“चिक्कूच्या वड्या” (Manilkara achras sweet munchkins)

Its festive season.Visiting friends & family or having them for supper would be the most common activities over this fortnight beginning with “Vasu Baras” and ending with “Tulshi che lagna/tulsi ki shaadi” (mythological concept of Lord Vishnu getting married to Goddess Tulsi/holy basil plant goddess).

The most common sweets become boring within first few visits.However,I m going to try something innovative & interesting.Absolutely “jara hatke” (something unique-slang used in Bollywood) style !!

My source book has a series of recipes for “barfis” & “mithais” (flavoured sweet condensed milk goodies).However,I love the concept of fruit based goodies very much.The usual fruit sweets are made of mango,strawberries & oranges.But,I would be using “Chikoo” (Manilkara achras) instead of coconut in the coconut barfi recipe.

Total Time=Cooking Time+Preparation Time=30-40 minutes.

Ingredients

• 1 muffin-full bowl of chikoo pulp (instead of coconut)-I used frozen chikoos and made a pulp of them in the mixer.Its always better to use fresh ones.
• 1/2 muffin-full bowl of heavy cream (my addition-not mandatory)
• 1/4 muffin-full bowl of Crushed dry-fruit mixture (my addition)
• 5 tbsp of milk powder
• 1 glass of low fat milk (sweetened condensed milk may also be used)
• 2 and 1/2 muffin-full bowls of sugar (quantity depends on quality,use discretion)
• 2 tsp-cardamom powder
• 2 tsp nutmeg powder (my addition)
• 1 small piece of cinnamon-I powdered the cinnamon.(my addition)
• 1-2 cloves-I powdered the cloves (my addition)
• khoya/khawa-I had some Kaju katli (cashew nut munchkins),so crushed them with other dry ingredients and added. (my addition)
• 1 tsp pure ghee or oil-to grease the sheet.

Pour It Flat

As given in the book’s recipe for Coconut Barfi,I did not add milk,sugar and fruit together in the pot over flame.I boiled the milk and half portion of heavy cream together.

 

I blended the sugar,chikoo and the remaining portion of the heavy cream in the blender.I added this frothy mixture into the boiling milk.Allowed to cook together and added rest of the dry ingredients into it.

One has to keep stirring it often to avoid burning the batter for the munchkins.Apart from that,I feared that the milk powder might get stuck to the bottom of the pan , so kept stirring it (was wondering about washing comfort :P).

The mixture would be thick in sometime.However,it would not have the consistency of Coconut barfi batter.The coconut barfi batter is thicker and coarser unlike this one.I poured it into a greased steel plate (glass or cookie sheet would also be fine).One needs to keep it to set for some time.

I sprinkled the freshly powdered dry fruits over it.

 “Yum-Yum Sweet Munchkins spread on the snack table could win accolades for the chef’s culinary & creative skills!!”

Simply Fruit Salad :)

Reading my blogs, most of the readers might feel that I am “A Mamma's Pet”. Interestingly, I have been very much “A Daddy’s Darling Daughter” always. Being an only daughter, I have been very close to both my parents. However, baba (my father) is definitely “The Numero Uno” friend, philosopher & guide that a daughter could ever dream of. Now,that I am in the US,not missing him is difficult.

Baba has quite a multi-faceted persona. He penned down a beautiful poetry for my wedding that Jyotsna Kaku (my paternal uncle’s wife who is a professional singer) sang & composed most aesthetically. Its a memoire to treasure & pass on to the future generations.

His wit & intelligence, teamed up with modesty as well as optimism makes him unique. There is a lot to learn from him. A workaholic, is extremely enthusiastic at an age when people retire from work. Baba’s efforts of all these years of innovation in the field geo-tech engineering are finally going to be paid off with completion of his PhD this year (at age 67,he is already working on the next one :) and I want to grab this opportunity to congratulate him.

This is a very proud moment for any daughter with a father of amazonic personality. A man of simple tastes, he loves sweets. Fruit Salad is one of his favourite sweets. So, I am making Simple Fruit Salad from my source bible Ruchira to celebrate the honour of being the daughter of such a dashing Doctor!

Voici!

Total Time=Cooking Time +Preparation Time=30 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 Green Apple-deskinned and cut into small pieces (my addition)
• 1 Red Apple-deskinned and cut into small pieces
• 1 orange-peeled,deskinned,pitted
• blueberries (my addition)
• 2-3 plums (alubukhar)-cut into small pieces (my addition)
• 1/2 muffin-full bowl of Chikku pieces (Sapota,this is my addition-frozen ones are available at Indian stores)
• 1 banana-peeled & cut
• Pineapple pieces (I did not have them,so skipped :P)
• Mango cubes (I skipped them too)
• 2 mugs milk-condense it ,heat it (low-medium flame) on gas until it reduces to half the quantity.If you are short of time then you could just use any sweetened condensed milk.However,it would be best to use some portions of condensed milk from the can and some milk (low fat).This thins the salad and can serve more people.
• Walnuts,almonds,cashew nuts,raisins (5-6 e.a).I used roasted dry fruits and crushed them.Its not mandatory to do so.
• Fresh Cream-I used heavy cream instead
• pomegranate (I replaced it with “anardana” powder which is available at most Indian stores)
• Sugar
• few pitted dates (for sweetness and flavour)-chopped finely
• 2 tsp Brown & Polson Vanilla Custard Powder

Whip it In & Dress it Up!

Fruit Salad is made in various ways. The book itself suggests the following ways to prepare it:

• Replacing Milk with thick Curd/plain Yogurt (good option to cut calories in cream etc): This is done by making “Chakka” which we prepared for Shrikhand  and then mixing up all the fruits or Making Shrikhand & then adding the fruits to it.
• Making Custard liquid as instructed on the custard powder pack and pouring it over fruits & milk.
• The Milk & Fruit Mix: This is the simplest fruit salad,wherein we mix the fruits in sweetened condensed milk (sugar added to home-made condensed milk) ,followed by dry fruits etc.

My method

I condensed the low fat milk ,2 tsp of custard powder along with 1/2 muffin-full bowl of heavy cream. One needs to stir this mixture often.While the milk was on the flame condensing, I added sugar to eat. Few may add in “saffron” (3-4 strands) to this condensing milk like my Aai.But,considering the other ingredients that I m adding (my mom does not add them) like custard powder might not blend well with it (vanilla extract or essence may be added).  The final salad gets a wonderful flavour as well as colour. I roasted the dry fruits, powdered them manually & added them to the milk while it was condensing.

After the milk was condensed, I set it aside to cool then shifted it to the refrigerator (One has to let the milk cool down before its goes into the refrigerator to avoid any curdling of milk) and added the cut fruits to it (after @ 5-7 minutes).

(*You may add any fruits to the salad as per liking and availability.I did not have time to rush to Safeway or Lucky,so used the fruits at home)

I poured fruit with condensed milk into the serving bowl and put in the refrigerator. The fruit salad was ready and looked stunning. Garnished it with few dry fruits ,cannot get better! :P

Serve it chilled :) One suggestion,eat it with blueberry or chocolate chip cup cakes or muffins available at Wal-Mart & Costco!

Try this folks and transform your Diwali into a healthy & happy Celebration!!

Cheers!