Double Ka Meetha/Shahi Tukre-JFI-Milk

It was a couple of months back my sweet Nellore girl had asked me,"Ma'am,can you get me the recipe for Double ka meetha?..."I was in one of my usual absent mindedness that I said that I dont know it at all...While JFI was announced,I tried to recollect all those sweets that I had eaten which had dairy products in it!!It then struck me that a couple of yrs back when I had been to Hyderabad for a week's stay,I had pounced upon something called Double ka Meetha in the Menu card,for the obvious reason that it translated as double sweetness!! I love anything sweeeeeeeeeeeet and anything Hoooooooooooot,eccentric,ain't I?!!Then I remembered my Hyderabadi friend saying that Khubani Meetha,and Double ka meetha are inevitable Hyderabadi desserts for any kind of celebration...So I fixed it on Double ka meetha for JFI Milk hosted by

Vineela

.. Hmm...Milk,butter/ghee and double cream :)!!!....Interestingly I found that Shahi Tukre which is quite a popular sweet in North India and Pakistan is nothing but Hyderabadi Double Ka Meetha...Hmm...so obviously the Moghul influence...

Hyderabadi cuisine stands tall with its 400yr old culinary culture,its Nawabi aristocracy and is a wonderful blend of Mughal,traditional Andhra& Telangana cuisine.You know, in the Nawabi banquets often the dishes were decorated with varq (a very fine pure silver leaf)!!Gosh!!I wish I could be a guest of the Nawab!!Hyderabadi Biryani has become one of the most sought after Biryani variety.Interestingly,when I went thro' the recipes of Hyderabadi Biryani, I found that they are much the same as

Malabar Biriyani

.Well Hyderabadi cuisine doesnt stop with Hyderabadi Biriyani.There are plenty of wonderful lipsmacking dishes that come under this genre.Some of their culinary delights include Khubani ka Mitha, Pheni- a sweet vermicelli delicacy eaten during the festival of Diwali and Halim, a meat dish traditionally eaten by Muslims during the holy month of Ramadan(Very much like the Malabar Alsa) and a host of other pure ghee sweets etc.I remember that we did plenty of shopping in Hyderabad.... bought plenty of sweets from the Karachi Bakery near Mau'zzam Jahi Market, Nampally(Osmania biscuits),Badaam ki jaali from some shop near Azeez bagh palace and one big basket full of grapes,some pearls,lots of sarees,bags etc on the way back from Hyderabad!

Double Ka Meetha is perhaps the most famous sweet dish of Hyderabad, served on every festive occasion,&easy to prepare as well.Often it is served warm, and it would be a wonderful dessert for a chilly winter! But you can have it chilled too,if it like it that way...It is just awesome either way!Hmmm...it is a little high in calories,but very very very tasty.....Ok...ok...I know u guys have to go thro' so many recipes in the JIHVA....so let me cut short my banter and now straight to the recipe:
Double-Ka-Meetha
 















Ingredients:
Regular white bread-4 slices (cut each slice into 4 pieces)
Milk-1 1/2 cups
Sugar-3/4cup
Water-1/4cup(for sugar syrup)
Double cream-1/2 cup(u can use less as well)
Butter/Ghee-1+1=2 tbsp
chopped cashew nuts-25g
Raisins-25g
Almonds-25g(blanched and slivered)
Cardamom-1/2 tsp
Saffron-1 or 2strands
Dates-25g-chopped(optional-not added traditionally)
 













Method
Cut the edges of the bread and cut each slice into four pieces.Heat a pan.Add some butter or ghee and roast the bread pieces until both the sides turn golden brown.Now arrange the bread pieces in a large baking pan.
 












Roast all the nuts and raisins in ghee/butter and spread them over the fried bread pieces along with chopped dates uniformly.Now boil milk with saffron and cardamom powder.Pour the hot milk over the arranged bread.Now make a sugar syrup in a sauce pan.Pour this sugar syrup also over the bread.Finally pour the double cream uniformly over the bread.Either serve it hot or refrigerate and eat it chilled!! It is a tru Nawabi dessert that you will love to the last morsel!It is just irressistible...a sweet tooth's ecstasy!
















Bread Pudding
I just tried the European counterpart of Double ka Meetha,the bread pudding.I just personalised

Ellen Warfield's recipe

a few changes, like, I used cardamom powder, instead of cinnamon,added some double cream,glazed cherries...hmm... that's it.Having tasted Double Ka Meetha I should say that Bread Pudding falls short of the richness and the fine aroma of Double ka Meetha.Double ka Meetha,to be honest, is at least 10 times better than the Bread pudding...It is amazing just the method of cooking makes so much of a difference on the taste!
  

Khubani Meetha