How to Cook Indian (125 page)

2/3 cup (125 grams) sugar

1. Soak the saffron in the 2 tablespoons warm milk.

2. Place a heavy-bottomed nonstick saucepan over medium heat and add the ghee. When it melts, add the vermicelli and sauté for 3 to 4 minutes or until light golden.

3. Add the milk, increase the heat to high, and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to medium and simmer for 20 minutes or until the milk thickens and turns light pink.

4. Add the cardamom, nutmeg, saffron mixture, melon seeds, almonds, pistachios, and sugar, and simmer for 10 minutes.

5. Serve hot.

If using ready-roasted
semiyan,
you don’t need to roast it further; just add it with the milk in step 3.

Shrikhand

Drained and sweetened yogurt

Many North Indians might not be aware of this dessert until they visit Gujarat or Maharashtra. When I first tasted it, I did not like it and coaxed my wife, Alyona, to finish off my bowl so that my mother-in-law would not be offended. Anyway, time is a great leveler; I like
shrikhand
now, and as a chef, I have created many desserts using it as a base.

Serves 4.

3 cups (750 grams) plain yogurt

2 cups (250 gms) confectioners’ sugar

Generous pinch of saffron threads

1 tablespoon warm milk

2 teaspoons
chironji/charoli
(melon seed, page 587)

¼ teaspoon ground green cardamom (see Note page 559)

8 to 10 pistachios, blanched (see Note page 40), peeled, and sliced

1. Pour the yogurt into a double layer of cheesecloth and hang it for 4 to 5 hours in the refrigerator to drain out the whey.

2. Transfer the drained yogurt to a large bowl. Add the confectioners’ sugar and stir until the sugar is completely dissolved.

3. Put the warm milk in a small bowl, add the saffron, and stir until well blended. Add the saffron milk to the yogurt mixture and stir well.

4. Add the melon seeds and cardamom, and stir well.

5. Chill in the refrigerator. Garnish with the pistachios and serve cold.

Add 1 cup mango purée to this
shrikhand
to make
amrakhand,
a delightful summer dessert.

Sooji Ka Halwa

A semolina dessert subtly flavored with saffron

This is practically an instant dessert and one of the most popular in North Indian homes. Every cook makes
sooji ka halwa
a bit differently, but however it’s made, it is a true comfort food.

Serves 4.

A few saffron threads

1 tablespoon milk

1¼ cups (250 grams) ghee (page 37)

5 or 6 almonds, slivered

5 or 6 cashews, chopped

5 or 6 raisins

1 cup (200 grams) coarse
rawa/suji
(semolina flour)

1¼ cups (250 grams) sugar

½ teaspoon ground green cardamom (see Note page 559)

1. Soak the saffron in the milk.

2. Place a nonstick wok over medium heat and add the ghee. When small bubbles appear at the bottom of the wok, add the almonds, cashews, and raisins, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.

3. Add the semolina to the same ghee and sauté until golden brown. Set aside.

4. Place a nonstick saucepan over high heat and add 1 quart (800 ml) water. When the water comes to a boil, add the semolina.

5. Lower the heat to medium and cook, stirring continuously, for a few minutes or until the semolina is cooked and most of the water is absorbed.

6. Add the saffron mixture, sugar, and cardamom. Stir well and cook until all the liquid has been absorbed.

7. Garnish with the almonds, cashews, and raisins. Serve hot.

Sweet-Potato Kheer

Mashed-sweet-potato-and-milk dessert

The fasting days of Navratri that precede the festival of Dassera call for a variety of dishes that can be prepared without wheat, rice, pulses, and certain spices. One can use tubers, ginger, chiles, and herbs such as curry leaves and cilantro, but no green vegetables. So potatoes, yams,
colocassia,
and sweet potatos are used often. Sweet potato is lovely in this sweet milk-based dessert.

Serves 4.

3 tablespoons ghee (page 37)

2 medium sweet potatoes, boiled, peeled, and mashed

½ cup (100 grams) sugar

3½ cups (700 ml) whole milk

¼ teaspoon ground green cardamom (see Note page 559)

10 to 12 cashews, broken into pieces

10 to 12 almonds, thinly sliced

10 to 12 pistachios, thinly sliced

1. Place a nonstick saucepan over medium heat and add the ghee. When the ghee melts and small bubbles appear at the bottom of the pan, add the sweet potatoes and cook, stirring frequently, for 6 minutes.

2. Add the sugar and stir. Stir in the milk and cook for 4 to 5 minutes.

3. Add the cardamom and cook for 8 minutes or until the mixture thickens.

4. Add the cashews, almonds, and pistachios, and stir well.

5. Transfer to a serving bowl and serve hot or chilled.

Vrindavan Peda

A sweet, ball-shaped dessert

Lord Krishna’s love for milk and dairy products is legendary. This
peda
is made specifically as a
naivedya
(offering) to him at Mathura Vrindavan, his birthplace.

Makes 12.

2 cups (300 grams) grated
khoya/mawa
(unsweetened solid condensed milk; page 37)

¼ cup (50 grams) granulated sugar

¼ teaspoon liquid glucose (see Note)

¼ cup (30 grams) superfine sugar

1. Place a nonstick sauté pan over medium heat and add the
khoya.
Sauté, stirring continuously, for 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

2. Place another nonstick sauté pan over medium heat. Add the granulated sugar and ¼ cup (50 ml) water and cook, stirring continuously, until it forms a syrup of one-string consistency (see Note page 570). Add the liquid glucose and stir well. Remove from the heat.

3. Add the
khoya
mixture to the sugar syrup and stir well. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and allow to cool at room temperature.

4. Divide the mixture into 12 portions and shape into balls. Press the balls to flatten them slightly.

5. Spread the superfine sugar on a plate and the roll the
pedas
lightly in it.

6. Arrange the
pedas
on a serving dish and serve.

Liquid glucose is added so that the
pedas
remain soft and the sugar does not crystallize. If you can’t find it, light corn syrup can be substituted.

I
WOULD LIKE TO THANK
all of my teammates who have helped me create this book. I wish to acknowledge the content team led by Rajeev Matta and Chef Anupa Das, who have been thoroughly involved in coordinating everything. Throughout the process, I received expert input from Chef Harpal, who helped to finalize the recipes. I also want to mention the eager beavers in our test kitchen: our team of young chefs who have helped with the research, testing, tasting, measuring, and plating up of all this food. They have done the trials and retrials with a smile and exhibited super efficiency in spite of all the pressure put on them. Thanks to Neena Murdeshwar and Tripta not only for the editorial support and meeting all the deadlines, but also for chipping in with the trials. And my special thanks to my wife, Alyona. She has been overseeing things all along and even cooked some of the dishes that she knows better than I do!

I would also like to thank two very important people, without whom this book would not have happened: Monica Bhide and Michael Psaltis. They have been captaining this ship with vision and clarity, and my sails are full with the winds of enjoyment and sheer pleasure that working with them has given me.