Trials and Tribulations of a cookie

Whenever I spring surprises on an unsuspecting and hapless soul , I am the one who ends up truly surprised.. at my own shtoopidity of course ;-) Couple of days back I decided to cook up one such for the family (pun intended). I shall dedicate a post soon to my kitchen kitsch's since I for one, find cooking an extremely confusing process. Have you read this post of mine? I am proud of my limited culinary skills nevertheless. Who else would be? That's why.

I zeroed in on Coconut Burfi. I got the recipe from here. It seemed easy ( I was careful & chose a recipe with minimal steps ) . The only tough part was grating the coconut. I am a klutz in the kitchen. Someday I shall write about how I broke the gas cylinder's regulator & spent the whole night wide awake :-P Can you believe this - The mixer grinder gives me the shivers ! I am always scared the lid would hit the roof even if I sit on it ; Please don't imagine the same :-D

Well aware of my 'strengths', I asked the vegetable vendor to break the coconut into 2 halves. Back home, I hunted for the coconut grater and prepared myself mentally for the arduous task ahead. It was already 8:00 p.m. I have never grated coconut before. I kept a plate beside the grater and with one knee on the wooden plank , took one half of the coconut. Technically it was a quarter ; that genius broke it unevenly. Whatever. It was broken and that's all I should care about. I started grating and my knee kept slipping off the grater. After five minutes of sliding and grating (in turns), there were only a few crumbs on the plate. I was so discouraged when I noticed a lot of crumbs stuck between the blades. Happier that my efforts were yielding some results, I scraped it off the blade. I continued grating and within 20 minutes, got the hang of it....And then tragedy struck. I guess I put too much pressure with my knee on the poor grater and the screws became loose. Grating became difficult and slow. I got out the screw-driver and repaired the grater. Just when I thought I was in control, the handle came off. No, I don't have a 20 year old ancient grater :-( I fitted it back and finally finished it.

I fried the dessicated coconut for a few minutes on low flame. I took 2-3 cups of water and added 6-7 spoonfuls of sugar in a separate pan. All trial basis. Set it on the gas to boil. I kept stirring and waited for it to become syrupy. Twenty minutes. No syrup. Thirty. Far from syrup. Tring Tring! I called my married friend. Unreachable. Next - soon-to-be-married friend. She hasn't the foggiest idea about the syrup or the burfi. Next - another friend (last resort types). Encouraging words - " Keep stirring, ho jayega " ( Sooner or later, it will become a syrup). I stirred for ten more minutes. Sugar water looked golden. Suddenly I remembered reading another recipe where they'd mentioned adding a little milk. Why leave any stone unturned? So milk was the latest addition to the boiling sugar water. Ten more minutes. It was 9.45 p.m. I decided not to think anymore and the grated coconut & cardamom powder went in as well. I stirred for fifteen minutes and it seemed like I achieved some sort of burfi-like consistency. I had a plate smeared with ghee ready. The 'burfi' was on the plate. I spread it evenly and waited for it to cool down.

The moment my dad entered, he declared " I can smell something sweet ". First stage passed. At least there was an aroma ;-) Few minutes later, my dad tasted it and claimed it was good. Second stage, passed? Not at all. My dad is only person who appreciates even when I cook Maggi noodles and end up burning it ( Not anymore obviously ). So I knew I had to take his compliment with a pinch of salt. An hour later, I tried to cut it. Alas. It was SOFT! :-( I managed to cut it but it didn't have that clear cut shape of a burfi at all. I went to sleep very discouraged knowing that I botched up the sugar water/syrup!! I didn't see my mom's reaction in person, but she was taken aback and added that it was very good :-)

Of course realization would've dawned on her that she might get a better burfi anytime, but never a better daughter ;-) Oh, I'm pining my hopes on that one.

** Burfi is a sweet made from condensed milk, cooked with sugar and dessicated coconut until it solidifies. The name is derived from Hindi Word baraf which means snow since burfi is similar to ice/snow in appearance. Source - Wiki

Image Source -- www.dhesisweets.com/images (That's the closest to how my burfi looked)