I am not sure how many of you had the same feelings, but even though I tried my best, I could not get into a Diwali mood this year. For me, Diwali means my dad bring out his colored light bulbs & akashgud/akash butti and tie them neatly on our front porch. Then in the evenings, we would light up small candles or oil lamps on the porch- ‘ jaglee ‘. Dad also bought us many crackers which we would burn after sunset. It used to be so much fun. For my brother and me, Diwali always signified this fun more than any special kind of food. Yes, we had followed many rituals like udak bharche , abhyanjana snana , gopooja , lakshmi pooja etc – but these were all moderately celebrated so that we loved being part of these.
When I was in India, even though I could not visit my parents every year during my college days, I got into Diwali mood around this time because of all the festivities going around. I still remember one year when I was alone in Bangalore and feeling bored. I sat in our apartment balcony watching all the fireworks and kids burning small crackers. The only horror was some people throwing crackers on the roads when I was driving my two wheeler :(. But apart from that, I loved everything, I even loved the smell of crackers.
In 2005, just before we came to US, I pestered my brother and hubby for crackers. Even though both of them were not interested, they went to the shop and came back with a big box of crackers which was more than what I had expected. Since we were burning crackers almost after 7-8 years, we enjoyed every bit of it.
This year, first of all we had to cancel our India trip which was supposed to be in December, due to various reasons. We were already in not-so-happy mood because of that and then all the missing lights and crackers really got to my nerve. It wont be completely wrong if I said I cooked those Diwali dishes just so that I could post them here. I had to get out of this mood somehow, so I thought of cooking a sweet dish today to cheer both of us.
Dudh paank or dudh pak – pudding is prepared in many Konkani homes during Diwali. Long grained aromatic basmati rice is cooked in milk and then cardamom and/or saffron are added for extra aroma. This comes out to be a lip smacking tasty dish. I think this is also called Pal Payasam .
I am sending this to Vee’s Diwali special JFI .
Ingredients: 1/2 cup basmati rice 4 cups milk 1 cup sugar 1/4 tea spn cardamom powder 6-7 strands saffron(optional) 1 tbl spn cashews 1 tbl spn raisins(dry grapes)
Adjust milk and sugar according to taste.
Method: Wash rice in water and cook it along with cashews in milk on a medium flame mixing occasionally. When the rice is cooked completely (rice should not get mushy), add sugar, raisins. Cook for about 4-5mins and then add saffron. Cook for about 1min and then take off the heat. Add cardamom powder. Serve hot or cold.
Serves : 4-5
Preparation time : 30mins
I had invited one of our friends for Diwali dinner yesterday. I wanted to make an elaborate dinner for the festival. He and his friend brought a sweet vermicelli payasa with them. Everything was simple but I enjoyed cooking as well as eating it. Here is my entire Diwali spread, since this is a festival spread, I made everything without onion and garlic, ie, a ‘satvik’ food.
In the bowls – Varn , vermicelli paays , shrikhand In the plate – Puris , capsicum & cauliflower bajjis , muga dali usli , tendli buthi , batate talasani , rice.
Now coming to Shrikhand ..
Shrikhand is a very popular sweet made of hung yogurt and sugar. I have seen this very frequently in Marathi menus. I tasted this for the first time when I was about 14 years old, we were in Mumbai visiting one of our relatives and I had to eat a small bowl of this. I felt it was a torture for me. After that I tried this in different places for 3-4 times and I never liked it. So I decided never to try this again.
About 4-5 months ago, Aruna sent me this recipe. But due to my previous failed attempts, I kept the recipe as it is without trying it. But then, while talking to my cousin day before yesterday, he said his wife had made Shrikhand and somehow I felt like giving this a try. Then hubby said he loves this dish. So I decided to give it a try. I am very happy that I tried. It was very good, my hubby and I instantly loved it this time. I followed Aruna’s recipe exactly. I served it with puris since that seems to be a super hit combo.
Aruna’s personal touch for this recipe is a little amount of sour cream along with yogurt. She said, “Do not forget to use sour cream, it gives the taste. I have tried both with and without using sour cream, but tastes better with it”. But she said if sour cream is not available, you can ignore it. Thanks a lot dear for sending me this. I also loved the almond taste in this. I think I am going to make this often now. Next time I am going to make Amrakhand – Shrikhand with mango.
I am sending this to Vee’s Diwali special JFI .
Ingredients: 4 cups ready made yogurt or yogurt made from 1.5ltrs of milk 1/2 cup sour cream (optional) 2 cups sugar 1/2 cup coarsely powdered almonds 1/4 tea spn cardamom powder 7-8 strands of saffron soaked in about 1 tbl spn warm water
Method: Take a clean muslin cloth and take the yogurt in it. Tie a knot and hang it so that all the water falls away from the yogurt. Leave it like this for overnight or for about 12hrs. The remaining dry yogurt is called hung yogurt. In a bowl mix hung yogurt, sour cream, sugar. Mix well. Add the saffron, cardamom to get a nice saffron color. Now add almonds. Serve with puris .
Serves : 6-7 Preparation time : 10mins (excluding the time to prepare hung yogurt)
PS: – You can add pistachios for this along with almonds. As Aruna had mentioned I had coarsely powdered the almonds, but they can be roughly chopped and added. – In Mumbai charolis are also added to Shrikhand . – Mix very well after adding saffron to get a good color. You can also add food color to get a nice yellow color for Shrikhand . I added saffron but didn’t mix it well and didn’t add food color because I like the light color. – Do not add all sugar at a time. It makes the shrikhand quite sweet, add 1 cup at a time and if required then add more.
