Seero Archives | Sindhi Rasoi |Sindhi Recipes

Seero Malpuro|Two Malpua recipes| Low fat Recipe.

Alka Keswani — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 12:58:41 +0000

Now that we are done with Holi, the festival of colors for Indians, its time to share with you, this year’s Holi Special Sweet, Seero Malpuro or Malpua served with Sooji Halwa. Making a sweet dish is always a challenging job for me, because I am paranoid about adding the heaps of sugar as suggested in any recipe of ‘sweets’. I, almost always, halve the quantity of sugar while following a recipe, fearing that the sweet dish might turn out ‘too sweet (Duh !!) This backfires many times, especially while making some traditional sweets where the texture of sweet depends upon the consistency of sugar syrup or amount of sugar added. This is the reason, I dislike making sweets, and my teeny weeny sweet cravings, if any, are easily calmed down by a bite of semi-dark chocolate or by some raisins or dried apricots. But Indian festivals fail to make a mark, if not celebrated with some sweets. So while Gujiyas and Ghear (large jalebies), shakarpada etc are generally made on the occassion of Holi, I attempted to make Malpua , known as Malpura in Sindhi. Traditionally, Malpua is a sweet made from All purpose flour mixed with reduced milk (Milk of very thick consistency), and mawa/khoya. The batter is then fried as pancakes in batches, dunked in sugar syrup and served with either Rabri or curd/yogurt. Some prefer it with milk, while Sindhis generally serve it with ‘ Sooji jo seero‘ or semolina halwa, which is again made from semolina, milk, sugar syrup etc. Though it makes a yummy combination and any lover of sweet will drool over it, I dread making it, considering the amount of sugar that goes in, to cook this double whammy. But festivals being time to indulge, I took a plunge this time. I was up for the disaster, but somehow all was well in the end.Read further to unfold the whole drama that almost ruined my Holi, or else simply scroll down, for the recipes of the mighty Malpura (Malpua) and skip the later part. First let me share the traditional recipe, followed by some notes and tips to make a healthier, low fat version. Traditional Recipe of Malpua :(Note:There are many *traditional *ways to make this !) (Makes approx. 15-18 pancakes depending upon the size) Print Seero Malpuro|Two Malpua recipes| Low fat Recipe. Malpura is a sweet , shallow fried Indian style pancake, dunked in sugar syrup and generally relished with curd (yogurt) or Sooji halwa. Ingredients Maida or All purpose flour 250 gms Baking powder, just a pinch Milk around 650 ml (Boil around 500 ml of milk till reduced to almost half, set aside remaining 250 ml to adjust the consistency of batter) Khoya/mawa 40-50 gms Oil for shallow frying ( Prefer Ghee, for an authentic flavor) Fennel seeds 1 tsp or more Black pepper corns 4-5 Maida or All purpose flour 250 gms Baking powder, just a pinch Milk around 650 ml (Boil around 500 ml of milk till reduced to almost half, set aside remaining 250 ml to adjust the consistency of batter) Khoya/mawa 40-50 gms Oil for shallow frying ( Prefer Ghee, for an authentic flavor) Fennel seeds 1 tsp or more Black pepper corns 4-5 Sugar 500 gm Water 1 and half cup or more (we need syrup of one string consistency) Green cardamom 2-3 Saffron strands few (optional) Unsalted pistachios to garnish Method Sieve the maida with baking powder. Be very very cautious about adding just a pinch of baking powder. Anything more than that will burst your Malpuras while frying. Trust me, I went through this :-(. Boil approximately 500 ml of milk and simmer till reduced to half of its quantity.Gently mix