Easiest Dessert Ever: Pineapple Delight

Pineapple Delight

A couple of friends of mine made this for their desi dinner parties. It was always a hit at their houses. I could never get an exact recipe from either friend, but here is what I came up with to replicate what I had tried before. This is a fire-free, egg-free icebox recipe. It's an easy crowd pleasure to put out to make your dinner party/daawat dessert selection more lavish. It is light on the palate and complements richer desserts. I've served this with heavy cream cheese coconut flan before and they went so well next to each other.


Ingredients:

8 oz heavy whipping cream

16 oz sour cream

1.5 cans sweetened condensed milk

1 can crushed pineapple in syrup

1 can pineapple chunks in syrup

*if you can find mango chunks, add some

Method: Strain pineapple in syrup and pineapple chunks. Set aside. In a large mixing bowl, mix, sour cream and sweetened condensed milk. Add in crushed pineapple and pineapple chunks. You can also add mango (like a cup of chunks) if it is in season. You can use frozen mango, but I find those to be a bit flavorless and fibrous. Keep aside sour cream-condensed milk pineapple mixture. Now whip your heavy whipping cream until it forms stiff peaks. Once this is done, gently fold in the pineapple mixture. Transfer into serving bowl. Refrigerate at least 4-5 hours or overnight. 

*I suppose you could add any fruit you want into this or make a fruit salad with a medley. I recommend using fruit that won't add color to the dairy ingredients, though.

Pineapple Delight served with flan de coco and fresh watermelon.

Fish shami kababs

Usually you see beef, mutton, or chicken shami kababs.

I decided to try to make them using fish. This is a #whattodowithshanmasala recipe.

They came out well. This is a complicated and cumbersome recipe. You can make these for a party. These freeze well so it is nice to make a bunch and then keep some in the freezer to defrost as needed.

I used basa fish, but you can use any kind of firm fleshed, mild white fish. Use half the recipe for a family sized amount of shami kababs, but for a party, this will make around 26-30 patties, depending on how big you make your patties. I make mine by scooping two tablespoons into my hand so that I can be sure that all of the patties will be the same size. I don't have kabab skillz like some people who can make all of the patties the same by eyeballing.

Mise en place ready to go. 

Ingredients:

2 lbs fish filets cut into pieces, soaked in 1/4 cup vinegar, turmeric, and chile powder (1 tsp each) for 30 mins, then rinsed and patted dry
3 cups boiled channa daal (soak 1.5 cups raw daal for one hour, then boil, lower heat and cook for 20 mins until completely tender but still whole, strain, and set aside)
1 small onion chopped finely
1 small onion chopped roughly
14 green chiles (no need to chop since these will get blended)
3 tbs garam masala
2 heaping tbs Shan Shami Kabab Masala
1 conservative tsp elaichi seeds (unhusked black seed)
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves
1 cup loosely packed cilantro
pinch of salt (maybe 1/2 tsp, but taste the patty dough because it will be fully cooked and adjustable)
1 egg for binding
1 tbs lime juice
3-4 eggs for dipping
3 tbs  oil for making the meat
oil for frying shamis

Method:

Cooked ingredients.

Heat 3 tbs oil in pot. Add in the finely chopped onions and fry for a few minutes until they become clear. Add in ginger garlic paste and 8 green chiles. Stir this until the ginger garlic is golden. Add in the fish and the powdered masalas. Stir until fish is fully cooked. Add in the lentils and mix well.  Stir till this looks very dry. Turn off the flame. Add salt. Be conservative because you can always add more salt but cannot take salt out. Allow this to cool for a few minutes. Add in the remaining fresh green chiles, mint, the roughly chopped onion, and the cilantro, and mix. Transfer to a blender and blend until it is a smooth paste. If I make this full amount, I do this in three batches with lots of scrape downs of the blender jar. Transfer the mixture to a bowl. Taste for salt, and add more if need be. Stir elaichi seeds, and lime juice. Finally, stir in one beaten egg. Put this in the fridge for an hour or two to let it cool completely and firm up a bit.

Blended mixture.

When you are ready to fry, heat up 1/4 cup oil in a wide frying pan. Beat your 3-4 eggs (or however many you need) with a tiny sprinkle of salt. Form patties in your hands and dip them in the egg wash. The fish shami kabab patties are very soft and hard to work with. Fry only a few at a time so you can manage. Put them in the frying pan for a few moments, then turn over and allow to brown on the other side. Remove from oil and keep on a plate covered in paper towels to absorb some of the oil The soft shamis will firm up a bit as they cool down.




Serve these with ketchup or coriander chutney or tamarind chutney. These also go well on a sandwich.

Low Fat Gobhi Bhaja - Oven Roasted Cauliflower Desi Style

In Bengali cuisine, vegetables like eggplant, potato, and cauliflower are spiced and lightly doused in chickpea flour (besan) or perhaps rice flour, and then deep fried (bhaja means fry). These tasty morsels are served at the start of or as an accompaniment to a meal. Begun bhaja (eggplant) is most famous, but any vegetable that does well when roasted can make for a faux bhaja in the oven.

In the interest of health, I have devised this oven-roast bhaja recipe. You can do the same thing with potatoes or eggplant in place of cauliflower, but be sure to adjust the cooking time. Traditionally, the veg would be fried in mustard oil. You can use that if you like, but I have used olive oil.

First prepare the cauliflower: 1 head of cauliflower, washed cut into bite sized florets, and set in a colander to strain until comletely dry. You must completely dry the cauliflower because any moisture left on it will prevent your faux bhaja from becoming crispy.

Set oven on highest heat setting, and prepare a cookie sheet/baking tray with a layer of aluminium foil.

Since cauliflower varies in size, I suggest that you adjust the ingredients slightly for a large or small head to ensure adequate seasoning. The recipe below is for a medium-ish cauliflower:

1 heaping tsp or so sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp red chile powder
1 tsp turmeric
3 tbs olive oil
2 tbs chickpea flour (besan)
1 pinch of chaat masala

In a large mixing bowl, pour oil onto dried cauliflower florets. Toss in all of the other ingredients except for the chickpea flour and the chaat masala. Mix well so that the florets are well coated in seasonings and oil. Now add the chickpea flour and mix again to coat. Transfer cauliflower florets to baking tray and put in oven for 25 minutes or so, until the cauliflower is cooked but still slightly crunchy, and it looks crispy and golden brown on the edges. The brown crispy bits are amazing!

Remove from oven, sprinkle with chaat masala, and serve hot.