Easy Sweets for Diwali

Diwali, is the time when sparkling lamps and vibrantly colourful rangolis tempt the Goddess of Wealth to praise the embellished decorations. Preparation begins many days before the Diwali and each family member gets involved in cleaning, clearing and painting every corners of the houses to get a new bright look. Women members especially hustle and bustle counting the collections of gifts to give their near and dear ones and prepare sweets lovingly for guests. The most popular sweets prepared during Diwali are  ladoos and burfis of many varieties, gulab jamuns, jalebis, rasmalais etc.

This publication Fried Eye explores into making two types of sweets that are liked by many and also easy to make home.

Kaju Barfi

Ingredients

1. 1 cup unroasted cashew nuts
   

   Kaju Barfi

2. 1 cup milk. It gives heavy and rich texture.
3. 2 to 3 medium cups of sugar
4. 1 to 2 medium cup of ghee
5. Silver sheets or varak (optional)
6. Green cardamom powder
7. Few pieces of pistachios grated ( optional)

Preparation

1. Soak the cashew nuts (kaju) in milk for few hours
2. In a food processor, make fine paste of the soaked kaju. Add milk to make fine paste in semi – solid elastic consistency. Avoid making the consistency too liquid  or thick
3. Take a pan and mix the kaju paste and sugar well and keep it on heat. Stir continuously for sometime.
4. Add the ghee slowly into the pan and keep stirring till the mixture leaves the sides of the pan and forms a lump. Add cardamom powder and mix well
5. Sprinkle the grated pistachios (optional)
6. The lump should give a look of semi-solid compact consistency
7. Remove from heat.
8. Spread evenly on a greased plate of required height approximately of 0.5 cms.
9. Decorate with the silver sheets or varak.
10. Cool and cut the kaju burfi into diamond shaped pieces.

** one may also use saffron and edible orange colour to make it colourful orange  kaju barfi.

Emarti

Ingredients for batter

1. ½ cup urad dal flour. One can also make the paste after soaking the urad dal and grinding to paste in a food processor.
2. 1 table spoon of rice flour
3. Turmeric for yellow colour
4. A pinch of saffron powder
5. Water

Ingredients for Sugar syrup                    

emarti

1. 1 cup sugar
2. ¾ cup of water
3. 1 tablespoon lime juice
4. 1 tablespoon rose syrup
5. Few strands of saffron (kesar)
6. 1 tablespoon of green cardamom

Preparation of Batter

1. Soak urad dal and grind it in mixer  into fine paste with thick compact flowy consistency.
2. Add rice flour, saffron powder (crushe the strands to make powder) and turmeric. Mix well and add water to get the right consistency so that it can freely flow through a nozzle.  Take a spoon full of the bater and check if the bater flows freely without breaking.
3. To make sugar syrup, take 1 cup of sugar and add ¾ cup of water. Heat and keep stirring and boiling the syrup. Add few drops of lime juice to prevent crystallization of sugar syrup. Add a pinch of saffron, few drops of rose syrup and cardamom powder.  Stir well. Check if syrup is little sticky. When done, take away the syrup from heat.
4. Heat ghee or oil. Fill half of a squeeze bottle (a conical funnel also does the trick). Check if the flow consistency is smooth from the nozzle.
5. Heat oil or ghee in a kadai or any vessel with concave bottom. Press the squeeze bottle for the consistency to flow freely through the nozzle and move the nozzle in circle to give a round shape. Do not leave moving the squeeze bottle and on the second round move in small clockwise manner on top of the circle made in the first round. Fry and overturn but do not deep fry. Take out from oil, let off the dripping oil/ghee as much as possible and dip properly in sugar syrup.

Emarti is ready