Strawberry Mille Feuille

Strawberry Mille Fuille.. The easiest french dessert ever known, which has fruits nd sauce stuffed between the layers of puff pastry..

                You can make your own puff pastry at home or use store bought.. I found these small roundels of baked puff pastries at a store.. They looked super cute and so wanted to try out this french dessert using these small cutie pies.. And also they were perfect bite sized portions..

                 Feel free to experiment with fillings and fruits of your choice.. The only drawback is it tends to get soggy fast.. You need to make this and serve immediately.. Incase you want to serve later, what you can do is, serve things seperately ie chopped strawberries mixed with custard in a bowl and puff pastry in another bowl.. Serve it like a puff pastry snack with custard dip..

Ingredients:

Puff pastry

Thick and cooled custard 

Strawberries sliced horizontally

Method: Take the puff pastry and divide it in 2 layers.. Layer it with custard and then strawberry.. Cover it with2nd half of puff pastry and then again top it with little custard and strawberry.. Serve immediately..

                                         Strawberries and custard

                                           Small roundels of puff pastry

                                                 Assembled dessert..

Pista Couli

I dont think there must be any household which doesnt make gajar ka halwa.. And this Indian dessert is savoured by all alike.. What if we take the gajar ka halwa a notch up and present it in an international way with "Pista Couli" .. Yes.. Our Indian Dessert can also be serve with Coulis, which is traditionally a thick sauce made from fruits..

                I had this recipe of Pista Couli from a very long time, but cudnt find a right time to make it.. It has always been on my bucket list.. This time when my mom made Gajar ka Halwa, i made it a point to make this couli and serve it with Gajar ka Halwa.. And trust me, the outcome has been amazing.. I never thought it would lift the taste of halwa to such an extent.. It was so delectable, the creamy and mild taste of pista couli paired very well with gajar ka halwa.. You need to try this to believe me.. And once you try this you would not want to eat the halwa without this couli again..

                The gajar ka halwa that my mom makes is laden with cashews.. And when served with pista couli and garnished with almonds, it was a power packed dried fruit gajar ka halwa for us..

                This couli is supposed to be very heavy as it is nothing but cream and pista and served with a sweet dessert.. I know it would be hard to resist and you would want to go in for a second serving,, so better to serve in small quantities...

Ingredients:

1/2 cup pista

3-4tbsp cream

2tbsp milk

1-2tbsp sugar (optional)

Method: Blanch pistas in hot water for 5mins.. Peel them and blend it with milk into a smooth creamy texture.. Then remove in a pan and add cream and sugar (My cream was sweet enough so i didnt feel the need to add any extra sugar).. Mix well and heat over low flame till it boils once... It should be thick sauce like consistency.. So add cream accordingly to adjust consistency.. Remove in a bowl and serve with gajar halwa..

Note: This couli should be mildly sweet and not laden with sugar.. Otherwise the taste of pista gets dominated by sugar..

You avoid milk and use cream to blend pistas.. For me that would make the couli very heavy and so I chose to blend it with milk..

                                                 Blanched and peeled pistas

                                                 Grinded to smooth paste with milk

                                       Remove in a pan and add cream and sugar(optional)

                                         Heat on low flame till it boils once and switch off gas..

                                          Serve with gajar ka halwa..