It is 9 am in the morning and I am just starting with this post.... When people set out of home for a greater cause, I look forward to a lazy, idle day. Whatever, I enjoy it if only you allow me to spend it my way! That freedom I do get, the reason why I am not venting out my anger even after four rejected calls from yesterday night until this morning, not even my messages are answered but they are seen. I cannot even give such ultimatums "bari esho dekhacchi".... come home I will show you. In this matter he is his mother's son, "ulte tomai norok theke ghuriye anbey"... Anyway, I am going to share an easy, dessert recipe today which is done in a jiffy, yet tasted awesome.... the son did have before going to the school. The primary plan was to prepare a "shabedar sandesh".... did not get good quality chiku / sapota ... a personal favourite since childhood. The major difference between my side of the family and that of the husband's when it comes to buying fruits is that their home limits themselves to "apel, kola, aam, lebu".... in our side, almost all available fruits in Kolkata did come to our home "jamer shomoy jam, peyarer shomoy peyara"... the mother made it a point to feed us all the seasonal fruits except for these plums. I do not know why but they were available in the Dum Dum market, our landlady used to give us. We distributed in the neighbourhood the giant sized jackfruits that came from the maternal grandparent's home. I buy them here a mere 100-150gm for 5 dollars.... I love it but the rest at home cannot take the strong smell. I do not get my kind of jackfruit here, the juicy variety.
I wish to blog about my daddy's favourite "kathal kheer"... the entire summer he would be snacking on mango, jackfruit, his all time favourite banana with puffed rice and beaten rice varieties.... he would not touch chapati during their season... He disliked chapati except for having them with milk, sugar and banana. He used to have "luchi-porota" instead in breakfast. I wish to do a photo session of his favourite snacks with a caption... "those were our paa's favourites"... I do not do it... let those who are counting their last breath live life peacefully. I find it silly when people pay their homage to the expired souls with a photograph in a public post, then my silly actions also cause irritation in them. Our father's second death anniversary is in few days, I will cook his favourite fish curries for him, go to the Ramakrishna Mission and donate a little something. When I am planning to feed the freshest of the fruits to our visiting mother next month, the brother says she cannot stay for 2 months... I think the problem is with him.... he cannot! He got his hilsa curry, mutton and chicken all in a week, I am not bothered if he cannot have this uncanny but yum dessert with plum, milk and paneer... the homemade cottage cheese of the Indian Subcontinent... PLUM KHEER!
I actually prepared a good amount of paneer from 2 litres of milk, the initial plan was different. I used lesser amount of it finally in an unplanned dessert as this one. What to do with the rest? Let me think about it later. I have a lot of cooking to be done today, tomorrow I cannot touch fire and non-vegetarian food. When the plan for something with Sapota / Shobeda / Chiku did not work out, I bought those fresh plums... used three of them.... the rest will go in the making of a spread. All of a sudden I remember that "kaki"... our landlady used to say that plum helps to remove the impurities from the blood, even yam does. Then I planned it this way, preparing a plum spread and filling in the paneer balls with it.... name it "plum bhora sandesh".... cancelled my plans .... it was already 7:30 pm yesterday and I landed thereafter into this PLUM KHEER. Instead of paneer you can use condensed milk or evaporated milk for thickening of the kheer / pudding. If you have noticed, I do a little bit of experimentation with desserts, they may not be conventional most of the time. They enjoy it... specially the son. There will be a time soon when he may have to survive on store bought food, let me do my bit for him. I wonder why he watches those cookery shows on Netflix... he loves music but not of his mother's genre.... partly of his father's.... he watches cookery shows different from his mother's choice of food ... the father is never into food shows! Anyway, that they carry mumma / wifey made idli in their lunch boxes and eat them too is a hope I would like to cling on!
That is this morning. Mumma even makes Cristine didi eat them! Please stop buying those packeted batters. Like, I do not wish to go through the ordeal of preparing a fermented batter, what I do is prepare these instant ones with a variety of millets and grains.
MILK : 1LT + 500ML
FRESH PLUM : 3-4 [I GOT THE RED COLOURED]
SUGAR : 4TBSP + 2TBSP
WATER : 1/2SMALL TEA CUP
GREEN CARDAMOM : 2-3
CRUSHED PISTACHIOS TO GARNISH
PROCEDURE :
I actually prepared the paneer / homemade cottage cheese from 2 litres of milk. I took it on a heavy bottomed vessel and got to boil. I mixed 2tbsp water to 5-6tbsp of lemon juice. I added it to the boiling milk and the milk curdled. I strained and separated the whey from the paneer, hanged it for 30-35 minutes to get this.
We do not need all of the paneer you see above, my final plan did not require it.
I washed and chopped the plums.
I switched on the gas oven and put the bowl atop & let the sugar melt. We are to keep the heat at minimum.
Add little water to the bowl.
We will let cook at low heat for 5 minutes. Take down. Let it cool.
In another vessel I took 500ml full cream milk and put for boil.
We will boil at low heat for 12-14 minutes. Then add 2tbsp of milk and slightly torn green cardamoms to it. Keep stirring.
We will add less than 1/2 of the paneer you see, gently fold in. Let boil for 2-3 minutes at the lowest heat.
Switch off the gas stove and transfer the content to a serving bowl. Let cool "completely."
Gently add the plum & sugar mixture to the kheer / pudding.
Crush some pistachios and garnish your quick fix dessert.
Chill it before you serve.
No comments:
Post a Comment