recipes

waheguru ji ka khalsa, waheguru ji ki fateh!

i thought it might be nice to have some recipes for commonly purchased foods that can be made at home instead. please feel free to add your recipes. i'm trying to make a greater variety of foods at home, so i'll post recipes regularly.

today i made "bebeki" peanut brittle (the american version of gajak). this is a very simple candy to make, and it turned out delicious.


1 c. sugar
1/2 c. white syrup (can use honey or home made indian-style sugar syrup)
1/4 cup butter
1 1/2 c. raw peanuts
Pinch of salt
1 tsp. baking soda

Mix together sugar, butter, syrup and salt. Cook, stirring constantly, at medium heat until the mixture spins a thread when you lift the spoon from the pot. Add peanuts and cook until light golden brown (sort of scorchy). dropping a bit of the mixture into a cup of ice water will create a hard ball that will break easily. Remove from heat and add soda. Stir thoroughly. Pour onto greased cookie sheet (or thali, or any flat pan) and spread thin. let it cool and break it (i used the handle of a spoon).

Great!

Yummy!

Chatrik has a request for the admins of the forum.

Will it be possible to have a 'recipes' section in this site, where users can submit recipes(also pics, if there are any). It will be helpful for:

1) People who want to leave meat and adopt vegetarianism as per gurmat.
2)Those who want to keep bibek .( the problem is some bibekis dont have acces to proper recipes)


I am also curious what Bhai Kulbir Singh ji's singhni whips up for him at home...hehehehe! = P

Chota veer

Pyasi Chatrik jee,

Quote

I am also curious what Bhai Kulbir Singh ji's singhni whips up for him at home...hehehehe! = P

So far Guru Sahib has been very merciful, in this department. Shrimati jee cooks excellent food. Hopefully, this thread will prompt all our Bibeki cooking experts to share their expertise with us.

And 1Kaur Bhain jee, thanks for starting this thread. Hopefully, this thread will fulfill the aims listed by "Pyasi Chatrik" in the above post.

Kulbir Singh

I personally, never thought of Ghajak, without GUR. I will request Singhni Ji to try this sugar Ghajak. We are very fond of that. In India, Bibek Ghajak was available at Patiala and Amritsar sometimes.----------------Meanwhile, Gur bites with handful of Peanuts; seem a quick recipe.

Can other nuts, coconut powder, sesame seeds or SAUNF be tried alongwith peanuts?

I will second Bhai MB Singh jee's suggestion of using GuR instead of the regular sugar. Gachak tastes best with GuR.

Kulbir Singh

of course you can use gur... any solid sugar can be used, and any liquid sugar can be used, as long as the proportions are correct. any nut or seed can also be used. it's a very versatile recipe.

Pizza

Fresh tomatoes
Fresh or dried basil
Fresh or dried oregano
A large saucepot
A Cuisinart or food processor (this can be done by hand)
Fresh garlic
Olive oil
1 Measure out 1 tablespoon of olive oil and heat in the pan.
2 Chop 2 or 3 garlic cloves finely, and add to the oil. Stir fry for a few minutes, then remove from the heat.
3 Cut 6 to 8 fresh tomatoes into quarters, then puree them in your food processor (or by hand). If you have fresh herbs, add them and puree them as well.
4 Pour the tomato mixture into the saucepot. Add 1 teaspoon dried oregano and basil if you didn't add any fresh herbs in Step 3.
5 Cook down for about an hour or until the mixture is no longer soupy

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pizza Base


1 envelope of dry yeast
1/4 teaspoon of sugar
3/4 cup of lukewarm water
1 3/4 cups of unbleached plain flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt

