Indian desserts

[SobaAddict70]

Ok, I read somewhere about a dessert made entirely from milk and sugar:

Boil or simmer milk with a bit of sugar dissolved to sweeten. As a skin forms, skim off the skin with a wooden spoon into a bowl, and let cool. Repeat this process until all of the milk has been collected. Carefully mix the collected skins, and serve immediately.

It sounds like a lot of work for a milk-based pudding. Does anyone have a clue as to what this is, and has anyone ever had it?

Does anyone have a recipe or method for making halvah? I seem to recall a carrot version from somewhere -- can't remember where.

Best,

Soba

Edited February 27, 2003 by SobaAddict70 (log)

[indiagirl]

sobaddict

Never heard of the dish you're describing but boy, it sure sounds like a lot of work.

Here is a recipe for gajar (carrot) halwa from Joyce Westrip who rules:

1 lb carrots

4 1/2 cups milk

1/2 teaspoon cardamom powder

1/4 tsp saffron threads steeped for atleast 15 minutes in hot milk

4 tbsp ghee/unslated butter, softened

6 tbsp caster sugar

2 tbsp seeded raisins

4 drops rose essence (optional)

2 tbsp blanced and slivered almonds (I don't usually blanch them)

Wash, peel and finely grate the carrot.

Put the carrots,milk, cardamom and saffron in a wide, heavy bottomed saucepan. bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer and stir as often as you can until all the liquid is absorbed. This can take up to an hour. Being impatient by nature, I frequently turn the heat up on higher and stir more.

:)

Add the ghee/butter and keep stirring until the mixture stops looking milky and has a golden colour. This usually takes 7-10 minutes, I like to really caramelize the halva

Add the sugar, raisins, rose essence and half the almonds. Keep stirring on a low heat until the mixture starts to thicken and pull away from the sides.

(I usually skip the raisins, rose and almonds and only add sugar in this step. I have used brown sugar in the past and like the flavor. Just a personal taste thing, I guess. I only use almonds for garnish and I usually roast or fry them a little for that)

Allow to cool before serving since the mixture will thicken as it cools.

In response to the topic of your post - there are many other Indian desserts. The ones that seem to get the least exposure, I think, are the pastry type ones.

One of my favorites used to be chiravate - loosely translated to 100 layers. You made a dough with ghee and white pastry flour and then started rolling it out with a pin, folding into quarters and re-rolling at least 25 times so you had hundred layers (the math is a little wonky on that because it's exponential actually). the you deep fried it in ghee and plunged it into a sugar syrup flavored with cardamom and saffron. Gorgeous, but I don't think I could stomach it anymore!

And then there is shrikhand - for which I've posted a recipe on the yoghurt thread. And mishti dhoi, sweet yoghurt, also on the same thread. Possibly the healthiest of Indian deserts after mango. Which in my mind reigns supreme.

There is kulfi and kheer, both milk based.

And then there is all the rest, but I can't think of any!!! Perhaps cause it's past midnight and I have to wake up in five hours ... sigh.

G'Night.

[Simon Majumdar]

The dish is called Rabri and is a classic Bengali pudding.

You can make a close approximation of it by reducing cans of evaporated milk until it reaches the same consistency and then flavouring with pistachio and rose water.

It is not the same as that made by the cook in my Grandmother's kitchen, but it is a good echo.

In London, the restaurant Mela ( is Shaftsbury Ave ) serves Rabri with its other puddings. If you are nice to them, they will often bring you a bowl of the stuff just on its own. It is very good indeed

S

Edited February 27, 2003 by Simon Majumdar (log)

[Suvir Saran]

The dish is called Rabri and is a classic Bengali pudding.

It also happens to be a classic Northern Indian pudding...

It is famous in Haridwar, Kanpur, Meerut, Lucknow and most parts of Oudh and Faizabad.

It also is made better than in most any city of India in Hissar ( a city in Hariyana ), and is especially good with Malpuas that this particular chef prepares in Kaithal (another city, albeit, very small one in Hariyana ).

