Raksha -Bandhan Sweet ("mithai") Recipes of India

Recipes of India

Get The Taste of India

Spicy, unique and fabulous, Indian cuisine has everything special about it. Often, Indian cooking is distinguished by the use of a larger variety of vegetables than many other well known cuisine. Whether its North India, South India, East India, West India, the central part and the north-eastern part - each place has its own flavor of food and style of cooking. Make your self expert in cooking delicious recipes with SurfIndia.

Indian food is highly distinguished by its use of spices and herbs. In India, cuisines differ according to state, religion and even by community. Each and every religion and region has left its own influence on the Indian food. We have all the recipes from the Indian kitchen either it is Indian vegetarian recipes, Indian sweet recipes, south Indian recipes, Chinese cuisine recipes or indian snacks.

Mughal cuisine of Delhi, Awadhi in Lucknow, Wazwan of Jammu and Kashmir, Sadyas of Kerala and the world famous cuisine of Hyderabad and Punjab. To have these many and a lot more in one land, one nation is a culinary phenomenon. It is remarkable to note for any lover of food, how our forefathers refined their cooking generation after generation and transformed what is the basic need of a human into a form of fine art, cherished all over the world.

Worth noticing in the cuisines of different zones of India, is how innovate the cooks have been. They have treated geographic and economic compulsions to best of their advantage, and so beautifully.

This section of Surfindia guides you to find your favourite dish and venture on some of the interesting foods. Keep cooking, keep testing and keep people visiting your dining table.

"Ghevar"

Ghevar is a sweet specialty from Jaipur. It is a round cake made from daal or flour mix soaked in ghee and milk and topped with sliced almonds.

Ingredients

• 3 cups: Plain flour
• 1 cup: Solidified ghee
• 1/2 cup: Milk
• 1/4 tsp: Yellow food colour
• 1 kg: Ghee for deep frying
• 3-4 : Ice cubes
• 4 cups approx: Water
• For syrup:
  • 1 1/2 cups: Sugar
  • 1 cup: Water

Method

1. Prepare sugar syrup of thin consistency.
2. Take solidified ghee in a large wide bowl. Taking one ice cube at a time rub the ghee vigorously. Take more ice cubes as required, till ghee becomes very white.
3. Add milk, flour and 1 cup water. Mix to make smooth batter.
4. Dissolve colour in some water and add to batter.
5. Add more water as required to make the batter of thin consistency. (it should run off easily when pour from spoon).
6. Take an aluminum or steel cylindrical container with diameter 5-6" and height at least 12". Fill half the container with ghee. Heat.
7. When ghee is smoky hot, take a 50 ml, glassful of batter. Pour in centre of ghee, slowly in one continuous thread like stream. Allow foam to settle. Pour one more glassful in hole formed in centre. When foam settles again, loosen ghevar with an iron skewer inserted in hole. Lift carefully, at a slant, and place on wire mesh to drain.
8. Keep hot syrup in a wide flat-bottomed container to fit in ghevar. Dip ghevar in it, and remove, keep aside on mesh to drain excess syrup. Alternatively pour some syrup evenly all over, keeping ghevar in a mesh placed over a container. Cool a little, top with silver foil.
9. Splash a few drops of saffron milk, sprinkle some chopped dry fruit like almond and a few pinches of cardamom powder.

"Suji Ladoo"

Ladoo is a popular Indian sweet dish and stands as a symbol of festivals and joy. Suji ladoo is a variation of ladoo, made with rava. Enrich it with lot of dry fruits and spread sweetness with Suji ladoo.

Ingredients (Serves : 10)

• 1/2 kg: Semolina
• 1/2 kg: Khoya
• 400 ml: Sugar syrup
• 10 pcs: Almonds
• 2 tsp: Cardamom powder
• 250 gm: Ghee

Method

1. Grate Khoya and grind the almonds coarsely.
2. Heat ghee in a heavy pan and roast semolina on low heat for about 10 minutes or till lightly browned. Add khoya and mix for five minutes.
3. Add the syrup, almonds, cardamom powder and mix. Cool the mixture a little, rub ghee on your palms and make lemon-sized round balls of the batter.
4. Cool and store the ladoos in an airtight container.

"Churma"

ngredients

• 200 gm: Wheat flour
• 100 gm: Khoya / Mawa
• 400 gm: Ghee
• 200 gm: Sugar (grounded)
• 50 gm: Soaked almond (finely chopped)
• 4 : Cardamom (small)
• 1" piece: Dalchini

Method

1. Melt 150 gm ghee and mix it in wheat flour. Make a stiff dough using very little water.
2. Heat the rest of the ghee in a kadahi. Make about 15-20 balls with the dough. Fry it on low flame till it becomes golden brown. Churn it in grinder after it cools down. Mix khoya.
3. Heat 1 tbsp. ghee in kadahi. Add cardamom seeds and dalchini. Add the above mixture of wheat flour and khoya. Fry it for one minute. When it cools down, add sugar and chopped almonds. Mix well.
4. Serve in a plate. You can enjoy the taste of churma for 8-10 days if you keep it in an airtight box.

"Jalebi" ( my fave. yammmiiiiii)

Ingredients

• ½ cup: white flour or maida
• 2 tbsp: Yoghurt or dahi
• ½ tsp: Yeast
• ½ cup: Sugar
• 1 cup: Water
• A few strands of saffron
• Oil for frying
• A pinch of salt
• A little oil

Method

1. Make a batter of the dahi, maida, saffron and yeast with a little oil. Let it rise for several hours.
2. In a saucepan, boil sugar and water till you have a thick two-strand chasni. Keep it warm on the stove.
3. Fill the batter into a squeeze bottle (like that used for ketchup). Squeeze shapes into the hot oil and drain quickly.
4. Dip in chasni for 1-2 minutes and drain.

"Moong Dal Ka Halwa (Lentil Pudding)"

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup: Moong dal (Soaked)
• 1 1/2 litre: Milk
• 1 cup: Sugar
• 3/4 cup: Mawa (well crumpled)
• 1/2 tsp: Saffron soaked in a little milk
• 5-6: Cardamoms (powdered)
• 6 tbsp: Ghee

Method

1. Grind moong dal coarsley.
2. Heat ghee in a thick bottomed dekchi and fry the dal till golden.
3. Add milk and cook till the milk has been absorbed.
4. Add mawa and cook on a low fire, stirring continuously till the dal and the mawa are well blended. Remove from the fire and keep aside.
5. Make sugar syrup of one thread consistency, add saffron and cardamom powder to it.
6. Add the fried dal to the syrup and stir quickly till it mixes well.
7. If you want you can add thin silvers of blanched almonds.

"Cashew Barfi"

Ingredients

• 1 cup: Powdered sugar
• 4 tbsp: Milk powder
• A little milk
• ½ tsp: Powdered elaichi
• 1 cup: Cashews
• 1 tbsp: Ghee

Method

1. Grind cashews in a blender till you have a fine powder.
2. Knead the ground cashew with powdered sugar, milk powder, cardamom, ghee and a little milk. Knead till you get a thick buttery dough.
3. Roll out and cut into diamonds and bake in the oven till a light golden brown.