Step by Step Procedure
1. Combine 1 envelope of dry yeast, 1/4 teaspoon of sugar and 3/4 cups of lukewarm water. Mix a little and let sit for 6-8 minutes.
2. Combine 1 3/4 cups of unbleached plain flour with 1/2 teaspoon of salt in a bowl or food processor.
3. Pour the water combination into the bowl (or food processor) and mix until ready to knead (around 30 second in a food processor). If using a bowl, mix with a spoon until you have a neat ball.
4. Prepare a lightly spinkled surface with flour. Turn out dough and knead for around 2-3 minutes. Lightly cover your finger tips with flour if the mixture is a little sticky.
5. Roll out by hand for a 12'' base.
6. Place in 12'' lighly oiled oven pan. Press out dough to form a slight lip.
7. Prepare and apply your sauce and topping or choice.
8. Cook in a pre-heated over (500F) for 8-12 minutes (times may vary based on different ovens. Fan assited oven will be quicker!).
9. Remove from oven, slice and share with your favourite friends and/or family members

NB: as we dont use cheese, we just made home made pesto, and other vegetables. Im sure someone can try paneer if they wish.

wonderful! i just love home made pizza. this can also be made as a "deep dish" pizza by pressing the crust into a cast iron frying pan and baking in the oven.

i'm going to attempt to make fresh mozzarella cheese this week, i'll update the board if i'm successful.

maybe we should open a bebeki dairy. we could sell raw milk, home made cheese, yogurt, butter, paneer, ghio...

I know of a singh who made home-made mozzerella and had put it on a Pizza he made for me and a couple of other singh's. It came out very nice.
The Pizza reciepie I had put up above we did not put anything on it apart from the tomatoe sauce, vegetables and home-made pesto, I felt that there was no need for cheese, it is very nice.

We have been making our own mozzerella cheese for many years now and it is much more delicious than the one sold in stores. Home made mozzerella can be made with perfection only if raw milk is used. The milk that is sold in stores is homogenized and as such does not produce quality cheese.

As for the process on how to make home made cheese, the process is as simple as making yogurt at home. We (my wife or I) will post the details soon.

Kulbir Singh

Bread

Bread is good and can last about week, which is good if you do kirat and cook by yourself.

Make Your Own Bread

Bread Recipe

* 700g Strong White Flour
* 1 tsp Dried Yeast
* 1tsp Caster Sugar (preferably golden)
* ½ - 1 tbsp salt
* 425ml Hot Water (not boiled)

Before You Start

* Grease 900g bread loaf tin well
* Preheat your oven to the lowest temperature setting available

Method

1. Put the yeast, sugar, salt water and flour into the mixing bowl and combine. Then make a well in the middle of the mixture, and carefully pour in the water. The water should then be mixed in with a wooden spoon, until such time as you can work it with your hands. You may or may not need to add small splashes of water, depending on the dough's consistency.

2. Once the mixing bowl is almost clean of flour, transfer the dough mixture onto a clean work surface. Be careful if you choose to flour the surface, as the added flour can make the bread heavy. An alternative is to use a little vegetable (preferably olive) oil on the surface to stop adhesion.

3. You can then start kneading the bread until it becomes elastic - you shouldn't need to knead for more than 5 minutes - and then transfer back into your mixing bowl and cover with cling film. Make sure to leave the dough at room temperature for a couple of hours at least, until the dough has visibly 'grown' to more than twice the original size. Putting a small amount of cooking oil onto the cling film will stop it sticking to your dough mixture.

4. After the 'rest' period, you'll need to knead the bread again for two or three minutes to help rid of any air bubbles that have formed. The dough can then be rolled out into an oblong shape to fit the loaf tin.

5. At this point you should start preheating the oven to 450F or Gas Mark 8. The dough can then be placed in the pre-greased baking tins (make sure that they are greased liberally) and left at room temperature for 60 minutes. You will notice that the dough continues to rise during this time. Ideally the dough should have risen enough to poke over the top of the loaf tin before being placed in the oven.

6. Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for about three quarters of an hour. The way to test if the loaf is cooked all the way through is to tap the base of the loaf. If it sounds hollow then the loaf is ready and can be removed from the loaf tin upside down. For extra crustiness, the loaf can be put back in the oven out of the tin for a further 10 minutes or so, before removing and leaving to cool.