[Simon Majumdar]

The dish is called Rabri and is a classic Bengali pudding.

It also happens to be a classic Northern Indian pudding...

It is famous in Haridwar, Kanpur, Meerut, Lucknow and most parts of Oudh and Faizabad.

It also is made better than in most any city of India in Hissar ( a city in Hariyana ), and is especially good with Malpuas that this particular chef prepares in Kaithal (another city, albeit, very small one in Hariyana ).

I take very serious issue with you suggesting that anything this good could come from anywhere but Bengal

S

[anil]

I take very serious issue with you suggesting that anything this good could come from anywhere but Bengal  

S

Are you saying that Rabri is a bengali term

[Simon Majumdar]

No I would not steal it for Bengal

That would be daylight rabri

S

[Suvir Saran]

No I would not steal it for Bengal

That would be daylight rabri

S

[SobaAddict70]

I have this huge Indian vegetarian cookbook at home. It's a resource I refer to, almost constantly. I'm at work right now and can't remember the full title of the book, but the title is something like "Lord Krishna's Cuisine/Vedic Vegetarianism". Now, I'm not a vegetarian by any stretch of the imagination, although non-meat foods figure prominently in my diet. (Sorry Suvir, Malawry and others -- I can't imagine life without lamb and roast chicken. )

Amyway, the section on desserts in the cookbook is amazing. Anything from milk-based confections to halwas (this was where the carrot halwa came from), to pastries and fried things. One of the things I'm currently fascinated by are iced drinks that could almost double as dessert. (Lassi, of course, springs to mind as one example.) Others involve crushed ice drinks with flavored syrups. I think one of these drinks involves sandalwood. Any experience with these?

SA

Edited February 27, 2003 by SobaAddict70 (log)

[Monica Bhide]

Sandalwood? I just started a post on that.. I have never heard it being used in food. The crushed ice desserts are a delicious street food favorite of mine. They are very refreshing and the flavors can be as crazy as your imagination will let you go!!

[Sandra Levine]

Does anyone have a clue as to what this is, and has anyone ever had it?

Here's a link to an earlier thread on rabri. It's time-consuming, but delicious.

Edited February 27, 2003 by Sandra Levine (log)

[indiagirl]

the crushed ice desserts with the syrups were the bane of my life growing up in bombay. they were called golas and sold by street vendors. the carts had a big wheel in the center driven by a handle which the vendor used to crush the ice. all around the edge of the cart were glasses chained to each other so that you would not slip away with one containing dubious looking "syrups". you paid half a buck, the vendor crushed the ice and used his bare hands to srunch it into a ball around a stick with origins almost as dubious as the syrup. you then selected a syrup, he dipped it in there and you had your gola.

india, being the haven of water borne disease, the pattern went something like this - at any and all opportunities to be on the street unsupervised, we would run out and get golas and enjoy them immensely, especially in the sweltering humidity of bombay. come home, wash all the eticky stuff off your hands and face before anyone catches you and pretend like nothing happened and then wake up the next morning, immensely immensely sick.

those were the days. that and sugarcane juice. and of course bhel puri and pani puri

i think the book in discussion might be by Yamuna Devi

(edited a typo)

Edited February 28, 2003 by indiagirl (log)

[anil]

the crushed ice desserts with the syrups were the bane of my life growing up in bombay. they were called golas and sold by street vendors.  ....

In my youth, we used to walk up to the beach (Juhu) every evening to eat just that - In that era there were probably a handful of vendors, ice gola and bhelpuri vendor being the favourite ones - Now I notice premanent structures in Juhu beach, Chowpaati - filled with vendors selling all kinds of stuff.

[Suvir Saran]

I have never tasted Golas outside of a home.

A friend in Bombay had their cook prepare them with different syrups.

It was safer than the alternative that most I knew enjoyed much more.

