EGGLESS BANANA BREAD

Eggless banana bread, a delicious and healthy banana bread recipe made eggless with some added walnuts

INGREDIENTS

• 4 cups of pureed ripe banana
• 1.5 cups of plain flour
• ½ cup of melted butter
• ¾ cup of brown sugar
• ½ cup of milk
• 1 tsp of baking soda
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract
• A pinch of salt
• ½ cup of chopped raw walnuts

METHOD:-

1. Pre-heat oven to 350F / 180C
2. Grease a 9x5 loaf pan with butter or cooking spray
3. Puree bananas to a smooth pulp. Measure out 4 cups after pureeing and transfer to a wide bowl
4. Add melted butter. Mix well
5. Now add milk and vanilla to the above and mix again
6. Now add sugar, baking soda, and salt and mix until well combined
7. Finally add the flour in 3-4 additions, gently folding it in. Do not over mix once the flour is added to the batter
8. Now thrown in the chopped walnuts and give everything one or two final stirs
9. Transfer to the greased pan and tap once on the kitchen counter to get rid of air bubbles
10. Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 45-50 mins or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the loaf comes out with moist crumbs. If you feel like the top of the banana bread is browning too quickly, loosely cover the pan with some aluminium foil and continue to bake. I add a couple of slits in there so the hot air can escape
11. Once done, leave it in the pan for about 15 mins and then gently invert onto a wire rack to cool completely
12. Slice and serve toasted with some salted butter to enjoy it best

KALA JAMUN

INGREDIENTS:- 

for the jamun balls:

250 grams soft khoya or 1 cup tightly packed khoya/mawa/dried evaporated milk solids
100 grams paneer or ½ cup tightly packed grated paneer/cottage cheese
3 tbsp all purpose flour/maida
1 tbsp milk
oil or ghee for deep frying

for sugar syrup:

300 grams sugar or 2 cups sugar
1.5 cups water
¼ tsp lemon juice
1 tbsp rose water
½ tsp cardamom powder
12 to 15 strands of saffron/kesar

METHOD:-

preparing jamun balls:

1. take 250 grams of khoya in a plate or bowl. the khoya used for gulab jamuns is the soft khoya also known as hariyali khoya or chikna khoya. this is a soft khoya, so it mashes and kneads very well.
2. mash the khoya very well with your hands. keep aside. there should be no lumps or small bits or pieces in the khoya. you can also grate and then mash the khoya.
3. grate 100 grams paneer and keep aside. 100 grams paneer yields about ½ cup grated paneer.
4. now add the grated paneer and 3 tbsp all purpose flour (maida) to the khoya.
5. add 1 tbsp milk.
6. gently mix everything very well.
7. bring together this mixture and form into a dough. do not knead the dough. just mix and gather to a dough. if the mixture looks dry and does not cling together to a dough, you can add 1 tbsp more of the milk.
8. now pinch small marble sized balls from the dough and roll them in a round shape between your palms. roll lightly and not heavily.
9. now roll the ball again between your palms to give a oblong cylindrical shape.
10. roll all the jamuns this way and keep them covered with a cotton kitchen towel.

preparing sugar syrup:

1. take 2 cups sugar in a pan and add 1.5 cups water.
2. keep this pan on stove top on a low to medium flame and stir so that the sugar begins to dissolve.
3. when all the sugar is dissolved, add ¼ tsp lemon juice. the lemon juice does not allow the sugar syrup to crystallize.
4. cook the sugar syrup on a low to medium flame till you get ½ string consistency or the syrup becomes sticky.
5. when the sugar syrup is cooking, you can begin frying the jamuns. as when you add the jamuns, the sugar syrup has to be hot. heat oil for deep frying in a kadai or deep pan on a low to medium flame.
6. switch off the flame and add ½ tsp cardamom powder and 12 to 15 strands of saffron, crushed. also add 1 tbsp rose water.

frying jamuns:

1. for testing, slid a tiny dough ball in the hot oil.
2. the ball should come up slowly and not quickly. this is the temperature at which we will fry the jamuns.
3. keep the flame to a low and fry this small jamun till it becomes golden.
4. now gently slid the kala jamuns. do not crowd and add the jamuns as per the size of the pan.
5. when you see faint golden spots, turn over the jamuns gently.
6. keep on turning them in the oil, like a gentle swirling with the slotted spoon, so that they brown evenly. when frying the jamuns have to feel light and not heavy.
7. fry till they turn a shade or two darker than the golden fried color.
8. place them on paper towels.
9. whilst they are hot, quickly add them to the sugar syrup.
10. fry all the jamuns in the same way and add them to the sugar syrup.
11. cover and allow the jamuns to soak in the sugar syrup. once the sugar syrup cools down, keep the bowl covered in the fridge.
12. serve kala jamuns at room temperature or chilled as a dessert or sweet.

Jalebi

Ingredients

• 1 cup Maida (All purpose flour / Refined flour)
• 1/4 cup Cornflour
• 1 cup fresh Yogurt (Curd / Dahi)
• 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
• 1 cup Sugar
• 1 cup Water
• 1/4 tsp Red-orange Food Color or Yellow Food Color
• Oil for deep frying

Instructions

1. Take a big bowl and add 1 cup Maida, 1/4 cup Cornflour, 1 cup fresh Yogurt,1/2 tsp Baking Powder and 1/4 tsp Red-orange Food Color or 1/4 tsp turmeric powder. Add about 1 cup of water and mix all the ingredients well. Make a batter of smooth and pouring consistency. It should not be too thin or too thick.
2. Cover the batter and refrigerate it for 12 - 24 hours. It will help to ferment the Jalebi batter. If you don't want to keep it aside that long then you may use active yeast and keep it aside for 1 hour.
3. Cook 1 cup of sugar with 1 cup of water in a deep non-stick pan on low heat, stirring continuously, till the sugar dissolves and till you have a thick two-strand sugar syrup / chasni. Keep it warm on the stove.
4. Now Heat good amount of oil or ghee in a pan / Kadai on medium heat to about 150C / 160C, about 300F TO 320F. Fill the prepared Jalebi batter either into a squeeze bottle, just like bottle of tomato ketchup or you can put the batter in zip lock bag with a small hole. Squeeze round spirals into the hot oil and deep fry, turning them over gently a few times, till they are evenly golden and crisp.
5. Drain the fried Jalebi quickly from oil and dip in sugar syrup / chasni. Take the Jalebi out from the syrup, garnish with few saffron strands and serve hot. You can also put Jalebi in plate and then pour syrup on top of them.

Notes

You can make jalebi with the help of muslin cloth as well, for that you need to pour the batter in the cloth, gather the edges and make a tight potli, then make a small hole and pour the jalebi in hot oil. You can add about 1/2 tsp green cardamom seeds powder and 1/2 tsp rose water in batter for bringing more flavors in jalebi.

BURFI

Burfi (a great Indian recipe)

Ingredients:-

500g Klim (Milk Powder)
1 tin nestle cream (small)
1 teaspoon cardamom powder

method:

Mix all the above ingredients in a bowl together until it resembles bread crumbs. Let it rest for 2 hours, then grind in a coffee grinder. Then make the syrup as follows:-

Use:

2 cups sugar
2 cups milk
1/4 teaspoon rose essence
65g butter

Boil together till it forms a thick syrup but it shouldn't crystallise, remove from heat, then mix the dry ingredients into the syrup and allow to rest for half an hour. Now set in a platter and cut into pieces or if you like cut into shapes, or use an ice cream scoop to scoop up burfi and place into paper/foil cups.

Can be decorated with almonds, pistachios etc.