A new "Bibeki Recipes" section has been created on this site at the following link:

[www.gurmatbibek.com]

(Basically you go to Gurmat Bodh and then to Bibeki Recipes).

All recipes from this thread will eventually be uploaded in the "Bibeki Recipes" section for the benefit of Gursikhs.

Please continue to post Bibeki recipes. If possible take pictures of your delicious dishes.

Admin.

thanks for the bread recipe!

added note: you can get cast iron bread loaf pans from amazon.com. i use them for desert breads (banana bread, ginger bread) and they work much better than the tin or steel kind.

penjee 1kaur jee, i normally make bread in a kaareyia.

Could users post up how to make pineeya and kheer.

Before I got married, one dish I absolutely will never get tired off (and I know many others will agree with me) and would cook is saag. I know some singhs who recently have started to keep bibek would appreciate the instructions on how to make saag. I'm ashamed to say since my anand kaaraj I have forgot the instructions...

> I'm ashamed to say since my anand kaaraj I have forgot the instructions...

dont be ashamed, you lucky fellow! at least your wife cooks for you. lol!

my kheer recipe:

soak a smallish kholi of rice in milk for an hour or so ahead of time.
bring a half gallon of milk slowly to a boil with 3-4 whole elaichee, 1 cinnimon stick, and stir often while reciting Japji Sahib (at a normal pace, don't race through it).
When Japji Sahib is complete, add rice and boil, stirring constantly until full 40 pauree of Anand Sahib has been completed. Rice should be tender. if it's not, continue cooking doing waheguru jap.
when the rice is done, turn off heat.
Add a bit of ground elaichee, a little ground cinnamon, 1.5 small kholi sugar (use the same one you used to measure the rice), and stir well doing waheguru jap until everything is combined.
Add chopped pistas and raisins to garnish.

serve hot or cold.

1kaur bhainji, what happened to the Amritsari Kulche recipe you were going to post?

Quote
Kulbir Singh
We have been making our own mozzerella cheese for many years now and it is much more delicious than the one sold in stores. .........................
As for the process on how to make home made cheese, the process is as simple as making yogurt at home. We (my wife or I) will post the details soon.

Kulbir Singh

Chatrik is back><

Am also compiling "Rijma Saag" recipe for the forum's 'Recipe' section, will post it soon.
Maybe we can swap the recipes...hehehehe
deal?

Chota veer

Amritsari Kulcha:

heat oven to broil (do this first so the oven gets very hot)
combine atta and maida and a little bit of butter, then gun with water like regular atta to make a stiff dough.
mash one large cooked potato and add a bit of jeera powder, whole coriander, red chili, and garam masala and mix well. (you can add chopped green chilies too if you want)
stretch the dough out by hand, then add a spoonful of the potato mixture, fold the dough over the potato mixture and press flat, stretching with your fingers into a round shape like a parontha.
place it onto a metal tray and smear a thin layer of dahi and soft butter mixture on top. use your fingers to get a light even coat.
place the tray on the lower oven shelf for 3-4 minutes, then remove it and smear a bit more butter on it.
put it back in the oven on the top shelf this time, and cook until it gets brown (2 minutes or so).
when it's browned, turn the kulcha and cook for one more minute.
they're now ready to eat.

serve with chhole.

All recipes have been uploaded in the Gurmat Bodh area of this site. Please check it out:

[www.gurmatbibek.com]

Many more recipes are needed. Please contribute generously.

Admin

i'd appreciate if someone could post a simple daal recipe.

how do you make daal like maah, moongi?

how do you do tadka to daal?