khoya /mawa to this to make the mixture more creamy and thick. If mawa is unsweetened then add around 2 spoons of sugar to the mixture. Now take a deep mixing bowl, add maida and baking powder mixture, fennel seeds, pepper corns, and mix the warm or cooled (never hot) milk -mawa mixture and mix well to form a lump free batter. The batter should be of thick pouring consistency , so if needed keep on adding the reserved 150 ml of milk, adding very little at a time. The amount of milk required to achieve the perfect consistency varies from 75 ml to 200 ml, depending upon how thick your milk-mawa mixture is.So trust your instincts. In the meantime make sugar syrup by boiling sugar, cardamom and water .If adding saffron, soak it in warm milk for sometime and then add in sugar syrup anytime in between. Now in a flat bottomed fry pan or kadai, heat ghee/ oil or mixture of ghee and oil to shallow fry Malpuras. Carefully spread a ladle full of batter in ghee to make a small pancake. Fry on medium to low flame.Turn it gently and fry on other side till it is crisp brown from sides. Remove from oil and soak in sugar syrup (warm) for about 2 minutes or so and then drain on a colander . Repeat the procedure for the remaining batter. Depending upon the size of pan, you can fry 2 -3 pancakes in one single batch. Garnish with sliced unsalted pistachios and serve with either Rabri or curd or like seen in picture, with Sooji Halwa. Now let me share with you all some problems faced by me while making malpuas and some tips to make healthy ones. In hurry, I added hot, reduced milk to the flour, that left me with a lumpy batter. I tried to whisk a lot, to smooth-en the batter, but the stubborn lumps refused to disappear. I made the next blunder mistake... I tried to blend the batter, simply being forgetful about the presence of fennel seeds and pepper corns. The blended mixture was pasty, sticky (due to the hot milk), and bit bitter due to grounded pepper. Then despite of being careful, I added a tad bit more of baking powder. As a result the pancakes just kinda disintegrated into small pieces in hot oil. Darn, I never thought I could be that stupid in kitchen 🙁 Well, not willing to give up, I prepared a fresh batter, this time with mixture of wheat flour and Maida (simply because of lack of sufficient maida). I applied the process of mixing a cake batter while mixing the malpua batter. So I mixed flour and a pinch of baking powder and sieved it in a huge mixing bowl. I made a well in the center of flour and added some of the milk (yes, plain milk..not condense or reduced). Slowly, with a fork spoon, I mixed some batter in the milk that was in the ' well'. Slowly and gradually, kept pulling in some flour in the 'well' and adding some milk, mixing,incorporating more flour, adding milk, mixing...so on and so forth, till whole of the flour turned into a smooth batter. There wasn't a single lump..I swear !!!!. Then added fennel seeds and pepper corns. Remember to always shallow fry malpuras in a flat bottomed pan or kadai. Though shallow fried, these tend to absorb lots of oil, hence I first drained these on a kitchen towel and then added in the warm syrup. For trial, I tried to cook these as normal pancakes, with just few drops of oil on a nonstick pan and the results were not bad. Since cooked in less oil and that too on a nonstick pan, the malpuras were not as crispy and heavenly as the fried ones, but taste wise it was not bad at all. So now I know, that even though there was no reduced milk and khoya/mawa in the malpuras, but still these tasted good enough to be labelled as a festival food. These malpuras were served with sooji halwa.You can find its recipe here 2.2.1

