]

Ingredients :

• Cow's milk - 1 litre
• Fresh curds - 1 cup
• Sugar - 1 cup
• Milk masala - little [ for  garnishing ]

Method :

Boil milk. Allow to cool and remove the cream. Again heat the milk up to boiling point. Allow to boil for a minute and remove from the fire. Then add fresh curds little by little, and stir gently till milk curdles. Stop adding when it curdles completely and yellowish whey water is separated. Keep thin muslin cloth, over a vessel and pour this to collect paneer in the cloth.Twist the cloth, keep it under running tap water for 2 minutes till paneer comes to room temperature. Hang the cloth over a nail for 1 hour to remove excess moisture. Take our paneer from the cloth, and kneed it well. Add sugar and kneed again for few minutes. Then put the mixture in a heavy kadai, and stir in low flame for a minute for the sugar to dissolve. [ do not over cook, which makes the paneer hard ] Remove from the fire, and allow it to cool completely. Put it in mixie to make it smooth. Add any colour, essence and prepare different shaped sandhesh.  Before serving garnish with milk masala and powdered sugar.

Besan Laddu

Ingredients :

• Roasted bengal gram dhal - 1 cup
• Powdered sugar - 1 cup
• Ghee - 4 tbl. sp
• Cardamom powder - little
• Broken cashew nuts &
• melon seeds - as required

Method :

Powder dhal in mixie and pass it through a fine sieve. Fry it in melted ghee till good aroma comes from that. Then mix it with powdered sugar and cardamom powder.  Fry cashew nuts, melon seeds in ghee and add to the flour. When it is still warm, make lemon sized laddus.

Moor Melakai [Especially prepared during Peak Summer !!]

Ingredients:

• Green chillies - 30
• Curd - 2 cups [preferably sour]
• Fenugreek seeds - 1 tsp
•  Water - 1/3 cup
•  Salt - 1 tbsp 

Method:

Wash the green chillies properly. Slightly cut in the middle or at the end of the chillies, not fully. This will let the chillies to absorb the curd. No need to cut trim the head of chillies let it be. 

Soak the fenugreek seeds(methi seed) whole night and then grind it into smooth paste by adding water. 

Whip the curd and get a thick buttermilk (along with the butter). Add salt to the curd and the grinded fenugreek seed paste ,mix well. Drop the chillies and mix well with the curd mix and make sure that the chillies coated well in curd mix.keep it aside for the whole day.

Next day morning drain the curd and spread only the chillies in a clean cloth and let it in the hot sun for the whole day. Reserve the curd in the fridge. Same day evening take out the chillies from the cloth and again drop the chillies in  the reserved curd and let it to soak for the whole night.

Next day morning dry it out again in a cloth. If the chillies are completely dry in second day itself then you can remove it from the sun and store it in a air tight container.

Whenever require take little quantity of dried chillies and deep fry it in oil and serve. You can also store the deep fried dried chillies in bottles for about 2-3 days.

Mor millagai goes well with curd rice.

Variations:

Use the home made curd for the preparation because we will get the thick curd with much cream/butter in it, which will reduce the heat of the chillies.

You can try this with other varieties of chillies also, the fat and short chillies are very good for making this.

Manathakkali Vathal

Ingredients :

• Green manathakkali - 1 kg.
• Salt - as required
• Sour curd - 1 cup

Method :

Wash manathakkali in enough water and drain. Then mix salt and curd and keep for 4 days. In between stir once daily. Then dry in hot sun for 5 days till it becomes completely dry and crisp. Then store in air- tight container.

Sundakkai Vathal

Ingredients :

• Green sundakkai - 1 kg
• Salt - as required
• Sour curd - 1 / 2 cup

Method :

Crush the sundakkai slightly once so that it opens but remains round in shape. Then wash these with water and drain. Add salt and soar curd and mix well. Leave it for 4 to 5 days, shaking once a day. If the sundakkai is very bitter you may add more curd. Then dry in hot sun until it becomes completely dry and crisp. Store it in tight container. Fry in little oil before serving.

White Gravy

Ingredients :

• Fresh curds - 1 cup
• Fresh cream - 1 / 2 cup
• Grated cheese or paneer - 1 tsp
• Milk - 1 cup
• Cashew nuts broken - 1 tbsp
• Peanuts husked and lightly roasted -  1tsp
• Khuskhus seeds - 1 tsp [ soaked in little milk ]
• Green chillies - 2 to 3
• Ginger - small piece
• Coriander leaves - little [ finely chopped ]
• Bread slice -1 [ only white portion ]
• Sugar - 1tsp
• Salt - as required
• Cinnamon - clove powder - 1 / 2 tsp
• Ghee or oil - 4 tbsp.

Method :

Grind  cashew, peanuts, and bread  [ together ]  in dry mixie and keep aside. Then grind  onion, green chillies, khuskhus together adding little milk and make smooth paste. Then keep one heavy kadai, heat oil or ghee, and add onion paste. Fry for 5 minutes, add curds and cook [ stir ] continuously till whiteness of curds disappears. Then add milk, bring to a boil. Add sugar, salt, dry mixture, spice powder and cream. Stir gently till it starts boiling. At this stage add boiled vegetables. Cover and cook for few minutes more till the gravy becomes thick and mix well. Garnished with grated cheese, and chopped coriander leaves. You can also add some cherries.

Red Tomato Gravy

Ingredients :

• Red big tomatoes - 3
• Big onions -2
• Capsicum [ red ] - 1
• Finely chopped coriander leaves - 1 tbsp
• Cashews or peanuts - 2 tbsp
• Ginger & garlic [ crushed ] - 1 tsp
• Cinnamon - clove powder - 1 / 2 tsp
• Garam masala powder - 1 / 2 tsp
• Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
• Turmeric powder - 1 / 2 tsp
• Sugar - 1 / 2 tsp
• Salt - as required
• Oil or ghee - 2 tsp

Method :

Dry roast cashews or peanuts lightly. Then grind coarsely. Make puree  of  tomato and capsicum together. This should be done in food chopper or grated.Chopped onions finely and keep aside. Then heat oil or ghee in a heavy pan. Add ginger, garlic and stir for a minute. Add onions and stir fry till light pink, add tomato puree and allow to boil. When it start boiling add all other masalas, salt, sugar and crushed nuts. Cover and simmer till the gravy becomes thick and oil separating. Remove from the gas and garnish with chopped coriander leaves.Add required boil vegetables in this gravy.