Tag Archives: milk

Shortcut Gulab Jamun Recipe

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I learned this easy milk powder gulab jamun recipe from my husband’s aunt when she was visiting us. I’ve tested this recipe several times and finally have the one for perfectly juicy, soft gulab jamuns to share with you! Traditional gulab jamuns are made with khoya, which is reduced, almost solid milk. Using milk powder or dry milk instead of khoya makes this Indian dessert a little lighter and also easy to make from grocery store ingredients.

The sugar syrup is easy to make – just boil sugar, water and cardamom powder together. You can also flavor the syrup with rose water and or saffron if you wish. If you find the syrup too sweet, just add more water!

Heres the trick to make gulab jamuns soft, and juicy. Add vinegar to the dough. The acids in vinegar, when combined with baking soda, will make the jamuns airy and soft so they absorb the sugar syrup better. They will also be lighter and less dense than khoya gulab jamuns.

Make sure you fry the jamuns on low heat, so that they cook through on the inside.

But I know what you are asking..Can I BAKE gulab jamuns?

Umm..yes, and no. See the photo below – I baked a ball of the dough on 300f for about 7 minutes (or till it browns and rises). See the difference? The fried gulab jamun browns evenly and looks better. The fried one also absorbs the sugar syrup much quicker.

If you want to try baked gulab jamuns – bake the balls (after step 7 in the recipe below) on a silicone baking mat at 300f till they are brown and risen, about 7 minutes. Then remove from oven and let them cool. Remember, they wont look pretty like the fried ones! Once cool, drop them in the sugar syrup. Let them soak for atleast an hour before serving. Baked gulab jamuns will get soggy quickly, so dont keep them more than a day.

More milk powder gulab jamun recipes..
A video and recipe for gulab jamun by Manjula’s kitchen
A gulab jamun recipe using milk powder and bisquick on Indian food forvever
The ladies at Show me the Curry have a gulab jamun recipe using yogurt

Milk Powder Gulab Jamun Recipe

Makes about 24 small sized gulab jamuns

Ingredients
For sugar syrup
2 cup sugar
2 1/2 cup water
4 cardamom seeds, powdered in a mortar and pestle
A drop of rose essence, optional
A small pinch of saffron threads, optional

For the jamuns
1 cup unsweetened milk powder or dry milk (not coffee creamer)
1 tablespoon butter at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3 tablespoons flour
A pinch of salt, optional
1/2 teaspoon white distilled vinegar
1/3 cup whole milk

Method

  1. Place the sugar, water and cardamom powder in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and watch for the sugar to dissolve. Once its dissolved, boil for another minute. Turn off heat and add rose essence and or saffron, if using. Set the syrup aside.
  2. Now make the Jamuns. In a mixing bowl, add milk powder or dry milk, baking soda, flour and salt. Mix well.
  3. Then add butter and vinegar. Add milk a little at a time and mix till it forms dough. You may not need all of the milk.
  4. When a soft, sticky dough forms, stop adding milk. Cover and let the dough stand for about 20 minutes.
  5. After resting, the dough will be less sticky, airy and a little firmer. If its too lose, sprinkle a little flour. If its too dry, add a little milk.
  6. Knead the dough a few times.
  7. Dip your fingers in oil or ghee, divide the dough into 24 even pieces and roll them into balls. Dip your fingers in oil as and when needed to avoid sticking.
  8. Heat enough oil to deep fry in a saucepan pan on medium-low heat. Drop a small pinch of the dough in the oil to test the temperature. The dough should sink to the bottom and then slowly rise to the top. If it sits in the bottom of the oil without bubbling, the oil is not hot enough. If the dough rises and browns too quickly, the oil is too hot.
  9. Add the jamun balls a few at a time and fry in oil on medium-low heat. Stir and turn the jamuns frequently so they brown evenly.
  10. When brown, remove from oil using a slotted spoon and drain on several layers of paper towels.
  11. Repeat with all the dough. Let fried jamuns cool.
  12. Add the jamuns to the sugar syrup. Stir gently so the jamuns are well coated in syrup.
  13. Cover and let the gulab jamuns soak in the syrup for atleast an hour before serving. Gulab jamuns will keep for several days at room temperature.

