Gulab Jamuns from Scratch for Cook-Ezee's 150th Post

Gulab Jamun is one of the most popular dessert in India and many countries in Indian Sub-continent. Traditionally, these are made with Khoya and flour together rolled into small balls and deep fried in low temperature then soaked in warm sugar syrup flavored with cardamom seeds and rose water. Here I have used  Milk powder available in Indian stores which is a great substitute for Khoya .The term Gulab Jamun comes from Gulab meaning  Rose referring to rose water scented syrup and Jamun a South Asian fruit with similar size and shape of that of Gulab Jamuns.

I wanted to do a dessert post on Cook-Ezee's 150th post and had been thinking of making something real quick which tastes fabulous as well. I got a perfect occasion to make these wonderful Gulab Jamuns last weekend as we planned for a friend's surprise baby shower party. Everyone relished the Jamuns which was very soft and melt-in mouth, dumplings perfectly sweetened by the syrup and well flavored with cardamom and rose water. And believe me it is not much of a labor, it is a very simple procedure, if you execute it with clear state of mind you are the winner and I'm sure the family will never want to eat the Jamun's from outside. :- ) So make them at home today and Enjoy !!!

The below recipe yields approx. 45 Gulab Jamuns, you can reduce the ingredients to half to make around 20- 25 Jamuns.

Ingredients Used:-

1. Milk Powder - 2 Cups(Use low fat or high fat milk powder like Everyday available in Indian grocery stores, both works fine)
2. All purpose powder/Maida - ½ Cup
3. Baking Soda - ¼ tsp
4. Unsalted Butter at room temperature -  5 tbsp
5. Milk at room temperature - ¼ Cup(or just enough to knead the dough)
6. Oil to deep fry

For Sugar Syrup

1. Sugar - 2½ Cup
2. Water - 3½ Cup
3. Cardamom Pods coarsely ground - 4 or 5
4. Rose Water - 2 tbsp(If you don't have them, opt out using it)

How I made It:-

1. Combine milk powder, all purpose flour, baking soda and mix well with your clean, dry hand.
2. Add butter and mix slowly with hands to get a crumbled flour mix for a while.
3. Add milk little by little and knead well to form soft dough. If it crumbles add more milk and knead, if it  is very sticky add some flour and knead again. Set aside for 15-20 minutes.
4. Meanwhile make the sugar syrup. Add water and sugar in a wide vessel, stir well till sugar is dissolved  and bring it to boil.
5. Add cardamom and rose water and stir again. Reduce the heat to medium and let boil for another five minutes and take off the flame. 
6. Make small balls out of the dough and roll it to smooth balls. 
7. Heat oil in a kadai, keep the heat in medium flame. Drop one ball to check for the appropriate temperature. If the balls sinks first and rises up eventually the temperature is just perfect.
8. Deep fry the balls, couple of them together, keep rolling them well so that balls are evenly cooked. Take them out and drain off in paper towels(Don't get them to deep dark brown which will result in bitter taste)
9. Let the fried balls cooled down for a while.Check for the sugar syrup, it should be hot but not boiling. If you feel the syrup is cold just heat it up to make it medium hot.
10. Drop the balls one by one, gently pressing the balls with a spoon to immerse in the syrup. Leave it for couple of hours till Jamun absorbs the sweetness from the syrup. 
11. Garnish with slivered almonds or pistachios when ready to serve. Serve warm, cold or at room temperature.
12. I love to have them with a dollop of vanilla ice-cream or whipped cream.

Ras Malai

Rasmalai is a great North Indian dessert served after lunch or dinner especially for parties and is one of my favorite. Rasmalai is made with cottage cheese(paneer) dumplings soaked in sweetened and light cardamom flavored milk garnished with sliced pistachios or almonds... This sweetend milk is generally known as 'Ras'(means juice) and cheese dumplings known as 'Malai'(means cream). Hence the name Rasmalai.

