Coconut….

This amazing nut..the king of all nuts..but oh so versatile..millions of recipes based on coconut, from the humble chutney to delicate payaasams…all over coastal india..right upto south east asia. Be it savoury or sweet…coconut is a must in many forms..
But one memory stands out clear..
The coconut mithai made out of dessicated coconut. As children when
we lived in agarwal colony , there was this lovely old couple in our building..the sakhrani’s who had a daughter living in sri lanka and she used to send  dessicated coconut from there..aunty sakhrani always sent it to my mom and requested her to make the barfi..and always very kindly told her to keep half of it…mom made this barfi with only sugar made into chasni and the coconut with some kesar..and the amazing fragrance of saffron chasni simmering on the stove was divine,.and so was the barfi…and made me a lifelong fan of anything to do with coconut..

The credit for this recipe partly goes a close friend whose basic recipe has been given a twist by me….do try it out…its simplicity is the secret behind this yummy mithai.

Coconut barfi..
Ingredients.
100 gms unsalted butter
1 can condensed milk
125 gms or 150 gms dessicated coconut..as required, depending on the quality.
65 ml of thick coconut cream
Few drops rose essence

Method..
Heat the butter in a non stick pan, combine coconut cream and condensed milk..
Add to the melted butter
Heat it thru
Add the dessicated coconut..first add 125 gms and mix well..if the mixture is too runny you can add the remaining.
Stir on a low flame for abt 5 mins or untill the mixture leaves the sides of the pan..
Add few drops of essence and pour onto a greased tray or indivual small bowls..cover with varkh or few sliced pistachio nuts…and enjoy .

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Finally….

I am here… it took a lot of convincing from my family and my friends ….

Blogging always seemed rather formidable to me..but when it comes to my passion for food i felt i had to start putting down all that i have learned and still learning… the kitchen and me are partners in crime, whether failures or triumphs, many a dish has found its way to the bin when i felt it was not upto the mark or the table when it feels and tastes perfect…

Cooking has been an interest since the young age of 12 when i saw my mom catering for weddings…sindhi weddings had a particular rigidness to the food offered during the 1970’s..if you were from a middleclass family the norm was to serve A PLATE…so called plate was either a paper plate or plastic… a chutney sandwich , a sindhi sambosa, a potato tikki, some potato chips and a gulab jamun… and to wash it all down u were given a drink…cococola or limca or fanta…and when mom had a catering order for 100 0r 300 people..her kitchen was busy with her two BHAIYAS…cooks from bihar…and the tantalizing fragrance of the sambosa fillings to the sweet gulabjamun being fried…were truely amazing…and the best part of it all was the leftovers we got to eat…even bring to school for breakfast…of course those were the days when we could eat and eat without even thinking about the calories…calories was an alien word…life was simple and fun….

As the years passed it was my mother who was my teacher for the sindhi food and tarla dalal for more adventurous cooking…. i just wanted to experiment with food and more food….

Today as a mother of four beautiful children …i feel i still have a lot to learn… and so the experiments and trials go on.. i hope you will have a chance to look into my life as i start writing this blog….

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