Salty Twisties / Namak Para

The Namak Para is one of the last few snacks I made for Diwali, but with all the other preparations going on there was hardly any time to post it. So though late, this gets posted here. I shaped the para into twisties when frying because I was yearning cheese twisties but did not have time to make it. I remember my mother making these namak para with jeera in it. And once, when visiting a friend's house her mother had made this with ajwain and specifically asked us to eat it. Ajwain helps in digestion which is sorely needed when its Diwali and all of us are stuffing ourselves with all the goodies around. So when I started making these, I add both jeera and ajwain because jeera also has digestive properties.

 

Ingredients

Maida - 1 cup

Besan - 1/4 cup

Turmeric - 1 tsp

Cumin seeds / Jeera - 1tsp

Carom seeds / Ajwain - 1 tsp

Red chilli pwd - 1 tsp

Salt as per taste

Water to mix into dough

Oil for frying

Sift the maida and besan together into a bowl. Add the turmeric and red chilli powders, cumin and carom seeds and salt as per taste. Mix well. Then add water little by little to make a pliable dough. Take a ball of dough and keep the rest covered. Roll this ball of dough into a slightly thick square chapati. Cut into 3/4th inch wide strips. Cut each strip into 3 inch long pieces. Cut both ends diagonally.

Pour oil into a kadai and put it on medium heat. 

Continue making strips of the whole chapati like above. When the oil is hot, lower the heat and start the frying. Hold one end of the strip with one hand then twist it and hold the other end with a pair of tongs. Release the end of the strip held by the hand and keeping it twisted lower the other end with the tong still holding it. When the strip starts firming up release it from the tong. Fry till golden. Change sides carefully, the twist may come undone. Scoop with a slotted spoon onto paper towels to drain off excess oil.

If you like to keep it simple just cut the chapati into diamond shaped ones and fry. Turn sides to fry them completely and then drain off onto paper towels.

 

Store in an airtight container. The contents of my container did not last long, my husband kept dipping into it every time he passed by the kitchen.

This recipe for Salted Twisties / Namak Para is going to these events :

-  "Diwali Bash 2013" hosted by cooksjoy.

-  "Diwali Delicacies Event" jointly hosted by priyaeasyntastyrecipes & spicytreats 

-  "Spotlight: Festival Treats" hosted by cuisinedelights

Rosy Cashew Chirote

Happy Diwali!!!

The first time I made chirote I idea of coloring came instantly but later thought better still would be to add food color to alternate layers. It seems like petals of a double colored flower after the frying. And that's when my husband came up with the idea of adding nuts to make a baklava like dessert. So this time, my recipe is a colored chirote with cashew nut powder mix in between layers. An Indian baklava like sweet with a milk cashew taste.

Ingredients
Oil for deep frying
for the chirote
Maida / All purpose flour - 1 cup
Rawa / Semolina - 1/4 cup
Water - 1/4 cup
Oil - 2 tbsp
Beetroot, grated - 1.5tbsp / Red food color
for applying between layers
Ghee / Butter - 2 tbsp
Cashew nut powder - 2 tbsp
for the syrup
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Water - 1/2 cup
Saffron - few strands
Lightly powder the rawa / semolina in a dry grinder. Mix together the maida / flour and the rawa in a bowl. Heat the oil and add it spoon by spoon into the flour, mixing it with a spoon all the while. Then wait for a few minutes for the oil to cool a little. Using your fingers rub the oil into the flour mixture till it resembles bread crumbs. Divide this flour into two. Take one half and add water one spoon at a time and knead into a dough. Use only 1/4 cup of water at most. To the other half of the flour add the grated beets or the food color and knead into a dough adding little water at a time. Divide the two dough into equal sized and number of balls and keep it in a bowl and cover with a lid or cling film.

Melt the ghee / butter a little and mix the cashew powder into it. Keep this aside.

Take a rolling pin and using a clean surface, roll out each ball into a thin round chapati and keep separately. When you have 3 or 4 such chapati. take a white chapati and apply the ghee and cashew nut powder all over the chapati covering the entire chapati. Cover this chapati with a red one the another one and spread the ghee and cashew nut mix like before. Place the third chapati - a white one on top of it and apply the ghee and cashew nut mix like before. Now, starting from one edge, raise this edge a little and start rolling it inward into a tight log like in a pinwheel roll. Take a sharp knife and cut off the two ends of the log. Hold the log with one hand and cut the log into half inch to 1 inch pieces, keeping the knife in a slight slant direction so the colored layers are visible. With the rolling pin flatten these pieces by rolling it out lightly. When rolled the pieces will be an oblong rectangle.

