These recipes combine familiar ingredients with California walnuts to create festive treats that can be prepared at home. The collection includes a stuffed Shahi Tukda with instant rabri, a walnut-infused Kalakand and a sesame-based barfi featuring walnuts and jaggery.
California Walnut Stuffed Shahi Tukda, by Chef Neha Deepak Shah, combines bread rolls filled with a walnut and khoya mixture with instant rabri.
The recipe calls for three to four bread slices with their corners removed. The filling requires one cup of roasted California walnuts, two tablespoons of ghee, half a cup of khoya, half a teaspoon of cardamom powder, two teaspoons of rose water, dried rose petals and one-fourth to half a cup of sugar, adjusted according to taste.
The instant rabri is prepared using half a tin of mithai mate, one cup of milk, sugar, half a teaspoon of cardamom powder, a few saffron strands dissolved in water and two teaspoons of milk powder. Dried rose petals, California walnuts and silver leaf are used for the garnish.
To prepare the filling, the roasted California walnuts are ground coarsely or crushed. Ghee is heated in a pan, and the ground walnuts are added and roasted lightly over medium heat with constant stirring. Crumbled mava is then mixed with the walnuts and cooked until the mixture becomes crumbly.
Cardamom powder and rose water are added, and the mixture is cooked for a few more minutes. Dried rose petals are mixed in before the pan is removed from the heat. The filling is then set aside to cool.
For the instant rabri, mithai mate is heated in a heavy-bottomed pan. Milk is added, and the mixture is cooked over medium heat with continuous stirring. Saffron water, cardamom powder and milk powder are added and cooked for a few minutes before the pan is removed from the heat.
The bread slices are flattened and rolled out using a rolling pin. Sugar is mixed into the prepared filling, which is placed in the centre of each slice. Water is applied to the edges of the bread before the slices are rolled tightly and sealed.
The prepared rabri is mixed and warmed over medium heat. Meanwhile, ghee is heated in a pan, and the rolls are lightly toasted on all sides. Each toasted roll is divided into two pieces.
Rabri is poured onto a flat dish, and the rolls are placed on it. More rabri is poured over the rolls before the dish is garnished with California walnuts, silver leaf and dried rose petals.
The second recipe, California Walnut Kalakand, by Shumaila Chauhan, combines homemade chena, condensed milk, walnuts and cardamom to prepare a festive sweet.
The ingredients include one and a half cups of walnuts, one litre of milk, one tablespoon plus one teaspoon of lemon juice, four to five powdered cardamoms, half a can of condensed milk and one-fourth teaspoon of rose water. Chopped walnuts and dried rose petals are used for the garnish.
The preparation begins with roasting the walnuts in a pan over medium-low heat for three to four minutes. They are allowed to cool before being chopped coarsely and set aside.
A strainer lined with muslin cloth is placed over a wide bowl. Whole milk is heated in a heavy-bottomed pan over medium-high heat, with frequent stirring, until it comes to a boil. The heat is then turned off, and one tablespoon of lemon juice is added and stirred into the milk. If required, another teaspoon of lemon juice is added until the milk curdles completely and the whey separates.
The curdled milk is poured into the muslin-lined strainer. The chena is washed to remove the lemon flavour, and a little excess water is squeezed out without overdoing it, as excessive squeezing can make the Kalakand too dry.
The edges of the muslin cloth are tied, and the chena is left hanging over the sink faucet for 10 to 15 minutes.
Condensed milk and chena are then added to a pan and mixed. The mixture is cooked over low heat with frequent stirring for 10 to 12 minutes, until it thickens slightly and begins to leave the sides of the pan. It should not be allowed to dry out completely.
Cardamom powder and chopped walnuts are added, with a few walnuts reserved for the topping. The mixture is spread in half of a greased eight-inch pan lined with parchment paper, allowing the Kalakand to remain thick.
The top is garnished with the reserved walnuts and dried rose petals. It is left to set for a few hours before being cut and served.
The third recipe, California Walnut and Til Barfi, by Shumaila Chauhan, combines walnuts, sesame seeds, jaggery and milk to prepare a festive barfi.
The ingredients include one tablespoon of ghee, 500ml of full-fat milk, half a cup of milk powder, half a cup of walnuts, one-fourth cup of chopped walnuts, three-fourths of a cup of sesame seeds, one-third of a cup of jaggery powder and half a teaspoon of cardamom powder.
To prepare the recipe, sesame seeds are heated in a pan over medium-low heat for three to four minutes until they turn slightly golden and begin to pop. They are allowed to cool before being ground coarsely, taking care not to burn them.
Walnuts are pulsed into walnut meal, with care taken not to over-grind them, as this could turn them into walnut butter.
Ghee is heated in a heavy-bottomed pan, followed by milk. The milk is brought to a soft boil over medium heat before milk powder is added. The mixture is cooked for 10 to 15 minutes with frequent stirring, while scraping the sides of the pan, until the milk is reduced by half.
Walnut meal and jaggery powder are added and mixed well. The mixture is cooked for another five to six minutes before the powdered sesame seeds are added.
After stirring for another two to three minutes, cardamom powder and chopped walnuts are added, with a few walnuts reserved for the topping. The mixture is stirred until it thickens, starts leaving the pan and takes on a doughy consistency. The heat is then turned off.
The cooked mixture is spread evenly in a greased five-inch by seven-inch pan lined with parchment paper. The reserved chopped walnuts are placed on top, followed by a sprinkling of sesame seeds.
The barfi is left to set in the refrigerator for an hour before being cut into rectangles and served.
Together, the three California walnut recipes offer different ways to incorporate the ingredient into Diwali sweets, from the bread-and-rabri layers of Shahi Tukda to the milk-based Kalakand and sesame-rich Til Barfi. Each recipe retains familiar festive flavours while introducing walnuts into the preparation, provid
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