Recreation of a Childhood Favorite...

One of the biggest thrills I get from food blogging is the rediscovery of long-forgotten childhood favorites...I am sure a lot of us have these memories of foods tasted long ago, which we cherish for many years, either because of the unique nature/taste of that food or because of an event or circumstance associated with that food...I have such memories associated with an Indian cookie called "Nankhatai" because a lady, one of our neighbors, while we lived in Bombay, India(back when I was a kid), would bake it often and pass it onto us. At that time, we did not own an oven(baking was not a very commonly used cooking technique back then, for us)...so it was enthralling to taste home-baked goodies, hot off the oven. Plus, it was some cookie...light and crisp, almost airy and not overly sweet with a hint of nuts and cardamom...I truly loved it and I relished it many times back then...in fact, we shamelessly encouraged our neighbor aunty to make it more often!!!

After, we left Bombay and moved to Calcutta, it was forgotten and I probably never tasted it again..we had an oven at home then, still....until recently, when I was so thrilled to find recipes for it in various food websites. I was amazed to find the variety of ways to prepare this cookie...some recipes had all APFlour..some had a combination of APF and semolina flour and yet others had a combination of APF, semolina and chickpea flour...whew!!!

So, what is this "Nankhatai"? It is a shortbread-like cookie flavored with cardamom or nutmeg, a medley of nuts and was originally prepared using eggs and flour by the Parsi population in India, though later on Indian Hindus popularised an eggless version. I found a detailed video on the vahrevah blog with many interesting variations on the recipe which is what I followed, though I did make some changes to it, notably by reducing the quantity of sugar needed and ended up with a crunchy, mildly-sweet yet flavorful end-product...just like I remembered it!!! Here is to finding many more forgotten food faves...I know my family enthusiastically agrees with that thought...:))

Here is an interesting(read, detailed:)) history of this famous Nankhatai on the indiacurry website...in case you would like to know more about this delicacy(I did and I found more than I ever expected to know:)) This lovely, forgotten favorite goes to Priya's CWS - Cardamom Seeds event.

Recipe for Nankhatai:

Prep/cook time: 20- 25 mins.

servings: 14-16 pieces

Ingredients:

1 cup all purpose flour (plain flour or maida)

1/4 cup fine sooji or semolina

1/2 cup gram flour (besan)(optional) if used, increase sugar to 2/3 cup

Pinch of baking soda (a little less than 1/8 teaspoon)

1/2tsp baking powder

1/4 teaspoon green cardamom seeds coarsely powdered (ilaichi)

crushed pistachio, almonds for topping

few saffron strands

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/3 cup sugar

1tsp yoghurt

Note: all ethnic ingredients are available at Asian/Indian grocery stores

Method:
preheat oven to 325 f

mix dry ingredients separately

mix wet ingredients well together

combine both...make soft dough ball...put in fridge for few mins...then shape into discs...press the mixture of almond-pistachio on each cookie

bake for 15 mins...will appear soft when removed from oven then will crisp up.

Celebrations....Two of them!!

I am not one for huge celebrations...have always been overly-practical, even when it comes to celebration...prefer minimum fuss and fanfare!!! But there are some times and occasions when even the Queen of Practicality(myself!!!) wants to cheer...

Well, for one it is the beginning of a New Year in the South Indian calendar...so, Happy Tamil New Year / Happy Vishu to one and all!!! A new season and new year are definitely big reasons to celebrate....plus, the other occasion that makes me want to celebrate right now, is the fact that I am on my 50th post with this blog!!! Yaaaaahoooo!!!!

So, here is my two-in-one celebration recipe...of course, you know me...it is definitely Healthily Decadent...you will see...also here is a little verse, my daughter (the precocious poet, herself!) wrote to help me celebrate my blogging milestone!!!

"When my Mom started blogging...

  She started with a blog about cooking,

  And wanted to share it with Everyone,

  So her experience would be Fun!

  So, I made this poem for her 50th post,

  Now let us all make a toast! Yippee"

This dual celebration recipe for Carrot Beetroot Kheer makes its way to Shama's Payasam/Kheer Festival event. I tried out a variation to the Carrot Kheer I prepare usually, by adding some beets to it and of course, nut-obsessed that I am, had to also add some almonds and cashewnuts...which to my mind...make any dish richer and creamier than it normally would be...so here is a crazy yet surprisingly tasty kheer/pudding...let the celebrations continue...I hope!