In a sauce pan, add the sugar and water and heat till a simple syrup is made. Add the saffron strands or saffron syrup and take off the heat.
Heat the oil in a kadai or pan and slowly fry the rolled out pieces one by one, gently pressing down the pieces. As it fries the layers will separate, scoop out when done and drain off on paper towels. When the oil is drained completely add the pieces one by one into the saffron infused sugar syrup and dip all sides to coat completely. Then lift off with tongs and stand it in a bowl to drain excess syrup. Continue frying all the pieces and dipping in the sugar syrup. Once the syrup is drained serve on a platter.

This recipe for Rosy Cashew Chirote is going to these events :

-  "Diwali Special" hosted by gayathriscookspot.

&

-  "Diwali Bash 2013" hosted by cooksjoy.

-  "Diwali Delicacies Event" jointly hosted by priyaeasyntastyrecipes & spicytreats

-  "Spotlight: Festival Treats" hosted by cuisinedelights

Maida Chakli

This recipe for chakli made from maida is from my mother in law. Her chakli always turned out nice and crispy and my husband and I always enjoyed munching it. I was surprised when she gave me the recipe since it was super easy without any of the hassles of grinding it in the mill, etc. You can pick the flours available in any store and start with the making of it. 

At my in laws place, my mother in law made this chakli and shakkarpare and then my father in law made the rawa ladoos. The making of the rawa ladoo was like an event. He wanted the kitchen to himself and wanted my mother in law to clear out after keeping the containers of all the containers out. In fact, many a times he made the rawa ladoo when my mother in law went to the temple leaving him to do as he wanted. And then started the measurement, the roasting, the sauteing and finally mixing and making the laddoo itself. My husband really loves the rawa ladoo but I never learned to make it from my father in law and till date, we buy rawa laddoo at home. May be one day, I will try a recipe and surprise my husband, (hopefully) pleasantly. 

Back to my chakli.

Ingredients
Maida - 1 cup
Red chilli pwd - 1 tsp
White Sesame seeds - 1.5 tbsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Salt as per taste
Water for making dough
Oil for frying

Take a dry muslin cloth, spread it out open and put the maida in the center. Bring together all the ends and tie it up into a potli. Leave a little space within so the flour is not bound too tight. Put this potli in a steamer stand making sure the potli does not get wet. Steam for 15 minutes on medium heat. Take the maida potli out on to a plate with the help of tongs. You will see that the maida has clumped up, without opening the potli crush these clumps with the back of the mortar or sil (from the sil - batta) when hot. Then sieve this into a bowl. Add salt, red chilli powder, sesame seeds and cumin seeds and mix with your fingers. Knead this flour into dough by adding water little by little. Keep the ball of dough covered. 

Fill the chakli mould with a ball dough and press into either coils or straight pieces. Heat oil on high and when hot reduce the heat and slowly slide the chakli pieces into the oil. The pieces should be submerged in oil and should have space to be turned over. Fry till light golden. Scoop the chaklis onto paper towels to absorb the excess oil and when cool store in an airtight container. 

A small variation in the flour mix also makes a great chakli.

Variation

Maida - 3/4 cup

Besan - 1/8 cup

Wheat flour - 1/8 cup

Mix all the flours and then tie into the potli and steam. Follow the recipe as given above. 

Chakli made by: (l to r) my mom, me and my mother-in-law

 

This recipe for Chirote / Khaja is going to these events :

-  "Diwali Special" hosted by gayathriscookspot.

&

-  "Diwali Bash 2013" hosted by cooksjoy.

-  "Diwali Delicacies Event" jointly hosted by priyaeasyntastyrecipes & spicytreats

-  "Spotlight: Festival Treats" hosted by cuisinedelights



Shankarpalli / Shakkarpare

Every time I make Shankarpalli, I am reminded of my friend L's mother. Auntie shared her recipe with me and encouraged me to try it her way. I remember, I had made some and took it to her for her verdict. Auntie is a very good cook and took pride and pleasure in preparing different and new dishes. She could turn the simplest of meals to the tastiest, with her koshimbirs, thechas and chutneys. Auntie would cook up quite a faraal spread for Diwali - chivda, ladoo, coconut barfi, kaju katli, chakli, shankarpalli and she would ply L and me with all these goodies and we would happily stuff ourselves. This year, they will be in Mumbai during Diwali but since I am not going there I will miss them. This is Shankarpalli goes to Auntie. 

Ingredients

Milk - 1/2 cup

Sugar - 1/2 cup

Ghee - 1/2 cup

Maida / All purpose flour - as required

Oil for frying

In a pan heat milk and add the sugar and mix in. Add the ghee and stir till it is melted and mixed. Take off the heat and keep to cool. The milk will curdle and it is normal. When it has cooled down, add the maida little by little and make a soft dough. Make balls of dough and keep covered in a container. Roll out each ball of dough into square / rectangle shaped chapati. It should be slightly thicker than normal chapati (not phulka). Place this on the back of a plate and cut into square / diamond shaped pieces. Once two such chapatis are made and cut into squares, start the frying. And then roll and cut parallely with the frying.

