Aara from Sweets & Spices

Dear Lovelies,

Today I'm going to share with you, our first " Invitation Post". The reason I created this page its for all of us to get connected, sharing recipes, skills, ideas etc..

Our first guest recipe will be Sweets & Spices, she's a bubbly and jovial person..and she'll be sharing with us her Eid dish its called Sheer Khurma. I told Aara that I would love to know how she celebrated Eid in her country and what food do they served..as we all know different country different food..as for my country Malaysia, we serve Ketupat, Rendang, Kuih raya, Lemang etc..there's a lot of dish..So, Aaara told me her most important & a must dish is Sheer Khurma, Its look yummy and its taste perfect! I shall try this recipe :)..okay, enough me talking non stop..I will share you this beautiful Sheer Khurma ...enjoy lovelies..

Sweets&Spices


Hello to all the readers!! This Is Aara From Sweets & Spices. This is my 1st guest post and I thank shazzy for giving me this wonderful opportunity.  For Sure I couldn’t neglect her email, though it was late to reply, but I had no second thought about doing it. Since we have just celebrated Eid, Shazzy wanted something which we cook and eat specially in our country. And yes!! There was nothing other than Sheer Khurma I can talk about!! When its Eid It is all About SHEER KHURMA Only!!!

Sheer is Milk and Khurma is other dry ingredients we add into it. I guess it was originated from Persia and came to us thru Mughals as another food gift to us. In Persia dates is called khurma, May be they used to consume Milk and dates in different way which was called sheer khurma, and with the time the entire thing got changed. If im asked about something authentication in food I would just ask back what???
I seriously feel there is nothing called as authentic food coz things have been changing and alterations are been made rapidly according to availability and time available. Likewise the sheer khurma Im going to share here is cannot be called authentic I need to call down spirits of mughal cooks and make them taste my version to call it authentic lolz, or wat about write down recipes from them? :D

Hehe no more jokes This recipe is signature dish from my dad. Since many food bloggers had posted about sheer khurma in ramdhan I was not in mood to post it again and bore up the audience. I had put this aside may be for next year lolz until shazzy had approached me.
So the above was a short intro on sheer khurma!!
Since its Sheer Khurma my most loved dessert which we make only once a year Im not going to make any compromise in letting reader of other countries know about it.
Honestly we make approx 45-50 liters sheer khurma  I know its too much But one big vessel goes to my grandma’s place, We make for them as well, and one stays with us, we then pack it and distribute among our relatives in locals and also serve this to our guest who come to visit us. It’s the serving at my home unlimited.
Depending on choices People across India Either choose Vermicelli sweets or sheer khurma. When we Swim in sheer khurma, I know my relatives in Orrisa really don’t much of it, They make just normal vermicelli sweets for the grand celebration. Which is no less than sheer khurma!!!

This is vermicelli sweet called Meethi Sewai which is generally made Across India. Who don’t make sheer khurma make sure they make at least this!! There is lots of differences in cooking and celebrating as India Is a multi cultured country.  I shall talk in general without making it too much complicated and boring 

Getting back to the recipe of sheer khurma!!

This surely needs some preparations ahead But Can be cooked in short time!!

Ingredients

2  liters full cream milk

Dry dates - 20

Almonds blanched – 3tbsp

Cashew nuts – 3tbsp

Chironji – 3tbsp (charoli in hindi)

Raisins – 3 tbsp

Pistachio – 3 tbsp

2 cup sugar or more if needed

Vermicelli – 2 cups (thin variety)

Cardamom Powder 1/4th  tsp

Dry Coconut – ½ cup

Ghee / Clarified Butter – 500gms (used as per needed)

Pre Preparations Needed:

- Boil Dry dates till its soft, making sure don’t boil it too much and make it very tender. It should be tender enough to go through knife, to chop it into pieces.

- Blanch Almonds and make roughly little thicker slices, say 4-5 slices / almond

- Blanch Pistachio and again slice it 3-4 slices / pistachio

- Crush the cashews in a motor pestle / with rolling pin

- Crush the chironji a little too 

- Chop the dry coconut and crush it in motor pestal / coarsely grind it making sure not to make it powder but just kind of crushed!! 20 – 25 sec pulse will do.

- Wash the raisins and keep it aside, this is done to avoid any blackish effect, as u wash you shall see water turning dark. 

Frying Part: (you shall keep all fried ingredients in one bowl itself)

- In a pan, add ghee 2 tablespoon approx, add in dry dates and fry till golden brown and remove it. Drain of all extra ghee into the pan itself

- Fry in the raisins in the same pan. Remove it once golden brown and drain extra ghee.

- If extra ghee is needed add in more to the pan, and now fry coarsely ground coconut , once it gets to golden color add in crushed cashews and chironji. Fry for 2 more mins and again drain of the extra ghee remove it.
- Fry the vermicelli in ghee till well roasted. Just to avoid starchy smell if it might emit.

Keep everything Read and chilled down to room temp.

Cooking Part:

- Boil milk in a wide big pot which can hole approx 3 liters capacity. Add in half liter water into it.

(we make this much in 2 such containers)

- Once it starts boiling sim the flame and add in all the fried ingredients into the milk.

- Once this start to boil a little, add in sugar and make it come to boil. Check sugar according to your taste though!!

- Boil the content after adding sugar for a min,

- Add in 2 tablespoon ghee and mix in well and switch of the flame.

- Add in cardamom powder, sliced almonds and pistachio.

- Close the lid and let it rest for half hr. Allowing the vermicelli to thicken, and flavors to infuse.

(the consistency should be like this, this is a separate pic sugarless which I made for granny I added little more milk to this later coz of its thickening)

- You shall also see ghee floating on top but don’t bother, you can easily use a spoon and remove it from top. You shall get clean ghee out of it trust me :D you gotta just be gentle while removing ghee. If your not much calorie conscious, let it sit there, and serve ur guest sheer khurma as it is 

Notes:

- I've written 500gms ghee, coz its always good to have ghee in hand, as we r doing the frying process cannot exactly determine the exact amount. But for sure 500gms wont b utilized the whole as we keep draining of the excessive ghee for reuse

- Using water in milk is because the fried ingredients will soak up moisture and expand so no harm, in case u want really rich add extra half liter milk

- We don’t add milkmaid or cream for extra richness, coz flavors might change. These flavors in itself is amazing 

- I cannot talk of omitting any ingredient as each of them is so important for flavoring.

- You may have extra milk and vermicelli in hands, If u see your sheer khurma turned very thick in case vermicelli absorbs milk, you can boil milk separately and add milk to this. In case if u find ur sheer khurma too much liquid form can add in extra vermicelli and adjust accordingly!!

Surely it takes so much of preparation work but its total worth all the time it consumes 

It may be the long post for me but its worth it! :D I love this sheer khurma from Aara..her delicious recipe its worth to try! Enjoy lovelies...