mysore pak(pav) tragedy

I love to cook. That’s cause I love food! :P

So on a lazy Sunday afternoon I decided I should try making some sweets for Diwali. Esp because for Rajiv it was a biggg thing to miss all the sweets of festivals! I remembered I had brought along a recipe book which I bought from Bangalore flower show exhibition. Usually I do my research of recipes on the net, hunt in some two three sites and make sure it’s the right procedure and then go ahead. This time I relied totally completely on the book. It surprised me that all the sweets were just a mixture of some dough, a lot of ghee, stirring and sugar or jiggery mix! It all looked so easy and simple! So I chose one of my favorite sweets – the Mysore Pav / Mysore pak. I bullied Rajiv into buying all the necessary stuff for making it.

So as he settles down on the couch to take rest after the shopping, I start off. I have still not figured out if Besan flour is same as Bengal gram floor. I felt it was confusing to have multiple names for the same thing! There are just so many grams! It looks same to me and my searches on internet gives me same impression. What Rajiv has brought is Besan flour and the recipe book says Bengal gram powder. So I decided to start anyways. It was written to mix some amount of sugar in some amount of water taking care of some ratio. I did that. Stir well till sugar mixture turns into thin continuous thread when poured. This target also was achieved after around 10 minutes. My hands are already starting to ache due to the constant stirring. It was time to add some amount of Besan into this mixture. I religiously studied the ratios, multiplied divided and poured it into the pan. Mixed almost 200gms of ghee into it. Its now turned into some thick yellow paste. The book says to stir till the paste till the ghee starts coming out from the mixture. I stir and stir and stir in simmer. The thick yellow pulp starts to melt. It looks like molten lava that erupts from the volcanoes now. I add a little more ghee, just to ensure the end result is soft and not hard like a stone. Tiny bubbles pop out and burst. I am looking at it wondering when all the ghee will come oozing out, but nothing seems to be happening. By this time the entire flat is filled with the strong smell of ghee.

Rajiv wakes up to this and asks me what I am up to. When Rajiv doesn’t approve something or like it or feels something is wrong, then he has this expression on his face- blank no reaction types. He will just keep saying “Ok Ok”. So when he stood there with that typical reaction of his, starring at the molten yellow pulp that I made, I am sure he thought (enna kodumai Saravanan ithu- meaning YYYY MEEE)!! J

By now I have been stirring this pulp for almost half and hour. So I decided its enough of cooking it. Mebbe I missed seeing the ghee oozing out. So I take it off from the flame and spread it out on a plate. It was written that when the this paste thickens slightly u have to cut it into slices. So I even kept a knife ready to cut it and went and sat down on the couch to rest for sometime. Ten minutes pass, fifteen minutes pass- but the molten lava refuses to solidify. It looks like thick besan halwa to me now. After five hours and no thickening, my intelligent hubby suggests that we put it in fridge so it cools and thickens fast. I agree instantly and put it into the refrigerator. After 2 hours its slightly thickened but not done. It still looks like halwa only.

When I took out to examine, our roomie walks in and he too stares at the plate of semi solidified yellow besan paste and then asks me “kya hein ye?”. He is a marathi, and I could have easily fooled him saying some south Indian dish and asked him to eat it :P . but I stayed honest. Rajiv requested him to be silent and not add to my disappointment. I tasted a small piece and it really tasted like halwa! I should have just left it so and remained quiet but intelligent brain of mine tossed another idea…

I felt I should give one last try to separate the ghee out – so I decided to put into the microwave. That was like a postmortem on an already semi baked – cooled besan-sugar pulp! Ten minutes in microwave I felt that the ghee is finally oozing out. I took it out and it looked almost done. But I felt I could smell some burning smell and could not figure out why. Now the pulp looked like how soya looks once it is cooked. A thick yellow spongy thing. As soon as I sliced the sponge into pieces , I knew y I was getting the burnt smell. Only the top was yellow in color, below it as all burnt. I sat down on the chair to digest what I was looking at and burst into laughing. Rajiv and our roomie came and stared again into the “dish”. There it was lying – a semi spongy half baked half roasted Mysore Pak.

The last comment by our roomie “ tumhein yeh books padhna nahin chahiye..ye recipe shows and recipe books dekhna hi nahin chahiye”. At the other corner , Rajiv was still trying to find if something edible was there in the “mysore pak”.

I called up my mother in law to narrate the incident and share a laugh! :P J