FESTIVE SPIRIT/RECIPES
Kaju Katli
Cooking oil for frying
½ tsp dried ginger powder
Method
Boil a cup of water in a pan and add the jaggery powder to
make a syrup.
When the syrup thickens, add cardamom and dry ginger
powder and turn off the heat.
Add rice flour into the syrup and stir well. Keep aside for a
day.
Knead the rice-jaggery mixture into dough by sprinkling little
water, if needed.
Heat oil in a frying pan. Make small balls, about the size of
a lemon, and flatten each ball with your palm on a plastic
sheet.
Deep-fry the athirasam till brown.
You can keep crispy athirasams for days and also freeze the
dough, for later use.
Ingredients
1cup whole cashews
½ cup water
½ cup sugar
½ tsp cardamom (optional)
— Prema Narayanan
Paan Petha
Method
Grind cashews to a fine powder. Do
not add water or milk.
In a frying pan bring water to a boil.
Reduce the heat to medium, add car-
damom and sugar. Mix well with a
wooden spatula.
After the sugar dissolves add the
cashew powder and mix well to avoid
lumps.
Keep stirring the mixture till it
begins to thicken.
Switch off the flame, remove the
content in a greased plate
and let it cool for
4-5 minutes.
Grease your hands
with oil and knead
the mixture well till
it forms a
smooth shinny
ball.
Roll this ball
with a rolling pin
on a flat surface.
With a pizza cutter or knife cut
into diamonds.
Leave for 5
minutes and then
separate the diamonds. You can use
silver leaf to decorate them.
— Ashwini Deshpande
Ingredients
For the filling
2 cups, Indian cheese (chennaorchhana)
½ cup sugar, powdered
2 tbsp pistachios, finely chopped,
A few saffron strands
½ tsp cardamom powder
Festive Flavor
mented and peeled. Leave some outer peel for garnishing
Method
Knead the chenna till smooth. Add sugar.
Put this mixture into a shallow vessel, stirring constantly
over low heat.
When the mixture turns into a creamy thick paste, stir in
cardamom powder, saffron strands and pistachios.
Ingredients
For the wrap
2 pounds ash gourd or white pumpkin
A small piece of alum
3 ½ cups of sugar
Cloves for garnishing
4-5 minutes or till it becomes transparent. Don’t let it cook
completely. Drain the water.
Take another pan, put a little sugar and add the slices in to
it. Keep aside for half an hour.
The slices will leave water and mix with sugar. So there
will be enough water for making sugar syrup.
Heat this pan on low heat and let the sugar dissolve completely and cook slices on medium heat afterwards.
Remove slices from syrup before they dry up. Time for the
filling now. Divide the filling into equal parts and shape
each portion into even sized balls.
Place one portion of the filling on a petha slice. Fold it
along the sides to form a triangle and stud it with a clove.
Note: To slice the petha, use a sharp wafer slicer.
— Tanu Mittal
Method
Method
Peel the pumpkin and remove the seeds and soft fibers. Cut
it into 4x4 inch, thick slices. Prick well with a fork, all
over.
Soak these slices in water with a small piece of alum in it
for two hours. Rinse the slices with fresh water thoroughly.
Boil water and cook the ash gourd slices with the lid on for
Kheer Kwamola
— IBNS
Ingredients
1liter milk
3tbsp sugar
Cardamom seeds
3 sweet oranges or kinoo (loose skinned citrus fruit), seg-
Sandesh
Mysore Pak
Ingredients
1cup gram flour (besan)
1cup sugar
2½ cups ghee
1/2 tsp cardamom (elaichi) powder
the flame for a second, while you get
the melted ghee ready.
Pour the ghee in a steady stream
into the flour and sugar mix-
ture while stirring.
Add the rest of the
ghee and stir.
Cook till the mix-
ture turns light
brown and
becomes porous
and spongy like
bread. Keep
the gas
stove to
medium
flame.
Sprinkle car-
damom powder
over the mixture
and pour into a thin cake
pan. The mixture will set within five
to six minutes.
Ingredients
1liter milk, pre-boiled
½ tsp citric acid or juice of 1 lemon
2 tsp corn flour
½ cup sugar, ground fine
¼ tsp essence of choice
Few drops color to match essence flavor
1 tsp pistachios and almonds
1/4 tsp cardamom powder
Small molds of choice
Method
Sieve besan and roast it on a hot
griddle for 2-3 minutes, stirring con-
stantly. Set aside.
Heat half the ghee (1½ cups) in a
pan.
Put sugar in another pan and add a
cup of water. Cook till it turns into a
sticky syrup. It should not become
stringy and too watery.
Add the roasted flour to the sugar
syrup, stirring constantly. Take off
Method
Dissolve acid or lemon juice in ½ cup warm water. Put
milk to boil. When it rises, pour acidic water over it.
Reduce heat and stir till fully curdled. Remove from heat.
Strain with the help of a clean muslin cloth.
Hold under running water for a minute. Press out excess
water and hang for 15 minutes (cottage cheese, paneer is
ready). Empty in a large plate. Take 2 tbsp of paneer in a
pan and add corn flour.
Heat on medium flame, stirring continuously for 3-4 min-
utes. Add sugar, essence and color. Mix till very smooth.
Lightly grease and dust molds with ghee and corn flour.
Mix topping ingredients. Sprinkle little topping in each
mould.
Press paneer mixture into it and level top. Chill for 3-4
hours. Remove carefully from the mold. Serve chilled in
paper cups.
