1. Take a deep bottom vessel and pour milk in it.
2. Bring the milk to boil on a medium heat.
3. Once it boils, turn the flame to low and continue to heat it . Let it boil till it reduces to 2/3 quantity.
4. Now add sugar and continue to boil till the sugar gets dissolved. It takes about 5 minutes.
5. Keep stirring while the sugar gets dissolved to avoid the sugar from sticking the bottom of vessel.
6. Add the raisins and dates when the sugar gets dissolved and cook it further for 5 minutes.
7. Now add the vermicelli and cook for 3-4 minutes. Keep stirring often.
8. Add the saffron (kesar) to it milk and stir well.
9. Once the vermicelli softens , reduce the heat and cook it for 15 minutes more.
10. Keep stirring often.
11. Now turn off the heat and add the rose water and kewra essence.
12. Keep it aside for some minutes.
13. Garnish it with chopped and blanched almonds and pistachios.
14. Serve hot or cold as per desire.

Preparation Time: 20 minutes

Cooking Time: 1 hour 20 minutes

Serves: 4 persons

Shelflife: 1 day

Serving Suggestion: Serve hot either hot or chilled after meals.

Note:

• Roast the vermicelli till it changes the colour. But dont ever over fry it.
• Reduce the milk to some quantity by heating it. U can measure it by the thickness of milk .
• You need not Reduce it to half the amount but just 2/3 of quantity.
• For blanching the almonds and pistachios, boil 2 cups of water and put the almonds and pistachios in it. Keep it inside the boil water for some 10 minutes. Then drain the water and removed the skin. You can then chop them thin into desired shapes .
• Kewra essence is available in market. It is used to add a aromatic touch to the cuisine. Rose water too does the same.
• Saffron is added to give the cuisine a good colour.

Click here to learn more about Uttarpradesh Foods and cuisines : An Introduction To Uttarpradesh Foods and Cuisines.

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1. Blend all the ingredients of Green chutney and make a fine paste of it. Reserve and keep aside.
2. Take together all the ingredients of Tamarind chutney and boil them in a deep bottom vessel till it is reduced to half. Remove from fire and allow it to cool. Grind it to make a smooth consistency of it and keep aside.
3. Chop the onions, tomaotoes and chillies finely and keep aside. Cumcumber and carrots are optional. Grate them and keep aside. As such the original bhel puri recipe doesnt include carrots and cucumber but some add for added taste or for garnishing. Even finely chopped raw mangoes or kairi adds good taste to bhel puri.
4. Take a deep bottomed large vessel so that it becomes easy to mix the ingredients .
5. Put the chopped onions, tomatoes, chillies and puffed rice in the vessel. Mix them properly. Add the mashed potatoes and mix them.
   
6. Now add the powders like red chilli powder, salt, turmeric powder and mix them well.
7. Now add the chutneys like tamarind chutney and mint chutney and mix well. The bhel should get coated with the chutney and look reddish orange in colour.
8. Now crush the golgappas and few papdis and add them to the bhel. Also add the coriander leaves, sev and sprinkle some lemon juice and mix well.
9. Bhel puri is ready to eat. Take a wide plate and put the bhel puri on the plate and garnish it with sev, chopped coriander leaves . Sprinkle little chaat masala on top and place a spoon in the middle of bhelpuri. Do serve this immediately or else the puffed rice would eat up lot of moisture and loose its puffiness.
10. Enjoy the spicy tangy bhelpuri .
    

• Chop the onions and tomatoes finely.
• You can skip the chillies in case if you dont like it.
• Add 1 tablespoon og tomato ketchup to the bhel while adding the chutney and mix. It gives added taste to the bhelpuri
• If you dont have papdis and golgappas, then crush some Khari and add. It gives the same crunchiness and taste to bhelpuri.
• Sprinkling some chaat masala adds a extra taste to bhelpuri. Some add a pinch of black salt too. Even that gives a good taste.

1. Put the chicken pieces on a large plate and rub them all over with the lemon juice. Set aside for 20 minutes, then pat dry with kitchen towels.
2. Mix the salt, cayenne and flour together on a second plate and roll the chicken pieces in it, shaking off any excess.
3. Melt the butter in a frying-pan.
   
4. Add the chicken pieces and fry until they are evenly browned. As they brown, transfer the pieces to a plate.
5. Add the onions, garlic, ginger and cumin seeds to the pan and fry until they are golden brown.
6. Stir in the yogurt, cream and lemon rind. Return the chicken pieces to the pan and turn in the mixture to coat thoroughly.
7. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat to low and cover. Simmer the chicken for 1 hour, or until it is cooked through and tender.
8. Uncover the pan for the last 20 minutes to allow the sauce to thicken somewhat.
9. Discard the lemon rind and transfer the chicken and sauce to a warmed serving dish. Serve at once.