Badam Kheer

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Almond (Badam)
2 cups Milk
3 tblsp Sugar
5 crushed Cardamoms
a pinch of Saffron (Kesar), soaked in lukewarm milk

How to make badam kheer:

* Boil half a litre of water in a sauce pan . add the almonds when the water is boiling and cook for 2 minutes. remove from the flame and drain.
* Remove the skin of the almonds and grind to a fine paste.
* Boil the milk in a thick bottomed pan. when the milk begins to boil add the almond paste and the sugar and cook for 5 minutes over a low flame stirring continuously.
* Remove from the flame.. add the dissolved saffron and the crushed cardamoms.
* Allow to cool and serve chilled.

Karah Parsaad


Ingredients

* Purified Butter (Desi Ghee)
* Aata (Chapati flour)
* Sugar (Note: Avoid using white sugar as this may not be vegetarian. Brown/Raw Sugar for health conscious and vegetarian people!)


Measurements

* 1 tikki/block of butter = approx. 15-25 people
* 2 tikkian/blocks of butter = approx. 25- 35 people
* 3 tikkian/blocks of butter = approx. 50-60 people


Step 1

Melt the amount of butter you wish to use according to the measurements given above. Then add in some flour (aata) a little bit at time while stirring it in. The mixture should be not liquidy but it should be moist and fluffy (basically it should look like extra-oily Karaah) – according to that you put the flour in.

Measure the amount flour you mixed in (so you need to keep an eye out for how much you put in while adding it in). However much flour you put in (e.g. 1 bowl), you put one and half the amount of water (e.g. one and half bowls) into a separate saucepan.

Step 2

However much flour you used (e.g. 1 bowl); put three quarters (for low-fat option) or equal amount of that of sugar and add it to the water and boil it on the side (until the sugar dissolves in the water).

Cook the buttered flour mixture on medium heat and keep on stirring (make sure it doesn’t burn on the sides or bottom of the saucepan). Keep on stirring the aata mixture on medium heat until usually the water has boiled. By this time you should be able to smell a nice cooked smell coming out of the flour, the colour should be golden brown and sometimes the butter comes to the top (not always).

Step 3

Add the water slowly to the flour. Do it bit by bit and stir the water in each time. This prevents a mess and it also stops the Karaah becoming gluey.

Once you have added all the water, stir the Karaah around on high gas for roughly 3-5 minutes. All the mixture should be mixed in well and when stirring usually the whole mixture moves as a whole. Make sure the Karaah looks cooked (i.e. colour and smell – you don’t want to give anyone food poisoning)!!

Let the Karaah cool down for at least half an hour (minimum time) before serving (advisable if you wish people to avoid getting burns when eating it)

Practice makes perfect!
By Manvir Singh

i would like to also add the maryada of Degh which a lot of gursikhs i have done sangat with practice, i've slightly edited it with a few things in brackets, to avoid people getting confused.

Degh Maryada

Lately I've been asked about the proper maryada for degh/maha-parshaad/karah parshaad. The seva of Degh is usually given to Singhs who have a strong bibek (simran/nitnem & food bibek) and their prepared food is acceptable to all Singhs.

First the Singhs preparing Degh must do full ishnaan and wear fresh clothes. No pyjaamee should be worn when preparing degh. The KaRas must be scrubbed clean as well as the kirpaan. Then the area in which degh is to be prepared must be throughly cleaned. All utensils to prepare degh must be of only Sarbloh and not have any kind of rust on them. The Sarbloh utensils should "shine like silver". The area in which Degh is prepared should be aside and not open to the public eyes or traffic. Preferabbly the whole area should be open to the degh sevaadaars alone.(Alot of Guru Ghars only have one kitchen so this is not always possible, one should make do with what they can)

I won't go into the recipe for degh, but when preparing degh, the Singhs should keep their mouths and noses covered and recite either gurbaaNee or gurmantar. (Siree Japjee Sahib & Full Anand Sahib should be read)

When Degh is ready, if possible, it should be transferred to a sarbloh bata and then covered with a thin white cloth and taken into sangat, where a cleaned table/khaRaunchee is present. If there is too much degh for it to fit in any baTa, ie. at a big smaagam, it should be carried into sangat in the kaRaahee it was prepared in, still covered in white cloth. In some places degh is carried in buckets into the divaan which is wrong.

