Eid-special Recipe – Rose-flavored Semia and Pumpkin Pie

A pictorial recipe for Rose flavored Semia and Pumpkin Pie!

 

Eid ul Fitr is almost here! And it is time for some delicious feasting. I started baking recently, but have been pretty experimental with my cooking methods. So thought of giving “sewai” or semia a twist through a fusion with pumpkin pie! Try this Eid special recipe at home.

This is a very simple, easy to make preparation. Trust this, coming from me, who is not an expert baker, but i manage to create unconventional recipes with fairly good flavour. I do not follow Islam, but have attended Eid feasts at several of my friends and family-friends’ places since i was a little kid. Besides, celebration does not require one to be of the religion (IMHO). So this is all about spreading the message of love and peace on Eid – through food 🙂

Here is a quick summary of the recipe.

• Name of Dish – Rose-flavoured Semia and Pumpkin Pie
• Key Ingredients – Semia (Thin Vermicelli), Pumpkin, Milk, Wheat Flour, Dry Fruits, Rose Essence (flavour)
• Total preparation time – 10 minutes for dough + peeling & slicing pumpkins
• Total cooking time – 15 minutes (pumpkin smash) + 10 minutes (stir-frying Semia) + 15 minutes (crust lining) with the three happening simultaneously. Final baking for 30 minutes. So 45 minutes, total.
• Total calories – It’s Eid, lets not be bothered about calories!
• Serves 6 (1 medium sized slice of the pie)

The only challenge is to manage time (and utensils) and cook the basic ingredients simultaneously. I’ll try my best to explain the basic steps through pictures! You will find the quantity and measurements of the ingredients and step-by-step method at the end. It is far easier to relate the theory with the cooking once you already ‘get the picture’.

Eid Special recipe – Rose-Flavoured Semia and Pumpkin Pie – Preparing the Dough and the Filling

Before getting my hands messed up with the dough, i set the microwave oven to preheat for 10 minutes.

If you are living in New Delhi, or mostly any where in India or other tropical countries, these ingredients would be more than easily available. And quite easily available in most other parts of the world too!

Eid Special recipe – Rose-Flavoured Semia and Pumpkin Pie – Pastry Lining and Crust

You could use a proper pie baking pot if you have one. I didn’t, so improvised with my cake dish. I applied cooking oil to the inner layer of the dish.

For the flutes, i used a large sized fork. Key is to have it uniform!

For the baking, i generally set my microwave to ‘Grill + Convection’ Mode. 180 Degrees Celsius is what i use as the standard temperature for making cakes and muffins.

Eid Special recipe – Rose-Flavoured Semia and Pumpkin Pie – The Finals

Highlight of this segment is that i made the top layer dough in the same vessel where i stir fried the semia. The flavours and left over oil could be fully utilized!

We’re not done yet… you’ll find exact details of the recipe, and few pictures of the delectable “cross-section”, along with some self-criticism 🙂

Eid Special recipe – Rose-Flavoured Semia and Pumpkin Pie – The Finals

This is how i proportioned the ingredients, for a small size pie that can serve up to 6 people:

• Wheat Flour – 1 1/2 cups
• Pumpkin – 1/2 portion of a medium sized bottle gourd. Peeled and cut into thick slices. After cooking, quantity will be up to 1 full cup.
• Semia / Vermicelly – 1 cup dry
• Milk – 1 1/2 cups. I generally used toned milk, but you could use full creme milk for a richer texture
• Butter/Cooking Oil/Ghee – 1/2 cup
• Sugar – 1 cup. You can also use baking sugar, or brown sugar, or honey
• 2-3 cardamoms, small cinnamon stick, 1/4 tsp fennel seeds
• Baking Soda (1 tsp), Baking Powder (1/2 tsp), a pinch of salt
• Dry fruits – 1/2 cup (raisins, cashew, almonds)
• Rose essence/Gulab Jal

Steps where caution needs to be exercised:

• Dry mixing the dough well before adding milk is important
• Dough should not be too dry or too moist. Adding 3/4 cup to the flour should be just fine.
• Semia should not get burnt while stir frying. A pinkish light-brown hue is just right.
• Excess milk and juice from the boiled pumkins should be drained out properly, and used in the dough. Remaining portion is used for soaking up the semia.
• The pastry lining should not break while rolling or placing
• The top dough layer should have just optimum thickness.

Utensils – Mixing bowl for dough, Small/Medium size pressure cooker for ‘the smashing pumpkins’, and a baking dish (6-8″ size). ‘Kadai’ or vessel for stir-frying the semia and dry fruits

This serves 6 people, with medium sized slice of the pie! You can adjust the proportions depending on the quantity to be cooked and people served. Try adding dates along with other dry fruits too.

Eid Special recipe – Rose-Flavoured Semia and Pumpkin Pie – What i got Right and What i Didn’t

Stuff i got right:

• The filling and the proportioning
• The flavour – balance of sweetness, semia, pumpkins, wheat flour and Rose!
• The cooking, for all the three segments. No uncooked patches and no cracking
• Time management and multi-tasking

So basically i wouldn’t recommend cooking this recipe on days you have attention deficits 🙂

Stuff i got wrong:

• The top pastry was too thick.
• It tasted slightly bland due to the thickness, but adding sugar to the dough saved the day

It will take me 1-2 more attempts to get this perfect, since this is the first time i actually made a real pie (the crust, especially)! It’s been only 1 month since i started baking, and will share more recipes as and when they are made. So far i tried cakes with maize flour, jaggery, bajra flour and rice flour as healthy substitutes.

So have a Happy Eid and wrap up Ramadan with a hearty feast!

If you already tried this, do share your experience in the comments below.

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