Hot Saffron and Lemon Seeroh with Pistachio Ice Cream,Gujarati

Hot Saffron and Lemon Seeroh
with Pistachio Ice Cream
Seeroh is one of those desserts that brings out the greedy
little kid in me. Sweet semolina tossed with spices and so
buttery it melts as soon as it hits your tongue. Flippin’
gorgeous. And before you ask, it’s nothing like ‘school
dinner’ semolina. Not even close.
Years ago we’d make special trips to the mandir (temple)
during Navratri and Diwali to pray for the year ahead, see
family and have an amazing, spiritual evening. Of course, I
was there for all of these reasons, plus for the reason that
there would be prashad – sweets like Seeroh offered to the
gods that evening. After putting my hands together in prayer,
I’d open them up and wait patiently for my Seeroh.
I believe glace cherries have three purposes in life; to
garnish cocktails, top cherry bakewells and stud this
delicious addictive treat. If you really don’t like them,
replace with candied lemon or orange pieces. They’ll add an
incredible texture to contrast the soft texture of this
dessert.
I love experimenting with different flavour combinations with
this recipe. The basic Seeroh is so simple that’s it’s easy to
get carried away with different flavourings. One of my
favourites is this saffron and lemon version. The other is my
mum’s orange and cardamom version. I could eat it all…. day…
long.
There are two ways you can serve this dish; The first is to
set and cool this in a square thali so you can cut it into
pieces, and the second is to serve it loose as a hot pudding.
Top with a scoop of ice cream and be blown away by the insane
contrast of hot and cold.
You should always store Seeroh in the fridge because it can
spoil quickly at room temperature. This should keep well for
2-4 days – whether it will last that long is another story.
Hot Saffron and Lemon Seeroh with Pistachio Ice Cream
Serves 8-10
Ingredients
700ml hot milk
140ml hot water
100g sugar
50g golden syrup
140g salted butter
260g coarse semolina
Zest of 2 large unwaxed lemons – I love those beautiful Amalfi
lemons
A large pinch of saffron
2 tbsp glace cherries, halved
Homemade or shop-bought pistachio ice cream, to serve (I’ll
give you my recipe in another post)
Slivered almonds and pistachios to decorate
Icing sugar to dust, optional
Method
1. Heat the butter in a large non-stick pan and add the
semolina. Sauté on a low/medium heat for around 3 minutes or
until golden and toasted.
2. Slowly add the hot milk and water, whisking all the time.
The mixture should thicken as you whisk. Add the sugar and
syrup.
3. Cook on a medium heat for around 15 minutes or until a
buttery sheen becomes visible on the top and sides of the
mixture. Keep stirring all the time and cook for as long as it
takes for the mixture to become glossy.
4. Remove from the heat, add the lemon zest, saffron and glace
cherries. Combine.
5. Serve hot with a big scoop of pistachio ice cream.
That’s it. Pistachio and Rose Bombay Halwa, Gujarati Mohanthal
and Hot Saffron and Lemon Seeroh with Pistachio Ice Cream.
Three Diwali desserts to keep you sweet all year long.
Happy Diwali!
Love Sanjana
Gujarati Mohanthal
Okay, round two. Not only is this our second Diwali sweet of
the week – it’s also my second time making this Gujarati
favourite for my blog. Mohanthal (pronounced: moHanTHaal) are
squares of mace-laced butter fudge made with chickpea flour. A
staple in homes during festivals, these sweet pieces of fudge
are studded with crunchy pieces of chickpea flour ‘crumble’ or
‘dhrabo’.
Mohanthal can be served in two ways: In pieces like the kind
here, or loose as a lava-like liquid gold you scoop up with a
spoon and nothing more. There’s a time and a place for both.
Pieces of Mohanthal are perfect for gifting to friends and
family during Diwali. The loose kind is more of a hot dessert
served after a traditional Gujarati meal. My favourite way to
have it is right after a meal of Aakhu Shaak (whole vegetables
stuffed with peanut masala), daal, rice, rotli and sambharo
(stir-fried cabbage and carrots with mustard seeds). Heaven.
Shop-bought Mohanthal will often be brown in colour but I like
my mine to be bright orange – the dish is after all, named
after Lord Krishna. Orange is said to be his favourite colour
so there’s no better colour than this for my Mohan’s thali.
Everything I know about making Mohanthal, my mum taught me.
