Diwali Special - Ghughra

It is the festival season that makes us all nostalgic. There are so many wonderful memories of Diwali that I don't know where to start. As we were growing up, we watched Baa and Mom whip up wonderful snacks and sweets for Diwali. The Saat-padi nimki (7 layered salty snack), fafda, mathia and my favorite Ghughra were quintessential and almost synonymous with Diwali in our house. Diwali was the only time Mom would undertake the massive task of preparing them. Ghughra making time for almost like an assembly line - My sister dividing the dough into small balls, I rolled them into flat discs, Baa would fill and close them and Mom would fry them into crispy golden deliciousness.

Ghughra

All through the process, I would be eagerly waiting for that first bite of the Ghughra I'd been waiting to eat since last Diwali! Often, I begged Mom to make it at other times of the year, but she never agreed. I now know that it is an undertaking that she was willing to go though only once in a year! :)

This year, Diwali came a bit early in my house with my parents visiting us here. As a pleasant surprise, Mom agreed to make all the Diwali goodies for me before they returned back to India. Needless to say, we heralded the festive season with delicious Ghughra. Here it goes:

Prep time - 2 hours
Yield - 35-40 pieces

Ingredients:

Filling:
400 grams Khoya/ Mava (room temperature)
1/3 cup chopped cashews
1/4 cup almonds
1/4 cup pistachios
1/3 cup raisins
2/3 cup sugar or more to taste
1 tsp cardamom powder
1/2 tsp nutmeg powder

Dough:
11/2 cups All purpose flour
Pinch of salt
1 tbsp ghee
Water

Ghee for frying

Method:

Filling:

Khoya filling

• In a medium pan, roast the mava/ khoya until slightly golden brown and aromatic. Stir continuously.
• Crush all the dried fruits into a course powder in a grinder. Gently mix the dried fruits with the roasted mava, stirring continuously. 
• Add raisins, cardamom powder, nutmeg powder and sugar.
• Stir for 5 minutes till sugar is evenly mixed and remove from heat.
• Let it cool completely.

Dough:

• Mix all purpose flour, salt and ghee together. 
• Add small amounts of water as required and knead it into a soft dough. 
• Divide the dough into small penny sized balls and cover with a damp cloth.

Ghugra making: 

• Once the filling is completely cooled, start rolling the dough balls into small discs, much like puris. 
• Take a tablespoon of the filling and heap it on one side of the disc. Gently fold the other half of the disc on top of the filling, to make a half moon shape.
• Now pinch the dough on the end of the semicircle and twist it to seal the edges. This can be done using a fork, too. Just gently press a fork tongs on the dough edges to seal and ensure that the filling does not pop out while frying.

Dough edges pinched and twisted to seal the filling inside

• Repeat until all ghugras are ready to fry.
• Fry in ghee till golden and crispy.

Golden delicious Ghughra

I'm glad Diwali came early to my house :)

Bon Appetit!

Hetal from Houston

Modernized 'Pithe' : A Sankranti special for Bengalis

Sankranti is a winter festival celebrated all over India and very close to my heart because of all the joyous childhood memories it brings back...This day's menu in a typical Bengali household solely consisted of plethora of sweets in different shapes, sizes and consistency... Sheer Bliss for people with sweet tooth!!


This year, I tried making this Bengali sweet but in an extremely non-traditional way. The taste was very much the same with minimal effort. I learnt it from a family friend who had been away from India for many years and knows many such taste-tricks to keep us going!
Serves : 8-10 people
Preparation Time : 5 mins
Cooking Time : 30 minutes
Ingredients:

Lightly toasted crumpets

• A packet of British style crumpets from Trader Joe's (12 count)
• 1&1/2  litre whole milk
• 1/2  litre evaporated milk
  
• 10-15 green cardamoms
• 1&1/2 - 2 cups granulated sugar depending on taste

Method:

• Toast the crumpets on a pan  till they turn light brown ( ~3 mins) . Turn sides in between.
• Arrange on a shallow glass serving dish.

Layered crumpets

• Heat milk with cardamoms in medium flame. Keep stirring till reduced to almost half.
• Add sugar and mix well. Bring to boil and turn off heat.

• Pour on the crumpets. These buns will absorb a lot of milk depending on storage time so you might need to add milk later while serving.
• Refrigerate and serve chilled. The taste is always better the next day.

Our version of 'Pithe'

You may garnish with nuts of your choice and saffron. I did not as I wanted to keep it simple.
Enjoy :)


Ajanta from Amherst

'Sandesh' ..A Bengali sweet treat !

This sweet was made for Diwali as well  but it is an all-time favorite for all Bengalis and people with and without sweet tooth seem to like it equally!

Ingredients : 

1 lb. Ricotta cheese

1 cup sugar

1 tsp. cardamom powder
 Pistachios and raisins for garnishing



Directions:  

Step 1 : Cooking cheese and sugar on low flame

1. Knead cheese into a fine, smooth paste. In a wok over low heat, cook cheese and sugar, stirring continuously.This step can take long depending on quantity . I doubled the amount and it took around 2 hours. When sugar has melted and cheese starts leaving sides add cardamom powder. 



