With Eid knocking here’s your chance to surprise your friends and family by preparing simple and wholesome desserts. Take a cue from expert chefs and make these quick and easy recipes at home.
Kheer
Ingredients:
¾ cup of basmati rice or gobindobhog rice. One of these can be used for this kheer because gobindobhog rice tastes well when you make kheer
½ cup of sugar
½ litre of full cream milk. Keep extra 1-2 cups so that you can adjust the consistency if required
100 grams of cashew nuts
100 grams of raisins
1 tsp of ghee
1 tsp of cardamom powder
Wash the rice till the water comes out clean and then soak it and drain all the water. Then, rub the rice with your fingers and break it properly.
Boil milk in a cooker and once it starts boiling, reduce the heat to very low and add the broken rice to the milk.
Then stir it well. Close the lid and reduce the heat to the lowest and cook for half an hour.
Turn off the heat and let the pressure release fully on its own before opening the lid. This is very important as the more time you keep it untouched, the more it tastes good and the colour changes from white to a slight pink.
Open the lid, add sugar and mix it well.
Cook for another 5 to 10 minutes on low heat. Switch off the flame and set it aside.
Finally, you can heat the ghee and when it simmers, add raisins and cashews. Fry the cashew nuts in the ghee until lightly golden and after the raisins are plugged. If you want, you can break the cashew nuts as well.
Then add the cashews and raisins and cardamom powder to the kheer and mix it well.
Cool it to room temperature. The kheer will turn thicker as it cools so you can add the reserved milk to adjust the consistency.
Then you can eat it hot or cold.
Shahi Tukda
Ingredients:
2 litre of whole full-fat milk
4-5 tbsp of sugar or as required
1 tsp of cardamom powder
A pinch of saffron strands which we call kesar
4 tbsp of almonds, blanched and sliced
4 tbsp of pistachios, blanched and sliced. You will have to soak these almonds and pistachios in hot water, and after about 20 to 30 minutes, you can just peel them and slice or chop them
8 slices of bread
Ghee to deep fry
20-25 almonds, blanched and sliced
20-25 pistachios, blanched and sliced
Some rose petals
For the sugar syrup, you will need
250 g of sugar
250 g water
2-3 pinch of cardamom powder
Method:
For the rabdi, pour the milk into a heavy bottom pan and bring it to a boil over low to medium heat stirring in between until the milk starts to form a layer of cream or malai on top.
When you notice that the cream is floating on top, gently move the creamy layer with the back of a spatula and bring it towards the sides of the pan. Keep scraping this cream and put it back into the milk. Keep the heat to a low flame and continue to simmer. As it simmers, keep collecting the creamy layer on the sides of the pan.
Once the milk reduces to half, add the saffron strands and the cardamom powder and stir gently.
When the milk gets reduced to ⅓ of its original quantity, add the sugar and mix it well.
Let it simmer for another 10 minutes on low flame or until it is reduced to about one-fourth of the original quantity.
Scrape off the entire creamy layer as well as dried milk solids, add to the thickened milk and stir gently.
Switch off the flame and let it cool down.
To make the sugar syrup, in a pan add water along with sugar and keep stirring until the sugar dissolves. Then, let it boil on a high flame. Once it starts boiling, add the cardamom powder and mix it well. Boil for another 3 to 4 minutes and switch off the flame.
Now to fry the bread, cut the bread sides and discard them and then cut the bread into a triangular shape or whatever shape that you want, and then you can set it aside.
Heat, ghee or oil in a pan and deep fry these bread pieces from both sides. One or two pieces at a time is what is recommended and deep fry until it is golden and crispy.
Once done transfer the fried pieces of tissue paper to remove the excess oil. Fry all of the remaining pieces and set it aside.
For assembling, dip the fried bread slices in the sugar syrup ensuring that the bread slices are coated evenly and then take it out on a plate. Also, ensure that you’re not keeping the bread in the sugar syrup for too long or else, the bread will absorb too much sugar syrup and become soggy.
Now take a bowl and pour some rabdi into it. Arrange the sugar syrup-soaked bread slices neatly on the rabdi. Then pour rabdi on the sugar syrup-coated bread slices.
Finally garnish it with sliced and blanched almonds, pistachios and rose petals and serve the rich Shahi Tukda!
Check out more such recipes from The Tastes of India on Audible Podcasts.
