Kaju Barfi

A very happy new year to all my dear blog readers and friends! Today I like to share a desert recipe, since it's new year and like to start new year with sweetness in mouth as well in our lives to continue all year long...!

I started to watch food channel, when I came to this country, until then there was not much cooking shows in India, or as far as I remember there was no cooking shows on TV! But here it was hard to find vegetarian cooking shows and I was not comfortable watching non-vegetarian cooking shows.  But I used to admire and learn many small things from these shows....and it's so nice to see the beautiful, colorful pots and pan, and all co-ordinated well, the background kitchen, the chef's efficient ways of cooking.....it's all fun to watch, which really gives a lot of motivation to cook.

These shows definitely gives you motivation and ideas to cook!  My husband used to watch these shows regularly and that's how I got used to watch these and appreciate cooking more! And now I see that every other channel you turn on, there is a cooking show, in India too!  That's really a good news for people like me, who are hardcore vegetarians!

When my mother-in-law comes here, we have Indian channels subscribed and we used to unsubscribe Indian channels when she went back to India, but this time even after she left, we still have Indian channels coming, since the package deal was to subscribe for one year! So we land up watching some movies or shows on weekend.....and I got interested in cooking show, which comes for one hour.

This particular show is not just about sharing recipes, they have doctors, dietitians who comes on the show and explain and share the nutritional value of the ingredients and the purpose of eating a healthy meal every day! But, of course, everything cannot be always about healthy eating and diet, now and then it's OK to sneak on desserts/fat/deep fried foods!  So yesterday I happened to come across this recipe which is called as "Kaju Barfi", which is made with cashew nuts, Kaju in hindi means Cashew nuts.  This recipe they showed was very simple, very easy and will take less than 10 mins, if you follow the recipe as it is, according to the chef! And cashew nuts are very expensive in India and this desert is also expensive if you have to buy it!

And I wanted to try it out immediately since this is my daughter's favorite desert!  So to start the new year, this morning I tried making Kaju Barfi, which came out awesome and both my kids and husband loved it. My mother, who watches the same show in India, also tried the same recipe and she said it came out very yummy! So today I love to share this recipe with you, and wishing you all once again happy new year and hoping the year will be as sweet as Kaju Barfi!

Ingredients:

Cashew nuts - 1 cup
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Ghee - 2 Tbsp
Cardamom - 3-4

Method:

Make a fine powder of cashew nuts in the mixer. Make a fine powder of cardamom and keep it aside. Grease aluminum foil with ghee and keep it aside.  In a non-stick pan (I suggest to use a non-stick dish), add sugar and 3 Tbsp of water on a medium flame, keep stirring until you see the sugar is dissolved and it starts to boil, with bubbles, and you see that it becomes thick and sticky, immediately add powdered cashew nuts, ghee and cardamom and keep stirring thoroughly until it leaves the sides and becomes little thick in consistency.

Immediately pour on the greased aluminum foil and spread it evenly with the rolling pin and cut into diamond shapes with the pizza cutter or knife.

Enjoy Kaju Barfi with your family and friends, which does not take too much of time nor money!