• Use fresh Cream while cooking. Double heavy cream is available readymade in stores and is made from skimmed milk. It is much thicker and taste more delicious.
• If you are cooking this cuisine using a oven, then cook it over 650 C and stir it by taking in out after every 20 minutes after adding the yoghurt and cream.
• Dont forget to remove the lemon rinds.
• Use large peices of chicken for cooking this recipe.
• Fry the jeera in the pan till a slight aroma comes from it and it turns brown, so that the cuisine turns out aromatic and fresh jeera aroma spreads when served.

1. Heat oil in pan, add mutton and cook it for 2-3 minutes.
2. Now add onions, green chilies, salt, coriander powder, red chili powder, ginger and garlic paste and mix it well. Now cook it in its own water.
3. Beat yogurt with black pepper till it becomes creamy.
4. When the mutton dries its own water then add more water and cook it covered till meat becomes tender.
5. Now add yogurt, mint leaves and whole 3 green chilies.
6. Cook further for 5-6 minutes till yoghurt is cooked.
7. Turn off the flame and keep it side away from fire.
   
8. Put a piece of bread in the middle of the pan and then put the litted coal on it.
9. Drop a little bit of oil on litted coal and cover the pan immediately for 3-4 minutes.
10. Later remove the bread with spatula or some hard heat proof object and serve it
    
11. Serve hot with naan.

• Dont try this recipe unless you are sure of it. Coal is not that easy to handle at home and can be scary at times.
• Dont touch the coal with your hand and dont keep in moist place. Dont place near heat or fire.
• This recipe can be tried without coal too, in that case use a tandoor . Place it over tandoor for few minutes before serving.

1. In a heavy bottomed pan, on medium heat, add in the the Milk and the Rice.
2. Grind the Saffron with a little bit of Sugar and add it to the Milk.
3. Meanwhile, soak the Raisins in a little bit of water to help puff them up.
4. Keep stirring the pan and make sure it does not burn at the bottom.
5. Cook till it is of desired thickness.
6. Once it reaches the desired thickness, add in the Sugar. Mix well.
7. Add in the Dry fruits - Raisins (without the water), Pistachios and the Almonds.
8. Turn off the flame and add in the Powdered Cardamom.
9. Serve hot or cold.

• If you are making the rice just for the Kheer, over cook the rice just a little.
• This is a great recipe if you don’t have a lot of time but alternatively, you can add in raw rice and cook it in the milk and it tastes great. But be very careful and and keep stirring frequently.
• If you like a smoother texture of rice in the kheer, just mash it lightly before adding it to the Milk.
• If you are cooking in Microwave , then cook it at 850W after mixing milk, rice, cardamom, sugar and saffron in microwave proof dish.Then add some heated ghee and nuts and further cook for 10 minutes.
  

Before frying the batter, sugar syrup is prepared and is usually flavored with edible camphor,cloves, cardamom and saffron. The fried material is then dipped in sugar syrup until it expands in size and soaks up a significant amount of the syrup. In Northern India and Pakistan, imartis are usually drained, so tend to be drier than jalebis. The pieces can be served hot, at room temperature, or sometimes refrigerated.

Ingredients:

Urad dal(skinless) - 1 cup

Rice - 1/4 cup

Sugar - 5 cups (use 3 cups if you dont have a sweet tooth)

Safforn (kesar) - 2 teaspoons

Edible orange colour (kesari colour) - 1 pinch (optional)

Cardamom Powder - 1 teaspoon

Ghee - for deep fry

Rose essence - 5-6 drops (optional)

For decoration:

Pistachios (blanched and slivered) - 7-8nos.

Method:

1. Soak dal and rice together for about forty-five minutes.
2. Drain and grind with the colour to a soft, spongy mixture with a coarse texture.
3. Just use one cup of water to grind, sinc the batter should not be too thin in consistency.
4. Add colour and mix very well.
5. If using a mixie, beat the dal well by hand till fluffy after grinding.
6. Keep aside for 3 hours. More is weather is cold.
   
7. Boil sugar with two and a half cups of water till a syrup of single-thread consistency is reached.
8. Remove from heat and strain the syrup.
9. Add saffron, rose essence and green cardamom powder. Keep the syrup hot.
10. Heat sufficient oil or ghee in a deep bottom kadai for frying the imarthis. Pour sufficient oil or ghee , so that the ghee.
11. Take one ladle full of batter in the imarti cloth, hold tightly and press the batter through the hole into the hot oil. For the traditional design, make a small circle around which make another circle and over these two make scallops in anti-clockwise direction ending at the starting point.
12. If cloth is not comfortable for making the Imartis, then use a bottle with noozle.
    
