Turning 3 with Granola Ladoo,Dodh Peda and Chanar Pantua

Last time I had mentioned about the Diwali goodies, so when Spice and Curry turn 3 this october, I thought this is perhaps the right time to post all the sweet dishes .Yeah, I know time flies and it was a wonderful journey so far.I would like to take this oppurtunity to thank everybody who have stopped here inspite of their busy schedule,subscribed to feeds and tried recipes from here.A big “Thank You” to all.

Now to the recipes.
I was thinking to add some variation to a mundane breakfast , and started mixing oat based granola, corn flakes ,then in zap of a second ,thought of making laddos instead of breakfast cereal.How ever this mixture can very well be stored in air tight container and can be made to a perfect breakfast cereal with milk.

A) Granola Laddo /Granola Diye Narkol’er Laddo
Measurements are approx
What you need
Granola preferably oat based -1 cup or you may use Clusters By Kellogg's.
Corn flakes- ½ cup
Chopped walnuts and cashews- ½ cup
Dessicated coconut-3/4 cup
Sugar- ½ cup or as per taste

Method
Mix all the ingredients corn flakes,granola,dessicated coconut, cahsews and walnuts with hands well.If possible, slightly break the corn flakes and granola with little hand pressure to form a uniform mixture.Add in sugar also and gently mix in with the above mixture.
Now heat up a saucepan, transfer the entire mixture to it, stir it well at low for 5 mints
At this time you will see,sugar starts to dissolve and the mixture turning into a nice brown colour.
Sprinkle some water while stirring ,keep sprinkling some more water and stirring.Usually this takes very few mints when stirred at med-high , the main thing to keep in mind ,is not to burn the mixture.However if you have time and you don’t want to take much risk, do this at low flame and slowly.
When you see the mixture starts to gather together, immediately stop the flame and transfer the entire mixture content to a plate.
Heat up some 3-5 tbs of butter or ghee, add to the above mixture.
After the mixture is cooled a little bit, grease your palm with little oil and start making some small round shaped laddos.
Make all the laddos with the mixture.
Refrigerate the laddos,it stays fresh for 3-4 days.You may have it as Breakfast laddos also.

B) Microwable Dodh Peda

What you will need
1 cup of milk powder
¾ can of condensed milk
2 tbs of butter

Method
In a microwave safe bowl,melt butter in microwave.Microwave for 1 mint at high.
Now mix in the milk powder and condensed milk very well with the melted butter.
Microwave the content at high for 1 mint
Take out and stir it well.
Repeat the step for 5 -6 times keeping an eye on the content(sometimes it may spill out,just keep looking)
You will see the mixture starts to dry up , and when the mixture starts to collect, stop microwaving.
My microwave took exactly 6 mints for it.It may be 1 mint less or more depending on the make of microwave you have.
Now let the content cool , and now the fun part ,grease your palms with oil and roll the mixture to peda shape.

I think this is the most easy-peezy method of preparing peda, and I have made the longer process of it also.Taste wise the longer method of drying up milk and then adding sugar gives excellent result,but this one is sure a good way to make the peda’s quickly, specially if you don’t want to sweat it out in kitchen.

For Sandesh recipe , you may want look in -------Here

For Mishti Nimki, go ------Here ,the only difference this time I made is , I coated the Fried diamonds/nimki with sugar well and stirred them at low in a saucepan.This added a nice touch of brown colour to the otherwise white form of sweet diamonds and also they turned out much more crunchy.

C) Chanar Pantua
Measurements are Approx

What You will need

Home –made paneer/cottage cheese 1 cup
Little bit of arrowroot/plain flour -2-3 tsp
Little bit of kheer/khoya(Khoya in Bengali is known as Kheer) -1/4 cup
Pinch of baking soda
1 big cardamom (Boro elaich)
1 cup of sugar
½ cup of water
Oil for deep frying

Method
Make the sugar syrup by dissolving the sugar and water in a suacepan and cooking at low till a nice syrup is formed.
Sqeeze in well the paneer, make sure to take out the water.You may refer to this post to make home-made paneer---- Cottage Cheese Pudding
Use your kitchen towel to wrap the cheese and use your hands to squeeze them well.Take out in a plate.
Now add in little bit of flour(that I had,however you may use arrowroot),khoya/kheer, and now roll into small rounds, slipping one big cardamom seed into each rounds working with your fingers.TIP-You may also add in slight sugar crystals also,this way the juice is trapped inside well while the pantuas turn soft.

I have always felt that if rounds are made to sit up for sometime ,before frying they turn out nice brown in colour and absorbs the sugar syrup well.
Now,Heat up a saucepan , add oil .let the oil heat up well
Now fry all the small rounds well till they turn a nice brown in colour.
Drop them into the sugar syrup.Let them sit there for 1-2 hrs.Before serving slightly reheat them and serve.

Usually we don’t go out in parks much, but this time my daughter insisted on going to a park nearby.She is having her week long autumn break here.
This time round London parks are a great way to see autumn beauty.I am leaving with you some of the pics I tried to capture, and it just gets so tempting to catch one and all.
However the real depth of beauty needs to be experienced by visiting one of these parks.

Hope you enjoyed seeing these picture as much as I enjoyed capturing them in my camera.

Happy Cooking Friends.