 

Heat oil in a kadai on medium high. When hot, reduce the heat and slowly slide the pieces into the oil for frying. Fry till the pieces are light golden then scoop it onto paper towels to drain off the excess oil. Store in an air tight container.  

Today, when the milk and ghee mix was cooling, I started prepping my lunch, a potato and beet salad. That's when the idea of adding grated beets came to me, so I took one portion of the dough and added the beet and kneaded again. After that continue with the steps of rolling and cutting and frying. The beets give the fried shankarpalli a red hue but it was negligible if browned when frying.

Beet Shankarpalli



 

This recipe for Shankarpalli / Shakkarpare is going to these events :

-  "Diwali Special" hosted by gayathriscookspot.

&

-  "Diwali Bash 2013" hosted by cooksjoy.

-  "Diwali Delicacies Event" jointly hosted by priyaeasyntastyrecipes & spicytreats

-  "Spotlight: Festival Treats" hosted by cuisinedelights



Chirote / Khaja, a layered sweet delight

Chirote is a sweet snack made in Maharashtra for Diwali that looks like a not completely pressed dry flower. This is sweet is layered and looks like a rosette with the layers opening after it is fried. The chirote also known as khaja, chiroti or pakwan, features in the cuisine of different states like Oriya, Karnataka and a few others. I read about chirote a few years ago and although it seemed like a great tasting sweet, I had my doubts about being able to get it right. Last evening, I did give it a try and it did not seem difficult at all, just that it requires a little patience.

 

Just like the lights and lamps, snacks, both sweet and savory are intrinsic to the celebration of Diwali. As children, during the run up to Diwali, all the apartments in the whole building buzzed like a beehive. We saw a lot of cleaning at all homes, new torans / bandhan dwars were put up, and a few days prior to Diwali rangolis were drawn, diyas were lit at entrances, etc. Along with all this, the women managed to make yummy delights as well. Typically, the afternoons, when most of the ladies managed to take some time out from chores, were earmarked for making goodies. Yummy aromas from all around wafted in from the windows at that time and sometimes we could guess which aunty was making what goodie. The aunties took pride in cooking up a range of sweet and savory snacks and each aunty was known for at least one delicacy. Like Aunty S was known to make the tedious and time consuming wheat halwa at home. Aunty A made yummy besan ladoo that her daughter also learnt to make later. Aunty L made ribbon pakodas that were soft and crisp at the same time. The best Maharashtrian chakli was made by Aunty K along with a melt in the mouth burfi. I remember having some spicy chivda as well but cannot remember who made it. On the day of Diwali, we children would take plateful of goodies to the other apartments and would return with some of their goodies. Tea time meant having a choice of the yummiest of snack spread at home.

For many years I could not be bothered with making any of these snacks but then I guess with age comes nostalgia and I started preparing a few delicacies at home. And now, I like to try at least one different snack each time and the Chirote is one such attempt . I followed Madhura's recipe for Chirote because the addition of rawa / semolina gives it a little crunch and this worked well for me.

Ingredients

Oil for deep frying
for the chirote
Maida / All purpose flour - 1 cup
Rawa / Semolina - 1/4 cup
Water - 1/4 cup
Oil - 2 tbsp
for applying between layers
Ghee / Butter - 2 tbsp
Rice flour - 2 tbsp
for the syrup
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Water - 1/2 cup
Saffron - few strands
Lightly powder the rawa / semolina in a dry grinder. Mix together the maida / flour and the rawa in a bowl. Heat the oil and add it spoon by spoon into the flour, mixing it with a spoon all the while. Then wait for a few minutes for the oil to cool a little. Using your fingers rub the oil into the flour mixture till it resembles bread crumbs. Then add the water little by little and make a soft smooth dough. Divide the dough into six equal balls and keep it in a bowl and cover with a lid or cling film.

The ghee / butter should be in room temperature and not hard when using. In a bowl add the ghee and the rice floor and mix well. Keep this aside.

Take a rolling pin and using a clean surface, roll out each ball into a thin round chapati and keep separately. Place one thin chapati on a flat surface. Spoon a little of the ghee and rice flour mix and dot it all over the chapati. Spread it so it covers the entire chapati. Cover this chapati with another one and spread the ghee and rice flour mix like before. Place the third chapati on top on it and apply the ghee and rice flour mix like before. Now, starting from one edge, raise this edge a little and start rolling it inward into a tight log like in a pinwheel roll. Take a sharp knife and cut the two ends of the log. Hold the log with one hand and cut the log into half inch to 1 inch pieces, keeping the knife in a slight slant direction so the layers are visible. With the rolling pin flatten these pieces by rolling it out lightly. When rolled the pieces will be an oblong rectangle.

