Kuch meetha ho jaaye iss Republic Day!
Chef Rajesh Paramashivan's Kesar Pearls In Baked Yoghurt go well with the R-Day theme and are a post-lunch/dinner treat.
It is time consuming, and you'll need to make it a day in advance, but it's guaranteed to steal the limelight on your dinner table.
Chef Paramashivan, who trained as a pastry chef at Sathaye College, Mumbai, delights in making all kinds of tempting desserts.
Kesar Pearls In Baked Yoghurt
Serves: 5-6
Ingredients
For the baked yogurt
- 250 gm hung curd
- 60 gm icing sugar
- 100 gm condensed milk
- 125 gm fresh cream
- 5 gm green elaichi or cardamom powder
- An earthen pot
- Chopped nuts of choice to garnish, green pistas preferable
- Varak or silver foil, to garnish
For the sugar syrup
- 200 gm sugar
- 100 ml water
- 2 green elaichi or cardamom
- 1 gm kesar or saffron strands
- 50 ml rose water
For the boondi or sweet pearls
- 250 gm besan or gram flour or chickpea flour
- Pinch baking soda
- 90 ml water
- 1 gm kesar or saffron strands
- Oil for deep frying
Method
For the baked yogurt
- Mix all the ingredients together in mixing bowl.
Whisk until smooth.
Pour the mixture into an earthen pot.
Bake in a 150°C oven for 16 minutes in a water bath (in an oven-proof pan placed inside another pan with boiling water).
Take out of the oven and refrigerate for 2 hours.
For the sugar syrup
- In a saucepan over low-medium heat, combine the sugar and the water.
Keep stirring as you add the saffron strands and the cardamom.
Make sure you slit open the cardamom before adding it.
Add the rose water for flavouring.
Keep stirring until a thick syrup.
Take off heat and keep aside.
For the boondi or sweet pearls
- The boondi needs to be fried around the same time as the sugar syrup as it will need to be dunked in the warm syrup.
Add the water to the gram flour and whisk well to form a smooth batter.
Add the saffron strands to the mixture.
Add the baking soda and whisk well. - Heat oil in a kadhai or frying pan over high heat.
Holding a perforated ladle just above the oil, add the besan mixture using a squeeze bottle.
Let the boondi fry in the oil.
Drain and immediately add it to the hot sugar syrup.
Let it rest for an hour.
Use a strainer to remove the boondi and let the excess syrup drain.
Take the baked yoghurt out from the refrigerator.
Top it with the sweet boondi and chopped nuts as a garnish.
Chef Rajesh Paramashivan is the head pastry chef at Peche Mignon, the French cafe at Novotel Mumbai Juhu Beach.
