Shahi Tukda - Royal Bread Pudding

Shahi Tukda

Shahi Tukda or Bread Pudding fit for a king, is a popular and festive dessert in Mughlai cuisine. Toast points, fried in butter or ghee until golden brown, are soaked in simple syrup, dipped in thickened milk (rabri) that is flavoured with cardamom and saffron and garnished with sliced almonds.

To simplify life and to cut down on sugar consumption, the step to soak the pieces of bread in simple syrup is eliminated. Also, making rabri is a very tedious process and to simplify that step, evaporated milk is mixed with Gits Kulfi mix which is already flavoured with cardamom and saffron.

Made with just five ingredients in less than 15 minutes, this dessert is delicious!

Meetha Sev - Sweet Vermicelli Dessert

Meetha Sev

This dessert reminds me of Khan, our cook in Bombay in the early 1970s. He was an excellent cook who went to the market early each morning and based our menu on what was available that day. His food was in the Mughlai style and quite rich. This was his way of preparing toasted vermicelli and was quite unusual for us because we were used to the milky payesh that Bengalis generally make.

Toasted Vermicelli

Toasted vermicelli or sev is available at Indian markets. If it's not available in toasted form, it adds a step to making desserts because it has to be toasted in butter or ghee until golden brown. Coating sev with butter keeps each strand separate and prevents it from becoming mushy.

Sewai Payesh - Toasted Vermicelli Cooked in Sweetened Cream

Sewai er Payesh

The key ingredient in this dessert dish is toasted vermicelli, also known as sewai or semiya. Payesh is thickened & sweetened whole milk that is simmered down to half its original volume. The resulting sweet cream blends with the vermicelli to create a wonderful dessert. To save time, I've substituted the sweet cream with a package of Gits Kulfi Mix and was pleasantly surprised at how well it worked in this dessert.

Vermicelli is very skinny pasta that is available in Indian markets already toasted to a golden brown color. It also comes untoasted, but it's really easy to stir-fry in a dry skillet until golden brown. Toasting vermicelli in melted butter ensures that each strand remains separate and prevents it from becoming mushy.

Garnished with Fried Raisins & Nuts

It takes a ratio of 2:1 cups of liquid to vermicelli to cook till soft. This is a dry version of the payesh, but Bengalis generally prefer more of a saucy consistency to their sewai payesh.

Baked Rosogollas

Broiled Rogollas

Baked rosogollas are a relatively recent phenomenon in the Bengali sweet shops or misti dokan of Kolkata (formerly Calcutta). I started with the rosogolla payesh recipe recently posted and placed one serving under the broiler until the tops caramelized. 

Since Hubby enjoyed this small transformation thoroughly, I decided to bake the remaining payesh at 350F degrees and sprinkled some saffron over top. Either way, finishing off this sweet dish in the oven imparts a caramelized & smoky flavour to these delectable fresh cottage cheese dumplings. 

Gajar (Carrot) Halwa

I like using baby carrots for this recipe because they're already peeled and since they're so small, can be cut in half before grating in the food processor. It's much easier than dealing with big carrots.

Serves: 6
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pkg. baby carrots, cut in half
1 cup golden raisins
1 cup milk
1/2 tsp. saffron, crushed
1 pkg. Gits Kulfi Mix
Sugar to taste
1/4 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. ghee
Chopped almonds

Method:

1. Process carrots in food processor.
2. Over medium high heat, cook carrots, salt and raisins with milk until very little milk remains.
3. Add saffron, Kulfi Mix, stir and taste for sweetness.  Add sugar according to taste.
4. Cook the halwa until sugar dissolves and liquid evaporates.
5. Stir in the ghee, garnish with almonds and serve either hot or chilled.

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