In a sauce pan, add the sugar and water and heat till a simple syrup is made. Add the saffron strands or saffron syrup and take off the heat.
Heat the oil in a kadai or pan and slowly fry the rolled out pieces one by one, gently pressing down the pieces. As it fries the layers will separate, scoop out when done and drain off on paper towels. When the oil is drained completely add the pieces one by one into the saffron infused sugar syrup and dip all sides to coat completely. Then lift off with tongs and stand it in a bowl to drain excess syrup. Continue frying all the pieces and dipping in the sugar syrup. Once the syrup is drained serve on a platter.

Variation
Caster sugar - 1 bowl
Once the pieces are fried and drained off on the paper towels, drop one piece at a time into the bowl and coat all sides with the sugar. Spread it on a platter and its ready to serve.

Sugar syrup coated chirote

This recipe for Chirote / Khaja is going to these events :

-  "Diwali Special" hosted by gayathriscookspot.

&

-  "Diwali Bash 2013" hosted by cooksjoy.

-  "Diwali Delicacies Event" jointly hosted by priyaeasyntastyrecipes & spicytreats

-  "Spotlight: Festival Treats" hosted by cuisinedelights

Almond Haven aka Badam Burfi

Diwali is round the corner and preparations are on with cleaning the house, putting up the lights, and preparing sweets and savories that are customary for this festival. While growing up, we looked forward to the two-week vacation more than anything else. New clothes, crackers, and lots of snacks were the bonus. That Diwali was around the corner was obvious from the cartloads of diyas, candles, tea-lights, rangoli colors, and rangoli stencils that flooded the market. The shops were all lit up and on display were hampers with sweets and dry fruits and other gift items. On sale was the ubiquitous "star" and "disco" lights also.

In Mumbai, these snacks and sweets are called faraal. Preparations and plans for making faraal began weeks back. The aunties in the locality would discuss what faraal to make and what things were to be bought. Those were the days when supermarkets were not there and readymade flour was not available. Therefore, just before Diwali, the flour mill saw an influx of steel dabbas with different dals and cereals that were needed to make these goodies. The afternoons were reserved for grinding these items at the flour mills and housewives would then get down to making two or three items per day. Children on vacation would hover around to sample it and the elders would give their ‘initial reactions’ on how it turned out.

Cut to the present, with only the two of us at home, and in a different city than Mumbai, Diwali is as much or as little as we make it to be. Till date I enjoy the excitement that surrounds this festival - whether it is buying those cute diyas or drawing out a few awkward rangolis or making faraal at home. The cleaning is on, one set of lights are out, I want to buy some new diyas and along with that today I started on making the faraal. I decided to start on a sweet note with an Almond / Badam Burfi. The only thing about making these goodies is that it is requires strong will and steely resolve on my part to make it last till Diwali and in the case of hubby dear the only way is to hide it from him.

Almond / Badam Burfi

Ingredients

Almonds - 1 cup

Sugar - 1/2 cup

Water - 1/3 cup

Almond essence - 3 to 4 drops (optional)

Ghee - 2 tbsp

Food Color (optional)

for garnishing

saffron strands - small pinch

crushed almonds - 1 tsp

Grease the pan you will set the burfi in and keep aside. Heat water in a saucepan and when it boils add the almonds / badam and take off the heat. Keep aside for an hour. After an hour wash the almonds and skin them, it will be easy to do this now. Grind the almonds to a fine paste with a little water.

In a saucepan, add the sugar to the remaining water and heat till it is of one-string consistency. Heat a kadhai or any heavy bottomed vessel and add the sugar syrup and almond paste and stir and mix it well. Keep on low heat and stir often if not continuously. Add the almond essence and keep stirring till the whole mix comes together and starts leaving the sides of the pan. Spoon a little of the ghee around the almond mix and bring it together. When the mix comes together completely into a ball smear the rest of the ghee on it and put it into the greased pan. Use a square or rectangle pan for ease of cutting the burfi into shape.

Sprinkle the crushed saffron and the crushed almonds on the burfi and keep it in the refrigerator to set.

This recipe for Almond Haven aka Badam Burfi is going to these events :

-  "Diwali Special" hosted by gayathriscookspot.

&

-  "Diwali Bash 2013" hosted by cooksjoy.

-  "Diwali Delicacies Event" jointly hosted by priyaeasyntastyrecipes & spicytreats

-  "Spotlight: Festival Treats" hosted by cuisinedelights