Dividing mixture into individual portions

2. Remove from heat and keep stirring for 5 minutes. While still warm, divide into 25-30 portions. Mold each portion into desired shape. Decorate with raisins and pistachios. I alternated but you can use any one / both. Serve at room temperature.

The final product !

 
'It was hard to eat just one' !! So give it a try :)

Ajanta from Amherst

Diwali Special - Anjeer Khajur Diyas

Sugar free sweet for health conscious foodies! :)


Ingredients
Khajur/ Dates (pitted) - 14-15 pieces
Anjeer/ figs - 7-8 pieces
Milk - 1/3 cup
Chopped almonds, walnuts etc -1/2 cup. I usually roast nuts on a dry skillet. It brings out all the wonderful flavours
Goond/ tree resin - 1 tbsp for garnishing; readily available in most Indian grocery stores. (Optional)
Ghee - 2 tbsp
Silver foil (optional)


Method

• Soak khajur/ dates and Anjeer/figs in milk for couple of hours.

• Crush the soaked dates and figs in a blender/ food processor.

Anjeer Khajur mixture - cooling in a plate

• Saute the mixture in ghee for a few minutes on medium heat till the milk evaporates.
• Let the mixture cool.

Shaped into diyas, and placed in mini cupcake liners

• Make small bowls or diyas (about the size of a quarter) out of the mixture. Its a lot of fun, much like playing with play doh! 
• If using silver foil, apply it on the outside of these small bowls.

• Fill with chopped nuts
• Fry the goond in 1 tbsp ghee. Let it cool, and garnish at the time of serving.

These are perfect for people who are watching what they eat!  It satisfies the sweet tooth, without any artificial sugar or flavours :)

Happy Diwali and Happy New Year! :)


Hetal from Houston

Diwali special - Orange Delight

Diwali is just round the corner. Its the best time of the year - with all the festivities, diyas, fire crackers, rangolis  and ofcourse - sweets. :)

I have a sweet tooth, and love to try out new sweets each year. This year I'm trying to make simple sweets entirely from things that are readily available in our pantry/ refrigerators.

Here's the recipe for Orange Delight, a quick and easy sweet.

Crumbled paneer

Ingredients:

1 cup crumbled Paneer. I made the paneer at home from whole milk and yogurt. You can use any method you prefer. One of popular methods uses lemon juice as here

1 whole naval orange.

1/4 cup super fine sugar (sieved)

Orange food color (1-2 drops optional)

Orange or vanilla essense (optional)

Special equipment:

Cookie cutters (optional)

Mini Cupcake liners

Directions:

Orange segments

• Peel oranges, and remove skin and seed from each segment. Roughly chop the segments. Reserve  pulp from 4-5 segments for garnishing.

Orange and sugar mixed into the paneer

• Gently mix the paneer and sugar into the orange pulp.
• Add orange food color and essense (if desired) and mix.
• Roll into small balls or cut with cookie cutter of desired shape.
• Place each piece into a mini cupcake liner gingerly. 
• Garnish with reserved orange segment pieces.
• Serve cool. It can be stored in the refrigerator for 2-4 days.

Orange Delight

Note: Using crushed pineapple and yellow food color would create another variation and could be called "Pineapple Delight" :)

Happy Diwali!

Hetal from Houston

Lakshmi Puja special 'Besan ka laddoo'!

 I had made besan ka laddoo, on the occasion of ‘Kojagari Lakshmi Puja’,  which is celebrated on the same day as  ‘Sharad Poonam’. I wanted to follow my mom’s tradition of making  some sweet at home on this day just to get a feel for the festival. 


This sweet is not a Bengali mishti but had to make something which was fast and involved readily available ingredients as it was a last minute decision.

Recipe Courtesy: Sis-in-law who has a passion for cooking as well!

Ingredients:

1.     Besan/ gram flour: 1 ½  cup

2.     Suji/ Semolina: 4 tbsp

3.     Ghee: ½ cup

4.     Sugar: 1 cup

5.     Cardamom powder: 1 tbsp

6.     Nuts ; I used cashews but almonds/ pistachios will be good too.

Roasted besan

Directions:

1.   Mix besan, suji and ghee well in a bowl.

2.   Tranfer this mix to a nonstick pan and roast in medium flame for  10- 15 minutes. The color would change to brown at this point. If you feel that besan is not cooked well (as  stoves have different heating capacities, so the time may vary) roast for some more time.

3.   Remove from flame and allow it to cool for ~15 mins

4.  Add sugar, cardamom powder and nuts and make into laddoos.

Sugar and nuts added to roasted besan

Happy Festive season!

The home made laddoos did give a ‘feel good’ quotient to a very simple Lakshmi puja at home.

Ajanta from Amherst.