It is a shame I did not enjoy them and maybe next time I am in India, I shall take the risk.

[indiagirl]

suvir, don't do it. man, don't do it. some things are best forgotten as lost opportunities

:))

anil, juhu beach. yes. and silver beach. do you remember the frankies at kwality? please tell me you do. in sahakari bhandar (?) across from jamnabai narsee school.

suvir, the next time you are in india, that's what you have to try, frankies, really. impossible to recreate. i've tried a million times. and just the best best thing. i try them every time i go back and even though my palate has become more and more discerning, the frankies never diminish .....

[Suvir Saran]

suvir, don't do it. man, don't do it. some things are best forgotten as lost opportunities

:))

anil, juhu beach. yes. and silver beach. do you remember the frankies at kwality? please tell me you do. in sahakari bhandar (?) across from jamnabai narsee school.

suvir, the next time you are in india, that's what you have to try, frankies, really. impossible to recreate. i've tried a million times. and just the best best thing. i try them every time i go back and even though my palate has become more and more discerning, the frankies never diminish .....

Indiagirl, I spent 2 years in Wodehouse Road (now it is called NN Parikh Marg) and it is the street that ends opposite Regal Cinema. The side where Sahakari Bhandar is. Frankies were immediate street food for me. And I know them very well.

I am not sure I would enjoy them today. I used to love them then. Sahakari Bhandar also had great Shrikhand. I used to go and eat one (at the very least) daily. I loved the Mango Shrikhand (Amrakhand).

My palate unfortunately has lost what it takes to enjoy those frankies... Maybe next time, I shall try harder.

What is it that you really love about Frankies?

What do you think of when you think Frankies?

[indiagirl]

What I love about the frankies?

The potato mixture inside was divine and I loved the combination of chaat potatoes and cilantro and cheese. And ofcourse the quick re-heat in butter on a tawa when youplaced your order. The parathas they were wrapped in, besides having copious amounts of fat, were then dipped in an egg batter and fried, how could something that bad for you not be immensely goood?

And top that all off with a healthy helping of nostalgia ......

When my husbadn and I first wen to Bombay together I took him straight to Juhu for a frankie. He loved it. He had no idea how big of a test he passed.

I'll have to confirm, Suvir, whether this place was in the level below Sahakari Bhandar. My memory is a little blurry. But that's the place to go to. The place under the shopping mall called maybe Sahakari Bhandar! Is there (was) a Woodlands a little further down the road?

Apologies for the OT

[Suvir Saran]

What I love about the frankies?

The potato mixture inside was divine and I loved the combination of chaat potatoes and cilantro and cheese. And ofcourse the quick re-heat in butter on a tawa when youplaced your order. The parathas they were wrapped in, besides having copious amounts of fat, were then dipped in an egg batter and fried, how could something that bad for you not be immensely goood?

And top that all off with a healthy helping of nostalgia ......

When my husbadn and I first wen to Bombay together I took him straight to Juhu for a frankie. He loved it. He had no idea how big of a test he passed.

I'll have to confirm, Suvir, whether this place was in the level below Sahakari Bhandar. My memory is a little blurry. But that's the place to go to. The place under the shopping mall called maybe Sahakari Bhandar! Is there (was) a Woodlands a little further down the road?

Apologies for the OT

Indiagirl, on Wodehouse road itself, just a 1/4 block north of Sahakari Bhandar on the west side of the street, is a restaurant called Woodlands. There was a Frankie vendor there. It was a very famous stall. That is where all my friends would go to. I think we have had a discussion on that in one of our threads.

And yes Sahakari Bhandar is what you are speaking about. It has two levels. Not really a lower lever, but just a split level. It was reasonable and affordable for the masses. And had good food... of good quality.

[anil]

Frankies came to Mumbai after my time. Before that, Frankies were quite popular in Delhi.

The initially frankies were available in Fort and Bandra.

I gather that within a few years, Frankies became very ubiqutious in Mumbai -