The Singhs who prepared the degh should themselves sit at pehraa of the degh or appoint another tyaar-bar tyaar Khalsa to do so. The degh should be cooled, if at all possible, before bringing it into sangat. It's not desirable to openly cool it in sangat.

When it is time to for ardaas and bhog, the kirpaan which has been scrubbed should again be rinsed in water and dried. Bhog can then be done after ardaas has be done for it.

When it is time to distribute the degh, these sevadaars should also be tyaar-bar tyaar khalsas with strong bibek. They too should not wear pyjamees. The first 5 servings go to the first 5 Khalsa in sangat, then a bata is set aside for the Granthi once she/he is done their duties.

All batas used for distributing should be only sarbloh and covered with white cloth. The sevadaars should also cover their nose and mouth when doing this seva. The sevaadaars should distribute all the degh and then take whatever is left over, but it should not be more than the servings given to the sangat, although in such a circumstance as a lot of sangat, it can be less.

This is the Khalsa Maryada for degh, and in the words of Bhai Sahib Randheer Singh jee in "Jhatkaa Maas Parthai..." "Getting it would be a good thing! What more consecrated food than mahaaparsaad then? Mahaaparsaad is the real consecrated food. Being a Sikh, what else could one consume?"

Author: Balpreet Singh

just to add a bit to the preparation of kada prashad:

an alternate way to prepare it (the way i was taught) is to pour the atta directly into the kadai and toast it over medium heat, shaking it frequently and being careful not to burn it. when it is lightly toasted (the raw smell will go away and it will be pleasantly fragrant), make a well in the center and add the ghio. stir well to melt the ghio and then add the sugar and water at the same time, mixing continuously until most of the water has cooked off, leaving the degh at proper consistency.

notes: always use ghee/ghio made from UNSALTED butter. some gurdwaras use regular, unclarified butter or even salted butter, which significantly alters the taste and texture and is not maryada.
sugar, atta, and ghio should be of equal proportions according to panthic rehet maryada.
i've never used brown sugar, but i use organic dehydrated cane juice (raw sugar), and it has a slightly different taste than the traditional degh made with white sugar, it's not a problem per maryada, but just be aware of it.

basic daal recipe:

one medium onion, chopped small
one medium tomato, chopped small
3-5 garlic cloves (per your taste), minced
bit of ginger, minced
2-4 green chillies (optional), minced
1 tsp haldi
1 tsp jeera powder
1 tsp dhania powder
salt to taste
one kholi daal of your choice
water (3x water for thick split daal, 4x water for whole daal or watery split daal)

in a heavy pot with a lid, heat a small amount of olive oil or ghio on med-high heat. when it's hot, add the onion, garlic, and ginger, and cook until the onions start to turn reddish brown. then add tomatoes and chillies, and cook until the water cooks out of the tomatoes. add the masalas and mix well, cook for a minute or two. add water first, mixing the tadka into the water, then add daal. bring it to a boil on high heat, then reduce heat to medium and cover (if you don't have a lid, you can use a steel or sarbloh plate). cook whole daal for 45 minutes to one hour. split daal cook for 20-30 minutes. cooking times can vary, so just taste it to see if it's done to your liking.

with whole daal you can soak them for a few hours ahead of time for more even cooking.

Vegan flapjacks

Ingredients

170g/6oz butter
170g/6oz caster sugar
225g/8oz porridge oats
Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
2. In a saucepan melt the butter. Turn off the heat, and add the sugar and oats, mixing thoroughly with a spoon/karshee.
3. Line with greaseproof paper a deep 20cm/9in square or rectangle baking tin. (optional depending on ones bibek
4. Pour the mixture into the sarbloh thaal, and flatten with the back of the karshee.
5. Bake near the top of the oven for about 25 minutes. The flapjacks should be golden brown.
6. Cut immediately into squares, and leave to cool before turning out. Store in an airtight container.