Basundi recipe is an Indian dessert popular in Maharashtra and Gujarat. It is a calorie rich, scrumptious dessert prepared by simmering the milk for a long time until it reduced to half of its volume, finally flavored with saffron, almonds and pistachios. This is one of my top favorite sweet. I used to eat a lot in my college days as my father used to get me kesar basundi every week from Agarwal sweets. My husband has not tasted it before so I made this easy and tasty basundi recipe  for diwali. Addition of almonds and pistachios to basundi recipe adds a nice crunch to this creamy dessert. Saffron imparts color and flavor to the dish. When you make basundi , always scrap the sides of vessel while cooking, as that will make the basundi thick and imparts creamy texture. It is served as a dessert or sweet accompaniment in lunch or during any Indian festivals like diwali. Also it tastes great with gulab jamun or hot malpuas.

Ingredients

3 Cups of Milk (2 % or Full Fat)
3-4 Tbsp of White Sugar
20 Saffron Strands
10 Almonds, Chopped
10 Cashews, Chopped
10 Pistachios, Chopped
Pinch Of Nutmeg Powder
3 Cardamom, Powdered
1 Tsp of Ghee (Melted Butter), Optional

    To Garnish

             

Method   

• Chop the almonds, cashews and pistachios . Powder the cardamom with mortar and pestle.
• Soak the saffron in 2 tsp of warm milk and keep this aside.
• Take a heavy bottomed vessel, add the milk, bring the milk to boil and reduce the flame, cook on the slow flame, till the volume is reduced to half of its volume. Keep on stirring and continuously scrap the sides and bottom of the pan, otherwise the milk would get stick to the bottom.
• Once the milk reduced to half of its volume, this would take 30 mins,  add all the chopped nuts(almonds, cashews and pistachios), nutmeg powder, cardamom powder and saffron cook this for another 15-20 mins in a slow flame, keep on stirring, otherwise you would get burnt flavor.
• After the milk thickened and got a nice flaky layer of cream on top, add sugar and mix well, cook for another 10 mins and turn off the flame.
• Serve warm or chilled garnished with almonds and pistachios .
• I love chilled basundi as it tastes divine and it thickens more when it is chilled.

Tips

• Adjust the amount of sugar according to your taste.
• You can also use evaporated or condensed milk in place of full cream or 2% milk.
• You can also make flavored basundi by the addition of strawberry or oranges after step 3, to make strawberry basundi or orange basundi respectively.
• Addition of nutmeg powder is for easy digestion.
• If you use condensed milk or evaporated milk, do not add sugar to it.
• Addition of saffron gives a nice color and flavor.
• Always use heavy bottomed pan to make it otherwise milk will burn and stick to the pan.
• When you keep basundi in fridge, make sure the consistency is thin and otherwise it would turn thick on next day.                   

          

  Murukku means “Twisted” in Tamil Language. Murukku is a south Indian savory snack of crispy and crunchy in taste, made from rice and urad dal flour. You can make murukku in different ways with rice as main ingredient. Varieties differs by the addition of gram flour or roasted gram flour or urad dal flour or peanut flour in addition to rice. I already posted mullu murukku recipe in my blog.
This Thenkuzhal Murukku recipe is one of my childhood favorite snack and my mom makes the best murukku for diwali. I wanted to post this recipe for long time but I don’t have the murukku plate, so I asked my mom to make this murukku for my blog. Below murukku recipe is made by my mom and she also send some pictures of the recipe taken by my sister in law (subha). Thank you amma and subha for this tasty recipe and mouthwatering photographs..Try this thenkuzhal murukku recipe for diwali and enjoy 🙂

தேன்குழல்  முறுக்கு

Ingredients

1 Cup of Rice Flour
1/4 Cup of Urad Dal Flour
1/2 Tsp of Whole Cumin Seeds
1/2 Tsp of Sesame Seeds
Pinch of Asafoetida (Hing)
1 Tbsp of Hot Oil
1 Tbsp of Butter
Salt and Water as needed

     Method

• In a bowl, add rice flour, urad dal flour, whole cumin, sesame seeds, asafoetida, butter, hot oil and salt, mix well. Add water little by little to form a soft, non sticky dough without any cracks.
• Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan to deep fry the murukku.
• Grease the murukku press with oil, place the murukku plate in the press, then place the dough.
• Grease the ladle with oil, press the murukku press to make murukku over the laddle in the form of circle.
• To test the oil, just drop a small ball of dough, if it rises up, your frying oil is ready.
• Drop the murukku from the laddle into the hot oil, fry them in medium flame until it turns golden color.
• Cook both the sides until  “Sssh” sounds goes off. Take the murukku carefully from pan, drain them in paper towel, let it cool down for sometime and store it in an airtight container.

 Tips

• Here I used store bought rice and urad dal flour.
• Butter gives a nice flavor and taste.
• Addition of hing is for easy digestion.
• Make sure you keep the dough covered throughout to avoid  drying of the dough.
• If your murukku is hard, then the amount of oil is not enough in the dough.