It’s not every day that you give yourself the freedom to indulge in mithai, and even when you do, it’s so hard to pick just one! Sara Shah & Yamini Walia tell you about a few traditional Indian sweet treats that you can pick from as the festive season rolls in!
With the festive season just around the corner, it’s natural to want to gorge on traditional Indian sweets. We know they are fattening and probably unhealthy, but consuming them in small doses won’t harm you! Preparing them at home is even better, because it gives you the option to monitor the quality and quantity of the ingredients that you are using. To help you serve a platter of treats for your guests (and you!) to dig into this festive season, we asked a few chefs across the city to give us recipes for some famous Indian desserts.
Gajar Halwa
If barfis and ladoos are not your thing, we’re sure that you love halwa. Made from several different ingredients such as almonds, semolina and even carrots — they are a staple on almost every Indian occasion. Chef and food stylist Michael Swamy suggests this recipe.
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp ghee
- 2 cups grated carrots
- 3 cups whole milk
- ½ cup khoya
- 4 tbsp sugar
- ¼ tsp green cardamom powder
- 8 to 10 almonds (cut into slivers or flaked)
- 10 to 12 raisins
Method
- Heat ghee in a heavy pan over a low flame and add in the grated carrots. Sauté the carrots till soft.
- Gently stir in milk and crumbled khoya and cook, stirring constantly till the mixture thickens to the consistency of very thick kheer.
- Mix in the remaining ingredients and when sugar dissolves, take it off the flame.
- Serve hot or chilled.
.jpg)
Kaju Katli
We’d like to call this one the king of all barfis! Made from cashews, these diamond-shaped barfis are not just a national favourite, they are even renowned internationally! It helps thatthey’re pretty too! Chef Michael also gives us the recipe for our favourite Indian sweet.
Ingredients
- 4 cups sugar
- 1 cup water
- 4 cups cashew powder
- 1 tbsp clarified butter
- 6 to 8 leaves silver varq
Method
- Combine the sugar and water in a heavy pan and heat it over low flame, stirring constantly till the sugar dissolves. Cook the mixture, stirring constantly till the syrup comes to a boil and thickens to one-string consistency.
- Gradually whisk in the cashew powder and continue cooking it over a low flame, stirring constantly till mixture comes together.
- Grease a large plate/thali and the outer base of a large katori with clarified butter.
- Transfer the cashew mixture to the greased plate, spread it evenly and then smoothen the surface.
- Apply the silver varq and allow the mixture to cool completely. Cut into diamond (or any other desired shape) and serve.
Malpua
Another traditional sweet that can be consumed with rabdi is malpua. Primarily a pancake, malpua is also a great snack! Mostly served in Bengali homes, it is also a favourite during Ramdan in Mumbai. Chef Mukhtar Qureshi, Neel at Tote on the Turf helps us with the recipe.
Ingredients
- 100g plain mawa (white)
- 100ml milk
- 40g refined flour
- 8g cornflour
- 1-2 pinches green cardamom powder
- 5ml saffron water
- 100g sugar (granular, not powdered)
- 150ml water
- Ghee (for frying) as required
- 2g pistachios (sliced for garnish)
- 2g almonds (sliced for garnish)
Method
- In a vessel add milk and bring to a boil, remove from heat, add grated, plain mawa and whisk gently till the milk and mawa mixture is dissolved.
- Now pour in the refined flour and cornflour and whisk gently till both flours are dissolved in the mixture. Sprinkle green cardamom powder and saffron water (2ml). Your batter for the malpua is now ready.
- Begin making your sugar syrup by heating water in a pan and adding sugar. Once the sugar is dissolved and a syrupy consistency is achieved, remove your sugar syrup from the flame and add saffron water (3ml). Cover to keep warm.
- In a pan, heat ghee (as required) to fry it on a low flame, pour in the batter with a laddle or spoon to make small round flat rotis, and fry it till golden brown.
- Next, dip the fried malpuas in the warm sugar syrup for 1 or 2 minutes, remove and serve with a little sugar syrup.
- Garnish the malpuas with thin slices of almonds and pistachios.
