Cookbook clips

Let's give them something to talk about
This week, we have an assortment of cookbook clips and offbeat home-made experiments with desserts that we found appealing and quirky at the same time. Sweeten up this Shab-e-Barat with one of these tasty treats by Sharifa Ahmed and Diya and give your friends and relatives something to remember.

Pancake Bake
Ingredients:
Minced mutton-250 gm
2 large onions (chopped)
½ bunch chopped coriander leaves
½ pod garlic
2 tablespoons raisins
2 tablespoons cashew nuts (chopped)
4 green chilies (chopped), 1 cm ginger
1 teaspoon garam masalla powder, ½ tsp turmeric powder
1 tbsp coriander powder
Salt to taste
3 tbsp ghee

For pancake:
1 cup milk or coconut milk
150 gm flour
2 eggs
Salt to taste
2 tbsp ghee
For egg mixture:
4 eggs well beaten
2 green chilies
Salt to taste
To prepare the egg mixture:
Grind the green chilies and salt to a paste and add the beaten eggs. Mix well and keep aside.
To prepare the filling:
Cook the meat with coriander powder, turmeric powder, a little water and salt till done and almost dry. Grind the ginger and garlic to a paste. Heat one tbsp ghee and saute onions and green chilies, till the onions turn transparent. Add the ginger-garlic paste. Stir for a while. Add the cooked mince and cook till dry. Add the coriander leaves, garam masala powder, cashew nuts, and raisins for garnishing. Keep aside.
To prepare the pancakes:
Mix flour, eggs, milk and salt. Add a little water if the milk is not sufficient and mix to a smooth batter. Heat a frying pan, add a little ghee and pour in two tablespoons of the batter and tilt the pan in a circular way to form a thin round pancake. When it is cooked, turn it over. Remove from heat when done on both sides. Make more pancakes with the remaining batter.
Grease a heavy bottomed small vessel or a cake tin (in which the pancake fits) with three tsp ghee. Take a pancake and dip it well in the egg mixture. Put it in the vessel and place a layer of minced meat over it. Cover this layer with another pancake dipped in egg mixture and proceed thus till all the pancakes have been used. On the top layer pour the remaining egg mixture and garnish with cashew nuts and raisins. Dot with one tbsp ghee. Place the pan in a hot oven and leave for 10 minutes till done and well browned on top.

Deep fried bread
Ingredients:
4 cup plain flour
Yogurt or buttermilk for kneading dough
2 potatoes (cooked and mashed)
Salt to taste
Oil for deep frying
Method:
Mix the mashed potatoes and salt with the flour and knead the dough with yogurt or butter milk. The dough should be firm but not sticky. Roll out into flat round discs and deep fry.
Note: 'Bhoturas' should be eaten immediately after being fried.

Dal Burfi
Ingredients:
200 gm Bengal gram (chana) dal
1 litre (4½ cups) milk
250 gm sugar
Seeds of 8 green cardamoms, crushed
5 table spoons ghee
4 edible silver-leaves
Method:
Place dal in a large bowl and pour water to cover the dal completely allowing extra water for expansion. Drain after 4 hours. Boil dal in water, drain and grind. In a Karali, mix dal and milk and cook stirring constantly until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. Mix in sugar and continue cooking, stirring with a wooden spoon, until it thickens. Add ghee and continue cooking until a deeper colour is attained.
Spread it on a greased platter patting to 1 cm thickness, sprinkle with crushed cardamoms, decorate with silver-leaves, cool and cut in to squares.

Recipes

Kesar burfi
Ingredients:
1.500 gms Kaju(cashewnuts)
2. 300 gms sugar
3.1/2 tsp kesar(saffron)
4.1/4 tsp orange color
5.2 chandi (silver)warak
Steps:
·Soak the Cashews in water for 3 hours and then drain the water and grind the nuts finely.
Mix the sugar and cashewnuts in a pan, and roast on low heat, stirring constantly.
Mix saffron and orange color into it. Roast till done.
Pour the mixture on to a piece of butter paper.
Place another piece of butter paper on top, sandwiching the mixture between the two.
Roll this with a rolling pin.
Remove the butter paper from top, add silver wrap if you want and cut the kesar burfi into your desired shapes.

Green Peas Halwa
Ingredients
1.Green Peas 250 gms
2.Guava 100 gms
3.Sugar 200gms
4.Milk 200 ml
5.Ghee 100 gms
6.Badham, Pistha chopped : 1cup
7.Cardamom : 5
Steps:
1.Grind the green peas by adding a little water in a mixer grinder. Saute the paste in ghee for about 15 minutes.
2.Add guava and stir well for 10 minutes. Keep the gas in simmer as you go. Add sugar and stir it till the ghee comes out. Pour the resulting mixture over a greased plate.
3.Then garnish with chopped nuts. Add cardamom powder. When it cools down, cut into pieces.

Cocoa burfi
Ingredients:
1. All purpose flour- 1 small cup
2. sugar- 21/2 cup
3. cocoa powder- 1 tbsp
4. Butter or ghee - 4tsp.
5. Milk -1/2 cup
6. Almonds slices- 6
Steps:
1.In a skillet, add 1 spoon Butter oil or ghee to all purpose flour. Fry till it starts to smell of the flavor.
2. Then mix cocoa powder with milk. Make a sugar syrup in a little bit of water. Add all purpose flour to this gradually by avoiding solid lumps.
3. Add cocoa mixture and remaining butter into this. Stir consistently and keep it from sticking to the pan.
4. Pour into greased plate. Then cool and cut into desired shapes. Triangles are recommended.
5. Soak almonds in microwavable hot water. After half an hour, almond skins become easy to take off. Sliced almonds make good decorations on the burfi. Remember to put these on before cooling so that they stick well before cutting.

Banana Halwa
Ingredients:
1.Nutmeg ground, 1/2 tsp
2.Pure Ghee, 1 tablespoon
3.Bananas (ripe, peeled and mashed), 3 (medium)
4.Sugar, 1 cup
Steps:
1.Heat ghee in a heavy pan. Add bananas and cook over low heat, stirring to prevent the mixture from sticking to the pan. Cook for 10 minutes, or until bananas have browned and resemble soft toffee. Add more ghee if necessary.
2.Add sugar and continue stirring until dissolved.
3.Add nutmeg and cardamom and remove from heat after.
4.Let the halwa cool before cutting is up and seving.