Recipe for Carrot-Beetroot Kheer with a nutty flavor(South indian style pudding)-

Serves: 4

Prep/cook time: 25-35 mins.

Ingredients:

Carrots - 3 chopped

Beetroot - 1 small chopped

Almonds and cashew nuts - 1/2  cup chopped, combined

Milk - low fat - 2 to 2.5 cups

Sugar - 1/2 cup(could add more for sweeter kheer...I like my sweets to be not overly sweet)

Cardamom powder - 1 tsp

Saffron - few strands

For garnish - slivered almonds roasted(would taste better if roasted in a little ghee/clarified butter)

Method:

In a heavy-bottomed pan, let the milk boil on a low flame and keep stirring so it does not stick to bottom of pan.

In the meanwhile, blend together chopped carrots, beetroot and the almonds with a few more spoons of milk till you get a fine paste.

Then, add the blended carrot mixture to the boiling milk alongwith the cardamom powder and saffron strands.

Let the mixture cook on a medium or medium-low flame until it comes to a slow bubbling consistency...which takes 8 to 10 mins...do not boil too long or the mixture could end up becoming watery.

Once you a get slow rolling bubble consistency, take off the heat and add sugar...garnish with roasted slivered almonds.

This kheer tastes best when it has been chilled in the refrigerator for atleast a couple of hours...plus the consistency becomes creamier after refrigeration...

Enjoy!!!

Yummies from Blogosphere: A sweet start to a new series!

As I mentioned in my post last week to my readers, here is my new series: Yummies from Blogosphere - where I am delighted to showcase beautiful recipes from Bloggerworld which I have tried and relished with my family and friends. I feel that this is the best way that I could show appreciation for all the inspiration that I get from my fellow bloggers.

I have bookmarked wonderful food creations from almost every food blog I read regularly...so, naturally I had a humongous variety of dishes to choose from, to try out last weekend...I did not know which one to choose because they are all foods to die for!  I wanted to start this new series with something sweet... I could not believe that I had bookmarked so many recipes!

I just could not fix on one recipe to try out. Finally, I ended up making a serially numbered list of favorite sweet recipes (one from each of the blogs that I regularly read) and had my daughter give me a random number and tried out the recipe corresponding to that number. It just goes to show what amazing talent we have in Blogosphere, I think.

Without further ado, let me go on to the recipe that I tried last weekend...

It was a wonderfully sweet recipe for Microwave Cashewnut (Kaju)Peda originally posted by Priya of  Priya's Easy n Tasty Recipes. I will provide a link to the original recipe below. It was posted almost a year back by Priya. She has provided some great info on cashewnuts - their nutritional benefits and method of storage and so on...what attracted me to this recipe was the fact that it is probably one of the quickest and fastest sweet/dessert recipes that I have made in a while, not to mention the fact that is also extremely healthy... I started making it with 10 minutes to spare for dinner time and it was still ready, well in time to have as a tasty, bite-size dessert. The pedas were easy to shape into round discs(actually my 9 year old daughter helped me with this step...it was easy enough to shape for her!)

NOTES AND POSSIBLE VARIATIONS:  I followed the original recipe as much as possible. The only change I made to the original recipe is that, I ended up using 4 tbsp of water in place of the original recipe (which required 2 tsp water) That was mainly because I used totally non-fat milk powder which was very crumbly and needed some extra water for the cashew and milk powder mixture to come together. I also used some raisins as well as pistachios for the garnish. Plus, I was thinking it might be good to use some saffron strands the next time I make this for an extra touch of flavor...talk about icing on an already beautiful cake!

The taste of course, was unbelievable inspite of the fact that it is almost totally devoid of butter/oil. Needless to say, my family loved it  - even my toddler!

Links: Original Post for Microwave Kaju Peda at Priya's Easy n Tasty Recipes

Thanks, Priya for this fabulous recipe!

 I so love this series...I(and of course, my family!!!) cant wait to try the next Yummy from Blogosphere!

Recipe for Microwave Kaju Peda(as posted on Priya's Easy n Tasty Recipes):
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1cup Cashew powder
1/2cup Milk powder
2tsp Water
3/4cup Sugar
Few pistachios (garnishing)


Take a wide microwave bowl...add the cashew powder, milk powder, water and sugar together and mix with a spatula, microwave for 2 minutes in high, stir in between..Keep aside and let it cool..


Now it will look like soft chappathi dough, roll or shape them as u desire..Garnish the pistachio..