Gulkand Sheera/Halwa - Rose flavored cream of wheat pudding

Sheera or halwa made with rava/semolina/cream of wheat is possibly the most popular sweet dish in India. Every household makes it and it is made as dessert of even as a breakfast dish. It is made as a sweet to celebrate special occasions. And many a times when someone shares good news, this is made on the spur of the moment to celebrate the news. You can add pineapple or another fruit to it to flavor it. If you want to make it rich, substitute half of the water with whole milk and increase the amount of clarified butter/ghee. Then add roasted slivered almonds and cashews to it to transform it into the most decadent dessert ever. You can find the orange colored version of it in many Indian restaurant buffets and it is called "kesari". Kesari is the color that you get when you add "kesar" aka saffron to the dish. In restaurants it is usually a food color that is added, but at home you can add a pinch of saffron to give it a royal feel. A versatile dessert called by many different names and everyone has a favorite version.

This time around,  I decided to give it a twist and make it rose flavored by adding a home made rose preserve that I made using the roses from my garden. The dessert had a lovely fragrance and a delicate rose flavor.

Ingredients 
1 cup rava/semolina/cream of wheat
3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp of sugar
1/3 cup ghee
2 tbsp gulkand
2 cups water
2 tsp rose water
1/4 tsp cardamom powder
2 tbsp raisins
Rose petals for decoration

Method 
I am giving three different methods of cooking this.

Method 1
Roast the semolina/rava/cream of wheat till fragrant on medium heat in a dry pan. It should be lightly browned and at this point it will have a nutty roasted fragrance. In a deep saucepan, mix together the water, sugar. Cover and let it come to a boil. As soon as it starts boiling, add the roasted semolina into the water and stir well. And after a minute, turn off the heat. Cover the saucepan for 15 mins with a well fitting lid, letting it cook in the heat of the water. Then open the lid, add the ghee, cardamom powder, gulkand, raisins and mix them all in thoroughly and cover for 5 more minutes.  Once it is luke warm, stir in the rose water.

Method 2
Heat butter or ghee in a pan. Once hot, add the semolina/rava/cream of wheat and roast it till light brown and when you can smell the nutty flavor. Keep aside. Then mix together the water and sugar in a deep saucepan and let it come to a boil. Once it starts boiling, add the roasted semolina/rava/cream of wheat and stir well, let it cook for a minute and turn off the heat. Cover with a lid and let it cook in the heat for 15 minutes. Then open the lid, and add the cardamom powder, raisins, gulkand and mix them in thoroughly and cover it for another 5 minutes. Once luke warm, stir in the rose water.

Method 3
Heat butter or ghee in a deep pan. Once hot, add the semolina/rava/cream of wheat and roast it till light brown and when you can smell the nutty flavor. At the same time, heat the water, and bring it to a boil. Once the rava is roasted, pour the water onto the rava and mix it well. It will splatter a lot and this is the messiest of the three methods. Turn the heat to a low when pouring the water to minimize the splatter. Then stir it and cover it and let it cook on low heat for a few minutes till it fluffs up, stirring nad covering a couple of times. Then once it is cooked and fluffy, add the sugar and mix. It will dissolve and make the resultant mixture a little fluid. Keep cooking it till you get a drier texture. Then as it finished cooking add the cardamom powder, raisins, gulkand and mix them in thoroughly. Take it off the heat and cover it for 5 minutes and let it rest. Once luke warm, stir in the rose water.

The resultant sheera/pudding does not have an overpowering rose taste but a mild fragrant  rose flavor. You can serve this warm or at room temperature.

Here are the recipes to make ghee at home and gulkand at home using your garden roses.
Ghee/Clarified Butter
Gulkand/Rose Preserve

Tips
You can decrease or increase the amount of gulkand based on your taste Keep stirring the semolina/rava/cream of wheat  when roasting it, so that it doesn't burn. Once it starts to brown, reduce the heat a little else it is easy to burn it. You can buy the rose preserve, also called gulkand in the local store that sells Indian/Asian foods. You can also make it at home (see the link above). You may also find rose jam which you can also use. If you are unable to find the gulkand, substitute it with the same amount of sugar. And increase the rose water to 4 tsps.