Easy Carrot Mint Soup and a Great Tip for Flavoring Milk Based Soups

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Let’s start the New Year with a simple, yet delicious carrot mint soup recipe, shall we?! This is my go to recipe when I’m feeling like a soup laden with the freshness of herbs and vegetables. This soup is very easy to make and pantry friendly since it uses only carrots, fresh mint, and milk.

I’ve tried this soup before by pureeing the mint leaves along with the carrots, just like my pea and mint soup. The pureeing method works beautifully for the pea and mint soup, but not so well for the carrot soup. When you puree the mint with the carrots, the soup loses it brilliant carotene tinged orange color. So heres how I infuse the mint flavor into the soup. Read on..

How to flavor milk based soups

If you are making a milk based soup with a herb, this is the best way to infuse the herb flavor into the soup. Mint and basil work particularly well with this method, but you can also use cilantro, parsley, rosemary or chives.

Bring the milk to a gentle simmer, and add the herb (mint in this recipe) to it. Turn off the heat, cover the milk and let the herb infuse for about 15 minutes. Then pull out the herb leaves from the milk, squeeze any milk out, then discard the leaves. That’s it! You have herb infused milk! Puree this milk along with cooked vegetables (carrots in this recipe) and you have a beautiful herb infused soup.

This is a great make ahead recipe. You can make this soup a few days ahead and simple re-heat it in the microwave. I love this carrot mint soup for a work day lunch, packed in a thermos with a paper bag of french baguette. Yum!

Easy Carrot Mint Soup Recipe

Serves 2
Ingredients
6 medium carrots, peeled and cut into chunks (about 1 ½ cups)
1 1/2 cups water
1 cup milk (Whole milk will taste best, but you can use 2% milk too)
4 sprigs mint (about 20 mint leaves)
Salt
Freshly cracked black pepper
¼ teaspoon sugar, optional

Method
Place the chopped carrots and 1 1/2 cups water in a pan. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Cover with a lid and simmer the carrots till they are very very soft, about 40 minutes. When you mash a carrot chunk with the back of a spoon, it must mash very easily. This means the carrots are ready. Alternatively, you can pressure cook the carrots.

While the carrots are cooking, gently heat the milk in a medium saucepan. Just as small bubbles start to appear on the sides, and the milk is about to boil, turn off the heat. Immediately add mint sprigs to the milk and stir. Cover and let it infuse for 15 minutes.

Then fish out all the mint leaves, squeeze the milk out of them, and discard the mint leaves.

When the carrots are cooked, place them in a blender along with their cooking water, the mint infused milk and salt.

Blend to a smooth puree. Add more milk to the blender if needed, to thin out the soup. Be careful when blending hot liquids in a blender, always vent the lid a little.

Taste the soup; if you would like it a little sweeter, stir in the sugar. Some carrots are sweeter than others, so you may or may not need the sugar.

To serve, pour hot soup into bowls, top with cracked pepper and serve with crusty bread.

Mishti Doi Recipe – Yogurt Set with Caramelized Sugar

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..a guest post by Pavithra of Dishes from my Kitchen

I have just completed a cross country drive across America (read about it here and here!) and moved to Portland, OR. While I’m settling in, I’ve asked my good friend and talented blogger, Pavithra to guest post today. Pavithra and I made an instant connection because we are from the same city in India. And I have followed her beautiful blog and seen it grow into a hugely popular destination for Indian food lovers. You are going to love this sweet yogurt recipe! Take it away Pavithra.

First of all I should say thanks to Sala for giving me an opportunity to do this guest post. I am truly honored! Who can say no when your favorite blogger friend asks you to guest post?

I am here today with very rich dessert but really simple to make. Mishti Doi is a Bengali dessert. Bengal is a part of East India and Bengalis are very famous for their sweet preparation. Mishti Doi is among their well known dessert, I have enjoyed having them from my childhood days. Whenever my dad visits Bangalore he will never miss to have them, similarly whenever he takes us to Bangalore we used to enjoy them in a cute earthen pot in a famous Bengali sweet shop.

Mishti Doi is a sweet yogurt. It is made with milk and sugar. A part of sugar is caramelized to give lovely caramel flavor. This is a very popular dessert. Earthenware is always used as the container for making this because the gradual evaporation of water through its porous walls not only further thickens the yogurt, but also produces the right temperature for the growth of the culture. Very often the yogurt is delicately seasoned with a hint of elaichi (cardamoms) for fragrance, but this is absolutely optional. I some times make with Saffron, elaichi or just with caramelized sugar. You can prepare the way you like.

