Colorful Coconut Burfi on the festival of colors

Good wishes for a colorful Holi with a plenty of peace and prosperity. So here I am back with a long slumber. Although I thought of taking little break due to some other priorities but didn’t thought it will become too long break. Thanks to my few but very strong followers, who kept me reminding of my blog. On this festive occasion, I thought to start back with some colorful sweets.  I always go for short and easy recipes when it comes for sweets. This coconut burfi requires a minimal cooking of five minutes if you have the condensed milk.

Ingredients: 2 Cup dry coarsely grated coconut, ¾ cup sweetened condensed milk, few food colors,5-6 crushed cardamom.

Method:  Mix grated coconut, condensed milk and cardamom in a microwave safe bowl. Cook the mixture for 3-4 minutes in a microwave. Divide the mixture in 3-4 parts and mix the gel based food colors separately in each part. Now you can make the colorful burfis with these different colors. Different color mixture can be spread in layers on a greased plate and burfi can be cut into desired shapes. You can also make a ball of various colors in layers and cut it into round pieces.

So my dear neighbour friends get ready, I am coming with the box of sweets and colors.

Karvachauth-Ladies special day

In my first post regarding my festive mood, I talked about few of my strange cravings and the strangest was the urge to buy some traditional outfits. So to satisfy this craving I tried searching latest movies that are loaded with heavy traditional fashion show but unfortunately movie makers are making movies with a different trend  these days so ended up watching few dance songs on you tube. During my New Jersey trip I also did some window shopping with a hope of finding something good and suitable to my taste but that was useless. Later in the evening at my friend’s house, I tried searching for the Saas-Bahu serials to have look of the latest fashion trend but to my dismay these days they have changed the trend of serials as well. Most of the serials aired on Indian channels these days are trying to depict the Rajasthani culture and traditions but distorting the fact to quite an extent.  Being a Rajasthani, I am not happy with the way they try to reflect my culture in their serials. Ok let’s not sit in the criticizing mood and continue to our festive mood.

                                                 After seeing the title of this post, I don’t think I will have to explain the reason for my strong urge of shopping. Yes, it’s for Karvachauth. In northern India, Karvachauth is the festival when ladies or I should say their husbands and in-laws adore them with lots of shopping, mehendi and no work for the whole day. In fact J mehendi itself is an excuse to take full rest on Karvachauth.To add some festiveness to my blog, I went to an extent of going to my friend Ritu’s house with camera to get some pictures of her vast bangles collection that you can see in above pic.

Festivals are never complete without the sweets and I always go for the short cuts when it comes to sweets. So for Karvacauth I decided to make my favorite karvacauth special Fenni, instead I should say simply decorate it because I didn’t have to do much in making Fenni. Fenni base are available in stores and you have to only soak them in chashni. In fact I should say thanks to my fried Shruti, who gave me idea of soaking Fenni in chashni when she saw me this crazy for this sweet few days back.

Dahi-vade is something that is made in all the festivals in my family as almost every  family member is fond of dahi-vade.                         

                                                        

Kuttu ke Pakore

So today is the last and the eight day of Navratri fasts and here comes my eight Falahar recipe. While starting Falahar recipes although I decided but never hoped to finish eight recipes for eight fasting days. Although I was little bit tired yesterday with lot of parties, my son’s holidays and half days. I was not much in mood of continuing further with the falahar recipes but after seeing the overwhelming response from you all encouraged me to pen down another recipe for the last day of Navratri. It also gave my husband a good opportunity to have some warm fried snacks for rainy eve. So let’s say bye to this navratri with kuttu ke pakore.

Ingredients: 1 Cup kuttu flour, ½ cup water, 3-4 long and thick peppers, 2 boiled and mashed potato, 1-2 potato sliced in circle and vertical strip, sendha namak per taste , crushed pepper per taste, ginger powder or ginger juice ½ tsp, oil for frying.

Method: Slit the long peppers vertically. Mix the desired amount of sendha salt and black pepper to boiled and mashed potato. Fill the peepers with potato filling and keep aside. Mix the kuttu  flour, desired amount of sendha salt and pepper, ginger powder or juice together to make a smooth and thick paste. Coat the filled peppers and potato slices with the kuttu batter and deep fry on medium flame. Serve the kuttu pakore with green chutney.

You can also serve the kuttu pakore as chat platter mix with sweet yoghurt and some fruits.

Aloo ka Halwa

Yesterday I was invited to a friend’s house for Navratri Pooja. First I started preparing a fruit basket for Prasad but then came the idea of preparing some vrat food that can also make entry in my Falahar special series. I tried remembering the other dishes that my mom use to make and a two minute flash back play of childhood days was enough to bring this dish back to my memory. Below mentioned ratio is for 2-3 people.

Ingredients: 7-8 Boiled potato, ½ cup milk, sugar 1/3 cup or per taste, ghee 3 tbsp, 6-7 crushed cardamom, 7-8 saffron flakes,  ½ cup chopped mix of almonds, cashews, 8-10 raisins.

Method: Grate or mash the boiled potato and keep aside. Soak the saffron flakes in milk and keep aside. In a pan heat ghee and add the grated potato. On medium flame roast the potato for 10 minutes or till the time potato starts leaving ghee and changes a color and aroma. Make sure to stir potato continuously while roasting to ensure even roasting of potato. When the potatoes are well cooked with ghee, add sugar dry fruits, cardamom and milk with saffron flakes and mix properly. Let the halwa cook for another 5 minutes and make sure to stir it. Garnish the halwa with dry fruits.