Parwal Ki Mithai

This used to be my favorite Indian sweet. It still is but I haven't had it in years. Looking at the parwals [ pointed gourd ]in the market, I was immediately taken  back to my childhood, when we used to wait for summers to arrive so that we could get this mithai /sweet. Our small little town had only one good quality sweet shop "Ambar" then, and only that shop used to make this mithai. So, many a times we would land up at Ambar only to find out that parwal ki mithahi was already over. It was such a popular item in our town.
After having moved out to Delhi for my further studies, I still craved for this.Though,Delhi has a great sweets culture, this mithai was not available there. It was one such craving that I made this mithai for the first time. It tasted good, but it didn't acquire the same colour as "Ambar shop". It was pale green. I don't think I even had a recipe, I made it the way I thought it could be made. This time around, I wanted the colour to be right too. So, I followed Chef Sanjeev Kapoor's recipe, the image of which was closest to the Ambar Shop's mithai. He has used a pinch of baking soda to get the colour, which really worked. The only thing I found a bit of problem was to check if the parwals were done. No timing is mentioned in the recipe, so when I took out after 10 minutes, it was already sligthly overdone. So,I guess next time I make,I need to taste them at regular intervals to see that it is exactly done. It should be anywhere near 5-8 mins..


So here is the recipe of Parwal ki mithai which comes from Benaras, but is very popular in Bihar.


Ingredients
[Recipe :Adapted from Sanjeev Kapoor ]
250 grams Parwals [Pointed Gourd] , Fresh and big
A pinch of Baking Soda
1 cup: Mawa (khoya)  : How to make Khoya
1 1/2 cups Sugar
1/4 tsp Green cardamom powder
10 Almonds, chopped
10 Pistachios, chopped
1 cup Water

Preparation

1. Wash and peel the parwal's outer layer so that you can see the white-greenish layer.  Don't worry, this white will turn green when you boil it in steps ahead. Make a slit lengthwise ,so it is open from one side and attached from all other sides. Remove all the seeds from inside.keep aside.
2. For the stuffing, In a pan roast the khoya on medium heat till it becomes soft. Add half cup sugar and continue to roast till it is dryish.[ You can reduce the quantity of sugar here according to your taste].Add green cardamom powder and mix. Take it off the heat and add almonds and pistachios and mix. Transfer the mixture onto a plate and cool
3. In another pan boil 1 cup sugar with one cup water to make a thin sugar syrup of 1 thread  consistency.If you are familiar with another method of making syrup of 1 thread consistency follow that, as at many sites I found 1: 1/2 ratio of sugar and water. I followed  a middle path.
4.  In another pan, heat water, add a pinch of baking  soda. Add parwals and boil for two to three minutes. 
5. Drain and put them in the sugar syrup and cook till they soften. It will take around 8-10 minutes. Drain and cool.
6. Stuff them with the khoya mixture. Sprinkle some slivered almonds and pistachio on top.
7. Refrigerate for few hours and serve chilled. Can be stored for a couple of days in refrigerator.

Sending it to Aipi and Priya's Bookmark Event .

Sending this to Event celebrate sweets-stuffed sweets.

Chocolate Chunk Cookies

What makes this cookie special is the generous amount of  chocolate chunks. Chocolate chips cookies always leave me wanting for more chocolate. Replace it with chocolate chunks and it  perfectly satisfies all my chocolate cravings. Though, I must say this wasn't my most favourite cookie, but it works well as a simple cookie to have with a cup of milk ,coffee or tea . My cookie standards have been set high after having baked the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie  and the Nutella Pinwheel Cookies and I  inadvertently start comparing any cookies that I make with them. So,  this one fell short to those standards, but still if you are looking for simple chocolate chunk cookies, this is quite good. And being made up of Wheat Flour, it will lessen some of your guilt too :)

Ingredients
For 12 -15 cookies
[Inspired from Scandilicious].

1 and 3/4th cups Whole wheat Flour
1/2 tsp Baking  soda
1/2 tsp salt
180 gms Butter melted
1/2 cup + 1 tbsp sugar powdered
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
170gm dark chocolate  chopped into chunks.

 Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 155C. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and keep aside.
2. In a medium bowl sieve the flour, baking soda and salt together.Mix well so that baking soda is distributed well.
3. Melt butter.whisk using the electric whisk ,melted butter and the sugars until creamy.
4. Add the eggs and vanilla to the mixture. Whisk again and then add the flour. Keep beating for some time stretch those gluten strands.
5. Add the chocolate chunks and fold in. The cookie dough should feel almost dry now.Mix well to spread the chocolate chunks evenly.
6. Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes.
7. Scoop 1 tbsp of dough on the baking sheets, spacing them further than 2 inches apart as these cookies spread upon baking.
8. Bake on the upper-middle shelf of the oven for 25-28 minutes until the cookies are golden,
9. Cool the cookies on the baking sheets.

Litti

Bihari cuisine is not as famous as cuisines of few other states of  India, but there is one dish from Bihar which is synonymous with Bihar and that is Litti .It is a crusted ball of wheat flour stuffed with spiced Sattu [roasted gram flour], traditionally made in an open fire but now is commonly baked in oven due to ease and feasibility.
Sattu is extensively used in Bihari dishes in form of Littis,Sattu Paratha,Satttu ka namkeen sharbat [Salted Sattu drink with lime or aam panna], Sattu ka meetha sharbat[Sweetened Sattu drink],and sometimes simply spiced sattu dough is eaten all alone or accompanied with plain rice or rotis.

If you are in Bihar ,Sattu means flour of Roasted gram flour, but in other states it can mean flour of other cereals too. I have tried searching for it in Bombay at few places without any luck. Though it is available easily in Delhi. So whenever we make a trip to Bihar or Delhi we stock up our Sattu, because life of a bihari is unimaginable without the constant dose of Sattu paratha or littis. And while I am writing this ,I am craving for the salted sattu drink which I haven't had for quite sometime. That for me is one of the most delicious and lip-smacking drink.
Litti and Sattu Paratha have the same stuffing. Though I like sattu parathas more, there is a romantic charm in making littis in the open fire apart from the additional smoked flavour. I have done that only once at my in-laws place .It was slightly cold night.and a brick oven was specially set up that day on the terrace to make littis. My mom-in-law was the main chef , i was only a helper :-) .
I never had courage to make littis in the oven . I had it on my mind since I saw it there and decided to make it for dinner last night. The recipe which I have followed is the way I have seen at home, though the instructions on how to make them in an oven is mainly from Aipi's blog. Since I use a microwave oven in convection mode, I was wary of using aluminum foil as I have heard it causes sparks, so I didn't use the aluminum foil. Greasing the baking dish worked fine for me.

Ingredients
 For Dough:
1 and 1/2 cup Whole wheat Flour
3/4  up Curd[yogurt]
1/2 tsp Baking soda
2 pinch of salt

For Stuffing
1 cup Sattu (roasted gram flour)
1 small onion, finely chopped
7-8 big Garlic cloves finely chopped
1 inch Ginger finely chopped
2  Green chilies, finely chopped
2 tsp Coriander leaves, finely chopped
1/2 tsp Nigella seeds (Mangrella or kalonji)
1 and 1/2  tsp Carom seeds [Ajwain]
 Juice of 1 lemon
2 Tbsp Mirch achar masala (stuffing of the red chili pickle) I use the cover too by chopping it
1 tbsp Mango achaar masala [optional]
Mustard oil [ preferably the oil in which Achar/Pickle has been made]

Salt to taste [ add after adding Achar Masala which has salt too ]

Preparation

1. Mix all the stuffing ingredients with Sattu together. Sprinkle some drops of water to make it crumbly.
2. Preheat oven to 185 C.
3. Grease the baking dish with some ghee /oil.
4. With the dough  ingredients, knead the dough. Don't put all the curd at once. Keep adding little by little till a soft dough forms.Make 8 -9 balls slightly bigger than a lemon. Flatten each ball in your palm to make and make a  3 to 3 1/2  inch diameter  circle. Dust with flour if it is sticky.  
5. Stuff 2 to 3 tsp sattu filling in the center of the circle and close it from all sides.
6. Line the littis on the baking dish and bake till it is golden brown. It will take around 35-45 minutes and it differs from oven to oven so keep an eye otherwise it might get burnt. keep aside once done.
7. To give a smokey touch, you can put them on gas flame  for few seconds by holding them with tongs.
8. To serve, apply some ghee on them, you can also break them into half and put a teaspoon of ghee inside. Serve it hot with Brinjal bharta/Chokha.

I have served it with a different  spiced Brinjal bharta which was already cooked in the morning, but traditionally it is served with bharta/choka of boiled Potatoes,roasted tomatoes and roasted brinjal to which mustard oil,chopped onion,garlic and green chillies are added.

Linking this to Aipi and Priya's Bookmarked recipe and Hearth and Soul Hop