Indian desserts

[Monica Bhide]

I was talking to a restaurant owner last night about Indian desserts and he was complaining about how most Indian desserts are milk based and for his patrons who have milk aversions/allergies etc its hard to prepare something that they would like...

what are some of the non milk based desserts that you have tried and know of?

I make a date halwa or pudding but even that uses heavy cream

Gur Roti - Indian bread with jaggery.. Puran Poli - Indian bread with lentils and jaggery....

Chikki - peanut brittle...

What else??

[mongo_jones]

laddus and halwas

[bague25]

A whole range of South Indian desserts with rice+jaggery+coconut combination

like:

- Sevio (rice noodles with jaggery sweetened coconut milk)

- Rice pancakes with a coconut jaggery filling

- patoleos - a turmeric leaf spread with a thick rice paste, covered with a cardomon flavoured coconut jaggery filling folded over and steamed

-Sweet Appams

- Nevrios (croissant shaped sweet "samosa")

- Gulgulas

[skchai]

I think there are three main categories. Other than what's already been covered:

Besan-based: In addition to Besan ki Laddu, Jalebis - made with water in batter, not curd, Mysore Pak.

Rice+Jaggery based, as baque25 mentioned. Pongal is another example.

Sweet "breads" - imartis, sweet idli and vadai.

Halva and halva-like: gajar halva probably doesn't count as it traditionally contains khoya, but e.g. halva made from petha

O.K, four main categories. Five?

[bague25]

I forgot to add the dal sweets

- chana dal burfies

- dodol (a chana dal, jaggery, coconut goan sweet)

[Pan]

Dodol is also Malaysian, and a Google search showed Goan, Sri Lankan, Malaysian, and Indonesian mentions of dodol on the first page.

I don't think it has any chana dal in it in its Malaysian version, though. Instead, at least the most common version is made with glutinous rice flour, palm sugar, and coconut milk.

[bague25]

I've had both rice and chana dal versions and even a mixture of both.

[Monica Bhide]

A friends mom makes the best Mysore Pak in the world. i have never tasted something so decadent!

How about sweet rice? We do a saffron pulao at home that is prepared with dry fruits and sugar.

The besan sweets served in India these days are not only delicious but the presentation is so charming.

Bague25 - tell me more about the sweet appam. please ??

[tryska]

why not jalebis? they're perfect single serving sweets.

[Peppertrail]

halva made with whole wheat flour, jangiri with urad dal batter, neypaayasam with rice, brown sugar, cardamom, raisins, cahsews and ghee and different rice and/or dal based paysams with coconut milk and jaggery.

[Monica Bhide]

halva made with whole wheat flour, jangiri with urad dal batter, neypaayasam with rice, brown sugar, cardamom, raisins, cahsews and ghee and different rice and/or dal based paysams with coconut milk and jaggery.

Peppertrail.. how about recipes for some of these? I would love to see them.. do you have any pictures

[bhelpuri]

Dodol and bebinca are both sweets that came to India (Goa, to be precise) in the early part of the Portuguese era. They're both made - in quite widely varying versions - across the whole swathe of former Portuguese Asian possessions. I'm totally unfamiliar with Timorense food, but it would be interesting to see if these two items made it that far.

Another milk-less Luso-Indian sweet is doce de grao, or simply 'gram sweet'. It's likely this was one of the first hybridized recipes that came from this particular cultural contact, since it very much resembles European marzipans and fudges, but is - by necessity - made from local ingredients. It's just chana dal, tons of coconut, sugar and ghee, and a hell of a lot of elbow power to transform the mixture into appropriate smoothness.

Here's a picture of some (cooling, unsliced) I made this Christmas (it's a seasonal treat).

It's my computer desktop background!

[bague25]

Monica

Here are a couple of links for appams. Please note that you need a special pan to make these appams

http://www.bawarchi.com/festivals/recipe9.html

http://www.indiatastes.com/categories/296.html

I’m in a bit of a hurry and I’ll post the recipe I use from the book The Chef later(I’ve spoken about this book in another thread). Parsees make a sweet called populjee that uses an appam pan too.

[Monica Bhide]

Monica

Here are a couple of links for appams. Please note that you need a special pan to make these appams

http://www.bawarchi.com/festivals/recipe9.html

http://www.indiatastes.com/categories/296.html

I’m in a bit of a hurry and I’ll post the recipe I use from the book The Chef later(I’ve spoken about this book in another thread). Parsees make a sweet called populjee that uses an appam pan too.

I have an appam pan and love to make them. .. they are quite delightful!

[Peppertrail]

Monica:

This recipe is from my collection of old recipes from Kerala, which I hope to put together in a cookbook. Following is a recipe for channa dal pudding with coconut milk.

My website www.peppertrail.com has a recipe for Mango pudding with coconut milk

Kadala Pradhaman

Channa Dal Pudding with Brown Sugar And Coconut Milk

This rich and flavorful coconut milk paayasam is thickened with cooked channa dal. Ghee-toasted cashews and coconut pieces provide a mild crunch to this creamy pudding.

1 cup of channa dal

2 cups of jaggery or dark brown sugar

6 cups of fresh coconut milk

1 teaspoon crushed cardamom

3 tablespoons of ghee

1/4 cup of cashew nuts broken into pieces

1/4 cup of thin coconut pieces

1-tablespoon raisins

Clean and cook the dal with about 1 ½ cup of water till it is just done. Most of the water must be absorbed by now. Add the jaggery/brown sugar to the dal and cook over medium heat for about 10 to 12 minutes. Keep stirring gently so that the dal is not mashed. Pour in the coconut milk and cook over medium heat for 30 minutes so that the coconut milk only simmers. Stir the contents every five minutes or so until the coconut milk has thickened. Do not let the coconut milk to come to a rolling boil. Remove from the stove and sprinkle cardamom powder on top. Heat the ghee and roast the cashew nuts, raisins and coconut pieces till they are golden brown and add to the Pradhaman. Serve hot or cold.