Saffron Phirni
This Mughlai dessert is exceptionally light and not extremely sweet. It is best serve chilled and tastes great with some added flavour such as rose or saffron. Chef at Go! Biryan suggests this delectable recipe.
Ingredients
- 60g basmati rice
- 800ml milk
- 80g sugar
- 10-12 almonds
- 8-10 saffron strands
- ¼ tsp cardamom powder
- Pistachios (for garnish)
Method
- Wash the rice and then soak it in warm water for about 1 hour.
- Soak the almonds separately in hot water for around 30 minutes.
- Separately soak the saffron strands in about 20ml warm milk and keep aside.
- Wash the almonds in cold water and peel off the skin.
- Drain off the excess water from the rice and blend the rice and almonds together to form a coarse powder.
- To this rice and almond powder, add about 1 full cup of the cold milk and mix well. Keep this rice paste ready to use.
- Boil the rest of the milk — and then slowly add in the rice paste, stirring continuously.
- Cook for about 15 minutes on a slow flame in an open pot, and stir continuously.
- Add the sugar and the saffron milk and continue to cook the mixture for 5 minutes, stirring as it cooks.
- Pour it into clay plots and allow it to cool. Cover with aluminium foil or cling wrap and then refrigerate.
- Garnish with pistachios and serve.
Orange Jalebi
If you have a sweet tooth, then we’re sure that you will love the sugary, syrupy jalebis. Made essentially from sugar, these sweet treats are fun to prepare and an absolute delight to eat, especially when paired with rabri. Chef Vinod Rana of Soma Restaurant at Grand Hyatt Mumbai shares the following recipe with us.
Ingredients
- 60g refined flour
- 50g yogurt (preferably sour)
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup orange juice
- a pinch saffron
- Oil/ ghee (for frying)
- A square piece of cloth with a hole in it, or a strong plastic bag to pipe out the jalebis
Method
- Mix flour and dahi (yogurt) to form a thick smooth paste (dropping consistency), adding water if necessary and leave to ferment for 6-7 hours.
- The batter should be spongy and have suggestions of bubbles on the surface.
- Make sugar syrup by dissolving sugar and saffron in orange juice, over low heat, and then cook over high heat till slightly thick.
- Keep it warm till you fry the jalebis.
- Take a shallow, heavy pan and heat the ghee/oil till a drop of batter, rises to the surface.
- Fill the bag with the batter. Twist the opening to seal the bag.
- Snip one lower corner of the bag to make a small hole, through which you can pipe out the jalebis. The smaller the hole, the thinner the jalebis.
- Hold the bag over the hot fat and pipe out swirls (like whirlpools), of any desired size, straight into it. Make as many such rounds as can fit in comfortably without touching each other.
- Lower the heat to medium, turn the jalebis over and fry them till they’re light brown on both sides. Lift out the fried jalebis, drain out the fat and put them into the syrup.
- Leave it for a minute or so, remove from the syrup and serve hot.
Fusion at its best
We all love traditional Indian sweets but a little fusion won’t harm anyone! Here, we have two fusion recipes that will help you experiment.
Masala Chai Popsicles
Consulting pastry chef Kunali at Bombay Canteen help you with the recipe of the same.
Ingredients
- 500ml full fat milk
- 4 tbsp loose leaf tea leaves
- 250g condensed milk
- 1 tsp agar agar
- 200ml whipping Cream
- ½ tsp fennel seeds
- 2 inch piece cinnamon
- 3 cloves
- 5 whole black pepper
- 3 cardamom
- 2 inch piece ginger (thinly sliced)
Method
- In a heavy bottom sauce pan, heat milk, tea leaves and condensed milk until they come to very light simmer, and then remove them from the heat.
- Once the pan is off the heat, add all the spices and allow it to steep for 30 to 40 minutes.
- Strain the mixture and place it in a fresh pan.
- Once this strained mixture is back on the heat, add the agar powder and whisk continuously until the agar has completely dissolved and the mixture comes to a light boil.
- Remove from the heat and strain the mixture once again. Allow it to cool down to room temperature and fold in the whipped cream until the mixture is uniform.
- Place the cooled mixture into the Popsicle molds and freeze overnight.
- Serve the popsicles with crushed cookies and jaggery caramel.