She teaches with a wonderful fervour that’s so infectious, I
become immersed like rasmalai in a pool of sweet milk. That’s
the only way I can describe it. Having her as a mentor means
I’ve never been afraid of trying anything new and this
Mohanthal is no different.
Handling burning hot sugar syrup, scorching ghee and flour
isn’t easy but confidence, a steady hand and heaps of patience
is key. Like a beautiful cake, you can’t rush Mohanthal so
take some time out and master this classic Gujarati sweet.
With this recipe, I promise you’ll never buy shop-bought
Mohanthal again. Especially at Diwali.
Classic Gujarati Mohanthal
Makes 20-24 pieces
Ingredients
For the Dhrabo (this is the bit that ensures your Mohanthal
has those essential crunchy pieces):
320g gram flour/chickpea flour
1 tbsp melted ghee
2 tbsp milk
For the Mohanthal:
250ml
melted ghee
90g milk powder
1 tsp cardamom powder
2
2
A
1
A
tbsp slivered almonds
tbsp slivered pistachios
pinch of saffron
tsp mace powder (javantri)
pinch of orange food colour (optional)
For the Sugar Syrup:
400g sugar
250ml water
Method
1. To make the dhrabo place the gram flour in a bowl and add 1
tbsp melted ghee and 2 tbsp milk. Rub the mixture in between
your fingers until it resembles breadcrumbs. Allow this to sit
for 30 minutes.
2. Sieve the dhrabo mixture through a medium-holed colander
rubbing any large pieces between your fingers and pushing it
through the sieve. Be patient. Set aside.
3. In a pan, add the ingredients for the sugar syrup and
simmer until it is of a one-string consistency (this is the
‘soft-ball’ stage if you have a candy thermometer). Keep this
hot but do not let it go past the soft ball stage.
4. In a large, wide, no-stick pan add one cup of ghee and the
dhrabo mixture you have passed through a sieve. Cook this on a
medium heat until it becomes a golden almond colour. Keep
stirring. Remove from the heat and allow this to cool until it
is just warm. Add the cardamom powder, saffron, milk
powder and mace powder. Don’t be impatient – let this cool
properly or your mixture will seize up and become hard and
crumbly as the mixture will become too hot.
5. Pour the hot syrup over the cooled flour mixture and stir
until fully incorporated. Add some orange food colouring if
you wish.
6. Pour the mixture into a greased thali or wide dish with
sides. Sprinkle with almonds and pistachios.
7. Allow this to set for 24 hours at room temperature.
8. Cut into pieces.
9. Making liquid Mohanthal? At step 5, add an extra 250ml
water after you’ve mixed in the syrup and colour and serve hot
with vanilla ice cream and sprinkled with almonds and
pistachios.
One more Diwali sweet treat coming up tomorrow.
Love Sanjana
Pistachio
Halwa
and
Rose
Bombay
I used to love going into Indian sweet shops as a little
nipper, especially around Diwali. Wide-eyed and full of
wonder, the shop keepers would see me peering through their
glass cases at the majestic displays of endless halwa, burfi,
penda, jalebi, kaju katli, mohanthal gulab jambu, rasmalai and
everything in between. I very quickly became an expert at
getting free samples.
My dad would always ask me what I’d like in my special box of
sweets. I’d think long and hard about which ones would make
the cut – it was a very important decision. To this day, he
still buys me my own box of sweets and even if I’m not there
to choose them, he somehow always picks my favourites.
The one that always stood out was the Bombay Halwa. It’s one
of the only sweet that comes in lots of different colours –
and they’re SO bright. Rows of translucent pink, yellow, green
and orange jellies studded with jewel-like pistachios and
cashews. They were bright and beautiful and I was a magpie,
attracted to anything colourful.
For me, it was always the pink ones. As an avid fan of C.S.
Lewis’s The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, it reminded me
of the White Witch’s wicked Turkish delights that were
conjured up to encourage Edmund’s betrayal. Of course, the
only things I betrayed were my poor teeth. It was so worth it.
I learnt much later that Bombay Halwa is really easy to make.
The jelly-like texture is achieved by mixing cornflour and
sugar syrup – very much like making Turkish delight. Next, you
slowly add ghee until it’s glossy and thick. And that’s pretty
much it. So simple but make sure your arm muscles are ready.
There’s loads of stirring involved.
You can make pretty much any flavour or colour you like. I
love rose and pistachio but saffron and cashew and simple
lemon and cardamom are also great.