13. Lower the flame and make small batches and deep fry on both the sides till crisp and light golden brown.
14. Drain the hot imarti and dip into the sugar syrup. Let them remain immersed till they have absorbed enough syrup.
15. Drain and place the imarti on a flat plate. Repeat this process till all the batter is used up.
16. Soak for 3-4 minutes, drain and serve.
17. Repeat for remaining batter.
18. Make 4-5 imartis at a time, depending on size of frying pan.
19. Serve hot garnished with pistachio slivers.
    

Preparation time: 2o minutes (excluding the soaking and fermenting time)

Cooking time: 40-45 minutes.

Serves: 4-5 persons, makes 16-20 imarthis.

Shelflife: 5-6 days (if stored properly in air tight container).

Serving suggestion: serve hot or warm as per choice.

Note:

• Use a flat bottomed frying pan.
• The imarti bottle can be substituted with a soft plastic sauce bottle with a nozzle.
• If not available, take a 12"x 12" thick cloth, make a buttonhole type hole in centre.
• Place over a tumbler and pour in some batter.
• Hold like a pouch and press out imartis like icing.
• Shape the imartis as follows, make a ring first, then form small ringlets all along the ring.
• Till you come to the start.

Click here to know more about Uttar Pradesh foods and recipes - An Introduction To Uttar Pradesh Foods And Recipes.

1. Prepare Chicken Stock beforehand and keep aside. Click the chicken Stock underlined for chicken stock recipe.
2. Take a deep-wide sauce pan so that rice can easily prepare in it.
3. Fry onions in the oil until they become light golden in color.
4. Mean while add cinnamon, cloves, cardamoms in the onion so that a pleasant smell and aroma starts to come from the oil.
5. Now add tomato pieces, ginger garlic paste, red chili powder and turmeric powder and cook until tomato becomes soft and tender to form gravy.
6. After that add green chilies, mint leaves and cook for further 2 minutes with ½ cup of water.
7. Now add hot boiled and drained chicken stock with chicken pieces only to the gravy and let it boil and mix in the gravy.
8. Add rice in the end and if rice would not completely dip in the stock sauce, add more water so that all the rice should cover.
9. Cover the pan and cook rice on high flame until the sauce starts boiling and absorb in rice, it would take 8-10 mins.
10. When the sauce almost absorbs in the rice, reduce the flame to very low and cook for further 10 mins so that rice become tender and soft.
11. When the chicken pilaf becomes ready serve it hot in a beautiful rice dish with raita or any meat curry.
    

• In case, chicken stock is not available with you, then use normal water. Chicken stock would make the recipe even more tastier but water can be used when it is not available.
• Chop the tomatoes finely and also chop the onions finely like julienne.
• Some do add chopped green chillies. But I havent opted for it.
• Use a non sticky deep bottom pan to avoid any trouble of stickings at the bottom.
• This Pulao doesnt need Basmati rice as importantly. So even a normal rice can be used to cook Yakhni Pulao.
  

1. Mix the flour, semolina or rice flour, baking powder, curd and 3/4th cup of the water in a bowl (preferably a ceramic bowl). Mix well with a whisk.
2. Mix well and then add remaining water and 1/8th tsp. of saffron powder, and whisk until smooth.
3. Whisk them till it is of free flowing consistency.
4. Set aside for about 2 hours to ferment.
5. Whisk thoroughly before use. That is again whisk it before deep frying them.
6. Prepare one string syrup by dissolving sugar in the water.
7. Just before the syrup is ready add saffron and cardamom powder.
8. Heat oil in a kadai.
9. Take a pressable plastic bottle with a nozzle or place a hole at the top of it. Use this for making jalebis. Even coconut shell with a hole can also be used. Or a plastic cone with a nozzle can be used for the same.
10. Pour Batter with the help of the bottle in the kadai. Pour slowly and one by one. Pour them in the shape of coil. (see pic2)
    
11. Make just few at a time.
12. Deep fry them until they are golden and crisp all over but not brown.
13. Remove from the kadhai and drain on kitchen paper and immerse in the syrup.
14. Leave for at least 4-5 minutes so that they soak the syrup.
15. Take the jalebi out of syrup and serve hot.It can be served warm too. Enjoy the tempting delicious Jalebis.

• The pouring consistency of batter should be smooth and free flowing.
• These days jalebis bottles are available in market, or else you can use sauce bottle with a hole at the top of it for pouring the batter.
• Garnishing can be added with few strings of kesar strings and finely chopped Badams.