Karanji | Sweetened Coconut Filled Deep Fried Crescents

We're landing head-on into Christmas, and here I am, still blogging about Diwali goodies. Call me lazy, but hey, goodies are goodies - no matter when they're eaten. So, perhaps, you could make these sweet treats for your family and friends for these holidays, after all!

Now that you bought my excuse I feel a little lighter and free of guilt for not having these up around Diwali. But they're here now and they're still as good. These beautiful, crunchy crescents stuffed with sugar, coconut, cardamom and couple other things will have you clean up the platter and lick the left-over crumbs.

You can store these for over a week in an air tight container. No better reason than to stash away some right on your counter-top!

Microwave Dudh Peda

Let me start with a confession. This is no secret recipe. Google it and you will get umpteen links to the same one. But, here's why I made it. I wanted to try it, of course. And, it was Diwali. I heard it was a fool-proof, super-simple recipe so I got all gutsy and decided to make it anyway! 

Besides, who would want to stand next to the stove waiting for humongous amounts milk to reduce when you can just pop things in the microwave and being eating pedas instead?

I personally found that the final peda, although tasted exactly like the elaborate version one, was slightly sticky to bite into. Also, the butter was on the higher side as well. You can opt to reduce about 2 tablespoons.

This was the first of my Diwali line up of sweets and savory snacks. And to say it took less time to make than to roll out into sweets would be another confession. Just three main ingredients and a microwave is all you need. So, you know what you're making the next time you crave something sweet!

Ingredients
1/2 cup (8oz) Unsalted butter
1 Can (14oz) Condensed Milk
2 Cups Milk Powder
1 tsp powdered cardamom seeds

Other
Wide microwave-safe bowl

Method
- In the microwave safe bowl , toss in the butter and melt it in the microwave
- Add the rest of the ingredients and give a good stir to mix well (The bowl remains uncovered throughout the process)
- In 30 second intervals, microwave on medium, stirring frequently to bring the ingredients together into a soft dough-like consistency
- Once all ingredients come together, set aside for about a minute or two to allow to cool a tad bit
- Grease a plate with oil/butter, and using your hands make pedas out of the mixture. Go on, taste it and you will be lying if you said it did not taste delicious!
- Decorate with dried fruit and/or nuts

DO NOT allow the mixture to rest too long because it will dry up. Cover it as you make the pedas, lest you end up having cracked ones. Has anyone come up with a solution to this? My pedas cracked up on the outsides although they were staying together.

Makes about 30 to 35 one inch wide pedas

Strawberries and Cream Popsicles

100 posts and 2 years. And, as if that wasn't reason enough to celebrate, I bought myself a Popsicle maker. Pretty obviously, I had to inaugurate it. And, I did. 

May 2010 was when SSTT entered her third year of life. Woot! I never believed I'd come this far with my blog. But, yes I have. Within two years, I've gained a lot more experience in blogging, many more co-blogger friends and certainly learnt so much more in the kitchen. At this moment, I was seriously considering deleting some of my initial posts (my first post being a simple version of Bhel Puri) because they all look so pathetic. Later, it struck me that I'd rather not. It is only when I have those old, badly written, terribly structured and picturized posts (not that I'm very good at pictures even now, but, I'm learning!) that I realize how far I've come in this culinary journey. Of course, thanks to all you readers out there and most certainly to all those of you who go ahead and try the recipes I share with you on SSTT.

Definitely, a little something to celebrate ought to be sweet. With temperatures soaring, all I could think of was a frozen treat. My little sonny enjoyed it to the hilt; I just had to take pictures of him gorging down these strawberries and cream popsicles.

You can even see the little orange bowl in which he loves to keep his munch-ables, whilst eating anything.

