FND: Gulab Jamun

So, I havent been cooking much for the past few months, cause I got bored of it, and also since I now have a bai coming in daily to cook for me!! So, I dont really spend any time in the kitchen.

However the last weekend, I was alone at home, and was asleep when the bai came, so I missed her, and had to fend for myself! While looking through all the shelves, I found this Gulab Jamun packet. I had bought it ages ago, when I was still in the cooking phase, but had not gotten to it since I thought it required a lot of work!

Anyway, with nothing better to do, I thought I'd give this a try.

Finally!

Kneading the flour took quite a long time, but I didn't really notice it since Devious Maids was going on and that is one interesting show! But the time the show got over, I realised I had been kneading the dough for about 45 minutes!! So after that I quickly rolled the dough into almost evenly sized balls, and heated up the oil to deep fry.

Deep frying

Whenever I used to make these Gulab Jamuns with Ma, I always thought frying them was the most complicated step, what with the hot oil and all. But on my own now, I realized that this was like the easiest step of all. You just carefully put them in boiling hot oil and let them fry. That's it!!

So, after frying till golden brown (the first batch came out a little yellow), I just soaked in the sugar syrup, and got tasty, hot, yummy gulab jamuns! First solo effort, and a success!!

Bon Apetit!

 Also, a Happy Diwali to all! 

 

FND: Vanilla Custard

Ok, so with being sick and bored and all, I decided to stick to making something really easy this weekend. And went with my all-time favorite: Custard.

I had picked up the Pillsbury Golden Vanilla Flavor Custard Powder some time back, and decided to use it this weekend. It made for only three servings, but was good. I didn't have any bananas to go with it, so had to make do with walnuts & almonds.

While it was hot:

The next day:

FND: BlackCherry Jelly

Ok, so for this week's FND, I decided to make something easy; the gas was over, and I was feeling too bored, but mostly cause of the gas! I had this pack lying in my cupboard for ages, so with nothing easier, went for it.

It turned out really well, and I didnt add any sugar or anything. It was very simple and quick to make. Just add cold water, and then some hot water to the mix and freeze for about 4 hours.

I tried to trn the bowl and get it sitting nicely in a plate, but it just wouldnt comply! Anyway, taste wise, it was good. So that was fine.

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Picture Of The Day: The Irish House it is!

FND: Ras Malai

Ok, so this weekend I decided to make something Indian. While browsing I found this recipe for Ras malai.
It looked easy enough, so I went for it.

I'd made a miscalculation while doing unit conversion (!), ending up with much less Milk powder than was actually required, and so, had to postpone the preparation till Saturday.
So, the next day I went grocery shopping with my roomie, who also needed some stuff. It was a nice walk, and I got the milk powder I needed, but also got some ice-cream, as backup in case this did not turn out well. You can hardly blame me with my track record!

I used 200g of Milk powder and mixed with the egg, but that became too dry, so added some milk to it, and it became ok.

 The condensed milk tin: I tried it plain, and it was so tasty, I took a spoon and had whatever was remaining straight from the tin!

 The final product: It was good, but tasted more like Kalakand! And the colour wasn't the light yellow that it usually is (I didn't add any kesar). But a solid effort nevertheless, if I may say so myself!  :P

P.S.: Yeah, I know you're not supposed to use eggs in making this sweet dish, I've heard it now from about 50000 different people!

FND: Basundi

Ok, so time for the weekly recipe. I've decided to go slow and do something easy. I mean can you blame after last week's disaster!!?
So I couldn't do anything on Friday due to the best match of this year, so saturday morning it was!! At least the best one that I've seen this year. All the best for the Finals Rafa!!!

Anyway, I'd picked up the GITS mix for Basundi when at D.-Marts the other day, so decided to use it today. Now, I'd never ever even heard of this dish, but it looked simple enough, which was what I wanted.

Just heated some milk (I used a packet and a quarter of the 500ml Katraj milk), added the mix, and brought it to a boil. But, I guess I added a little too much milk since it was not very thick, one pack would have been sufficient. I don't know how the real thing actually is, but I think a little thicker would have been better. It tasted yummy though. Added some chopped almonds for garnishing, and voila!

Bon Apetit!

FND: Disaster Friday! (Chocolate Fudge Cake)

Ok, so I've decided I'm going to cook something new every friday after work, a dessert mostly. Something easy and preferably containing chocolate! And this is the first attempt.

So, while looking for an easy no-bake, I found this Chocolate Fudge Cake recipe. It looked really easy to make and really yummy!!

After work, I went to the neighbouring stores and got all the necessary supplies.
After that came the preparation. This recipe required crushed biscuits, which I thought would be easy to do i.e. to crush the biscuits. Alas! It took me the over an hour to crush them all into powder. Now that I think about it, I guess I could have broken them with some heavy object, instead of breaking each biscuit with my hands!
Anyway, after that I peeled and chopped the almonds and broke the chocolate bars into pieces, which was the easiest part of the whole recipe,

After that, I had to mix the chocolate and butter in a utensil. Till this step everything was going well.

The next step involved mixing in the powdered biscuits and almonds. I guess I should have stopped after pouring in only half of the powder, but like a fool I went and poured all of it! This is what it looked like after mixing.

When actually it should have looked like this:

Well, there was nothing I could do at that time since I was out of chocolate, and more importantly butter! Anyway, I kept the mix in the fridge and the next day got the extra butter and chocolate, melted it and and put maybe a quarter of the whole mix into it, It looked very much like the mixture above, although not that dark since I used mostly milk chocolate, with a little bit of dark chocolate.

In the fridge it went for the rest of the night. When I checked the next day it had gotten harder, although there was a fine yellow layer of butter at the top. I guess I used too much butter.

Anyway, I removed the layer and tasted it. All I can say is it didnt taste as bad as it looked! The butter had given it a slightly salty taste, not unlike Reeses Peanut Butter cups! I mean I could have done a lot worse I guess!

This is the last bit that is remaining, and I'm gonna finish it after this post.

I'm gonna try this recipe again, since it still looks really attractive, hopefully with better luck!

Bon Appetit!