Pasta For Dessert? Try This Easy Indian Pudding.

   When planning any sort of dinner party one of the first questions I always ask myself is ... "What's for dessert?!"

   There are a lots of wonderful Indian desserts to go with a variety of meals but when planning dessert for the Indian equivalent of our Thanksgiving, there are traditions and rules. Think pumpkin pie. What would Thanksgiving dinner be without pumpkin pie? Pongal meals very often finish with a sweet rice kheer or pudding, done with special pongal rice. But since I was already serving a big rice and dal main dish, I went looking for other suggestions. That's when vermicelli pudding was suggested to me. 

   Growing up in an Italian American household, vermicelli meant one thing. Tomato sauce, pasta and definitely not dessert. Even in my mom's wild, culinary imagination, she's never been willing to go that far. First I had to explain to Alan that he was going to be having pasta for dessert. Good thing he trusts me. 

  Actually, pasta for dessert is a great idea. Thread-thin vermicelli noodles in a sweet vanilla milk pudding spiced with cardamom and studded with butter-toasted raisins and cashews is perfect after any company meal whether you're serving Indian food or not.

  Another great thing is that this is a dish that can made ahead and served either rewarmed a bit, at room temperature or chilled. Can't beat that. It also cooks in about 1 hour. 

Vermicelli Pudding

Here's what to do:

In a large pan or pot, heat 8 cups of milk.

Stir the milk as it heats and bring it to a boil.

Lower the heat to a simmer and keep stirring. There's a lot of stirring in this recipe, but it's worth it.

Simmer it down until it's reduced about 1/4 of it's volume.

Meanwhile heat 1/2 cup of unsalted butter in a skillet. When it's hot and melted, toss in:

2 Tbs of halved cashews 

1 Tbs of raisins

When they're lightly browned, take them out and set them aside.

In the same butter, saute 1 cup of vermicelli broken into pieces of about 1 and 1/2 inches. Where to find this special dessert pasta? I get my vermicelli from the Indian market, but if you don't have an Indian food source near you, any fine, thin, dry vermicelli will work.

When it turns a dark reddish color, add it all to the milk mixture. Keep the milk boiling when you do this.

Cook it all together until the vermicelli is cooked through.

Toss in:

1/2 cup of sugar

4 crushed whole green cardamom pods

1/2 tsp of saffron

Stir it together well.

Take the raisins and cashews and garnish the pudding before serving it.

Serve it warm or cold.

This is a delicious twist on traditional rice pudding and what can you say about a recipe where the hardest part involves stirring?

Talk To Me Cupcake! Tasty Bites, A Gluten Free Treat!

I love cup cakes. They're so innocent. begging me to eat them.  I especially love mini cup cakes, mini anything actually. To me mini = guilt free. I know in the "reality based community", this is a bunch of horse pucky, but one can dream.
 The last time I made Gujarati steamed chickpea bread I wondered since it's so good savory, how would it be sweetened? I fantasized about little gram flour cupcakes studded with sultana raisins, an icing of sirkhand and a bit of finely chopped pistachios.
So a couple of days ago with Alan on the road to recovery eye wise, I decided to invite some friends over for an Indian lunch and try my little dessert experiment on them.
 I started the night before, as the batter for this steamed bread/cake needs to mellow overnight. The actual baking process only takes about 12 minutes. As to turning it sweet, I was winging it and we were all happy with the results, a not too sweet raisin spice cupcake. I baked steamed the cupcakes in a mini muffin pan that I had, and though the process wasn't pretty at first they were the ugly ducklings that grew beautiful. "Why Ms. Jones, you're beautiful with that frosting!"
  The biggest problem was finding a steaming vessel that would hold my mini muffin pan. Next time I try this I think I'll steam them in the oven where I can use a large baking dish as a bain marie.
  So here's what I did:
 The night before baking mix:
1 and 1/2 cups of sifted gram flour
3/4 tsp of salt
About 1/4 cup of brown sugar
3 Tbs  of vegetable oil
2/3 cup of plain yogurt
A fist full of golden raisins (I did say I was winging this)
1 Tsp of cinnamon
A  pinch of nutmeg
 Cover the bowl with a cloth and set it in a warm protected place to ferment overnight. I always store mine in the oven. Just don't forget and turn the oven on in the morning or you've got a problem.
When ready to bake  add:
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
 3 Tbs of warm water and stir these in, only whisking in one direction
The batter will start to turn bubbly and frothy. When it does, spoon it into lightly oiled muffin cups.
Place the muffin tin on a trivet in a pan of boiling water. Cover with a cloth and then a snug lid on top of that.

