Showing posts with label cajeta. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cajeta. Show all posts

14.11.14

Kheer Komla (Milk Pudding with Orange)

Happy Friday and a very happy Children's day !!


After procrastinating for days I am finally here....

A lot has happened in the last few months... the toddler has started school, I joined work and...... aah.. yup. and thats about it. Actually, though a lot hasn't really happened, life suddenly seems to have picked up pace and toddler and I are gradually settling down to our new routine. Naturally the time spent on doing things that are not of mutual interest has minimized... but I guess that is alright. after all they stay little for only so long and I should know better than to spend this time doing things that can wait.....  

...thus dinner these days is usually quick and simple.. wrapped up almost always with a helping of yogurt for dessert. Weekends are however different. We are all relaxed and while the boys hang out doing boy-stuff... I take my time and prepare something special for them. 

 Last weekend I cooked Kheer Komla, one of my favorite desserts from childhood...

Literally, Kheer Komla means milk pudding with orange. In winter when the local markets flood with oranges almost every Bengali I know picks up a bunch and prepares bowls of Kheer Komla. Of course those who have the luxury of time, patiently watch over a kadai of whole milk while it simmers and reduces to kheer, then sweeten the reduced milk, flavor it with elaichi(green cardamom) and sometimes saffron, chill the kheer, then dot it with segments of oranges... While others like me take the short route and prepare the kheer with a mix of whole milk and condensed milk and then flavor it and adorn it the usual way. 


 However if you are like me and find condensed milk a little too sweet for your taste, you might want to consider the way I prepare kheer these days. The recipe is a medley of  Cajeta and traditional Kheer. It is relatively quick, gives you a handle on how sweet you want your dessert to be and works like a charm every time....  


Kheer Komla (Milk Pudding with Orange)
Oranges in milk pudding flavored with green cardamom and saffron
Recipe by Tanusree
Cook time: 45 minutes                                                               Total time: 45 minutes + chilling time
Yield: 2-3 servings
Ingredients
  • 2 + ½ cup milk
  • 3 tbsps sugar
  • ¼tsp baking soda
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 green cardamom
  • 5-6 strands of saffron
  • 1 orange
Cooking Directions
  1. In a large saucepan or kadai, combine 2 cups of milk with the sugar and salt and bring to a boil over medium heat.
  2. Dissolve the baking soda in 2 tablespoons of the milk mixture and stirring vigorously pour it into the saucepan of milk mixture. (The milk swells at this point so keep a close watch and stir continuously. )
  3. Reduce the heat to medium-low,split open the green cardamom, add it to the milk and stirring occasionally simmer the milk for 10 minutes.
  4. Meanwhile stir the saffron into the remaining milk and keep it aside.
  5. Once the milk in the saucepan thickens and becomes a light shade of orange , add the remaining milk to it and stir occasionally simmer over medium-low heat for another 15-20 minutes until the flavored milk  thickens enough to coat the back of your spoon.
  6. Now switching off the heat, pour the flavored milk into 2 or 3 serving bowls and chill for 1 hour.
  7. Add the orange segments to the bowl and chill the dessert for another hour or until you are ready to serve.
Serve and enjoy !!

Until next time,
Tanusree

I shall be sharing this dessert at the following parties..



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17.9.13

Warm Applesauce Spice Bars # GYCO Applesauce Challenge

Its already been 2 months since GYCO Blackberry challenge. Hence time for yet another Get your Chef On ! This month Julie from White Lights of Wednesday and Jen from Four Mars and One Venus challenged us to make/bake something special with Applesauce. Since applesauce happens to be one of my favorite substitutes for butter and eggs I immediately signed up for it... howver a recipe in which the star ingredient is merely used as a substitute isn't really the recipe for GYCO.... right ? so i raked up the internet looking for a recipe which wasn't too complicated and yet felt special enough for a challenge. and yesterday afternoon I finally bumped upon The One.... "Dorie's Applesauce Spice Bars." While the recipe looked wonderful by itself I thought a little tweaking would be nice. So i modified the ingredient list a bit and traded the original brown sugar glaze for a warm honey glaze... the result was fabulous.. we loved the spiced up soft moist Warm Applesauce Spice Bars.... 


 and I am sure you will too when you try it......

now the recipe... I adapted the recipe of the cake from Something Sweet By Karen and the idea of glaze from Alex Guarnaschelli's Warm Grape Cake . The original cake recipe is from Dorie Greenspan's Baking : From my home to yours. Thanks to Karen for publishing this recipe as part of Tuesdays with Dorie. It certainly rocks !

Warm Applesauce Spice Bars 
Adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours
 ingredients
  • for the cake
    • 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
    • 1 tsp baking powder
    • 1/4 tsp baking soda
    • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
    • 1/4 tsp ground allspice
    • 1/4 tsp salt
    • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
    • 1 cup light brown sugar
    • 2 large eggs
    • 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
    • 1 tsp vanilla extract
    • 1 Bartlett pear, peeled, cored and finely chopped
    • 1/2 oven dried red grapes or plum raisins (I used a 3:1 ratio of the two)
    • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts 
  • for the glaze
    • 1/4 cup honey
    • 3/4 inch knob of ginger, peeled and freshly grated
    • 1/4-1/3 cup golden raisins
-
 the method
  • center a rack in the oven and preheat it to 350 degree F. butter a 9x13 inch baking pan, line the bottom with a parchment paper. butter the paper, dust the floor and sides of the pan with flour and tap off the excess. (in case you are like me and do not have a 9 x 13 inch pan, prepare your small cookie pan. it works. that is what i used.) 
  • whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice and salt, sift the mixture and keep it aside.
  • in a medium heavy bottomed saucepan melt the butter over low heat. add the light brown sugar and  whisk the mixture until the sugar melts and a smooth batter is formed.
  • remove the saucepan from the heat and whisking continuously, add the eggs one at a time. whisk until the eggs are well incorporated into the batter, then add the applesauce and vanilla extract and whisk until a smooth uniform batter is formed. 
  • once all the wet ingredients are well-incorporated, using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, gently fold in the flour mixture, mixing only until they disappear. then mix in the pears, the raisins and nuts.
  • now scraping the batter into the prepared pan, smooth the surface with a rubber spatula and bake for 23-25 minutes until the cake begins to pull away from the sides of the pan and a knife inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. (for me this happened exactly after 23 minutes.)
  • transferring the baking pan to a rack, let the cake cool completely. once the cake has cooled completely, after about 30-45 minutes, slice the cake into 2-1/4 x 1-1/2 inch bars and go ahead and prepare the glaze.
  • for the glaze, add the honey to a small saute pan and holding the pan over low heat, bring it to a light simmer. once the honey bubbles and turns light brown, add the freshly grated ginger and golden raisins to the pan. saute for another 20-30  seconds and then drizzle the honey glaze over the sliced bars and serve and enjoy with milk, tea or a scoop of ice-cream !

So that was my awesome Warm Applesauce Spice Bar for GYCO Applesauce...
Hope you enjoyed the recipe and will try it while apples and pears are still flooding your local grocery store. So much for today. Have a great week !


I shall be sharing this with the following food events...
Friday Food: Foodie Friday @ Home Maid Simple, Friday Favorite (DYI too) @ Simple Sweet Home, Foodie Friday @ Not Your Ordinary Recipes,  Foodie Friday @ Rattlebridge Farm , Weekend Wonders @ The Thriftiness Miss, Friday Food Frenzy @ Mostly Food and Crafts , Weekend Potluck @ Sunflower Supper Club,  The Weekend re-Treat @The Best Blog  Recipes 
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