Oreo Peanut Butter Mousse Dessert

Last weekend's grocery shopping list did not quite include whipping cream, chocolate bars and cream cheese. But, I bought them nevertheless thinking I'll probably make a Black Forest Cake or something on those lines over the coming weekend to serve up as dessert as I've invited my cousin brother and his family over. Of course, with such inviting things sitting in the fridge you could only imagine my desire to whip up something new. I kept thinking about all sorts of desserts and I recollected having heard a chef on TV saying you could make mousse/mousse cakes without eggs by using cream cheese instead. Ah! The many ways that you can make a mousse...so light, yet satisfying! That said, I decided I would experiment with whatever I had on hand. WHATEVER I saw on my kitchen counter-top. And, I saw peanut butter! Now, of course, you could either make a mousse and spoon it into bowls or glasses for it to set before you serve. Pretty much what I did when I made White Chocolate Mousse. But, with this one I decided to take things a wee bit further since this was, of course, an experiment. So, I went ahead and pulled out my box or Oreo cookie to make a base for a dessert-to-be. I worked up my imagination, mixed ingredients and popped it in the fridge for a good 6 hours. The result - YUM!

The only sad thing about this entire experiment was that I made way too less. Boo hoo! I just had about one 3*5 inch layer of this sweet temptation. And, when I said layer, it was just as thick (or should I say thin?) as ONE layer of what you see in the above picture. I wished N number of times that I had churned up more and set it as a thick cake like dessert. Well, well...we'll get there some day. So I cut 1" squares of that one layer that I had, piled it up (in sets of three) and made what I call the Oreo Peanut Butter Mousse Dessert.

And as if this was not already filled with enough calories, I went ahead and made thick chocolate ganache and decorated each piece of dessert. Talk about indulgence!

Oh and guess what? Here's something I got to know from a friend. I had made this on 'National Peanut Butter Lover's Day'. Who knew March 1st was called so, eh? What a superb co-incidence indeed! Now, you need not wait another year to make this one. All you need is a guilt-filled trip to the grocery store just like me. Just this one time, come on. I'm giving you the permission!

Quick n Easy White Chocolate Mousse

I am a chocoholic. And, no that's no confession. It's a statement. Almost something that attributes to my personality. So much so that if you know me well enough, you would have no trouble in finding a gift for me if you're feeling overly generous when you drop by my place!

That said, I'd like to make things a little more specific. I am a milk-chocolate chocoholic. No other percentage of cocoa will do. And the absence of it simply fails to turn me on. Just like in the case of white chocolate. But once in a way we do buy these white angels, too. Unfortunately, for them, they do not get gobbled down as quickly as their relatively browner cousin. So...this half a bar of white chocolate sat in my friedge for a good 3 weeks. My eyes kept falling on them but neglecting them until yesterday, as I was browsing through Nigella Lawson's dessert videos on out very own web and something miraculous happened!

She fixed White Chocolate Mousse  out of almost nothing. And, I had just the 'nothing' available on hand. You need not guess what we had for dessert last night!

Nigella used mint to flavour her mousse, while I decided to use pineapple essence and top it off with fresh fruit as you see. And, here is what I see....you drooling like a baby!!!

Strawberry Shrikhand

This summer saw a lot of mangoes enter our home. Crate after crate, one after the other! And, there's almost no guessing who downed a major portion of the fruit. I ate mangoes as a part of breakfast, lunch, at snack-time, dinner, dessert, cooked, in-the-raw...and just every time I caught the tantalizing aroma of them ripening on my countertop. So, quite obviously bidding adieu to the king of fruit was'nt an easy task.

The one dish that we prepare at home without amiss every summer is Mango Shrikhand or Aamrakhand. This is a wonderful combination of mango puree and sweetened hung yogurt, blended with aromatic spices, saffron and pistachio. It find's its roots in the Indian state of Maharashtra, where this mouth-watering sweet treat is served mostly with puris (puffed-up, deep fried whole wheat dough circles).

As mangoes seem to be slowly vanishing from market stands, I decided to twist things up a bit and make the same dish using the fruit that was still in season - Strawberries! Of course, I skipped the spices and other additions because the berries and their seeds passed on enough flavouring and texture to the hung yogurt all by themselves. Try it out and you will know what I mean.

Oh and yes, I decided to take this to a whole new level with a simple change in the basic recipe. Read up to know more!