Steam the cupcakes for about 8 to 10 minutes. When  a toothpick poked into them comes out clean, you're done.
 Take the muffin pan out and cover it with the cloth for about 10 minutes. As you can see, I overfilled my muffin cups .

  But once they were unmolded, I was able to trim them into proper mini cupcake shape.

I put put the sirkhand into a pastry tube and swirled it onto the cupcakes.

I then sprinkled the tops with a bit of chopped pistachio. This is a cupcake "cheesecake" shot.

I loved these little mini bites. Everybody got three of them. I think I'll fiddle with the recipe a bit and see what else I can do with them. They're not super duper sweet, just pleasantly spicy sweet which is more to my taste, and they're so tiny they're hardly calories.

When the Weather Gets Tough, The Tough Get Cozy. Warm Dessert For A Cold Night!

 Yesterday we were bouncing around in that weird mix of rain/sun/clouds/shadow/wind that comes to Sonoma at this time of year. Spring had sprung and it was a chilly one.
  This morning it was raining.

 
A light cold rain just damp enough to know that there would be a fire this evening and a cozy warm dessert to go with it. I know this because I did the same thing last night, creature of habit that I am. When I get hold of a good thing I just hate to let it go.
 Patsy, our Siberian husky likes nothing more that to go out and get soaked in this weather. When she comes in, I'm waiting with a towel so that she's house-ready. Alan couldn't help taking a picture of her with her little terrycloth bandanna on she looked so cute.

  As for me, when not dog-drying, I've been busy getting ready for what is known around my house as the Spring Tri-fecta.  Easter Sunday/ My dads birthday/ my parents' anniversary. This year two of those (birthday and Easter) are on the same day. My parents' anniversary is a few days later. There is usually just one big family celebration. It is always at our house.
 Since my Italian parents don't like to eat anything but Italian food, and even there they are insanely picky, this is my last chance to cook Indian food for a couple of days, so I figured why not close out with a dessert.
  We stayed in last night, keeping warm and watching  Sherlock Holmes On Demand in HD. This demanded an "elementary" dessert. Halwa or as it's also spelled Halva. This warm, sweetly dense pudding is simple, easy, cooks up fast and I already had everything I needed for it in my larder. Can't get easier than that.
  I wanted my pudding served warm, right as the film started. No problem there either as this stuff cooks up easily within a half hour. The recipe I used is Bengali. It's called Sooji Besan Halva and is my adaptation of Yamuna Devis' recipe .
   I started out by  bringing to a boil
1.) 2 and 1/4 cups of milk  mixed with
2.) 1 cup of sugar

  When the milk boils add in
3.) 1/4 tsp of saffron threads
4.) 1/4 cup of dried currants

   Quickly turn down the heat to the lowest temperature and place a lid on the pot.
   Meanwhile, in a heavy pan melt
1.) 1/2 cup of unsalted butter
   When the butter is melting and foamy add in :
2.) 1/2 a bay leaf
3.) 1/2 tsp of fennel seed (Note: I used about 1/2 tsp of fennel pollen. Paula Wolfert had given me some awhile back and I wanted to experiment with a lighter more delicate fennel taste. I also love the mysterious little leather pouch it came in. It sort of worked in with the whole Sherlock Holmes thing).

Stir the bay leaf, fennel and melted butter for about 30 seconds or so then add in:
1.) 3/4 cup of very fine semolina flour
2.) 1/2 cup of sifted chickpea flour
3.) 1/2 cup of slivered almonds

  Mix all of this together, turn down the heat and keep stirring while the flour and almond mixture toasts. This should take about 10 minutes or so. Do not let it get too dark, just a nice golden color.

  While I was stirring my flour and butter together I gathered an audience outside the kitchen window.

When the flour mixture has turned golden take the pan off the heat

 Pour the milk sugar mixture slowly into the grain and butter

Stir it together  and put it back on a low heat until it's until it's smoothly blended, it should take about 8 to 10 minutes.

Put it into individual serving bowls and sprinkle each one with a bit of freshly ground black pepper and some grated nutmeg.

 The combo of the cracked black pepper and nutmeg topping along with everything else makes this truly outstanding. From pot to plate we were ready to roll in about a half hour, all set for lots of tasty Robert Downey Jr. goodness.
  These little halva puddings can be made many different ways  and if the weather holds cold here, I'll be exploring more of them. They're a quick easy way to get comfort food "on demand".