Rasamalai

Never in my life I thought I would like cheese, lest I cook with it. But here I am licking every cheesy bit of this super easy delicious dessert a 5 year old can make.

I got this recipe from RP, but her blog is now closed :(. RP, Open up your kitchen please....

But then, if she is taking a break, why dont I write about this 5 minute in making dessert your guests are going to fall in love with. Honestly, I never cared for rasamalai, but this has made me change a lot of tiny little spots on my taste buds.

Buy a can of Whole Ricotta Cheese (refrigerate it for a day). Drop it into a bowl just right from the refrigerator. This makes it less watery. Add sugar say, 1/2 cup at first, whisk cheese and sugar using a beater, check for sweetness, add more and more and more :-)

Then, empty all that into a baking pan. I have tried using cookie pans and the picture I have here is one from it, but i really think using a cake pan or a glass pan is better and you cut them after baking. Somehow it feels it tastes better. So bake it in 350 degrees for 30 minutes or 45 minutes until a tooth pick comes out clean.

Take from oven. Refrigerate it.

Boil two cups of milk and reduce milk to one cup, add strands of saffron and enough sugar, add pistachio or/and slivered almonds.

Cut them into nice squares and add the milk sauce. They just dissolve into your mouth.

Achappam

Think this is the only snack that's made with a hot iron dipped into hot oil in India. Most of the other snacks we pour the batter directly into oil. Also, it is a little strange that this snack is a favorite mostly among Kerala Christians. So I start looking for it, I find something similar in Thailand, then out of all the places Scandinavia and then rest of Europe -- all made with rosette stone. Aha! It would have been brought in by the missionaries. And the snack resembles the shape of a Rosette.

Achappam aptly named as a snack made with achu, which means mold.

This one is one easy recipe you wouldn't think from the complex shapes. I always thought this is going to be a very difficult one which I would never get right. I was wronnnggg. What you need is an achappam mold. I got this from Kerala. The mold dangles from the handle.

(Recipe adapted from K.M Mathew's pachakarama)

White rice flour powdered fine - 1/2 kilo.
Egg - 2
Freshly squeezed coconut milk - 2 cups.
Sugar - 1 cup
Vanilla Essence - 1 tsp
Salt - just to adjust taste
Black sesame seeds - 2 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Beat the egg well and add to the flour along with coconut milk. Dont pour the entire coconut milk at one go. Slowly add to the flour.

The batter should be thicker than the dosa batter but dippable and pourable. Add rest of the ingredients, adjust salt or sugar accordingly. If you add too much sugar, it wont come off the mold. So first dont add the give sugar. Try with some and then add and adjust.

The most interesting part is the making. You have to get this right with some practice, like, say 5 minutes :)

Heat vegetable oil with the iron mold dipped in.

The oil should not smoke, but should be hot hot.

Now, dip the mold into the batter, only half way of the rosette shape. Dont dip it completely. If you are unsure just dip it lightly. Then put it into the oil and just shake it a little bit or use a fork. If everything is good, a little shake and nudge is all it requires to come off the mold and into the oil. Then dip the mold again into the oil, and into the batter. The key is the mold should be hot and with the oil. So the batter will barely cling to it until we dip it again in oil so it will release.

Fry until it turns color lightly and take off from the oil and strain the oil from the snack using a tissue covered plate.

Deadly Rite

You must have already read about the stampede that killed more than a hundred people at Sabarmila, the second most visited religious place in India. Sabaramala, is in Kerala, my home state, the recipes posted here I flavor with.

This is not about religion or a belief of a certain ritual. But it is about a scam, a huge fraud, conducted ritually every year by the Govt of Kerala under the auspicious authority of Devawasom Board (Administration for Temples). Makara jyoti is lit by the Dewasom Board, by Kerala State Electricity Board and with the nod of Forest Department every year. Almost everybody in Kerala knows about this and we stay away wisely. If you notice in this stampede only two people from Kerala died and rest all from different states.

Whether you believe in religion or not is not what it matters. But this is a state sponsored scam to attract religious tourism to the state. Please be aware of this. Tell this to your friends. There is absolutely no facilities of crowd management or disaster management in these places. Please visit Sabarimala during non-peak times and wisely.

Jackfruit seeds and Mango

I was in the mood of a quick simple dish, that can wash away homesickness. And it would be Jackfruit seeds along with sour mangoes in a simple coconut gravy. Both are not in season, so I open my freezer.

Half kilo jackfruit seeds, cooked. I bought the frozen one from store. But if you have them fresh, you would need to peel the hard skin and the soft brown skin and cook them thorough.


Add 2 cups of mango pieces and enough water to the cooked jackfruit seeds and when mangoes are done, add 1 tsp chili powder, 1/4 tsp turmeric powder, coconut ground to a paste 1 cup and enough salt. As the coconut mix starts to boil, reduce heat to a min, wait for 5 minutes and take from heat. Mangoes should not bee too sour but enough to tingle your tongue.

Heat 2 tsp of coconut oil, when it starts to splutter, to this add 1 tsp mustard seeds, 1 sprig of curry leaves, two dry red chili. Saute well and then add to the jackfruit mango gravy. Serve hot with boiled rice.

Ah! it smells like rain.