Hindus in Singapore are gearing up to celebrate the festival of lights. People observe the festival by adorning new clothes, gifting sweets and lighting lanterns in their house. As Indian sweets or mithai are essential parts of the festival, restaurants and shops are overloaded with orders of Indian sweets, to be delivered in fancy gift boxes.
Sweets are savored during Deepavali in form of desserts or snacks, as a symbol of luck and prosperity. These treats are made up of ingredients like sugar, flour, Indian spices, and fruit. Chefs are coming up with new ideas to spice up the offering, with alternatives that make the mithai less sweet for the local palate. One can prepare the Indian sweets in their house with simple ingredients, instead of rushing to restaurants and waiting for a long time.
Chefs are coming up with new ideas to spice up the offering with new flavors making mithai less sweet, to cater to the local palate. One can prepare the Indian sweets in their house with simple ingredients as everyone rushes to restaurants to order and wait for ones turn.
Here are recipes of six best Indian sweets which can be prepared in the house.
Ladoo
Ladoo is a ball-shaped sweet made up of flour, sugar, and variety of flavors soaked in ghee. Flours commonly used include chickpea, rava and ground coconut.
Recipe for ladoo
Prepare a thin batter with gram flour in milk or water and fill the fryer or strainer with the batter up to half position, then drench it in ghee and fry them in golden color.
Drain and remove the ladoos from syrup, add saffron and dry nuts, sprinkle hot water and keep it for half an hour.
They are varieties of laddo, that includes motichoor ladoo ,besan ka ladoo and Boondi ladoo that are often served for religious occasions.
Barfi
Barfi is normally garnished with chopped nuts such as pistachio, cashews, and almonds that are chopped and cooked together with dough. Barfi can also be soaked in milk and dried rose petals for an easier method of cooking. The flavour of barfi is often enhanced with fruits, nuts or spices. Ingredients of barfi are usually cooked in a vessel until the mixture solidifies.
The flavour of barfi is often enhanced with fruits, nuts or spices and ingredients of barfi are usually cooked in a vessel until the mixture solidifies.
Recipe for Barfi
Add 1/4 cup of ghee and 3/4th of milk to the pan and also add milk powder to the the mixture, then add required sugar to the ingredients to mix them well. Stir thoroughly and keep the mixture on low flame and keep on stirring until the sugar dissolves and the dough is left. Add cardamom powder and place it on the greased paper and form a bloc, topping it with almonds and nuts.
There are different types of Barfi like Kaju Barfi, pista barfi and Sing barfi. These barfis vary in color and texture.
Kaju Roll
Kaju is also known as cashew nut. Kaju rolls are quite popular among sweet-lovers.
Recipe for Kaju rolls
The rolls are made by grinding the nuts finely and adding them to the sugar syrup. The sweet is cooked over a low flame until a soft dough is formed. The stuffing is made up of ground pistachio, and a small amount of ghee is added to make the dough more pliable. The pistachio can be used as a filling for the cashew dough or placed in layers to look like a swiss roll and top of that silver leaf is rolled over the entire surface.
Jalebi
Jalebi is also known as Zulbi a popular dish in parts of South Asia, West Asia, North Africa etc. The sweet is made up of deep frying maida flour, battering it in circular shapes which are then soaked in sugar syrup; this is particularly popular in the Indian Subcontinent.
Recipe for Jalebi
Mix the flour and curd to form a thick smooth paste along with water if necessary and leave it to ferment. Dissolve the sugary syrup in saffron water. Fill the bag with batter and hold the bag in the hot oil, pip out swirls of the desired size, preferably whirlpools are known as jalebis and drain out the oil by putting them in syrup to serve it hot.
Jalebi is chrunchy or chewy in texture and crystallized with an exterior coating of sugar. Jalebi is eaten with curd or rabri, along with other flavours like kewra.
Ras malai
Rasmali is also known as rossomalai that is originated from South Asia. The name rasmalai comes from two words in Hindi which mean "juice and cream". Basically originating from West Bengal in India and invented by K.C Das, it is described as a "rice cheesecake without a crust". It is cooked in sugary syrup, milk, and saffron along with kheer stuffing. The chenna or paneer is shaped to discs, condensing the milk to a creamy texture called rabri and drown them in the ras.
Gulab Jamoon
Gulab Jamoon is a popular dessert in India, which is loved by people of all ages.
Recipe for Gulab Jamoon
This food item is mainly made of milk solids, traditionally from freshly curdled milk over a low flame for a longer time until most of the water is drained out. It is often garnished with dried nuts like almonds to enhance the flavour. Traditionally, gulab jamoon is made up of khoya whch is kneaded in to dough with the help of water and oil and made into a small ball. These balls are then fried in the oil and put in sugary syrup made up of boiled sugar and water. The gulab jamoons are left for half an hour, then consumed hot and fresh.
