mace Archives - Sanjana.Feasts

Salted Caramel Mohanthal

Sanjana — Thu, 16 Aug 2018 14:00:39 +0000

My grandfather was a sweet maker. He had big, thick-skinned hands that were made for harvesting sugar canes using a machete and stirring giant pots of bubbling syrup. He never used a sugar thermometer. He could tell it was done just by looking at the consistency of the syrup, perhaps testing it using a little cold water to see if it had a “one-string consistency ” or what a western pastry chef might call the “soft ball stage”. Indian sweet making isn’t for the feint hearted, you see. It’s painstakingly long, laborious, hot and intense work. Stirring, stirring, all the time you’re stirring. No, don’t stop because it will catch on the bottom and your whole mixture will taste scorched. Some of the most revered and expensive ingredients in Indian culture: sugar, milk, ghee and saffron, all wasted. If it was your full-time job and you had a knack for getting distracted, you’d be out of the door faster than you can say, “Oh fudge!”.

If you’ve ever stepped inside an Indian sweet shop you’ll be able to appreciate how much thought, heart and family history goes in to the spectacular arrangements of sweet stuff on display. Clue: the good ones almost always have the most tattered sign outside, as well as the longest queue to get in. Squares of milk fudge, diamond-shaped halwas and nut-studded pastry rolls adorned with warq (silver leaf) are majestic enough to transport you to the palaces of ancient India.

One of my favourite Indian sweets has to be Mohanthal – a rich, crunchy milk fudge made with chickpea flour, also known as besan. It’s traditonally spiced with cardamom, mace and saffron but here I’ve added a salted caramel twist because let’s be frank, who doesn’t love salted caramel?

Side note: there are plenty of varieties of vegetarian gold and silver leaf available now. I say this because there have been a tonne of internet rumours floating around claiming that all silver and gold leaf is made using non-veggie processes (I’ll spare you the details) but you don’t need me to tell you not to believe everything you read online, eh? If you’re not sure just ask in the shop. The good ones will show you the packaging from the one they use.

Mohanthal can be served in two ways: In pieces like the kind here, or loose as a lava-like liquid gold you scoop up with a spoon and nothing more. The liquid kind is is fondly known as Disco Mohanthal (which sounds just as fun as it is delicious). There’s a time and a place for both. I’ve set this Salted Caramel Mohanthal into crunchy fudge pieces but the addition of sweet caramel also means it is ridiculously good as bubbling Disco Mohanthal.

This is a pretty special recipe, guys. It’s a labour of love and is a very traditional way of making Mohanthal (no shortcuts with gum Arabic or goondh), the way a true Indian confectioner would make it – my only tweak is the addition of salted caramel. Don’t shy away because of the different steps. Indian sweet making is a beautiful, highly-specialised process which takes time and patience to master. Perseverance is key and once you’ve had a go and tasted your first batch, you’ll be hooked.

Pin it for later!

Love Sanjana

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Gujarati Mohanthal

Sanjana — Mon, 20 Oct 2014 20:43:00 +0000

Okay, round two. Not only is this our second Diwali sweet of the week – it’s also my second time making this Gujarati favourite for my blog. Mohanthal (pronounced: moHanTHaal) are squares of mace-laced butter fudge made with chickpea flour. A staple in homes during festivals, these sweet pieces of fudge are studded with crunchy pieces of chickpea flour ‘crumble’ or ‘dhrabo’.

Mohanthal can be served in two ways: In pieces like the kind here, or loose as a lava-like liquid gold you scoop up with a spoon and nothing more. There’s a time and a place for both. Pieces of Mohanthal are perfect for gifting to friends and family during Diwali. The loose kind is more of a hot dessert served after a traditional Gujarati meal. My favourite way to have it is right after a meal of Aakhu Shaak (whole vegetables stuffed with peanut masala), daal, rice, rotli and sambharo (stir-fried cabbage and carrots with mustard seeds). Heaven.

Shop-bought Mohanthal will often be brown in colour but I like my mine to be bright orange – the dish is after all, named after Lord Krishna. Orange is said to be his favourite colour so there’s no better colour than this for my Mohan’s thali.

Everything I know about making Mohanthal, my mum taught me. She teaches with a wonderful fervour that’s so infectious, I become immersed like rasmalai in a pool of sweet milk. That’s the only way I can describe it. Having her as a mentor means I’ve never been afraid of trying anything new and this Mohanthal is no different.

