Ice Cream Falooda - Sindhi Speciality

 I love savoury dishes and I normally experiment on spicy dishes. Sweet dishes (I hardly ever make, I am too lazy)  I normally eat at the restaurant or at festive events. 

But recently, I received an ice cream courtesy Brookyl Cremery  and I decided to experiment with it.

Sindhis have their speciality in desserts called Rabri Falooda and during parties, you are likely to be served this rich flavoured milk and vermicelli dessert.

This was a good opportunity to try with different flavours. Instead of kulfi, I decided to use this ice-cream and the result was delicious.

Ingredients

Rabdi

1 litre full cream Milk

2tbsp Sugar

50 gms unsweetened Mawa

2 Saffron threads

2 Cardamoms

Falooda

1/4 cup boiled Vermicelli or Falooda Sev

1tbsp soaked Basil seeds

1 Orange soaked bread slice (I used fresh orange juice)

1/4 cup crushed ice

1tbsp Ice Cream

1 tbsp Rabdi

1tsp crushed Pistachio

1 tsp crushed walnuts

1 red cherry

Method

For making Rabdi

1. Boil milk in a heavy bottomed pan, stirring occasionally. 

2. Simmer on low heat for 10 minutes 

3. Add sugar, stir till it dissolves. 

4. Cook till the milk reduces to half its original quantity. 

5. Add Mawa and mix till it has a thick creamy consistency.  

6. Take the pan off the heat. 

7 Add saffron, cardamom, almonds and pistachio 

8. Set aside to cool. 

9. Place it in refrigerator for 3-4 hours, till very cold.

To assemble

1. Take a tall glass, 

2. Place the boiled vermicelli at the bottom. 

3. Cover it with orange soaked bread. 

4. Top it with crushed ice. 

5. Add ice cream ,

6. Add Rabdi, pistachio and walnuts,

7. Top it with a cherry.

Dessert Plating On The Table Top

At the party that I attended at Krabi, (in Thailand),the highlight of the evening was the dessert on a cold plate. Now this was the first time I was to witness the art with food on the table, a kind of Rangoli with different kinds of dessert plated on the table to be scooped off directly with a spoon.

The chef and his assistants started decorating the cold-plated table with desserts of different shapes and sizes making spectacular designs that didn’t bleed but remained fixed to that spot forming the most spectacular design on the table.

From a distance we could only see the black plate, but there has to be some kind of grid pattern on the plate for them to do so symmetrically.

 The chef came with a tray of different desserts in small bowls and started to drizzle the blobs on the cold plate 

He worked with much concentration, spooning the blobs forming the symmetrical design on the board.

 Everybody stood there transfixed, admiring his art

 there were nuts and pretzels, liquid nitrogen frozen mousse

It reminded me of the Rangoli, the only difference that this was the food and we could actually eat it…..

small glasses containing flavored desserts were placed in symmetrical pattern around the flat designs and that gave it 3d effect

Would I be able to make such dessert at home? I was not sure, because first, I should have a cold plate or a silicon mat and secondly, I need to learn the science behind molecular gastronomy.

 But the final effect was wonderful. Everybody rushed to table, especially children who were anxiously waiting for the chef to finish his art so that they could just try different combinations of such great variety of desserts.

Later, I learnt that the sauces are actually a gel of different agar concentrations that has been set into solids and then blended to form viscous fluid to form the required shapes.

 This dessert is never boring because everybody takes the spoonful with different combination and every bite has a different experience.

Creamy Noodles in Orange Squash

Friends were coming over for lunch, and I had fully planned Chinese meal on my mind. But, what should I serve as dessert?

Should I order natural ice cream? or should I make custard, should I set jelly or should I make fragrant cream? When I have friends over for lunch, I want to make the best of cuisine. It gives me great pleasure to cook for people who love eating my prepared food.

I decided to be creative. I decided to make a dessert of what ever ingredients I could find at home.

I had a packet of rice noodles, some yogurt and a bottle of orange squash.

And this is what I made.

“What’s the name of the dessert?” they asked

I didn’t know. This was my experiment; I had not yet given it a name. I was not even sure if it would turn out good.

Friends loved it.

Since it did not disappoint, I can share the recipe now.

But first the name…. I shall call it ‘Creamy Noodles in Orange Squash’

Ingredients:

1 cup orange squash

50gms rice noodles

500gms yogurt

2tbsp sugar

4-5 strands of saffron threads

2 crushed cardamoms

1tsp of cinnamon powder

100 grams of mixed nuts (almonds, cashew nuts, walnuts)

1tbsp of chocolate sauce

Method:

1.    Boil the rice noodles and keep it aside.

2.    Tie the yogurt in the muslin cloth and hang it on the tap for 2 hours.

3.   In a mixer add sugar, saffron, cardamoms and hung yogurt.

4.    Chop the mixed nuts

5.   In a glass rectangular bowl, put the layer of boiled rice-noodles

6.   Spread the layer of orange squash

7.    Spread the layer of hung yogurt mixer

8.   Sprinkle the layer of cinnamon powder

9.   Spread the layer of chopped mixed nuts.

Cool it in the fridge for 24 hours

Garnish with chocolate sauce before serving.

Cookies For Snack

Ever thought of giving your loved ones cookies ring? Unibic gave me one to make a bond with me

When we talk of biscuits and cookies in India, the brands that come to our mind are old timers like Britannia and Parle G. in foreign brands more common are Oreo, but recently I chanced upon cookies that were crunchy, crispy and tasty, I turned the packet around to see the brand, I found an Australian brand ‘Unibic.’

I was attending the launch of this product in Mumbai. There was a small game played with the audience. Each person was blind folded and given a cookie to taste. The person had to bite and guess the ingredients from its taste. Not many were successful. Although the taste is delicious, the taste of any particular ingredient is not over powering.

The best that I liked was ‘Scotch Finger shortbread’. It reminded me of the taste of ‘Shrew Berry’, the type that I normally pick up from the famous Kayani Bakery during my visits to Poona.

I brought the cookies home for my family to taste. My 3years old nephew and his 62years old granddad sat down, side-by-side, to relish these crunchy bites of Unibic cookies. It seems like this will soon make its entry into their home.

And why not?

There is an apt description on the packet itself that says

“Born in Scotland and loved world over, shortbread is a type of cookie that crumbles delightfully with every single bite. The butter melts magically; leaving an aftertaste you wouldn’t give up for anything. Except, for any set of these delicious shortbreads.”

What more can I say after this description?

Unibic was incorporated in India in August 2004, the company started operations in March 2005 importing two cookie brands Anzac oatmeal and chocolate chips from Unibic, Australia. By late 2005, its manufacturing unit India was producing cookies at costs that were as much as 40% lower than procuring them from Australia.

I almost drooled when they mentioned the fragrance that follows the trail leading to Haskur road in Bangalore, where these cookies are baked. They are a bit costlier as compared to cookies made by other Indian brands but cheaper than foreign brands.

Apart from its current portfolio of ginger nuts, cashew butter, choco chips, Anzac oatmeal cookies, Unibic India is now getting into healthy products like sugar free and digestive oatmeal cookies as well.

Cookies are a bonding snacks, can be enjoyed at any hour of the day and even to kill boredom.

A great snack to go with a cup of coffee or it can be mixed in layers with custard, fruits and nut to incorporate it into delicious dessert.