Orange Sondesh from the Dummy Wife

 

When P saw me getting some zest out of the oranges in the kitchen, he asked me what was I making. I told him – Sondesh. All he said was – I got a good deal. A wife who can make Sondesh!

Little does he know that I am a Sondesh dummy. Every Sondesh attempt of mine in the past have been scintillating failures. I have a feeling, if P was born 100 years ago, he would have fallen head over heels with Nani, my Mum’s Grandmother. The original Sondesh queen of our family.

For as long as I remember, Nani moved around her home on a wheelchair. She would even make Sondesh sitting on her wheelchair by the clay unoon/chulha in the courtyard. The servants would prep up the clay unoon with coal and fire and fan with a haathpakha till the embers would glow just right. She would then boil the milk slowly, taking ladlefuls of the hot milk and pouring it from a height to make it frothy. Half cut lemons would then be squeezed in the milk to curdle it. And then the hot, curdled cheese would be dunked in a clean cheesecloth, draining off the lemon-yellow liquid. The cheese, the cloth and Nani’s sari were all the same color. An awesome white.

Sadly, with age, the quantity of the Sondesh Nani made started to reduce. Those who are Sondesh connoisseurs know that Sondesh is all about timing and perfection. Her shaking hands at 90 something found it growingly difficult for her to knead the cheese. Which meant, her Sondesh became rarer and rarer. And only those who were in her inner circle would get that rare piece of Sondesh.

When komla lebu (orange) was in season, Nani would sun dry its peels and grind, and keep to flavour her Sondesh in later days.

And those Orange Sondesh were the most sought after. Fragrant, fresh, melt-in-the-mouth Komlalebur Sondesh. She would make them in the summers. A chilled piece of her Orange Sondesh would ensure atta’r total shanti (peace of the soul).

Since, I have neither Nani’s experience in Sondesh-making, nor her deftness in doling out little pieces of perfection, I took the short-cut route, a slight deviation and used the zest of orange to make Makha Sondesh. The very basic, very raw and absolutely dummy version of Sondesh! And this is how I did it.

Ingredients for Orange Sondesh are:

3 litres whole milk
250 ml heavy/whipping cream (optional)
2 tablespoons zest of orange
2-3 tablespoons white vinegar
Sugar

Bring the milk and cream to a rumbling boil. Add the vinegar and continue stirring till the milk curdles and you see the cheese and liquid separate. Turn the heat off. Add the orange zest and mix.

Drain the chhana (cheese) in a colander lined with cheesecloth. Hang the cheese for about 30-40 minutes, or till all the liquid drains off. You can also do the press by weight process to do away with the remaining liquid.

Now with the heel of your hand, start rubbing the cheese to give it a smooth texture. It takes about 10-15 minutes of gentle, rhythmic rubbing to get the appropriate texture which looks smooth and supple, like a baby’s bottom. Do a test to check if your Sondesh dough is ready. Make a little ball with the cheese, if you see no cracks or fine lines, its done. Now add the sugar, little by little and keep mixing into the smooth cheese dough. Do a taste test and add more sugar if necessary.

Make little round balls with the cheese and shape in Sondesh moulds, or leave them looking rustic as I did. Simply because I could not find my moulds after frantically looking for them for two minutes. That’s how deficit I am of attention (read sleep-deprived) these days.

Chill the Orange Sondesh if you may, or eat them just as you shape them up. They are awesome any which way.

Two Heart Warmers: A Dog’s Tale and Some Caramel Custard

It was their midweek movie night. A ritual she and he have been following for many months now. They would finish their dinner, do all the chores for the day, curl up in bed and click a movie on. Tonight it was Hachiko: A Dog’s  Story. 

They laughed while they watched. She giggled each time Professor Parker Wilson’s Akita puppy refused to fetch ball. His heart warmed at the story of a special bond between a dog and his master. And melted when he saw tears roll down her eyes.


He stroked her hair when she wept, watching Hachi wait at the station for his companion, who’d never come back…

They walked up to the balcony in silence. The late night air was not nippy enough for their warm hearts and her hot, pug-nose. Since she was a child, her nose always got hot at the tip when she cried a lot. She never knew why!

They sat on the balcony talking about their own pets. He had Sultan, Moshi and Kaya. She, Jimmy, Gittu, Doogie and Miss Webby. He told him once again how Kaya, his Cocker Spaniel would rest her snout on his neck and sleep. She chirped (for the upteempth time) about how she would put the German Spitz twins Doogie and Webby in her t-shirt and roam around. They continued talking about their own doggy memories…

The light from the receding traffic fell on their faces, revealing the glint in their eyes. That’s when he abruptly said- let’s never get a dog. And she nodded in silence. Too scared to go through the pain and loss both him and her had gone through in their past.

He squeezed her hand and went in to get the Caramel Custard she had made earlier that evening. Maybe that could act as a picker upper, he thought.

The Caramel Custard was still warm. The familiar taste of the amber-colored caramel caressed their taste buds, helping them to loosen up a bit. The jiggle-y custard underneath was the perfect soul soother, these two dog lovers so needed tonight…

Ingredients for Caramel Custard are:

3 cups milk
4 eggs
1/4 cup + 1/4 cup sugar
Vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon butter (unsalted)

Pre-heat oven to 325° C.

Boil milk still scalding hot. Caramelize one-fourth cup of the sugar in a saucepan till you get a nice amber color. Line the ramekins with butter. Pour the caramel immediately into the ramekins to coat the base evenly.

Beat eggs in a glass bowl. Start adding the hot milk little by little. Keep mixing with a whisk so that you don’t “scramble” the eggs! Add one-fourth cup of sugar and vanilla extract. Mix well.

