Basundi and my Sweet Tooth

I have this incredibly sweet sweet tooth. It just shouts out to be satisfied after every single meal. It controls me totally and just as soon as my lunch is over, it starts shrilly demanding "Give me sweet, give me sweet!!! NOW NOW NOW!!!". Whatever my good intentions and before I can even comprehend what is happening, something sweet is already down my throat. Swallowed, digested and then total regret sets in. But the damage is already done. Like someone famously said "a minute on the lips, a lifetime on the hips.." In my life there have been too many minutes on the lips to count. Ask my hips or my tummy. They know that fact only too well..

I have a particular affinity for Indian sweets. Lot of people feel that Indian sweets are way too sweet but in my opinion that single factor makes it so much more appealing to me. At one time, I could wake up at 6 am and have two jangris without batting an eyelid. Thank god those days are now behind me.

I have been wanting to make Basundi for the longest time. It is so yummy, served deliciously cold and sweet with a few nuts adding a crunch as you eat it.

It is simple to make but just takes forever and forever. It takes a good 2 to 3 hours for the milk to thicken down to the level required. Now here comes technology to my rescue. We have a new fangled thing called the Induction stove at home. We have it for back up just in case.. It took me all of 1 hour from start to finish to make the Basundi. That made it a lot of fun and I had to watch it only till the milk thickened somewhat. After that, it took care of itself.

Now for the ingredients and the method..

Ingredients:

2 litres full fat milk

150 grams sugar

few strands of saffron

juice of 1 lime

almonds sliced for garnish

Method:

Put the milk in the thick bottomed vessel and bring to a rolling boil.

Add the saffron strands so that it adds its flavor and color as the milk boils.

Reduce the heat and let it boil down till it becomes 1/4 in quantity.

Add the juice of the lime so that the thickened milk curdles a bit.

Add the sugar and cook for a few minutes longer.

Garnish with sliced almonds and serve chilled.

ENJOY!!!!!

Rabdi and Reminiscing About Childhood

I remember as a kid, everytime we had a party or an official do at home, my mother's favorite dessert to make would be rabdi with jelly. She was not at all culinarily challenged, but for some strange reason this would show up again and again. Even if there were other desserts, this just had to be on the menu. It was total overkill, even if it was tasty overkill.

At that time, I think my siblings and I were heartily sick of rabdi with anything and so it was many years before I ventured close to anything which looked, smelt or tasted like Rabdi. But then as you grow up, childhood tastes start haunting you and you just have to recreate the taste for yourself. They take on a larger than life image (or should I say taste in this case?) in your mind's eye and soon you start craving for those tastes even if it is something you once hated.

So, sure enough I started wanting to eat rabdi again (obviously many many years after mom stopped making it).

Rabdi is one of the easiest desserts to make and goes awesomely well with any hot dessert like hot jalebis made on the spot, hot gulab jamuns , malpuas... rabdi pretty much goes with anything. Need I mention rabdi falooda, (as if I was not drooling enough already. To think I hated it so much at one time).

Think now I should head on and give you the actual recipe before I digress into other things.

Ingredients

2 Litres full cream milk
½ cup sugar
6-8 almonds slivered
10- 12 cardamoms, peeled and coarsely powdered
Few strands saffron dissolved in a teaspoon of hot milk

Method

Heat milk in a deep dish. Bring gently to a rolling boil. Reduce the flame and continue boiling the milk. Scrape/skim the top cream and keep adding it to the boiling milk. When reduced to half its quantity, add the sugar, cardamom powder and saffron. Garnish with slivered almonds. Chill and serve either by itself or with any of the items mentioned above.

This also goes as my entry for Think Spice Think Saffron hosted by Sunita of Sunitas World. Hope I am not too late.