Handling burning hot sugar syrup, scorching ghee and flour isn’t easy but confidence, a steady hand and heaps of patience is key. Like a beautiful cake, you can’t rush Mohanthal so take some time out and master this classic Gujarati sweet. With this recipe, I promise you’ll never buy shop-bought Mohanthal again. Especially at Diwali.

Classic Gujarati Mohanthal
Makes 20-24 pieces

Ingredients

For the Dhrabo (this is the bit that ensures your Mohanthal has those essential crunchy pieces):

320g gram flour/chickpea flour
1 tbsp melted ghee
2 tbsp milk

For the Mohanthal:

250ml melted ghee
90g milk powder
1 tsp cardamom powder
2 tbsp slivered almonds
2 tbsp slivered pistachios
A pinch of saffron
1 tsp mace powder (javantri)
A pinch of orange food colour (optional)

For the Sugar Syrup:

400g sugar
250ml water

Method

1. To make the dhrabo place the gram flour in a bowl and add 1 tbsp melted ghee and 2 tbsp milk. Rub the mixture in between your fingers until it resembles breadcrumbs. Allow this to sit for 30 minutes.

2. Sieve the dhrabo mixture through a medium-holed colander rubbing any large pieces between your fingers and pushing it through the sieve. Be patient. Set aside.

3. In a pan, add the ingredients for the sugar syrup and simmer until it is of a one-string consistency (this is the ‘soft-ball’ stage if you have a candy thermometer). Keep this hot but do not let it go past the soft ball stage.

4. In a large, wide, no-stick pan add one cup of ghee and the dhrabo mixture you have passed through a sieve. Cook this on a medium heat until it becomes a golden almond colour. Keep stirring. Remove from the heat and allow this to cool until it is just warm. Add the cardamom powder, saffron, milk powder and mace powder. Don’t be impatient – let this cool properly or your mixture will seize up and become hard and crumbly as the mixture will become too hot.

5. Pour the hot syrup over the cooled flour mixture and stir until fully incorporated. Add some orange food colouring if you wish.

6. Pour the mixture into a greased thali or wide dish with sides. Sprinkle with almonds and pistachios.

7. Allow this to set for 24 hours at room temperature.

8. Cut into pieces.

9. Making liquid Mohanthal? At step 5, add an extra 250ml water after you’ve mixed in the syrup and colour and serve hot with vanilla ice cream and sprinkled with almonds and pistachios.

One more Diwali sweet treat coming up tomorrow.

Love Sanjana

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Creamy Kesar Shrikhand

Sanjana — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 22:02:00 +0000

Creamy Kesar Shrikhand is one of the most simple Indian desserts. Hung yoghurt whipped with sugar, cardamom and saffron. Serve it chilled as it is, or as part of a celebratory thali.

My mother taught me her Creamy Kesar Shrikhand recipe when I was 11 years old and I make it in the same way to this day. Some things are best left unchanged.

It’s been a busy week!

In case you hadn’t noticed, I have been MIA for a week – but thankfully, I have a great excuse. If you follow me on Facebook you’ll know that I’ve been spending most of time baking for a lovely little party I attended last weekend.

On the entirely eggless dessert menu were Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting, Chocolate Fudge Cake, Vanilla & Cherry Sponge Cake, Chocolate & Coconut Cake Pops and my epic Shrikhand Cheesecake.

What is Shrikhand?

Speaking of shrikhand, here’s my very classic (and simple) recipe for one of my favourite Gujarati desserts.

Three spices I always add to this dessert are green cardamom seeds, saffron and just a pinch of mace but nutmeg also works a treat. These aromatic flavours are what make shrikhand so wonderfully-opulent.

Indeed, it’s an acquired taste for many, this thick tangy yogurt is the perfect way to end an indulgent meal on a warm day – and to say today was warm is a hefty understatement.

How to serve Shrikhand

Very cold. Chill your batch of Creamy Kesar Shrikhand thoroughly before you serve it. I love to enjoy it as part of a savoury meal, Gujarati style. Pair it with Dry Mung Bean Curry, Kadhi and Rotli for real Gujarati celebration vibes.