Pour the milk and egg mixture into the caramel-lined ramekins. (Use any other baking dish if you don’t have ramekins.)
Keep all the ramekins in a larger baking dish. Pour hot water into the dish to cover three-fourths of the ramekins. Bake for 45 minutes. Poke a small skewer at the center of the custard. If it comes out clean, the Caramel Custard is done.

Let it cool down before you chill for a few hours.

Slide a knife around the edge of the custard, invert on a clean plate and serve.

Pistachio Kulfi

If this has been your best weekend of 2010 so far, I can understand why! Eid, Teej and Ganesh Puja. I am in heaven already. And I am told this is just the beginning…

Somehow all festivals all over the world are never quite complete sans something sweet, purely as a tradition. If not a treat! And who am I to flout norms. Not me. I don’t want to end up in Hell. By the way, read some bumper sticker the other day – Heaven is a punishment for good deeds!

Busy festive days need ridiculously easy dessert recipes, you’d agree! I am sharing with you your Mom’s star recipe of Pistachio Kulfis. Yes, your Mom and my Mum all make it the same way back home in India. Its these modern spice goddesses (pun most definitely intended!) who mix and mash milk, banana and bread (apparently for texture and thickness) and then call it Kulfi!

But be warned this recipe and the reason (to make it) may give sharp rise in desire to get all the ingredients together and make it just this weekend!

Ingredients for Pistachio Kulfi are:

1 liter half and half cream (or you can use full cream milk in India)
1 can of sweetened condense milk (Mum always uses Milkmaid in India)
Handful of unshelled Pistachios + some for garnish
7-8 almonds, skin off
Seeds from 5-6 green cardamoms

Start with a heavy bottom pan from your kitchen. Heat the cream on medium heat and keep an eye on it.

In a blender, add the pistachios and almonds and “pulse” it, not more than 10-15 seconds. Stop. Shake all the coarsely crushed and powdered nuts into the milk along with the cardamom seeds. Stir again. I remember a Bengali Home Science teacher from school always said – Staar the milk!

Slowly add the condense milk and mix well. I do not add any sugar, as the sweetened condense milk I use here balances the sweetness. At this point, you can do your own taste test and see if your mixture needs any more sugar. Then add some.

Keep cooking the milk on low heat and see it change color. Just like the rabri you make for Ras Malai. It works if you keep a ladle dipped in the work-in-progress milk, that way the milk doesn't quickly boil over.

When the milk and cream are reduced to about less than half the original quantity, cut the heat off. By now it would have attained the coveted texture of raw silk and a color of ivory-brown! The ground pistachio and almonds give you the perfect texture, exactly what a Pistachio Kulfi should have.

Let it cool. You will notice a thick skin on the milk when it cools down, stir that in too. That’s where all the important taste lies.

Pour the mixture in Kulfi moulds, seal cap and freeze overnight. If you don’t have Kulfi moulds, use popsicle moulds or tall shot glasses. You can also stick in a bamboo stirrer/popsicle stick after about 30 minutes into freezing time in the shot glasses. That way you will have a Kulfi on a stick for grown ups who are still children at heart!

Run warm/tap water for a few seconds on the Kulfi moulds to cleanly get the set Kulfis out. Chop some pistachios up and garnish the Pistachio Kulfis with them.

We had our Kulfis listening to this music and watching some creamy candles flicker in the darkness. Sometimes sweet memories are made of no words…

Phool Makhanar Payesh

Makhana are the puffed seeds of giant water lilies. Makhana or Euryale ferox is an aquatic cash crop in India. The Mallah community of Bihar use indigenous methods for harvesting the seeds of water lily plants, and spend a lot of their time in processing the seeds of this crop. Read an interesting paper on Makhana and its harvesting method here.

I first had my share of Makhane ka Kheer or Makhanar Payesh in Madhubani as a pre-teen. I wasn’t particularly thrilled about the fact that the dessert was made of “seeds”.

Our hosts, an elderly couple who were both resident doctors spoke Maithili and regarded this kheer as a great delicacy which paired well with a dinner of Sattu ka Paratha or locally called Makuni.

I was surprised to find these natural foods here in Toronto at the Indian store. I was quick to grab two packets. We spent the first just snacking on it. I tossed the Makhana in hot ghee and seasoned with salt and pepper and fried them on very low heat till each “seed” got blissfully crispy. They beat a bowlful of calorie-rich buttered popcorn hands down!

But tonight I made Makhanar Payesh or Makhane ka Kheer, a simple dessert of thickened milk (or cream) and the Makhana thrown in and cooked till soft. The chopped almonds and cardamom powder were just the fringe benefits of an innovative dessert.

My childhood friend Rajni consulted her Mother for me before I started on my payesh project. “Aunty” suggested I toss the Makhana in ghee and then add them to the milk. And I did exactly that.

Ingredients for Makhanar Payesh are:

1 liter half and half cream
250 grams makhana
2 tablespoons ghee
5-6 tablespoons sugar
Few almonds, roughly chopped
Quarter teaspoon powdered green cardamoms
Few strands of saffron (optional)

Start boiling the cream in a thick bottom pan. You could also use milk, I used cream to reduce cook time. Add the cardamom powder and half the chopped almonds to the cream.

In a separate pan, heat ghee and toss the Makhana on low heat till they get crispy and brown on the edges. Keep them aside.

Babysit the milk/cream and keep stirring it continuously. It should reduce to almost half before you add the toasted Makhana. Add sugar.
 
Cook till the Makhana is soft in the insides. Add the leftover chopped almonds and sprinkle some saffron before you serve. The Makhanar Payesh can be served either warm or chilled.