MAWA GUR PESTA SANDESH

Yesterday night it took me little of time to prepare this sweet MAWA GUR PESTA SANDESH .... As you unfold the recipe, you will see it's instant .... The trouble started when I was wondering how to present it to the public?.... The picture that you see could not satisfy me .... this is not how the plating should be .... I realised again that I lack the necessary utensils for plating such items... besides, I do most of the cooking in the evening when I am left with little of the energy for plating .... Now, this is a poor excuse. This sweet needed some copper / brass utensils, some lamps... if not "Aladdin's ashchorjyo prodip"..... some fresh flowers, burning dhoop sticks may be..... At 9 pm in the evening, I will not touch the utensils meant for the God Family .... the mother comes in the way.... "etho kaporey sandesh guli banali, ogulo thakurer bashoney choyabi na".... Anyway, to touch "thakurer bashon".... I had to take shower at 9pm ... the miser self is just unable to think of spending 300-500 dollar to buy appropriate utensils either.... .. try my MAWA GUR PESTA SANDESH, do not look at the photograph, its not worth.... The taste was too good and I am going to prepare it again soon "shuddho bhabey" for my Gods and Goddesses. 

I am really missing those guidelines pouring in from one Electronic & Telecommunications Engineer cum an excellent photographer cum a class food blogger cum the HR Head of her family business.... she has the ability  to create magic with simple ingredients like "chirey, khoi, gur, doodh".... Each time she vanishes from the scenario, it feels she might come back with a good news for us... does not matter if it is one "Tista or Torsha"..... haha.... My height of stupidity, imagination never equated with the science of "x and y chromosomes".... Long back while waiting for my first ultrasonography, I told the senior.... a twin has to come out... one girl and one boy... names would be "Tista & Torsha"...... that did not happen...good.... that would have proved I am a mother's daughter only or I am too much in love with my maa-in-law or a Twinkle Khanna is my family member.... She is not... I do follow her and have full support for her home production Padman.... We do not even know Rani Padmini existed in reality or not.... She might have been poet Jayasi's pure imagination or the spiritual muse that the Persian poets[?] had as their subject... I just read that they had... not sure!... Jauhar was practised in India in those days which is irrelevant and unwelcome these days... Padman is a need of the hour... more men like Mr. Arunachalam do we need... I was just listening to Twinkle's lecture at the Oxford University.... she has shared the link on her page, you can check. I felt sad when she told she was not allowed to do a course there as she never completed her graduation .... I do not know why she could not because she never belonged to a needy family or does not seem to be a dumbo like me.....

The supremely wise, fairly intelligent man of this house had to forget all about his dreams and leave home for some quick money out of pure need.... Till date, the genius of India, sitting in Mumbai says my man made a historic mistake doing it.... I agree! Saying this, I am not trying to drag Twinkle inside my home, neither am I disrespecting the big, busy shipping industry.... I am proud to be a mariner's wife who spent sleepless nights each time his ship passed through the Gulf of Aden.... I knew or was taught then the steps to be taken to reach Sonia Gandhi's door for help if any untoward thing happens.... I still cherish those moments of honour the Captain's wife got on her month long stay on board.... Since she is more near to the earth... she never found it unnatural to cook for the crew members.... or to sit with the veteran "Bosun" with a cup of coffee. She is "classy" only when it comes to her likes and dislikes.... do not try to explore this "jot pakano mahila".... enjoy her food shares.... as of today it is a MAWA GUR PESTA SANDESH.

During the winter, gur to us Bengalis means Patali / Khejur gur.... that is date palm jaggery.... Living abroad... you just cannot afford to use them generously .... Ipsita got me a kilogram of it and I am yet to do Choshir Payesh... Kheer-Gur bhora Patishapta.... I have to be very careful while using it... This MAWA GUR PESTA SANDESH required a little amount of patali gur or date palm jaggery.... Going back to the childhood, I ate date palm jaggery as candy, instead of chocolate... I loved.... good enough reason to scare people away you know.... I do not blame, even the mother was unkind towards me at times.... I may have just sat with a plateful of mutton and rice, the mother would say "dyakh mamoni ooi cheleta / ooi meyeta madhyomike first hoyeche... ga thekey jyano jyoti berochey"..... The mother always had to draw inference from the academically superior boys and girls when the daughter was lost in one Buddhadeb Guha, his wife Ritu Guha's numbers playing at the background with a plateful of mutton and rice, there is again one "another woman" who has to say... S always read from Swami Vivekananda.... while her kin never let me look beyond the happening girls in the tennis court!.... and then vanished for life! Anyway, it is always good to see people who mean hale / hearty / happy wherever they are, if not necessarily within the four walls of your home.... To get away with all such confusions, I started with this Khaled Hosseini's book.... Ipsita's husband gave it to my father-in-law to read... I discovered yesterday that I forgot to return back, I messaged..... you will get back after I finish.... 

The shameless diabetic tasted a bit of the residual of the sandesh.... the check up is due next week... I cannot take a risk. It will taste more like gurer kalakand sans any kind of labour. Done in the microwave, it was so quick, there was no "dhamshano" aka kneading of the dough.... so could cherish the lines from Khaled with cups of coffee.... If there is any shameless diabetic anywhere else in the world, let me tell you that any association with me may take you  towards your dooms day... My total fat count increased within a month. My readers are not so unfortunate as me and they deserve this heavenly sweet MAWA GUR PESTA SANDESH made with instant solidified milk, date palm jaggery, pistachios. Let us do it in few easy steps!

Few of my friends  like one Chandrayee Dasgupta and Kana Dasgupta had their birthday and anniversary celebrations on the 30th.... a sweet share was a natural choice, just as natural is my feelings for very few in this world! Kana specifically loves sweets!

INGREDIENTS :

Powdered Milk : 11/2medium sized tea Cup
Full Cream Milk : 1/2small sized tea cup
Ghee : 2tbsp
Grated Date Palm Jaggery : 1/3small cup
Sugar : 1tsp
Green Cardamom Powder : 1/2tsp
Chopped Pistachio : 2tbsp

METHOD :

Chop the raw pistachios in a mortar and pestle!

Take them in a microwave proof bowl and microwave at high for 1 minute, stirring in between... keep aside.

Take the powdered milk, ghee and full cream milk in a bowl.

Mix well before you put it in the microwave.

Microwave at high for 21/2-3 minutes pausing and stirring every minute.

Add the grated jaggery to the freshly made khoya / mawa. Roughly mix.

Microwave at high for a minute. Pause, stir and microwave for another 30 seconds.

Keep aside & let it cool!

Add 1tbsp of rice flour, green cardamom powder to it and fold in well.

Add the chopped pistachios, fold in well.

Refrigerate for half an hour. Take out and shape as you wish.

Do not forget to garnish with pistachios.