Makes 6 to 8 Servings

Recipe Copyright © 2004 Ammini Ramachandran.

[Monica Bhide]

Peppertrail - Thanks for sharing this. i really enjoy your website.. you have so much to offer. i am so glad that you are with us

I will surely try this and promise to post results with pics next week!!

[scott123]

halva made with whole wheat flour, jangiri with urad dal batter, neypaayasam with rice, brown sugar, cardamom, raisins, cahsews and ghee and different rice and/or dal based paysams with coconut milk and jaggery.

It's a small thing, but I did want to point out that ghee is dairy. Even though it contains a miniscule amount of lactose, it is still enough to put off many of those with milk allergies.

[scott123]

It's my computer desktop background!

I like the picture. May I have a larger copy to use as my desktop background?

[Peppertrail]

Scott 123:

A very good point. I do not know much about lactose. I checked with a food and nutrition consultant and her response was the following. I had no idea about ghee made from vegetables that she mentions.

"I have macronutrient data on both buffalo milk and cow's milk ghee. Neither

have any measurable carbohydrate, so there is no lactose. And of course,

some ghee is made from vegetable oil (I have data on that too) which never

contained any lactose".

[rajsuman]

Peppertrail,

I'd really appreciate it if you could elaborate on the jangiri. You see, sometime ago, I ate this sweet from Andhra called Boori. It was delicious. It was like a dumpling - sweet chana dal balls coated with urad dal batter and deep-fried until crunchy and golden brown. I'd love to have a recipe for that. Can't find it anywhere. Would jangiri be similar? Boori was the first urad dal sweet I ever ate and now I'm addicted.

Suman

[scott123]

From the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension:

Though it's not always obvious at first, there are many foods and food ingredients that contain lactose. Check the label for the following lactose-containing ingredients:

Butter

Butterfat

Cheese

Cream

Curds

Dry Milk Products

Ghee

Ice Cream

Ice Milk

Milk

Milk by-products

Milk fat

Milk solids

Nonfat dry milk powder

Sour Cream

Whey

Yogurt

From the research that I've done, even though ghee has the milk solids removed, traces still remain. It's an infinitesimally small amount of lactose. None the less, it's enough to place ghee on lists like the one above. There is a very good chance, imo, that ghee is perfectly safe for people with milk allergies. Regardless of whether or not it is safe to consume, as long as it exists on these forbidden foods lists, there will be a considerable amount of the lactose intolerant population that will refuse it.

[skchai]

Many of ghee sweets mentioned are nowadays available made from vegetable shortening, if taste is not an object. Some of these, however, use vanaspati, which in some cases may contain traces of dairy.

Vanaspati is to ghee as margarine is to butter. . .

[Peppertrail]

Suman:

Jangiri is not exactly like boori. I know I have a recipe for boori somewhere in my collection of recipes. I will look for it and post it in a day or two. I make it with sweet mung dal balls. Most of these sweets can be made with either channa or mung dal. In the meantime here is a recipe for jangiri. I hope you like it

Jangiri

Urad Dal Pretzels In Rose Flavored Sugar Syrup

Sweet jangiri flavored with the essence of fragrant rose petals is the favorite sweet in my family. What is amazing about this sweet is the fact that its basic ingredient is urad dal, the same old small, greyish white beans that make salty idlis and crispy dosas and add a nutty crunch to dishes when it is toasted in oil and added as a garnish.

2 cup urad dal

1/4 cup long grain rice

2 ½ cups of sugar

A few drops of orange food coloring or saffron

A few drops of rose essence

4 cups of ghee or butter flavored vegetable shortening for deep frying

Soak the rice and dal for an hour and grind into a very soft thick batter. In a heavy bottomed skillet combine the sugar with one cup of water and the food coloring and cook it over medium heat to one-string consistency syrup (230 to 240 degrees on a candy thermometer). Add the saffron/food coloring and rose essence and reduce the heat to very low and keep the syrup warm. In another heavy bottomed skillet over medium heat setting melt the shortening to approximately 325° F. Fill the batter in a large squeeze bottle or a pastry bag fitted with a 3/16th inch diameter plain tube. When the shortening is hot, slowly squeeze the batter into two layers of small rounds (similar to jilebi). Each jangiri should be about 2 to 3 inches wide. Fry them till they are golden brown, remove from the oil, drain, and transfer directly into the syrup. Turn the jangiri with a tong to coat evenly with the syrup. Remove from the syrup after two or three minutes and place in a platter. Repeat the process with the remaining batter. Always soak hot jangiri in warm syrup for good absorption.

Recipe Copyright © 2004 Ammini Ramachandran

[scott123]

Many of ghee sweets mentioned are nowadays available made from vegetable shortening, if taste is not an object.  Some of these, however, use vanaspati, which in some cases may contain traces of dairy.

Vanaspati is to ghee as margarine is to butter. . .

I can see how someone might see a certain similarity between ghee and shortening, but for me, I wouldn't feed shortening to my worst enemy. How about coconut oil? Depending on the item, that might be a pleasant substitution.

[Peppertrail]

I can see how someone might see a certain similarity between ghee and shortening, but for me, I wouldn't feed shortening to my worst enemy.  How about coconut oil? Depending on the item, that might be a pleasant substitution.

As muich as I am a fan of coconuts and coconut oil, I think that Indian sweets made with ghee taste better. Coconut oil will not add the same flavor of ghee.