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Two Awards….Toh kuch meetha ho jaaye !!

Alka Keswani — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 10:15:00 +0000

Well June started with rains of monsoon in my real world and rains of awards in blogo-world! Now my July also had started on good note,with Two awards……Good going Alka…Let me pat my back..he he he;-) On some serious note, I am grateful to Medha of Cook with love for passing on these wonderful awards to me, I am sure whoever gets an award will be able to imagine how elated one feels after receiving them! And Medha, let me take your kind permission to pass on these awards to deserving bloggers in my next post and also I will “Un tag “myself in my next post ! So kindly allow me to hold on these awards with lots of care and love until then So let’s celebrate this occasion with something sweet.People who had followed my blog from start would have noted the step motherly treatment given to sweets and desserts by me.I swear I don’t do that purposely, it’s just that Idon’t have a sweet tooth and I can’t gobble down anything sweet. I even prefer my Cuppa of Tea without sugar and if with sugar, then it has to be with either spicy biscuits or Khari, pakora or samosas. I feel astounded when I spot somebody eating a piece of Mithai (sweet) or ladoos and by just looking at them eating sweet make me crave for having something spicy and hot ASAP…..lolz !! But I promise now that I will occasionally come up with some sweet dishes too and this one is just the beginning…… Lapsi or dalia or burglar wheat or broken wheat or Bhaat as we call in sindhi….different regions know this wonderful grain by different name.This cracked wheat is really nutritious as it is unrefined wheat, high in fibre and manganese (with reference to Tarla Dalal) Bhaat jho seero or Lapsi halwa, is a simple preparation but generally loads of oil is used to make this.My version is bit different, as I had used minimum of oil,which had made this halwa crumbly and not soft and mushy as it should be.Just play with the amount of oil and sugar and you will get many variants of this dish This Bhaat jho seero goes for Nupur of onehotstove who is hostingMBP-Less is more which meansthat you have to browse through your favorite blogs and your bookmarked recipes and choose those that have FIVE ingredients or FEWER to make for this event. So here I go with Bhaat jho seero, a recipe inspired from The cooker Print Two Awards....Toh kuch meetha ho jaaye !! Prep time: 5 mins Cook time: 20 mins Total time: 25 mins Serves: 2-3 Broken wheat halwa, a delicious sweet made from lapsi. Ingredients Broken wheat or bhaat 1 cup Oil 2-3 spoons Sugar ½ cup or more(depends on how much sweet you like it to be) Green cardamons 4-5 Water about 3 cups (I actually needed to add some more water to cook it completely) Method Take the oil in a thick bottomed pan and heat it Now add lapsi and green cardamons, roast these properly on medium flame, tossing it regularly so that it doesn't burn Roast it till lapsi changes its colour and a pleasant aroma starts filling your kitchen Now carefully add the water (beware of spluttering) and mix properly Let it cook on low flame and keep stirring at regular intervals Add sugar when lapsi is almost cooked and mix it properly Let it cook till all the water is evaporated and lapsi is cooked properly It could be served, hot, warm or cold and could be garnished with almonds or nuts of your choice 2.2.1

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Soojiiyah jho seero

Alka Keswani — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 01:09:02 +0000

Print Soojiiyah jho seero Rating 4.0 from 1 reviews Prep time: 5 mins Cook time: 15 mins Total time: 20 mins Serves: 2-3 Sooji halwa is one of the most popular Halwa, made from semolina. Generally made during festivals all over India Ingredients Sooji (Rawa, Semolina) 250 gm Oil 100 gm Sugar 200 gm Water 750 ml Green cardamon 4 Milk 2 cups Method In a heavy bottom pan roast sooji in oil, along with cardamon till a nice aroma of semolina is felt Add about 2 cups of milk and stir properly to avoid lumps Dissolve sugar in water and make a thin syrup Add this syrup to sooji mixture and let it simmer Optionally one can add little of red orange colour Garnish with almonds and cashews 2.2.1

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Gaajar ka halwa

Alka Keswani — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 03:31:05 +0000

Gajrun Jo Seero or Gaajar ka halwa is arguably the most loved Indian dessert, with mind boggling flavors of red juicy Delhi carrots, reduced milk, green cardamom and sugar. Some prefer to just boil carrots and milk and reduce the mixture, while some prefer to first bhuno the carrots in some ghee or vegetable oil to get more pronounced flavors and dark orange to reddish tinge.A wonderful winter treat,tastes good whether hot or cold! Print Gaajar ka halwa|Gajrun Jo Seero Rating 5.0 from 1 reviews Prep time: 20 mins Cook time: 40 mins Total time: 1 hour Serves: 4 The most famous Indian winter dessert, carrot halwa is favorite of one and all. Ingredients Red juicy Carrots 500 gm. Sugar 250-300 gm Milk 2 cups Green cardamom (Choti elaichi) 2 Khus khus 2 tsp Ghee or vegetable oil 2 tbsp Cashew nuts 10-12 Raisins 10-15 Almonds 5-6 Method Wash, peel the carrots and grate them Soak khuskhus in water, for few hours, then rinse 3 or 4 times with water with help of tea strainer In a thick bottomed kadai, pour two tablespoon of ghee or oil, add khuskhus and saute it for few seconds on medium flame, taking care not to burn the khuskhus Add grated carrots and elaichi and saute again for few min, stirring continuously so that carrots don't turn brown Add two cups of milk and let it boil on low flame till the mixture is almost dry Add sugar and mix it properly and continue to cook it till all the milk is evaporated Let the halwa cool down a bit, then add chopped almonds, cashews and few raisins and serve it with love 2.2.1

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