Pistachio and Rose Bombay Halwa
Makes 18-20 pieces
Ingredients
160g cornflour
140ml water
400g sugar
250ml water
4 tbsp rose syrup
100g ghee, melted
50g roasted pistachios, lightly broken
½ tsp cardamom seeds, ground
Method
1. Grease a 6×8 rectangular tin with ghee.
2. First, mix together the cornflour and 140ml cold water.
3. In a large pan (I use a wok with a large handle), add the
sugar and 250ml water. Bring to the boil and wait for all the
sugar to melt.
4. Once all the sugar has melted, in a slow and steady stream,
add the cornflour mixture, stirring all the time. Keep the
mixure boiling all the time and keep stirring. It will thicken
and look a lot like wallpaper paste.
5. When you’ve added all the cornflour mixture, add the rose
syrup.
6. Next, start adding the ghee – slowly at first. Keep
stirring to ensure there are no lumps. Then add the rest of
the ghee and incorporate. Cook again, mixing all the time
until thick, glossy and translucent.
7. Mix in the cardamom and pistachios.
8. Pour the mixture into the greased pan, decorate with
crushed pistachios and allow to set at room temperature for 12
hours or overnight.
9. Cut into pieces as big as you can fit in your mouth.
I have two more of my favourite Diwali sweets coming your way
this week. Keep an eye out.
Love Sanjana
Sweet, Sweet Diwali
Happy Diwali everyone! KO Rasoi wishes you all a
prosperous year full of laughter, love and light.
This November, KO Rasoi was featured in the Diwali issue of
the Urbanite ezine. Namaste to any new readers from Urbaniteyou’re presence is much appreciated.Urbanite covers a whole
range of exciting subjects from Food and Drink to Health and
Education news. It was a huge honour to have been asked to
contribute to the magazine by the wonderful Trix of Tasty
Trix, cookery editor for Urbanite. Boy does she have an
awesome job!
Alongside the Diwali article, I provided a recipe for Urbanite
readers for the delicious sweet, Malai Khaja made from
homemade paneer. They are pretty little offerings which are
perfectly suited to the sparkling ambience of the Diwali
festival. Read the full ‘Sparkling Sweets’ article and recipe
here.
I submitted some information on Diwali, its history and
culinary traditions and some comments on modern Indian
cuisine. Trix was very innovative with her approach to
nouvelle Indian food, using Indo-Chinese dishes as a basis to
her article. Read about her dining experience at Mirchi Wok,
Columbia with a few comments from yours truly scattered here
and there in her article ‘Shubh Diwali!’
However, I also have a simple little recipe for a lovely
Diwali sweet today. They are little bites of heaven, not too
sweet and incredibly moreish. It is a variation on the Malai
Khaja recipe contributed to Urbanite and so simple that even
the kids can get involved in the kitchen!
Tri-Ranga Paneer Burfi
(makes around 16-20 burfis)
Ingredients
3 cups fresh paneer, crumbled. Homemade paneer recipe here
1 cup sweetened condensed milk
¼ cup ghee
1 tsp cardamom powder
Pinch of saffron
3 food colours of your choice
Oil to grease your tin
Method
1. Heat the ghee in a large non-stick pan. Add the paneer and
condensed milk and cook on a medium heat for 15-20 minutes or
until the mixture resembles dry-ish, crumbly paneer and a
little shiny ghee is visible around the mixture.
2. Turn the heat off and add the cardamom and saffron. Divide
the mixture into 3 equal portions.
3. Quickly mix in each food colour in to the divided paneer
mixtures. It is easier to do this when the mixture is still
hot and may require some elbow grease (not literally) to
distribute the colours into the mixtures evenly. I advise
bribing potential helpers.
4. Grease a medium sized circular, square or rectangular
baking tin or burfi tray with some oil (not butter or ghee). I
recommend going for a tray that is at least 5cm deep and not
too large; perhaps around 6X8 inches. I used two round mini
cheesecake pans to cut mine into little triangles, for they
are ‘cheese cakes’ after all.
5. Press one colour mixture firmly into the bottom of the tin;
compact it in as much as you can. Repeat for the other
colours. Cover with plastic wrap and leave to cool in the
fridge for a couple of hours.
6. Slice into pieces and watch the smiles light up the faces
of your loved ones this Diwali!
Enjoy the rest of your Diwali celebrations. Why not join my
Facebook page and tell me how you and your family celebrated?
You can also sign up to the free Urbanite Food and Drink Ezine
here
I wish you all a happy new year for tomorrow. Eat, laugh and
be merry for this year and many more to come. Sal Mubarak!