ಮೈಸೂರ್ ಪಾಕ್/Mysore Pak

Sunday we had a great time with our cousins family. My cousin makes wonderful ever tasty divine Mysore paks I have tasted at anyones home. I wanted to make sure this time we had ample time to learn this big pak…Me and My H got to work busy preparing for lunch and awaiting the arrival of our cousin . All planned well…. at 1 hr to lunch time my H got a call from his office he had to go … oh no I thought. I was very dissappointed to see him go but no choice, fortunately the vege pulav was ready I packed it for him and started working on the other chores. I tried feeding my little son with some sambhar rice, but he was so excited that his favorite uncle and aunt with kids coming over he refused to eat well. i let him go and started to prepare the last item puris and finally fried a few they were here. My cousin lent her helping hand as ever to fry the rest of them. We all had a jolly time, kids had lunch with no fuss and me and my cousin chatted over lunch…..Kids were making big hungama, After lunch i checked on my son wheather he was sleepy to make him sleep for a while so that we had nice free time to make the mysore pak but he was so playfull refused to come over. We decided let him play he will not distrub us. Nidhi and Rajath were busy playing chess, while Anku and Shreyas (7) were playing with the tricycle and small gadi. I finally started to get ready with the ingredients as my cousin Sitakka directed.

All you need:
Gram flour sieved: 1 Cup
Sugar: 2 cups ( i used fine sugar)
Ghee : 1.5 cups (liquid)
Corn oil: 1 cup (use Veecorn or Golden drop)
water : 1 cup (1/2 the measure of Sugar)
Greased plate with Ghee
Greased knife
Sugar(coarse better for sprinkling on the sweet)

Method:
An hour before Starting soak the sugar in water and keep aside so that the sugar dissolves
Seive gram flour and fry the Gram Flour in a kadai( aluminium is better) somehow my non stick tends to stick the flour until raw smell disappears
Liquidify ghee and measure the ghee and oil using the same measuring glass as for gramflour
Pour the ghee-oil to a copper bottom vessel and keep the flame on low heat to keep it warm(i heard a cry and triffle, checked on our sons, my son was angry for some reason. telling ni hoggu, ni beda and sitting in one corner. actually i shd have taken a snap of that too :0. Called him, he refused ……ow ow askedn my dad to try his luck… we continued….
Check if sugar has dissolved completely if not on low flame heat the sugar-water until the sugar dissolves
Add the gram flour and mix well to avoid any lumps ( Again another squeak now what was that, he agreed to have some milk but wanted amma’s lap oh dear what to do….? again pacify him agreed to sit with his grandpa and drink milk.) Meanwhile Sitakka was stiring ….
Once the gram flour is blended well keep on stiring on medium flame adding the hot gheeoil side by side ( the oil-ghee must be warm to check the warmth, when you add it to the gramflour paste you must be able to see bubble formation)
Continue stirring and adding, now the paste has reached a foaming stage.
Continue….reaches to a pulpy stage looks like mango pulps
continue and carefull…. oil start to leave and float, continue until lightly browned ( you might feel the ghee getting into your tummy feeling uneasy of the fat not to worry half the oil-ghee is left out after the formation of the sweet)
Cooking this on a Aluminium kadai will give a a soft lump while the oil leaves, while as in non stick we did not get that state but was more like the mass was spread like you can look at the slide.
Pour to a greased plate along with the ghee. sprinkle sugar granules. allow to sit for 5 mins
Cut into desired shapes. Let it cool fully now pour the remaing Ghee out.
After cooling you can see different layered in the sweet which is slightly browish inside with soft crust.
Enjoy the divine mysore paks……..

 

I am sending this for the Trupti’s Event Spring Fling 2007
Thanks Sittakka for the delicious sweet.Note: The color of the pak may differ from the different variety of flours available. Some flours might not give the right texture. The flour i used was Rajadhani. As we fried the flour S did state the flavour is not so good as fresh flour and when mixing the flour was little lumpy also but we still continued and we did not find any difference in taste though the color was on the little darker side.

ಮೇತಿ ಪನೀರ್/Methi Paneer with Rajma

After long time again i was in time to get some fresh methi leaves last week. Being sunday i can’t just be doing normal methi sambhar or fry, it must be some tangy curry that goes for puris/parotas.  So i thought of mixing methi with one can of kidney beans which had been lying for quite a few months. I mixed up to be in favour of all our of us kidney beans for my H, paneer for kids and methi well for me …. the curry turned out quite tasty than expected.

All you need

methi /fenugreek leaves - 1 bunch

kidney beans - 1 can

paneer/cottage cheese cut into cubes - 1 cup

ginger paste - 2 tsp

garlic paste - 2 tsp

onion  cut finely - 1

1 onion and 2 tomatoes made into paste

milk - 1/4 cup

cream - 1 tbsp

corainder powder - 1 tbsp

kitchen king masala - 1 tbsp

chilli powder - 2 tsp

salt to taste

• Take a kadai het oil, add (anise, cloves, bay leaves, cinamon stick) fry until nice aromo spreads
• add onions and fry until tansclucent.
• Add ginger garlic paste fry remove raw smell
• Add washed methi leaves, fry until the leaves wilt
• Add tomato onion paste, masala powders, salt and let the mixture simmer for few minutes
• Add kidney beans, do a taste check let the mixture come to boiling point now add paneer cubes either fried/baked.(I do not fry or bake i use as it is)
• Add milk and stir for few secs and mix cream and turn off fire.
• Serve hot with puris/parotas/chapatis

note: Canned kidney beans has sugar and salt.

7 cup Burfi

 

This is one of the easiest type of near to mysore paak sweet, with less ghee. At first whenever my mom used to tell 7 cup sweet i used to think it was made of 7 different types of flour. This burfi is made of mainly gram flour, which has a unique flavour like mysore paak. This sweet turned out quite sweet of my liking so have used 2.5 cups sugar instead of 3 cups. Next time i will use 2 cups is right as 2.5 also was quite sweet. By right i should call this 6 cup burfi  

 

gram flour - 1 cup

Grated coconut - 1 cup

Milk - 1 cup

sugar - 2.5 cups

Ghee - 1 cup

 

Take a heavy bottom vessel. Keep a plate greased with ghee ready. Fry gram flour with 2 tsp of ghee to remove any raw smell of flour. Meanwhile heat milk and add sugar so that it helps to speed up the process. Now mix ghee to the fried gram flour, add coconut, milk and sugar mixture and mix it thoroughly. Heat the mixture in low flame until the mixture leaves the sides of the vessel. This took for me around 30 minutes. Pour the mixture to the greased plate and cut into desired shapes.