5 years ago, aayi gave me this recipe and I wrote it down on my diary to make it sometime. Every time I would look at it and think about trying it sometime. Somehow I never got to it. 2 years ago, she posted it with beautiful pictures. I thought of making it and again, never got to it, but it was always on the back of my mind.
Like every Diwali, this year also, I was feeling very homesick. I kept on thinking aayi would have made this for me, made that for me. Pappa would have put on lights, bring fire-crackers and so on. I was so busy with work, home and a very active baby, who by the way, has just started crawling. Yesterday, finally I gave in and decided to make something so that it would atleast feel like festival. First thing that came to my mind was this sweet. So after work, I made these.
Sanjuri/Sanjori are polis(sweet stuffed flat breads) with a stuffing of sheera . Even though they are not as popular as puran polis at our place, they are quite popular. The outer covering is usually made with maida, but I mixed whole wheat flour(atta) and maida like carrot poli (Thanks Aruna for that tip). I used more maida and less wheat flour because I wanted to get very thin outer covering.
Ingredients (for the cover) : 1 cup all purpose flour/ maida 1 tbl spn warm oil + 1 tea spn oil (optional) 1/2 cup wheat flour A pinch salt Water
Method: Mix wheat flour and maida, add warm oil (this makes the outer covering crispy when fried), salt, water and make a dough (like a chapathi dough). Apply remaining oil to the dough, knead it well and keep it aside for about 15-30mins.
Ingredients (for dough): 1 cup sooji / rava 1 cup sugar 2 tbl sps ghee 1/2 tea spn cardamom powder
Method: Roast sooji till a nice aroma comes out of it. Heat ghee and add roasted sooji and fry for few more minutes. Add 2 cups water, cover and cook till it is cooked. Add sugar and mix well. Keep mixing till the sheera is done. Add cardamom powder and mix. Let it cool a bit.
Making polis: Take a small ball of the outer covering, and a ball of stuffing. (Outer covering about 3/4th size of stuffing). Flatten the outer covering and keep the stuffing ball on it. Cover the outer covering around the stuffing. Roll it into a poli. Heat tava, roast the polis from both sides applying some ghee. Serve hot.
Makes about 12 polis
Pictorial:
Yesterday was one of those days when I wanted to try something new. I wanted it to be a totally new sweet. So I thought of making halva out of some unexpected vegetable. I checked my fridge/freezer and saw I had 2 packs of frozen green peas which needed to be used soon. So I thought of making halva with them. The final result was very good. V could not stop eating it, so in my opinion, it was a success.
After I finished making this, I wanted to see if someone else had made this before. I googled and found this and this . So, I was not totally crazy to try something like this afterall :).
Ingredients: 4 cups green peas (frozen or fresh) 2 and 1/2 cups sugar 2 tbl spn cashew pieces 1/4 tea spn cardamom powder 2 tbl spn ghee 1/2 cup whole milk
Method: Microwave green peas with 1/2 cup water for 5 mins (or cook on stove top for 5-6mins). Grind to a smooth paste. Heat the paste in a thick bottomed pan. Keep stirring for about 10mins. Then add sugar, cashews. Cook it for about 15-20mins, taking care not to burn it. Keep stirring often. Add ghee, milk and stir it. Cook till the mixture looks quite dry. Add cardamom powder, mix well. Serve.
PS: – This sticks to bottom of the pan very quickly. So keep stirring it. – The sweetness largely depends on the sweetness of the peas. I used the green peas from Indian store (not the sweet green peas from American stores). Start with 1 cup sugar, taste it and if required, gradually increase the sugar. – I used a big pan to give me enough room for stirring.
Pictorial:
