Malai Laddoo/ Cottage Cheese Sweet - Think Pink

Before few days I got an invite from Arva of I live in a frying pan to join the Fooderati Arabia group...can't tell you how excited I was. I immediately accepted the invite and was happy to be a part of the group consisting of talented bloggers from UAE...these guys have wonderful blogs and I was amazed at how active they were in the group. They meet regularly, organize many monthly events, outings and they are a great support group. 

Through this group I came to know about Breast Cancer Awareness event. October is Breast Cancer awareness month and I am contributing by making a pink post. For people residing in Dubai~ our two fellow FIA members Rajani And Lin are donating 10% of their sales to the Safe & Sound- Breast Cancer Awareness Programme. Visit them at their FB page to know more.

Do support the breast cancer campaign by liking Safe & Sound.

Ingredients: 

Cottage Cheese( Paneer)- 250 grams

Condensed Milk- 3/4 Cup

Cardamom Powder- A pinch

Beetroot Purée- 1 tsp ( or few drops of red food colour)

Clarified Butter( ghee)- 2 tsp

Procedure:

• Grate and mash the cottage cheese.
• In a non stick pan add in the clarified butter along with cottage cheese and condensed milk and cook on low heat.
• When the mixture starts thickening and leaving the sides of pan add in the cardamom powder and turn of the heat.
• Transfer the mixture in a plate and divide it in two parts.
• In one part add in the beetroot purée/ food colour and mix it nicely. The mixture will turn pink in colour.
• Once the mixture cools take out a portion out of  the white part and roll it in a small marble size round and keep aside. 
• Then take the pink colour dough and take out a big portion out of it. Roll it in a little big round and then with thumb make an impression in the centre, keep the white coloured small marble inside it and then seal all the sides and make a round ball.
• Repeat the process with other balls as well.
• I made some with white centre and some with pink centre.

This is how the laddoos looked from inside.

These are best when served fresh but  can also be kept in refrigerator for 2 days.

Do check out what our other FIA members have posted for this event-

The Pink Ribbon - According To Dina
Pink Ribbon Salad- Life in the food lane
Strawberry & Fig Tartlet- Eaternal Zest
Raspberry Melting Moments/ Orange Blossom Fig Torte- La Me`re Culinaire
Super Foods And Cancer- Irina Savva
Chicken Curry Spring Rolls- Ginger & Scotch
Going Pink- Devina Divecha

Mysore Pak/ Gram Flour Fudge

Mysore Pak aka Gram Flour Fudge is a sinfully rich sweet with only three ingredients...a bite of it will make you crave for more and more...and if eaten without moderation it is sure to make us pull out fat pants from the closet. I was wondering about its name origin...and there came Wikipedia at my rescue. Mysore pak seems to be originated in the kitchen of royal palace of Mysore and hence got it's name.

Mysore Pak is of two kinds...one is a bit hard with crumbly texture and the other has soft and smooth texture and just melts in the mouth. Our family is fond of the softer one so I made this. I saw this recipe in Sharmi's space and immediately bookmarked it. Thanks for this wonderful recipe Sharmi...it's just so perfect.

Ingredients: ( Recipe Source- Sharmispassions)

Besan/ Gram Flour- 1 Cup

Ghee/ Clarified Butter- 1 Cup ( 3/4 Cup in flour and 1/4 Cup while stirring)

Sugar- 1 Cup

Water- 1/4 Cup

Procedure:

• Roast the gram flour in a non stick pan with 1 tsp of ghee. Roast in low heat by continuous stirring till the raw smell of flour disappears. 
• Sieve the flour so that there are no lumps.
• In a bowl put the flour and add the 3/4 Cup of ghee. Mix well without any lumps. Keep the paste aside for 15 minutes.
• Grease a plate with ghee and keep aside.
• Meanwhile mix together sugar and water in a non stick pan and keep on medium heat with occasional stirring till single thread consistency is achieved. 
• Keep the remaining 1/4 Cup of ghee to heat in low flame. 
• Now reduce the gas flame to low and add the flour paste slowly by slowly in the sugar syrup while continuously stirring it with another hand.
• Now start adding to it the hot 1/4th Cup of ghee slowly by slowly in intervals. Keep stirring.
• Slowly the mixture will start leaving the sides and it will start coming together without sticking to the pan.
• At this stage pour the mixture in the greased plate. It will spread itself smoothly.
• When little cool cut it into desired shapes.