The Making of Gujia, Handcrafted to Imperfection

I essentially followed Soma’s Gujia recipe and some of her measurements for this one. I also added khoya which Soma had chosen not to add in her recipe. Meanwhile, I grabbed hold of one of my childhood friends from New Jersey on an instant messenger window and sought more handholding on “moulding” these sweet empanada-like Indian fried pastries. I knew from her Facebook update she had made Gujias for Teej a few weeks ago.

I had made the khoya last night, which made life easy. It was a Sunday, which meant P was around to break a coconut for me. A quick call to my Mum in India on how to handle khoya, and I had more confidence bubbling inside of me. I believed I was set to make Gujias for the first time. After all, I had three very experienced people backing me up. And the fourth, a curious but a rather inexperienced one when it came to Indian sweets was peeping down my shoulders. I could never let all these people down. Now could I?

Ingredients for Gujias are:

For the pastry dough:
One and half cup all purpose flour
3-4 heaped tablespoons of ghee
1-2 teaspoons of powdered sugar
Pinch of baking soda

For the filling:
1 cup khoya
1 cup grated fresh coconut
4 tablespoons powdered sugar
Handful of chopped cashew
Handful of skinless, slivered almonds
Few raisins
Half teaspoon cardamom powder
Pinch of dry ginger powder (Soma particularly insists on this)
1 tablespoon ghee

For deep frying:
Ghee

In a bowl, mix flour, baking soda and ghee with your hands. When they become crumbly, add water and knead a smooth dough. Keep covered with a damp piece of cloth.

Heat one tablespoon ghee in a pan, add the nuts and almonds, sauté for a few seconds and add the khoya.
Mix everything well before adding the grated coconut. Cook for a couple of minutes, add the cardamom and dry ginger. At last add the powdered sugar, give it a quick stir and turn off heat. Let the mixture cool down before you use it to fill in the pastries.

Heat ghee in a wok for deep frying the Gujias.

Roll little puris / little discs with the portions of the dough. Place a tablespoon of the filling at the center of the disc, fold making it a half-moon. Use water on your fingertips to seal the pastry. Pinch an ear of the pastry right at the top and crimp your way to the bottom, or use the tines of a fork make little patterns on the edges.

Gently release the Gujias into the hot ghee and fry on both sides till they look scrumptiously golden brown. Place them on baking racks to cool completely.

My Gujias looked they were hand-crated by a first timer. But I am sure you will do a much better job.

These quantities made about 14 Gujias. Oh wait, there were 16 actually, adding up the two P and I ate, piping hot, straight out of the fryer.

Keep the Gujias in an airtight box, till you have just one left, and four people to share it with.

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…