heenie's food blog

It’s a dessert and a drink….At the same time! What you see here is layered yumminess in a glass with soft slippery falooda ( corn flour vermicelli) floating in flavored milk with basil seeds, jello pillows and fruit chunks; all this treasure is hidden under a mountain of scooped vanilla ice cream.

This is Karachi style Falooda which I have seen in Western side of Pakistan also. In Punjab, the Eastern side, it is served in small bowls; there is chopped kulfa, basil seeds, falooda and this traditional red syrup Roh Afza/ Jam e Shirin.

All you need is corn flour, some sugar and water to make falooda. A sev press is required to shape it, just like homemade pasta, but very quick and easy. Sev press is a small utensil basically used to make sev which are very thin and short fried strands of gram flour. Last ramadaan my sister in law brought a sev press for me and I am still thankful 🙂

ingredients to make falooda:

1/3 cup corn flour

1 tsp caster sugar

1 1/2 cups water

method:

Grease the inside of sev press and the disc lightly with oil or cooking spray. Keep pot holders ready as we need to be working with the hot mixture.

In a large bowl pour few cups of iced cold water, add some ice cubes too. Refrigerate.

In a small saucepan combine sugar and 1 cup of water; place on medium flame and bring to a gentle boil. Dissolve corn flour in remaining 1/2 cup of water and whisk well with a wire whisk. Add dissolved corn flour to boiling water, stirring continuously as it will be thickened in no time. Lower the heat to low. In a couple of minutes the mixture will become very thick, like petroleum jelly, remove from the heat. Working quickly, transfer the mixture into the sev press ( use post holders please!), take the cold water bowl out the refrigerator and press the hot corn flour mixture into the cold water. Make sure the falooda noodles are immersed completely in  cold water. It will retain the shape of falooda by cooling it and will keep the strands separated. Let them rest for few minutes in the refrigerator and then use as required. Falooda vermicelli/noodles can be stored in the refrigerator for 2-3 days.

to assemble:

3 cups cold milk

5 tbsp Roh Afza/ Jame Shirin

2-3 tbsp basil seeds ( tukm e balanga in Urdu), soaked in water

1 packet jello, any flavor, prepared and cubed

1 can fruit cocktail, drained

vanilla ice cream ( or any flavor) as required

method: 

Mix milk and Roh Afza/ Jam e Shirin. In tall serving glasses put 1/4 cup of falooda noodles/vermicelli, basil seeds, some jello pieces, canned fruit and pour half cup of flavored milk. Add a scoop of ice cream and put some more basil seeds, jello and fruit if you wish and scoop some more ice cream. Garnish with some extra fruit. Serve immediately with a spoon and straw.

NOTE:

You can assemble it as you prefer. Omit or add ingredients according to preference.

Nuts or whipped cream can be added too.

Avoid fresh fruit as they may discolor quickly.

You can add food color to the falooda noodles before pressing.

You can also use small colorful vermicelli instead of making falooda. Just boil them for 2-3 minutes and strain. Since these vermicelli are wheat based, I don’t use them for my gluten free requirements.