Yes, I am back. It was a very hectic time. Even though sometimes I cooked something different from everyday’s routine but could not pen them down. In this period, I really did not indulge into anything very complex. Oh! Ok, now if somebody is reading this or reads my blog regularly, knows that I really never go for complex things.
Most of the blogs and food groups
are featured with saliva tempting photos of different matured, complex food
items. Both the picture and the recipe describe its intrinsic quality. It also
defines the expertise of the writer as a cook and a photographer.
But I am an amateur cook and a
poor photographer and equally a poor writer. Neither of these are my expert
areas. As I mentioned in some of my earlier posts, that it is
R who inspires me to cook. Before she was there in our life I hardly cooked.
But now I just love to response to her demands. I wait for her reactions. And
what a 3.5 year old girl can ask for! so, mostly my dishes move around
different types of sweets and simple veg and non-veg items. I write down these
recipes so that I do not forget them and also for people like me who are not
expert cooks. I believe there may be at least
one in the audience, who is like me- a little bit of kitchen-phobic, not
that passionate of cooking, yet has to cook.
It was during my college days, I was watching
Sanjeev Kapoor’s Khana Khazana, once. That day SK was teaching how to cook
bottle-gourd (lauki). I was with one of my very senior friend. I was surprised
to see SK teaching that lauki dish which Ma used to cook at least once in a
week. I expressed it to my friend. Now, my friend who had just started her family
life a year back, said me that even these are needed for the first time cooks. However,
I was not convinced till I faced the situation. I would really be very happy if
my recipes are useful to anybody.
Today the recipe that I will
share with you is a sweet dish. 15 days back once when I returned from office,
my daughter asked me to feed her with luchi (puri) and suji (semolina) and payesh
(kheer). It was already 8 o’ clock. R does not want any vegetable with luchi
but the husband man needs. So, altogether 4 dishes within 45 minutes- prepare ata
for luchi, peel vegetables and cook, suji and kheer. No, that was not possible.
So, I decided to club suji and kheer into one and came up with semolina kheer
or sujir payesh, one of my childhood favourite, Ma used to cook very
frequently. Here’s how I did.
Ingredients
Milk 1 ltr
Semolina/suji
1 cup (50-75 gms)
Sugar
1 cup or as per taste
A
pinch of salt
Condensed
milk 4-5 tbsp
Ghee:
1tbsp
Cashew
Raisins
Green
cardamom 1
Bay
leaves, cardamom powder
Method
In a deep
bottomed pan take semolina and dry roast till its golden (approx 5-7 minutes).
Keep stirring continuously or it might burn at the bottom.
Boil the milk
and divide it into 2 equal shares.
Take out the
semolina and soak it in one part and keep apart the other share. Soak the
semolina for at least 20 minutes or it softens. After 20 minutes, if you see
that it has soaked all the milk then slowly add some warm water to it.
Now add heat
the pan and add ghee. Add the bay leaves and the green cardamom. Add cashews
and fry till golden.
Now add the
soaked semolina. To this one by one add the sugar, pinch of salt, condensed
milk and the raisins. Add the separated milk slowly.
Mix well with
a heavy spatula and cook in a low flame for 5 minutes. Add the cardamom powder.
Remove it from
heat. Remember this will thicken after being cold. So, remove it little watery.
Serve at room
temperature.
