Sandesh/ Sondesh Recipe | How to Make Sandesh | Bengali Sweets

Sandesh/Sondesh #Recipe

Sandesh or Sondesh, as it is pronounced in Bengali, is a much loved traditional sweet from the state of West Bengal in India. Freshly made paneer or chenna is used in making these. It can be flavoured in many ways. The recipe for Sandesh I am sharing today has been flavoured with cardamom/elaichi and has been garnish with saffron.

Bengalis are known for their sweet tooth and hence it comes as a no surprise that the state of West Bengal offers us with a delectable spread of sweet dishes. Misti Doi, Rasogulla, a variety of Sandesh, and many more. There are many ways to make and flavour Sandesh. But one thing is common in all varieties - freshly made paneer or chenna. It can then be sweetened with sugar, jaggery or the Bengal special Noler Gur (Palm Jaggery). Sandesh is often flavoured with cardamom, rose, saffron, etc. Fruit flavoured sandesh like aam sandesh are also popular and so are sandesh flavoured with chocolate.

Oats Mathri Recipe | How to Make Oats Mathri | Festive Recipes

Oats Mathri #Recipe

These Oats Mathri are a close cousin of the regular mathri. Mathri is an ever popular deep fried snack that goes well with Indian masala chai. While it is generally prepared with maida/all purpose flour, I decided to make a somewhat healthier version by using oats flour and wheat flour.

After posting sweet dish recipes one after the other here it's time I share something savoury. So, for the 3^rd day of my special day/festival theme in blogging marathon, I am sharing a recipe for these oats mathri. Along with sweets, savoury snacks also have their rightful space in the menu during festivals – be it Diwali or Holi you cannot do without munching on a handful of them.

Looking for some more savoury snack ideas check out these:

Namak Pare
Rice Krispie Chiwda/Puffed Rice Chiwda
Masala Peanuts

Using different types of flour in cooking is quite in trend these days. So, I decided to make these mathris with oats flour and whole wheat flour. Without much ado, let’s check how I made them

Oats Mathri Recipe

Ingredients

2 cup oats flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp ajwain

1/2 tsp crushed black pepper

3 tbsp oil

1 tbsp crushed kasuri methi

About ¼ cup to ½ cup water for the dough

Oil for deep frying

Process:

1. In a mixing bowl add all the ingredients and using water little by little knead a firm dough. Cover and set aside for 15 minutes.
2. Divide the dough into 4 balls. Roll each dough balls 1/8 inch thick and using a cookie cutter cut out circles of the dough. Poke a couple of holes in them and transfer the circles to a clean plate. Repeat the process with the rest of the dough.
3. Heat oil in a pan for deep-frying. When the oil is hot enough deep fry mathri in batches in hot oil turning them in between. They are done when they are light brown in colour on both sides.
4. Transfer them on a kitchen towel so that excess oil is soaked out. Once they are cooled store in airtight container.
5. Enjoy with a cup of hot masala chai.

Notes:

1.       I churned rolled oats to get oats flour.

2.       Poking holes in the rolled circles ensure that mathri will not puff up like a puri when deep fried.

3.       Keeps well for 2 weeks when stored properly in an airtight container.

4.       The dough should be firm. A soft dough will not yield crisp mathri.

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Instant Peda Recipe | Peda Recipe with Milk Powder and Condensed Milk

Instant Peda #Recipe

 Peda Recipe with Milk Powder and Condensed Milk

Peda is rich milk fudge flavoured with cardamom or saffron. It is also one of the favourite sweets of Lord Ganesha. So, it sells like hotcakes during Ganesh Chaturthi.

For the 2^nd day of Week 4 of Blogging Marathon under the theme ‘Special Day/Festival’, I am posting the recipe for this much loved Indian sweet – Peda.

Traditionally Peda is made with khoya and sugar. Making khoya from milk is a painstaking process where you have to heat milk on low flame for a prolonged time so that all the liquid from the milk evaporates, leaving behind a dense and rich khoya. My mom makes peda from scratch and it is really a long process. You have to be really patient to make it that way.