Rava Laddoo/Ladoo - Sweet Semolina Balls

This is another Diwali favorite. This is another sweet snack like the besan laddoo and multrigrain laddoo, which can be made as a snack and stored for a few weeks. It is mainly made using semolina (farina) or rava and fresh grated coconut is also added to it. I have always heard everyone say it is one of the simplest laddoo recipes to make. I, however had made it only once so far. The main reason has been that I just couldn't remember how I had made it the last time (It was a recipe I asked from my Mom, of course). So this week I decided to make it again, much to the delight of my husband. I had asked my friends (some of them make this really well) for their recipe, however finding myself without one, I decided that the best course was to call my Mom and ask her to tell me the recipe again. Finally, I was able to make it. It turned out real great. And it is on the menu this year again for Diwali.

Ingredients
1 cup ghee
4 cups coarse rava/semolina/farina (if you just can't find the coarse one, you can use fine rava)
3 cups sugar
1 - 1.5 cup water
2 cups grated fresh coconute
1/4 tsp cardamom powder
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup blanched almond slices

Method
In a pan dry roast the coconut for 2-4 minutes till slightly dry. Keep aside. Heat ghee in a pan  to hold the rava and roast the rava till it is lightly browned and fragrant.  At the same time, in a pan that will be large enough to hold the rava and coconut, heat the sugar and water mixture to make a syrup. Once the syrup comes to a boil, take a drop on a plate and when it is warm to touch, pick this drop up between your forefinger and thumb and then separate out the finger slightly and see if you can see a strand of syrup between your fingers. If so, then your syrup is ready. This is called single strand/ single thread stage.
Take the syrup off the heat. Once it is slightly cooler (no longer boiling but still warm), add the cardamom, raisins and almonds and stir well. Then add the roasted rava and coconut and mix this mixture well. Let it cool till it is luke warm and can easily be held in your hand. At this temperature, take a fistful of this mixture and compress to make a round ball. Make all the balls and let them cool completely. Store in an airtight container. This will stay fresh without refrigeration for a couple of weeks. However, if you plan to store them for a longer time, put them in the fridge, so that the coconut doesn't become rancid.

Tips
The sugar syrup reaches the single thread/strand stage at approximately 220F/104C temperature. If you have a candy thermometer you can use that. However I find this method a more accurate indicator to check if the syrup is at the right consistency.

Remember to add the garnishes like raisins and cardamom to the syrup before adding the rava or coconut. This will ensure that the garish spread evenly through the mixture.
Now, if you do end up overcooking your syrup, the resultant mixture and laddoo will become very dry. If this happens, sprinkle about 1/4 to half cup milk on the mixture and warm it up and mix well. You can then re-roll it into laddoos.
If your mixture becomes too soft and the laddoos do not retain the round shape, then you can add 1/4 to 1/2 cup icing sugar to the mixture. Mix it thoroughly and then roll the laddoos.

 ter you

Idli - Steamed Rice and Urad Dal Cakes

This is probably the easiest recipe to start off with to make your foray into the world of batter, idli and dosa. Another advantage -  possessing a high wattage blender is not a requirement to make this recipe. Urad dal, one of the components, can be easily ground in regular blenders. The other main component is idli rava. This can be easily found in your local Indian grocery store or online. This is my mother-in-law's recipe and results in delicious idlis. You can also use the dosa batter to make idli (see tips below). The main difference between idli and dosa batters is the consistency of the batter, before it is used to make the end product. For dosa, the batter needs to be thinned out, like crepe batter. For idlis the batter needs to be thicker, the consistency should be similar to cake batter. This idli batter can also be used to make uttapas, which are rice pancakes with vegetables, but that's another post.

