Category: Recipes

Navratri–or the nine sacred days–mark the most auspicious days of the lunar calendar according to Hinduism. Celebrated with fervour and festivity all over north India, and every Hindu community the world over, these nine days are dedicated solely to Maa Durga (goddess Durga) and her nine avatars. People fast during this and eat very restricted items of Kuttu Atta (buck wheat flour) , Potato, Singhara (water Chestnut Flour)..

This is simple recipe of Singhara Flour Barfi with basic ingredients. It can be made in advance and stored to have it during this period. Most of our familiy loves the same

Ingredients

• 1 cup atta
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup ghee
• 4 cup water
• One plate or try to spread the mixture

Method

1) Dry roast the flour till brown in a pan

2) Add ghee and roast little more

3) Switch off the gas ( this step is done to ensure no lumps are formed). Let the atta cool a little

4) In another pan dissolve sugar with water and add it to the flour

5) Cook the same till everything comes together without lumps

6) Quickly spread it on the greased tray and put lines like a diamond cut on batter till it is warm

7) once the Barfi/Panjiri is set you can remove it and store in airtight container

If you feel you want to add dryfruits or garnish it with silver paper. Pl do the same. I do not do so as everyone loves it this way.

In case you want to have it like halwa then reduce water and add milk to it and then it can be served as halwa.

Bottle Gourd (Lauki) is not a very popular vegetable in our household. But my hubby likes to order it more than the required quantity. Not too sure why does it happen every time : to irritate me; or to give me hints I need to eat it to reduce weight; or challenging my culinary skills on what different things I can make with it!! So this time I’m sharing a simple desert (halwa) variation with Lauki & Milkmaid. It is very simple and does not require too much effort.

Ingredients:

1. Bottle Gourd – 3 Cups grated
2. Ghee – 1/4th cup
3. Milk – 3/4 cup
4. Sugar – 2-3 tbl sp
5. Milk maid – 200 gm
6. Nuts for garnishing
7. Green color – 2-3 drops (optional)

Method : 

• Take a non stick wok and saute the grated lauki for 2 mins.
• Add milk to the wok and let it boil till lauki cooks. It will take about 10min or so.
• Add sugar after some time and let it dissolve and then add ghee
• Add Milkmaid and roast the same for 10min. You can colour if u want at this stage or leave it. I have not added any colour in my dish.
• Roast till the ghee separates. It will take max 10 min or so

It is very yummy and when i first made it, I did not tell the kids that it is lauki and it was polished off. Try making for this Rakhi as a surprise.

Navratras have special place in most North Indian households. Often there is less of fasting and more of feasting which happens! Potato halwa is one of our family favourite and I never had it after my mom’s death. Suddenly cleaning my cupboard, I chanced upon my mom’s recipe book and saw the potato halwa recipe . Just got tempted to try it and relive my childhood. It is an easy recipe and you can reduce or increase the ghee quantity

Ingredients

• – 1 ½ cup boiled and mashed potatoes (let the boiled potatoes cool naturally)
• – 1/4 cup ghee
• – 1/2 tsp cardamom powder
• – 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• – 1 /2 cup milk

Method

1. Take a pan and put some ghee in it. Heat it for a min
2. Put the potatoes and fry them in ghee for about 10 min. Use a non stick vessel so that it is easier and potatoes do not stick to the pan
3. Add sugar and roast it for a min
4. Add milk and cardamom powder to the mixture and let it cook for another 3-4 min
5. Serve it hot with almond garnish

It is really yummy, my kids had it for the first time and they loved it . It took them a while to find out it is boiled potato

Post Holi, the kids wanted something different than Indian food. To end the long weekend decided to surprise the kids by making these Whole wheat eggless waffles. This is the first time I tried waffles without egg and made them whole wheat. The results were amazing. I can vouch for the same as I had kid’s friends over and everything was polished off in minutes. I had to make extra for clicking pics!!

Here it goes.

Ingredients

• Whole wheat flour  – 1 ¼ cup

• All purpose Flour (Maida) – ¼ cup

• Baking powder- 1 ½ tsp

• Baking soda –  ½ tsp

• Sugar- 3 tbsp

• Milk – 1 cup approximately

• Butter – 20gm melted and for applying on the waffles pans

• Serving – Maple syrup or Ice-cream or dust icing sugar

Method

1. Sift all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl
2. Add Sugar to the batter
3. Slowly add milk to the batter. Depending on the grade of whole wheat flour you are using, the milk can vary. Please note the batter is not to be runny but on thicker side
4. Add melted butter and mix well
5. Let the batter rest for 5-10 min
6. When the batter is resting, please preheat the waffle maker
7. Pour the batter in the waffle maker and let the magic begin (It takes about 7-8 min in my machine – I have used a Morphy Richards one)

You can serve them hot with ice–cream or maple syrup

You can store waffles in an airtight container once they have cooled and  reheat them in a toaster. Let the kids enjoy these guilt free waffles anytime.

Keep following, as I will share more variations with Banana and gluten free.