Festive flavours 

Whether you’re celebrating Dasara or Durga pujo, there are plenty of delicious dishes you can prep at home 
Festive flavours 

Hayagreeva (Recipe by Madhuri Aggarwal, @msaggarwal) 

Ingredients

  • Bengal gram/ Chana Dal 1 cup 
  • Jaggery 1 cup 
  • Poppy seeds 2 tbsp  Grated dry coconut 1/4 cup
  • Cardamom/ Elaichi 3

Method

  • Soak the Bengal gram for half an hour and pressure cook till it is firm. Usually, it’s cooked for three whistles.
  • In a deep pan, boil 2 cups of water along with jaggery, poppy seeds and grated dry coconut. 
  • Boil it till the jaggery dissolves completely and it gets syrupy. Not a one-string consistency but syrupy. 
  • Add the pressure cooked lentils into this syrup, cover it and cook it till the lentils soak all the syrup and thickens. 
  • Add cardamom powder and give it a good mix. 
  • Make sure you do not mash the lentils too much.
  • Garnish it with some grated dry coconut, toasted poppy seeds, serve hot.

Gujjia  (Recipe by Neel Sharma, @grihamsocial)

  • Plain flour 2 cups  Ghee 4 tbsps, melted (clarified ghee) + 3 tbsp 
  • For roasting filling  Water as required to knead the dough  Salt 1/2 tsp  Oil for deep frying 
  • For the filling 
  • Dry coconut 1/2 cup  Mawa 1/2 cup  
  • Powdered sugar 3/4 cup 
  • Cardamom powder 1 tsp  
  • Nutmeg powder 1/4 tsp  Pistachios fistful  Cashew nuts fistful 
  • Almonds 1/4th cup (blanched and peeled)

Method 

  • In a bowl, add flour, salt, ghee and knead the dough. Divide the dough and shape it into small balls. Keep aside, covered, for half an hour.
  • Heat a pan, add 1/2 tbsp ghee, add grated coconut, and roast over medium flame for a few minutes, till it turns golden brown. Add a tbsp of ghee, nuts, and roast till golden. Remove, cool and make a coarse powder.
  • Drizzle 1/2 tbsp of ghee and add the khoya/mawa and roast for 5-6 mins. Powder the sugar and mix with the roasted dry coconut, groundnuts, and mawa. Add the cardamom powder and mix well. Set aside the prepared filling.
  • Now, roll each ball with the rolling pin into a thin puri.
  • Spread a tbsp of the filling on one — half of the rolled — out dough. Wet your finger and run it along the edges of the spread-out dough with water and fold over to the opposite end, enclosing the stuffing to form a semi-circle. Use a fork to seal the edges. Twist the edges.
  • Heat enough oil in a wide vessel. Slowly drop 3-4 gujiyas into the oil and deep fry them on medium flame till golden brown. Drain the gujiya with a slotted ladle and place it on a plate.
  • Cool and store in air-tight containers. Gujiya remains fresh for at least a week and can be stored up to 2-3 weeks.

Rava Kheer (Recipe by Sindhu Bharadwaj, @slurpyplatter)

  • Rava 50 gm 
  • Full fat milk 2 cups (can use non-dairy mylk as well for vegan option)  Sugar 3/4 cup  Saffron strands a pinch (soaked in a tbsp of warm milk)  Mixed nuts ( almonds, pistachios, cashews) 
  • 2 tbsp finely chopped
  • Raisins  1 tbsp 
  • Ghee 1 tbsp 

Method

  • Roast the rava on medium flame for 5-7 minutes until aromatic.
  • Add milk and cook the rava till it thickens to a porridge consistency. 
  • Now, add the sugar and mix well. Keep the flame on low until the mixture thickens further, add the saffron milk. 
  • Heat ghee in a pan and add the nuts, raisins. Pour this over the kheer and enjoy it warm.   

Shahi Tukra (Recipe by Vandana Hasija, @vandyskitchenblr)

Ingredients 

  • Slices of bread 2  Milk 1 cup  Oil for frying 
  • A few sliced pista flakes Syrup  Sugar 1 cup  Water 2 cups   Elachi powder 1 tsp  
  • A few strands of kesar  Rabri  Milk 1 litre  
  • Sugar 1 tbsp  Elachi powder 1 tsp  

Method 

  • Pour milk in a plate .
  • Cut the bread into triangle or square shape. 
  • Heat oil in a khadai. Individually dip each bread slice in milk for just a second and deep fry on medium flame till golden brown. Repeat the same with the rest.
  • Syrup:   Boil sugar and water; when sugar melts, add kesar (dissolved in warm water) and elachi. 
  • Boil for 20 minutes till you get a thread-like consistency. Turn off the flame.
  • Dip each slice of bread in the syrup. Allow it to soak for 5 minutes. Keep  it aside.
  • Rabri:  Boil one litre of milk, reduce till half. Stir continuously. 
  • Add sugar, and mix it. Add elachi and  mix  again for 5 minutes. Allow it to cool. Keep it in the fridge or enjoy at room temperature. 

How to serve

  • In a  serving plate, place sweet bread, pour Rabri on top, garnish with sliced pistas.

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