The recipe I am sharing today is quite instant – by using milk powder and condensed milk you can prepare delicious peda in just 15 minutes. I browsed a lot of YouTube Videos before finally trying it out.

The first time I tried it, I heated the mixture little longer than necessary, so they came out little hard – but they tasted good nonetheless. So, I tried it again and this time they came out semi-soft but not soft like malai peda. But, they were good enough.

Instant Peda Recipe

Ingredients:

200 g milk powder

200 g condensed milk

3 tbsp ghee

4 cardamom pods, crushed and finely powdered

Process:

1.       In a non-stick pan on medium flame add ghee. To it add the milk powder and condensed milk and using a spatula stir well such that the mixture is uniform and well mixed.

2.       Keep heating the mixture on medium heat for about 10-12 minutes and using the spatula keep tossing and turning the mixture as it cooks.

3.       Add the cardamom powder and mix well. Take it off heat. At this point, the mixture should resemble smooth soft dough.

4.       Take the dough out into a clean bowl and let it cool down a little.

5.       When the dough has cooled enough to handle (but not completely cold), grease your palm with little ghee and form small bite-size balls.

6.       I used terra cotta moulds to get the design impression on the peda. If you have such moulds, you can do the same. Else you can just flatten the balls a bit and put a finger impression.

7.       If you like you can garnish them with chopped pistachios.

Notes:

1.       These pedas were semi-soft with a chewy taste – but not soft like malai peda. If you like these a little hard, you can heat the mixture for another 5 minutes.

2.       It is very important to keep stirring the dough while cooking, else it can get brown.

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Badam Kheer | Almond Kheer | How to Make Badam Kheer | Festive Recipes

Badam Kheer / Almond Kheer #Recipe

This Badam Kheer /Almond Kheer is inspired by the traditional Kheer which is an Indian rice pudding. Instead of rice, I have used coarsely ground almonds in this badam kheer recipe.

On most festive and special occasions in India, Kheer finds a place in the menu. Be it a birthday or an occasion like Raksha Bandhan. There are many version of Kheer - the one with rice being the most common and popular. You can also check out my Carrot and Almond Kheer recipe here.

Sadly, I do not get to make kheer often at home as DH doesn't like it much. But, whenever I make it for myself, I make 2-3 servings and enjoy a bowl of kheer with every meal. I like my kheer to be creamy with cardamom and saffron, and there should be lots of dried nuts in it.

So, when I chose 'Festival/ Special Day' theme for week 4 of BM#78, I decided to make badam/almond kheer. With Raksha Bandhan around the corner, I think the recipe fitted the bill perfectly. This Badam Kheer is actually quite rich and should be served in small portion size.

Let's check out how I made Badam Kheer/ Almond Kheer from scratch.

Badam ki Kheer / Almond Kheer Recipe

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1-litre full-fat milk
3 tbsp condensed milk
1 tbsp sugar
¼ cup almonds
2 cardamoms, powdered
10 strands of saffron, soaked in 1 tbsp milk
Almond slivers, chopped pistachios of garnishing

Process:

1. Soak almonds in water for an hour. Drain the water after an hour and soak them in hot water for 5 minutes. Peel off the skin from the almonds and grind them into a rough paste.

2. Boil milk in a deep non-stick pan. Let it simmer on low to medium flame for about 15 minutes, such that the milk reduces to about 3/4th volume.

3. Add the almond paste and boil the milk for another 7-10 minutes. Depending on how thick and creamy you like the kheer, you can boil it for another 10 minutes or so.

4. Add the condensed milk and sugar and stir well. Add cardamom and saffron milk. Stir again and take it off heat.

5. Let it cool down and then you can transfer it to a serving bowl and keep in the fridge to chill.

6. Serve it chilled with almonds and pistachio garnishing.

Notes:

1.       If you do not have condensed milk, you can skip it and add more sugar for sweetness. I had some leftover condensed milk so I used it in the recipe.

