Kaju halwa/Cashew pudding

Ingredients
Raw Cashew nuts - 1 cup
Green cardamom - 2
Milk  (I used ALEXANDRE FAMILY FARMS Organic, Cream Top Whole Milk,  about 48 FZ)

Sugar - 4 tsp or to taste
Saffron a pinch
Ghee - 1/3 tsp for smell

Method

1. Bring milk to boil. Reduce flame and make it thicker.
2. You may add milk powder.
3. In a coffee grinder, add cashew and cardamom and make a powder. You can also use this to make badam milk.
4. Add the dry ground cashew and cardamom powder in batches while stirring so that no lumps are formed. Cook for another 15-20 mins or until all raw cashew is cooked.
5. Add saffron strands and a little ghee when it is almost done. Kill the flame. Let it cool and then serve. You can top it with ghee roasted cashew.

Sunday dinner scene- roti and bhindi masala from DoorDash, 

homemade cilantro chicken and cashew halwa 

Close up of Kaju Halwa

Thandai recipe

Grind poppy seeds, raw almonds, raw cashews, fennel seeds, white peppercorn (cardamom optional) to a powder. Add sugar to taste, saffron strands, rose water, and raw cold milk.
You may also use rose syrup or Rooh Afza as a variation.

Vanilla custard with mangoes

Here are two methods to do it A and B.

1. You can use (A) milk, vanilla custard powder of you choice or work with (B) coconut milk, egg yolks and vanilla essence.
2. Use ripe but firm mangoes, cut them into bite sized cubes.
3. (A)In a saucepan, bring milk to boil, add 4 tsp of custard powder and 2 tsp condensed milk. No sugar needed. OR alternately, (B) you can bring coconut milk to boil and whisk in 3 egg yolks, sugar to taste and vanilla essence. In either case, stir continuously so no lumps are formed.  You may also strain the custard through a sieve as an extra measure.
4. Pour into ramekins, add the mango and cool. Serve cold.

My mom makes it differently (the best way so far)- In step 3, she reduces the milk in saucepan while she mixes the custard powder in a little cold milk and add its later on.

In case there are lumps, you can sieve the custard to remove them.

You can also skip the mangoes and pour caramel over the custard to make vanilla creme brulee.

Sukto

SG loves sukto. And I,  being an North-Eastern Bengali (from the Bangal clan), consider it a typical West Bengali (Ghoti) dish, somewhat foreign. Hence, I had some trepidation about making my first sukto, but love makes you do crazy things. So, it was no brainer that I'd eventually try making it. My MIL is a Bangal too, but she makes awesome sukto. That gave me hope.

Traditionally, you need the following vegetables
Potatoes
Radish
Eggplant
Ridged Gourd
Drumsticks
Green Banana
Bitter gourd

I added Carrot and Peas too.

1. Cut the vegetables into bite-sized pieces and heat mustard oil in wok/dutch oven.
2. Most people use Panch  phoron for tempering, I was whimsical and picked nigella seeds instead. 
3. Add the vegetables that take longer time to cook eg potatoes, radish etc first. Save the bitter gourd for the last. Adding it in the beginning will make the sukto too bitter.
4. Add freshly grated ginger.
5. Add enough milk and water, cover and cook in medium-low flame. Pay attention, milk burns easily.
6. I dry ground mustard and poppy seeds and added them in the end. Don't boil mustard powder too long- heat turns it bitter. You can add sugar too.

Almond milk with Savoiardi

Great for midnight cravings