It feels good to see innovations in the food world. I am myself not that innovative but looking at them, I derive inspirations, ideas! Spending mostly in Kolkata; sweets were not cooked in our home; desserts were made, payesh, pithe-puli. Kolkata sells variety sweets at every nook & corner; hence Bengali Homes in Kolkata need not spend hours doing roshogolla, sandesh. At least, our home did not! It is after landing into this tropical island, I have learnt to prepare sandesh, roshogolla. The sole BENGALI STYLE SWEET shop here doesn't attract me; though when I am to buy, I buy from there. Almost all Indian Restaurants & Eateries sell Jilipi, Amriti & Golapjam; also some Southern Indian speciality sweets. Mustafa Centre gets air flown frozen non-Bengali kinds of sweets which I stopped buying for years. Indian Bengalis are fond of freshly made COTTAGE CHEESE / PANEER made sweets more than other varieties. Kolkata definitely has cut down on sugar level, yet I cannot have more than one, even my most favourite variety. I have learnt short cut avenues to quick & yummy sweets. Besides jalebi & gulabjamun, I don't like too much of sweetness in sweet. I add such less sugar to homemade roshogollas that man revolts. Our son likes all mumma made sweets. How to make my readers believe how much I enjoyed these INSTANTLY MADE LIGHTLY SWEET ROLLS; even man ate two of them quietly. Cristine would like too! How do you like the name; INSTANT ENERGY ROLLS?
I CAN GUESS WHY JILIPI/JALEBI; PANTUA/GULAB JAMUN ARE UNIVERSAL!
How many times I have read about history of origin of gulab jamun & jalebi; but I manage to forget about their origin, find them Kolkata's own muse; if not pedigreed muses. Jilipi, Pantua are common man's sweet company; gulab jamun may have class. Who of you Bengali or Indian readers are reading this, do not get into debates; I don't like it, neither I am well read enough to get into it! Both of them definitely are gifts of muslim world. In Turkey itself; I was giggling getting to eat "helva" and semolina sweet in syrup which was much like our pantua; way less fried, softer. We were fast moving in tour, I got no chance to research about their food. I ate locally made churros there too. May be a decade back I would have savoured churros; now they are sweet to my tooth. Even Jilipi, spiral fried doughnut in syrup, gulab jamun, fried dough balls in syrup are not something I can have regular, neither I am allowed to. Yes, I would want plain yogurt with either of the two often but I am a foodie soul who is in prison. Moreover, it feels sad when I think of my son, if he is getting to eat Indian sweets or not. He is a student; he would not visit often a lavish Indian restaurant, have sweets. It is both funny, fearful to hear he stocks pudding in his dorm room. His mumma fed him less frozen, packaged food or desserts other than ice-cream. How his health would turn who knows! I am trapped midway! I cannot have too many sweet stuffs in big amount; neither allowed to; I cannot completely do away with sweets in this home. Its few years, I have taken a shift from making traditional sweets and got to prepare FUSION SWEETS; which are way less of work but serves my purpose.
WHAT IS THIS INSTANT ENERGY ROLLS?
This is a hired idea; parts of India might have got influenced from west's energy bars, may be they were already into having nuts, seeds; some parts of South Asia are into expensive nuts, seeds. We belong to eastern India; we spend on hilsa, prawn, aar maach, mutton, bhetki fish fillets. Having dry fruits regular isn't our thing. These days we eat, use in cooking. Even a decade back, I didn't buy pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds. This island has taught me. Because I switched to brown sugar, I don't use white sugar, even my God Family's food offers changed; they get combination of roasted dry fruits & seeds, besides fresh fruits on some days. Raisins too are not okay for me regular; the son left home, I make less of snacks for us. What you see in picture is a box of raisins, cashew nuts, pumpkin seeds already offered to my God Family over a month. I used all ideas derived and these VEGETARIAN INSTANT ROLLS were made using only 1 tbsp of brown sugar!
CASHEW NUT : 1/2 SMALL TEA CUP
RAISIN : 1/4 TEA CUP
PUMPKIN SEED : 1/2 SMALL TEA CUP
SUGAR : 1 TBSP [I USED BROWN SUGAR
GHEE / CLARIFIED BUTTER OR OIL : 2 TSP [I USED OIL]
CRUSHED BLACK PEPPER : 1/2 TSP
ROSE ESSENCE OR GREEN CARDAMOM POWDER : A LITTLE OF
PROCEDURE :
In a heated skillet, dry roast cashew nuts, pumpkin seeds for 2-3 minutes at minimal heat!
Take all ingredients; roasted cashews, pumpkin seeds, raisins, oil, sugar, crushed black pepper in a blender.
I love natural oil cashews release. Preparing your desired shapes is no big deal.
Having them fresh gives you best taste; if you refrigerate; take out an hour before consuming!
Such a beautiful post Dear friend! Actually every cuisine is the member of the whole world cuisine. Sothat, we can say that our Cuisines are relatives even they are located far a way distance. We cook cookies in syrup/sherbet desserts alot (such as şekerpare, kalburabastı, Hira, revani, helwa etc) Maybe recipes of these desserts entered into our kitchen from the Bengali Cuisine (your pantua dessert). I dont know other parts of the world but here Turkey's culinary history is so weak. Bye the way instant energy rolls look perfect. We really need this kind of snacks.
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