I am giving you two ways of preparing this delicious and flavorful yogurt. If you have evaporated milk and condensed milk handy then go for ver I else you can do the ver II.

Mishti Doi Recipe 1

makes about 4 cups

Ingredients
 1 can (12 oz) Evaporated Milk
 1 cup boiled whole milk
1/2 can (7 oz) Condensed Milk 
2 tablespoons Sugar
1 tablespoon Water
1/3 cup Yogurt

Method
Preheat the oven to 175 degree Fahrenheit and switch off the oven.

1. Pour the evaporated milk and whole milk in a vessel.
2. Heat them until it is above body temperature.
3. To this add the condensed milk.
4. In the mean time heat 2 tbsp of sugar in a pan on low heat until the sugar is caramelized to nice golden brown. Turn off heat. Now add 1 tbsp of water and stir with a spoon.
5. Add this caramelized sugar to the milk mixture.
6. When the milk mixture is warm add the yogurt and blend well.
7. Pour them in individual serving containers.
8. Close with lid or foil. Let the yogurt set overnight in the preheated oven (dont turn on the oven!)
9. Then refrigerate set yogurt for at least few hours before serving.

Mishti Doi Recipe 2

If you don’t have the condensed and evaporated milk called for in recipe1, no worries here is another recipe for mishti doi without using condensed milk or evaporated.
Makes about 4 cups

Ingredients
3 cups whole milk 
3/4 cup Sugar
1/3 tablespoon Plain Yogurt, whisked
1 tablespoon Water

Method
1. Heat the milk in the heavy bottom pan. Reserving 1/3 cups of the sugar for caramelizing and add the rest to the hot milk. Let boil and reduce to half the quantity.
2. In the mean time heat reserved 1/3 cup of sugar in a pan on low heat until the sugar is caramelized to nice golden brown. Turn off the heat. Now to that add 1 tbsp of water and stir with a spoon.
3. Add this caramelized sugar to the milk and stir until well blended.
4. Let the milk cool just until it is warm (but not hot). Then add the yogurt and mix well.
5. Pour in serving dishes/ pots and set overnight in a warm place*.
6. Once the yogurt is firm, put it in the refrigerator for few hours before serving.

Notes
- Mishti Doi taste’s best when served in earthen pot but it’s optional. But we love making them in earthen pot it really comes out very creamy its my personal experience.
- *Using the warm oven is optional, if the weather is really hot just put the pot in a cool dry place and let them set overnight. If the weather is very cool then opt for oven method to set the yogurt.
- If you want to flavor the yogurt using cardamom or saffron, just omit the caramelization part of sugar. Instead add less then 1/4 tsp of cardamom powder or Saffron (mixed with hot water) to the milk mixture before the yogurt is added

Tender Coconut and Lychee Pudding. No cooking required!

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tender coconut lychee pudding

I’m at my parents place in India. There is such an abundance of fresh tender coconuts here that I absolutely had to use it as the star of this no-cook dessert. I added some lychees to the pudding and it worked really well.

coconut tree

A coconut tree in my parents’ garden

Note: If you cant get fresh tender coconut, just use frozen coconut juice/coconut water available in Asian stores. If the coconut juice is sweetened you should less than whats called for in this recipe. But whatever you do, please do not use the canned coconut juice!

IMG_1877

Tender Coconut/Coconut Water/Coconut Juice/Elaneer and Lychee Pudding Recipe

serves about 6

1 cup + 1/4 cup milk
6 teaspoons quick set gelatin* (see note below)
3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 cup tender coconut water/coconut juice/elaneer
3/4 cup tender coconut meat, chopped
3/4 cup canned lychees, strained (about 6 pieces), chopped

*I usually use agar agar to set desserts, but this time gelatin is all I had on hand. (See this post on how to use agar agar). The gelatin I used was a quick set variety. Your pudding may set differently depending on what gelatin you use.

In a bowl, combine all ingredients except the 1/4 cup milk and the gelatin.

Warm 1/4 cup milk and dissolve gelatin in it. Add this to the bowl with all other ingredients. Stir everything well. Pour in individual serving dishes and refrigerate till the pudding sets; about 2 hours.

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