The process of making Rasmali includes two steps:- 1) Preparing the cheese dumplings. 2)Preparing the Ras.

So let us prepare the Rasmalai and Enjoy!!!!!!

Ingredients:-

For Paneer/Cheese dumplings

Milk - 4 cups

Lemon Juice - 2 tbsp

Water - 1tbsp

Preparation Method:-

Pour the milk in a heavy bottom pan and bring it to boil. Dilute the lemon juice with 1 tbsp of water and add slowly to the milk stirring occasionally. When the milk starts curdling switch off the flame. Keep a muslin cloth on top off the colander and strain the paneer. Run some cold water over the panner so that no lemon juice remains. Fold the edges of the muslin cloth and squeeze out all the water from the panner. Knead the paneer well with the hands till it becomes very soft. Roll it in your palm and make small lemon size balls out of it. Press each balls gently to flatten out. Pour some water in a bowl and put this panner in it till the Ras is ready.

Ingredients for Ras:-

Milk - 3 cups

Sugar - 4 tbsp

Condensed milk - 2 tbsp(optional, add bit more sugar to milk if not using condensed milk)

Saffron - 1 tsp

Cardamom pwdr - 1tsp

Chopped Pistachios/Almonds - 2 tbsp(to garnish)

Preparation Method:-

1. Pour the milk in a heavy bottom pan preferably non-stick pan and bring it to boil stirring in between.
2. When the milk starts boiling reduce the flame to medium and add saffron. Keep stirring till the milk get reduce to half and milk starts thickening.
3. Add the sugar, condensed milk and cardamom powder, stir well for 2 mins.
4. Add the paneer to it and boil it again for 4-5 mins in med flame till the sweetness of sugar and flavor of cardamom is absorbed well by the paneer.
5. Switch off the flame and let it rest for sometime. Move to a serving dish
6. Garnish with sliced pistachios/Almonds and serve chilled...

Carrot/Gaajar Halwa

Carrot Halwa is one of the most famous dessert in North India especially in Punjab and is normally known as Gaajjar kaa halwa among Indians. Any parties, poojas and other functions are incomplete without a touch Gaajar Halwa. I have been making this from the time I came to US and my kids love this a lot because of its softness and sweetness and color and  and and hmmm, I do not know what all reasons should I give to make this more often. Someone has rightly said that when you make a dish so often you really do not have the judgement of the quantity of ingredients you use. This happens with me most of time and carrot halwa is one among them. I just grate few carrots, saute it in some ghee, add some milk, a handful of sugar and garnish it with some ghee roasted cashews and raisins. It is that simple and I love its change in color in each and every step of the cooking process. So this time when I made it, I thought of preparing it with by measuring so that I can blog this in cups and spoons. So friends here is this awesome dessert/sweet that you can make it easily without worrying it might go somewhere wrong in the process of cooking.

Ingredients :-
Grated Carrot :- 4 cups
Milk - 2 to 2 1/2 cups( i microwaved it for 10-15 mins stiring it every 5 mins in between/ you can boil it on stove top and keep aside as well)
Sugar -3/4 cup
Ghee - 2 tsp(you can use more as per your choice)
cashews and raisins few
Cardamon powder - 1tsp

Preparation Method:-

• Heat up a non-stick pan on med flame, add ghee, saute the cashews, raisins and keep aside.
• Add the grated carrot to the same pan, saute well till it looses it's orange color and become soft. It took me around 10 mins of sauting in medium flame.

     

• Add the hot milk to it and keep stirring till the carrot absorbs all the milk, and it took around 8-10 mins for all the milk to incorporate and mix well with the carrot.

• Now add the sugar, you will see littlee bit more moisture adding up and the color changing again to deep orange. Keep stirring around 4-5 mins till all the moisture is absorbed.

 

• Switch off the flame and add cardamom powder and mix well.
•  Move into a serving dish and Garnish with raisins and cashews. Serve warm or cold..