If you want to create a spectacular show piece of a dessert, make my Shrikhand Doughnuts. Pillowy, yeasted doughnuts filled with the most wonderful Creamy Kesar Shrikhand. I toss the warm doughnuts in cardamom and pistachio sugar before I serve. I promise you’ll be hooked after a single bite.

Creamy Kesar Shrikhand

Creamy Kesar Shrikhand is one of the most simple Indian desserts. Hung yoghurt whipped with sugar, cardamom and saffron. Serve it chilled as it is, or as part of a celebratory thali.

Course Dessert

Cuisine Indian

Keyword cardamom, gujarati, mace, nutmeg, pistachio, pudding, saffron, yoghurt

Prep Time 1 30

Total Time 1 30

Servings

Equipment

Muslin cloth
Fine mesh sieve

Ingredients

1 kg sour plain natural yoghurt I swear by Pakeeza brand
200 g icing sugar confectioner's sugar/powdered sugar
1 tsp ground green cardamom seeds
Large pinch saffron
1/4 tsp ground mace or nutmeg
2-3 tbsp coarsely ground pistachios optional
Mixed berried to serve optional

Instructions

Tip the yoghurt into a clean muslin cloth and tie it up tightly with a piece of string right above the top of the yogurt so that the water presses away.
Tie the muslin somewhere where it can hang with a large bowl underneath to catch the water and leave it for 24-36 hours. Try to choose somewhere cool. I like to hang mine in a cool corner of the kitchen. Keep tipping away the water as the bowl fills up.
Remove the yoghurt from the muslin and place it in a large bowl. Add the icing sugar and mix well.
Press the yoghurt and sugar mixture through a fine-holed sieve to remove any lumps.
Mix in the ground cardamom, saffron, mace (or nutmeg) and pistachios if using. Chill in the fridge for at least 8 hours before serving.

Notes

This Creamy Kesar Shrikhand keeps well in the fridge for up to a week after it’s made.

Pin this Creamy Kesar Shrikhand recipe for later!

Creamy Kesar Shrikhand is one of the most simple Indian desserts. Hung yoghurt whipped with sugar, cardamom and saffron. Serve it chilled as it is, or as part of a celebratory thali.

If you like this, you’ll love my recipe for Mohanthal

Buttery, melt-in-the-mouth fudge made with chickpea flour, cardamom, saffron and mace. Mohanthal is such a delicious Indian sweet (mithai). Enjoy it as a square or as a hot-fudge like pudding with vanilla ice cream.

Love Sanjana

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Mughlai Apricot Biryani

Sanjana — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 17:16:00 +0000

The past few days have been spent planning an elaborate baking mission composed of sweet treats to make your heart cry out for a detox – though I’m not yet ready for said detox.

In honour of all things royal wedding, I’m creating a banquet fit for kings and queens. Our party spread will be formed of rich, sweet and spicy dishes for us to present to our family and guests so they can ‘ohh’ and ‘ahh’ over it while we take all the credit for such an extravagant and mouth watering menu.

Biryani is a bit like a newborn kitten – except you don’t cook nor eat newborn kittens. It requires heaps of concentration, patience and love.

Each individual component needs to be prepared to just the right level before the ingredients can be assembled in a harmonious fashion, and then gently steamed to create an insanely delicious smelling and tasting dish to fight over at the dinner table.

Swollen soaked saffron strands

In the last post we discussed the origins of Mughlai cuisine and what makes it so majestic, and this fruity, nutty aromatic rice is right on point. Juicy apricots and pineapples are layered up with fluffy rice, spicy potatoes, sweet onions, aromatic saffron and kewra water (screwpine extract).

Screwpine is the same plant that produces pandan and as the name suggests, kewra has a very distinct ‘pine’ incense aroma and a very slight vanilla flavour. It’s traditionally used in biryanis (among other rice dishes), meat curries, Indian desserts, baking and savoury gourd (melon) dishes.

I’m not going to lie to you, you are likely to do a double take when you see the ingredients list. Take courage, my recipe provides you with a straightforward process to follow to create a true masterpiece. In truth, the assembly of biryani is not unlike the process used to make lasagne – it’s all in the preparation, so be prepared.

The following method is very detailed because I want to give you a complete guide full of handy hints and tips to make the perfect biryani for any occasion, and not only this one.