Ingredients
1 cup urad dal
2 cups idli rava
water
salt

Equipment
Idli stand

Method
Soak the urad dal with enough water to cover the dal and with about 1 inch of water above the urad dal. This needs to be soaked for about 6-8 hours or overnight. Then grind the urad dal to a very fine paste. As you grind it fine, it will become fluffy and will have a soft texture. You need to grind it fine enough, so that it resembles whipped up eggs or whipped cream. Then take the idli rava and add enough water to it so that it is wet. I generally add water to the bowl with the idli rava, mix the two together and drain excess water using a strainer. Then add this idli rava to the urad dal. Mix them well together. If the mixture is very thick, add some water so that it is easy to mix the two ingredients together. Take care when you add water to make sure that you don't make the batter too watery. Then place this batter in a warm place for 6-8 hours/overnight to ferment.

When the batter has fermented, mix it well. Add some water if it's thickened. The consistency should be thick but the batter should easily fall when you use a spoon to scoop it up and let it fall back into the bowl. Add salt to the batter before you begin cooking your idlis. A very important piece of equipment to make idlis is an "Idli Stand". This is used to shape the batter into individual idlis. Grease the idli stand moulds with a little oil. Then add a scoop of batter to each mould. Steam this for about 15 minutes. I time it for 15 minutes once I see the water boiling and steam coming out of the steamer. I generally use a pressure cooker and steam the idlis in it (see tips).

The idlis will rise as they cook and will become light and fluffy.  To check if the idli is cooked, prick the center of one idli with a knife and it will come out fairly clean. Generally, a little idli may get stuck, but it should not be raw batter. Once cooked, unmould using a spoon or knife. Serve with chutney and sambar.

Tips

If you decide to use the dosa batter, make idlis when the batter is fresh. As the batter ages, the idlis will not rise that well and will start becoming denser. To steam idlis in the pressure cooker, follow the instructions on your cooker. If you have a cooker with a whistle, remove the whistle. Make sure that you add enough water, so that it doesn't evaporate completely during the cooking process. If you don't have an idli stand, an alternate is to use small steel bowls which are safe to use for steaming.

Rava Cake - Eggless Semolina Cake

The first time I ate this was at a friend's place for brunch and I really loved the cake. My husband told me that this was a recipe made by his mom when he was growing up and he would love to eat this again. Later, when I was discussing this with my dad, he told me that he had eaten this cake as a child too. His grandmother used to make it and it brought back a lot of memories for him. Well, all this and the fact that the cake is absolutely delicious was just the motivation I needed to prepare this recipe. With the help of a recipe book called "Ruchira" and consulting my mom on the proportions and process, I made this cake for my husband's birthday this year. He enjoyed it thoroughly and I have made this cake a few times since then. It is an eggless recipe, so its perfect for those who don't eat eggs and would love to have a delicious cake to celebrate their special occasions.

Ingredients
1.5 cups fine rava or semolina
1 cup milk
1 cup sugar
1 cup yogurt
1/2 cup clarified butter/ghee
1/8 tsp cardamom powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
few strands of saffron (optional)
2-3 tbsp raisins (optional)
a pinch of salt

Method
Beat the yogurt and sugar together till the sugar is dissolved. To this add the milk, salt, ghee, baking soda, rava and beat this together. Then fold in the raisins and saffron strands. Keep this mixture aside overnight or at least for 5-6 hours. Then preheat the oven and bake if for 20-30 mins at 350F. Use a knife or skewer and pierce the center of the cake with it. If it comes out clean then the cake is ready. The photos here are of two different cakes. One cake was prepared with saffron but without raisins. The other one was prepared without saffron and with raisins.

Tips
If the yogurt is slightly sour, it will enhance the overall flavor of the cake. You can add the saffron strands to a tsp of warm milk and stir them in the milk to release the golden color of the cake.