SOY MILK MOONG DAL ER PAYESH

 Those were the days in Kolkata when I immensely loved "MOONG DAL BURFI" / SPLIT DE-SKINNED YELLOW MOONG BEAN SQUARES cooked in ghee / clarified butter. Honestly, in pure Bengali sweet shops, they did not have much demand besides typical Bengali sandesh varieties, roshogolla & pantua. From our childhood to teen hood, there were not much non-Bengali kind of sweet shops in the suburbs of Kolkata. One day, whilst in senior school, I discovered those split & de-skinned yellow lentil sweets with finely chopped pistachios on top and thought of trying one. It was on that day, I fell in love with any SWEET made of moong lentils, gram flour too. 

Later while in college, I got more exposure; explored more kind of shops, Ganguram to all those in Hathibagan, and found solace in ladoo. Till date, I love them. If you ask me about the NON-BENGALI variety of SWEET I love; they are moong dal burfi, also the one we used to have in Kolkata supposedly made of roasted moong dal powder, sugar, ghee. Because I loved it, I also love semolina ladoo, besan ladoo; chandra kala & surya kala are a favourite too. May be because I am a ladoo in academics; I love any kind of ladoo, even those made with sattu; the mother used to do at times.

Today, I really wished to recreate Moong Dal Burfi in my kitchen and share. But with the kind of festivity around, I had to think of a GLUTEN-FREE share. So I cooked this SOY MILK MOONG DAL PUDDING; because I prefer a BENGALI touch in my shares, I named this VEGETARIAN DESSERT;  SOY MILK MOONG DAL ER PAYESH. The soy milk may have a little of sugar, but I used no amount of SUGAR, but only HONEY.

Today, I am not in the mood to write a long post, I did some necessary buys, sent our help home. I went for a walk; I was listening to some good old Bollywood numbers, romantic melodies I used to love and still love. When I am lost in another world far from practicality, I do not like thinking of "bazaar ghat" but actually I have some cooking this evening, I am going to meet someone tomorrow afternoon after a gap of three months; I need to cook for my family and that person. Tomorrow morning, I have to prepare a fresh batch of sandesh, a winter special BENGALI SWEET for a client who would come for a pick up around 12 pm. So, the practical world needs me!

About this SOY MILK MOONG DAL ER PAYESH, it is not as rich as MOONG DAL PAYASAM is. I have not used ghee or creamier, reduced full cream milk in it. Because I wanted a GLUTEN-FREE HEALTHY SWEET as today's FOOD SHARE, I used soy milk which after boil will never get thick & creamier. I felt, a KHEER would lessen my work without compromising with the TASTE, and the chopped DRY FRUITS were a must in it.

INGREDIENTS :

SPLIT DE-SKINNED YELLOW MOONG DAL : 1 MEDIUM TEA CUP

SWEETENED SOY MILK : 750 ML

HONEY : 2 TBSP

GREEN CARDAMOM POWDER : 1 TSP

YELLOW FOOD COLOUR : 3-4 DROPS OF ICING COLOUR DID I USE

TOASTED & CHOPPED DRY FRUITS : 2-3 TBSP

PROCEDURE :

We are using the following few ingredients. Okay, I forgot to take in the cardamom powder container.

Let us dry roast the moong dal. This will take 4-5 minutes. Do not brown much.

Then we will take the dry roasted lentil in a pressure cooker and wash well under a tap.

Then, we will take 11/2 coffee mugs of water, stir and close the lid of the cooker.

We will put it on gas top and pressure cook at minimal heat up to 2 whistles. Meanwhile, we will pour the soy milk in a heavy bottomed bowl and put for boil at minimal heat. We will boil it for 12-13 minutes; it will reduce in volume but never get creamier.

At this point, I decided to make a kheer / payesh / pudding of it. 

Once boiled, we will take down the milk vessel on to the kitchen counter and open the lid of the pressure cooker when it allows us. We will mash more the boiled yellow lentil with a ladle or spoon.

Thereafter, we will add the boiled lentil to the boiled soy milk; stir it with a stirrer or beat to incorporate well the entire thing.

We will not mind a bit of grainy matters in the pudding.

We will now switch on the gas stove, place the vessel on it and cook at minimal heat, stirring it continuously. Be very careful, there will be a tendency of burn at the bottom.

After, 7-8 minutes of boil, we will add the green cardamom powder & yellow food colour and mix well.

Just, 2-3 minutes before taking down; add 2 tbsp of honey. Stir well for a minute and add half of the toasted chopped dry fruits!

Transfer the content to a serving bowl. 

Garnish with the rest of the toasted dry fruits once cool. This pudding tastes good when it's warm; can be had chilled too.