Chaler Payesh - Rice Pudding

 

Chal'er Payesh

A comforting and deeply satisfying end to a meal, rice pudding is a favourite with young and old alike.

Misti Doi or Sweet Yogurt

Misti Doi

Misti Doi is, customarily, served at the end of a spicy meal. It's served chilled and is light and delicious! This is the closest thing to the misti doi that is available in sweet shops located at practically every street corner in Kolkata.

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!

Coconut Macaroons

Coconut Macaroons

The simplest and easiest macaroons you could make, they took just 2 ingredients and 15 minutes to bake. The recipe was posted on the internet and seemed like the macaroons would be unbearably sweet, but they were perfect! An ice-cream scoop makes them uniform but I didn't have one. I must put it on my shopping list for the next time.

A friend suggested that a couple drops of almond extract pumps up the action, but that was after I'd made them, so I'm adding it as an optional ingredient. If you're making this for an Indian get together, you can flavor these with cardamom powder and call them narkoler naru in Bengali. It's important to line the cookie sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat baking mat to avoid a sticky mess. 

Remember that evaporated milk and condensed milk are not interchangeable.  Evaporated milk is unsweetened and not as thick as condensed milk; look for condensed milk when shopping for this recipe.

Store leftover macaroons in Ziploc bags in the refrigerator or freezer. They travel well and are suitable for picnics, potlucks or as a special treat in lunch bags. They're moist, chewy and totally satisfying!

Sujir Payesh with Dried Apricots - Semolina Pudding with Dried Apricots

Sujir Payesh with Dried Apricots

Soft and creamy, this adaptation of a childhood comfort food appeals to young and old alike. Semolina or cream of wheat or suji is a familiar food in the breakfast aisle of the grocery store. The breakfast cereal packages contain semolina in its instant form which is not what is used in this recipe because when it is cooked in this way, it turns to a mushy paste. So visit an Indian market and get unprocessed large grains of semolina in a bag. Kept in a cool, dark place, the bag will last several years if kept in a jar with a tight-fitting lid.

The semolina is first toasted in a skillet with butter until golden brown and fragrant. Meanwhile, milk is scalded with raisins & sugar in another pan and the two are combined to produce a smooth and creamy pudding. Just to be different, I decided to use coconut milk instead of regular milk and replaced the raisins with minced, dried apricots. 

A gentleman who loved to have this with heated tortillas for breakfast once told me that the semolina, sugar and butter should be used in a 1:1:1 ratio and the milk to semolina ratio should be 2:1. I admit this tastes heavenly, but not so good for diabetics or people with high cholesterol levels, so I toned it down significantly. A hint of cardamom powder gives this pudding a decadent touch.

Paneer & Apple Payesh

Paneer & Apple Payesh

I found a recipe for this payesh on Sanjeev Kapoor's website but, as you will notice, I modified it to suit my dietary needs. I replaced the sugar with Splenda and the condensed milk with a mixture of evaporated milk and Gits kulfi mix. 

We were halfway through the dessert before I remembered to take a picture. It was delicious!

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.