Mughlai Apricot Biryani

(serves 6, or 8 as part of a large meal)

Ingredients:

400g basmati rice
340g baby new potatoes, cut into quarters
320g onions, sliced into thin strips
60g dried apricots, chopped, chopped into 2cm chunks
20g dried pineapple, chopped into 2cm chunks
20g whole almonds
20g whole pistachios
10g unsweetened desiccated coconut or 30g fresh coconut, grated
1 pinch saffron soaked in 4 tbsp hot water
1 tbsp kewra water
250ml hot water + more for boiling the rice and potatoes
4 tbsp oil or ghee
Salt

For the spicy yoghurt mixure:
4 tbsp Greek yogurt

1 ½ tsp minced ginger
2 tsp minced chillies
1 tsp cinnamon powder
4 whole cloves
1 tsp ground green cardamom seeds (flowery, aromatic flavour)
¼ tsp ground black cardamom seeds (smoky, heady flavour)
¼ tsp whole fennel seeds
¼ tsp pomegranate seed powder (sharp, sour taste – available in most Indian shops)
1/8 tsp ground mace
1 small pinch ground nutmeg
1 tsp salt

Method

1. Wash your rice 8-10 times in cold water. Allow to soak in a bowl of cold water for 30 minutes. Note: You’re washing the rice to remove the starch and promote fluffy grains when cooked. Soaking the rice helps even cooking of the rice through the tenderisation of each grain.

2. Meanwhile, boil the potatoes in a pan of salted boiling water until half-cooked. Drain and set aside. Note: Don’t overcook your potatoes because they’re going to go through another two cooking processes – frying and steaming.

3. Soak the chopped apricots and pineapples in warm water and set aside.

4. Whisk together all of the ingredients for the spicy yogurt mixture and set aside. Note: We’re using this as a sauce to cook our potatoes in to keep them delicious and moist.

5. Heat the oil in a large non-stick pan (I used a wok) and add the part-cooked potatoes. Fry until golden all over. Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon, leaving the oil behind and drain on kitchen paper.

6. Mix the fried potatoes with the yogurt mixture and set aside. Note: Adding the hot potatoes to the yogurt mixture will allow them to soak up all of the spices.

7. Fry the slices of onion until golden in the same oil used to fry the potatoes. Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon, leaving the oil behind and drain on kitchen paper.

8. Next, fry the almonds and pistachios until slightly golden (do not over brown) in the same oil used to fry the potatoes and onions. Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon, leaving the oil behind and drain on kitchen paper. Note: We are using the same oil to get as much flavour into this biryani as possible – if you used new oil each time, the flavours would just be thrown away.

9. Boil the rice in water seasoned with plenty of salt for just five minutes or until half-cooked. Drain and set aside. Note: We do not want to cook the rice too much because we’re going to gently finish cooking it with all of the other ingredients later.

9. Add the potato and yogurt mixture back into the pan of warm oil and cook for 4-5 minutes or until aromatic. Remove half of the potatoes from the pan and set aside, leaving half behind. Were now ready to start layering up the biryani.

10. Turn the heat off before you begin layering. Place enough rice over to potatoes to cover them. Spread on half of the onions, drained apricots and pineapples, coconut, nuts and spoon over half of the saffron water and kewra water. Cover with more rice, then potatoes and more rice.

11. Again, spread on half of the onions, drained apricots and pineapples, coconut, nuts and spoon over half of the saffron water and kewra water. Add 250ml boiling water (salted with 1 tsp salt).

12. Cover the biryani with foil and place a tight-fitting lid on top. Cook on a low heat for approximately 20 minutes. Check the rice at the halfway point – it’s better to be safe than sorry. Note: We want the biryani to gently steam and a delicious golden (not burnt) crust to form on the bottom of the pan. This is a conventional way to cook biryani – not a traditional way. I will go through traditional biryani cooking another time.

13. Remove the lid and gently fluff up the rice with a fork, taking care not to combine it too much. Beautiful, uneven colouring is characteristic of a good biryani.

I’ve detailed the biryani-making process as fully as I can, however if you feel I’ve missed anything please feel free to leave a comment or send me an email.

Serve with Melt in the Mouth Paneer Kofta, Shahi Paneer Stuffed Okra and other Mughlai treats I’ll be showing you soon.

Now let’s get down to business – when are you having this royal Mughlai banquet and where is my invitation? I’ll be waiting for it.

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