Navratri Special- Falahar

Here comes Navratri, the first visitor on the door steps of my festive mood. Navratri is celebrated in lots of states of India and is celebrated with little different trend in every part of India. Like in some parts of India, Navratri is a festival of dance and music where as in some parts people simply observe fasting during these nine days. Although these days dance and music have associated itself with most of the festivals and so the Navratri is also more famous because of the”Garbha dance” or  “Dandia Nights” held during these nine days. Today in this post I will be talking about Navratri’s special Falahar (dishes made from fruits and few vegetables that comes into the fruit category like potato, arbi, tomato, petha (green pumpkin), arbi etc. Generally during the fasts people avoid onion, garlic and instead of wheat flour  Singhare ka atta, kuttu ka atta, rajgiri ka atta, are used.  Although I am not a big follower of fasts but have always liked the dishes made during the Navratri and other fasts.  These days I am trying to remember all those dishes from my childhood that I have seen my mother cooking during Navratri and other fasts.

In above thali, I have prepared kuttu ki roti and vrat ke Aloo served with lauki ka raita. Below are the methods for preparing the above dishes.

Kuttu ki Puri or parantha: One has to be very careful while making dough with kuttu ka atta as it don’t get tie-up easily like other flours. Best idea is to mash boiled potato with kuttu ka atta as potato helps to bind the flour. Also there is no need of using water for making the dough as the moisture from the boiled potato is quite sufficient for wetting the flour. Now with the prepared dough make puri, parantha or roti whatever you like. I generally go for parantha’s as the kuttu itself is little bit heavy and deep frying adds lot of grease to it.

Aloo with tamatar ka jhol: In a pan heat oil and add some chopped green chilli. When the chilies looks fried add the tomato paste. Add roasted cumin powder,sendha namak and black pepper powder per your taste. Add the boiled and mashed potato and little water for gravy.Cook the aloo tomato gravy on low for another 3-4 minutes and mix well. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Lauki ka raita: Grate the lauki and steam them for 5-6 minutes with little water. When the boiled lauki is cooled add whipped curd to it and serve with a sprinkle of roasted cumin powder.