Weekends are just the right time to explore your culinary skills and invent new dishes by mixing and matching various ingredients that you wouldn’t otherwise think of combining together. Whether or not you enjoy cooking, it will, however, be difficult to get away from the kitchen today and tomorrow as almost every household will be hosting dar lunches and dinner in celebration of Teej.
Give the traditional treats a little twist by trying something new while preparing them. Here are two fun recipes to try out. Make everything a little bit extra, as your guests will surely ask for generous second helpings.[break]
Apple Kheer
Ingredients
• 1 litre milk
• 1 handful of rice
• 2 apples, washed, peeled and grated
• Chopped almonds
• Nutmeg
• Cardamom powder
• 20-30gms of khuwa
• 40-50gms of sugar
Method
• Soak the rice in water and leave aside. In a vessel, heat the milk and bring it to a boil.
• Drain the water from the rice and add it to the milk. Reduce the flame of the stove to the lowest and let the milk boil over low flame for 20-25 minutes. Keep stirring in between so that the rice and milk don’t stick to the bottom of the vessel.
• In the meantime, in a pan, heat half a teaspoon of ghee or less and roast the grated apples. Roast until all the juice has dried up and the apples have turned a nice golden color. Add 10-20 grams sugar and let the sugar caramelise along with the apple.
• When the milk has been reduced to a desired consistency (the thicker the better) after 20-25 minutes of boiling, and the rice cooked, add the khuwa, the caramelised apple and the remaining sugar. Mix well. When the sugar and the khuwa have mixed well in the milk, turn the flame off. Your kheer is ready.
Serving Suggestions
Instead of the regular bowls, use dessert glasses or shallow wineglasses to serve the kheer. Garnish it with chopped almonds, pinch of nutmeg powder, and cardamom powder. Place a few slices of apple and top it with a mint leaf.
Chocolate Yogurt
Yogurt has always been a favourite. The taste of “Juju Dhau” has been synonymous with the after-feast light-to-heart Nepali style dessert. Here is a bit of a twist to this all-time favourite Nepali dessert.
Ingredients
• 5 cups yogurt
• 5 tbsp fresh cream
• ¾ cup grated dark chocolate
• 40-50gms powdered sugar
• Seasonal fruits or nuts as per preference for garnishing
Method
• Tie up yogurt in a muslin cloth and hang it in the refrigerator with a bowl beneath it to collect the whey. Once all the excess water has drained away, squeeze the residue through the cloth into a bowl to get smooth hung yogurt.
• Melt chocolate in the microwave for one minute. You can also use a double boiler to melt it. Whisk it well, add cream and mix well.
• Add sugar to the yogurt and mix well. Add the melted chocolate and mix it with a fork to get a marbled effect.
• Transfer the combo to serving bowls. Garnish it with seasonal fruits or nuts. Drizzle the remaining melted chocolate on top and serve. (Be careful with the amount of sugar if you’re using sweetened yogurt.)
The writer is a food enthusiast who loves experimenting with flavors. She believes that the right ingredients can create magic.
shweta.cmpl@gmail.com
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