2.       This kheer takes best when served chilled.

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Thandai Syrup Recipe | How to Make Thandai Syrup at Home From Scratch | Holi Recipes

Thandai is rich milk based Indian drink. It is most popularly consumed during the Indian festival of colours – Holi. I have been making Thandai syrup/concentrate at home for past couple of years and believe me it is so simple to make it that you would never want to get a bottle of ready-made Thandai syrup. In this post, I am going to tell you how to make Thandai Syrup at home from scratch.

It is one of those stellar recipes that I discovered when I started food blogging years ago. I had tried it from here and instantly I fell in love with the recipe. I had even done a blog post on it here and after all these years I think it seems to be lost in the labyrinths of this blog. So, I think it is worth re-posting it. Since I am making it for quite some time now; I have fine-tuned the recipe to my own liking and taste.

I like to believe that Thandai is a drink fit for the Royals – with almonds, saffron, cardamom, rose water, et al, in the right amounts you cannot go wrong. One glance at the recipe and it may seem to be a daunting one, but is NOT.  

Read the recipe well; gather all the ingredients at one place before you set out to make it. 

Original Post

How to Make Thandai Syrup from Scratch

Yields -  1 litre of ready-to-use Thandai syrup

Prep Time: 20 minutes + soaking time

Cooking Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

1/2 cup almonds, soaked overnight and blanched

Soak these together in water overnight

3 tbsp poppy seeds

3 tbsp dried melon seeds

Soak these ingredients in ¼ cup of water overnight and then grind it

1 tbsp green cardamom
3 tbsp whole black pepper 

3 tbsp fennel seeds

1 kg sugar
1 cup water + add 1/4 cup more if needed
3 tbsp rose petal spread (Gulkand)
25-30 strands saffron (Rub it in a pestle and mortar with  a few drops of water and sugar crystals)
1 tsp rose water 

Process:

1. In a blender jar add the blanched almonds. Drain water from poppy seeds and melon seeds and tip them into the mixer jar and using very little water grind it into a fine paste. Strain through a muslin cloth and extract all the liquid and keep aside. You may add little water to the residue and churn it again in the mixer again and repeat the process of straining again.

2. Add the rose petal spread to the ground cardamom-pepper-fennel mixture and mix well. Strain through a fine plastic net and extract all the liquid and keep aside. It is okay if the extracted liquid has some fine residue. 

3. Mix both the extracted liquids and keep aside.

4. Add the sugar and 1 cup of water in a deep thick bottom pan and cook until the sugar dissolves.

It may take some time for the sugar to dissolve. Bring it to boil and simmer for a couple of minutes.

5. Remove from the heat and let it cool for a couple of minutes. Add the extracted liquid to it and stir.

Heat it again and bring it to a boil and then turn the heat to medium and simmer for 7-10 minutes, stirring constantly.

6. Remove from the heat and cool till warm and then add the rubbed saffron mixture and rose water and mix well.When the Thandai syrup completely cools down, use a funnel to pour into a sterilized bottle. It keeps well for at least 3 months when kept in the refrigerator.

7. To make a glass of Thandai add 2 tbsp syrup and top it with 200 ml chilled milk. Stir vigorously. Garnish with almond slivers, chopped pistachios and saffron strands.

Notes: 

1. Don't be tempted to add more than 1+ 1/4 cup of water to 1 kg sugar, else the final syrup will be very thin.

2. If the syrup crystallizes in the process of cooling, add 1/4 cup of hot water and give it a good stir.

3. If you do not have all the ingredients listed to make thandai, you can try a combination of almonds + cardamom or almonds + kesar to get almond syrup. The process will be same.

4. The residue of almond+poppy seeds+melon seeds can be used in gravies if used on the same day.

5. In order to sterilize a glass bottle with no metal parts on it, place a thoroughly cleaned, washed and dried bottle in microwave and microwave it for 1 minute. Use it to store the Thandai syrup when it comes back to room temperature.

I hope you try out this recipe and enjoy a glass of chilled Thandai to beat the heat this summer. 

Looking for more Holi recipes, check out

Dahi Vada
Namakpare
Papdi Chaat 

Thank you for stopping by! Cheers!