"Sweet Treats"-My 'Kaju Katli' Saga

My 'Kaju Katli' Saga

I know what you are thinking...that's not how 'Kaju Katli' is supposed to look...that's a Pedha! Well..you are absolutely correct.....this was my try on Kaju Katli...which ended up being a pedha .

I was very excited yesterday,that I got the Kaju Katli recipe from my friend 'V'.

Both 'M' and 'E' love Kaju katli and today being 'Dussera' wanted to give it a try and surprise 'M'.

So this morning after dropping 'E' to pre school,stopped at TOPS on my way back, to pick up some raw cashews.Came home,pulled up the recipe given by 'V', and started to follow it.

The recipe calls for soaking the cashews in water for 1 hour and then grinding it into a coarse paste with very minimal amount of water.

Now, the problem is...I have this 'Hamilton Beach' Wave station blender....and to tell the truth..it's useless at times for Indian cooking. For most general applications where the water ratio doesn't matter..it's fine to use.But where you need to wet-grind without water or very little(like for medu vada's , for idli etc)....it practically can't! But surprisingly it can grind dry peanuts into a powder well!

Anyways....

So when I was grinding the cashew into paste,I ended up adding more water.In the latter steps I had to cook it longer than the recipe directions to form into dough. The when I tried to roll it out,it still was loose and sticky and wouldn't allow me to make those classic 'diamonds' of kaju katli.

I still had enough patience and enthusiasm,so I thought why not make 'Kaju Rolls' instead? So I mixed some green color and yellow color in parts of the dough and decided to make 'tri color' Kaju rolls. But in vain....

That didn't work out either....it was all sticky, wouldn't form into nice shapes...

So...finally with little (actually 'NO') patience left.....I rolled them into balls, like pedhas, and garnished them with sliced almonds(As seen in the picture above).

When 'M' came home for lunch, he said the pedhas look perfect and taste like Kaju katli..the shape doesn't matter..all that matters is the taste....etc.He also realized I wasn't happy with my current blender....so has offered to buy one ....which I like! Any Suggestions?

Till we buy the new blender,my friend 'V' had offered to demo the Kaju katli recipe for me...so will be posting the recipe..as soon as I learn it from her.

Till then..'Happy Dussera'!