Besan Burfi

Our favorite Nephew "Rahul" is getting married. It seems likes yesterday when I first met him, when he was just a little boy. It is a very special occasion for all of us. We are very happy for him and his lucky and very beautiful bride to be.

Wedding and reception preparations are at their peak at my sister-in-law's house. They are expecting lot of out of town guests as the bride to be is from West Coast. My dearest sister-in-law is very special to me. She was here for me when I first came to U.S and has always been here for us ever since.

She loves my Baklava and asked me if I could come and help her make Baklava for wedding guests who will be staying at her house.

While I was there she had also called one of my best friends who had recently made this Besan burfi for a Pooja at her house. This burfi was out of this world. I always wanted to know how she made this, so I was ecstatic when I found out that she was also coming to my sister-in-law's to make the burfi for her.

We had a great time exchanging recipes and making the sweet treats for the wedding guests. Both Baklava and Burfi came out great. Today I learned a different and easy way to make Besan Burfi than how I used to make and also a secret ingredient that I did not use for this recipe when I used to make it. Here is the recipe of Besan Burfi by my good friend Nita G.

Thank you Nita for the recipe and also Thank you Hansa Bhabhi for delicious lunch afterward, I was great !!



This recipe makes 80 small squares (1.5" x 1,5") of burfi or you can make 40 large rectangle or diamond shape burfi.




Ingredients:




* 3 cups of Besan



* 2 sticks of unsalted butter or Ghee



* 6 tablespoon of sooji (cream of wheat: "The Secret Ingredient")



* 1 and 1/2 cup of sugar



* 2 teaspoon Cardamom powder



* 5 strands of saffron (optional)



* 3 tablespoon milk



* 1/2 cup sliced almonds (you can also use sliced pistachios and almonds both, we only used almonds)





Method:




* Heat butter/ghee in a non stick frying pan until melted on stove.



* Turn the heat off and mix besan and sooji in butter/ghee so all of this is well incorporated.



* Turn the heat on and roast the besan and sooji on medium high heat constantly stirring with a wooden or cellophane spatula for about 20 -25 min until butter/ghee is separating from batter and it is light golden brown in color. You will smell a heavenly flavor emitting from roasted besan.



* Add saffron strands and milk and mix well, now you will see the texture of batter becoming a little granular, cook it for another 5-10 until golden brown constantly stirring.



* Turn the heat off and keep mixing the batter with spatula for about 10 min, until cools down. (you don't want to add sugar to very hot batter, because then the sugar will melt and the batter will become loose again)



* Add cardamom and sugar to cooled mixture and mix well until all the sugar is well incorporated in to batter.



* Spread wax paper on counter top and empty the content on the wax paper.



* With back side of a stainless steel bowl pat down the batter evenly to 1/2 cm thickness.



* Sprinkle the sliced Almonds and Pistachios (we just used almonds) on the patted batter.



* Press the almonds with back of stainless steel bowl on to flattened batter.



* Cut in to small squares and let it cool for about 15-20 min.



* Separate the squares with knife very carefully sliding each square ever so slowly and carefully with knife so does not break.



* Transfer them in air tight box in layers separating each layer with wax paper.



* Burfi will stay good for about 2 wks at room temp or can be refrigerated if want to keep it for 4-5 wks, but believe me it is so delicious that it will not last that long.



Enjoy :)



Recipe Source: A very good friend of mine Ms. Nita G. who I have known for 30 years now. Thank you Nita :)


Photographs by Surekha.

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