Holi memories with Ghujia,malpua,mathri and sweet kashmiri style phirni

WELL THIS YRS FIRST MAJOR FESTIVAL IS JUST AFTER TWO DAYS ,..YES I AM TALKING ABOUT HOLI,,BEING IN SINGAPORE SINCE TWO YRS,,,HAVE BECOME USED TO OF JUST EATING SWEETS AT HOME,,AND CELEBRATING FESTIVAL BE IT ANY FESTIVAL,...DEEWALI,HOLI,OR DUSSHERA,..AND ITS JUST LIKE A NORMAL DAY BACK HERE WITH NO LIGHTING,NO FIRE CARCKERS AND OBVIOUSLY NO COLOURS,AS I HAVE JUST STARTED FOOD BLOGGING I THOUGHT WHY NOT POST THE RECIPES FESTIVAL WISE BE IT ANY FETSIVAL EVEN THOSE FESTIVAL WHICH WE DONT CELEBRATE ALSO..THAT WAY I WILL LEARN RECIPES OF ALL THE FESTIVAL OF INDIA,,SOUNDS GOOD ISNT IT...WELL TO START WITH I WIL START WITH HOLI RECIPES...I KNOW I MISSED SANKRANTI AND OTHER FESTIVALS OF JANUARY AND FEBUARY,..BUT ANYWAYS...I WILL COVER THOSE MONTHS NEXT YEAR,,,IN FESTIVAL DISHES I WILL ALSO INCLUDE THE FAST OR VRAT DISHES WHICH WE EAT WHEN WE FAST,..LIKE NAVRATRI,JANMASTHMI,...THE PURPOSE IS TO CREATE A PLATFORM OF ALL THE FESTIVAL RECIPES OF INDIA....

whenever i think of holi,..the memory which i have of childhood comes alive,it seem just like yesterday,..when we used to go for the holika dahan ceremony,..all the children together and one of the elder used to accompany us,after the late night ceremony we used to come home and the aroma of freshly fried ghujias,puas and mathris used to greet us,for all the children there used to be colourful cap and pichkari,..and balloons and of course colours both wet and dry one,,,night was spent full of excitment for the coming day...and as soon as the first ray of the son usd to strike ,we were out of the bed up on the terrace,planning fr attack on neighbours with ballons filled with coloured water,,holi songs were played so loud on the street loudspeakers that it was too difficult to listen to the shouts of our elders for food,,elders used to join us on the terrace followed by our mother nad aunts and of course our dadi who is no more now we used to play holi with everyone,,,which wa sreal fun..after the fun we used to get ready for holi milan,,we used to wear our new cloths and used to take blessing from our elders,and then we used to meet our friends,relatives and neighbours,..some holi memory i have of our vilage too,...we used to go to our village for the function,..and used to play holi in the courtyard which was quiet huge one surounded by rooms..water was collected in buckets from the handpump...what carefree life...what a careless world.. well that was how we celebrated holi when we were kids...slowly due to studies pressure...the excitement was suppressed by exam pressure as our final exm was always in march so ,...as soon as school life was over i landed in blore for my dental studies....and the same thing was repetated here...used to miss my parents and sisters a lot,...though holi was celebrated in hostel premises ,..it couldnt be compared to the one which we used to have at home...with no sweetmeats nothing,,our hostel gate was closed and we had to play holi inside the gate...itw as more like some punishment ....after college i got marrid as soon as i finished my course...and i landed in singapore...this is my second holi this year ,last yr we just applie to tikka to each other,,,and had sweets,,which i had got from our place back in india,this year for the first time i will be preparing ghujia and other holi delicacies ,,the recipe of which be pened down,,,,i am thinking with time how the way to celebrate festival changes,...ya thinking of celebration....this yr we will be celebrating with our son for the first time...though he is too young to understand the meaning of holi...i knw yrs later when he will be reading my blog i know he will think that he has not missed a thing. :-)
what a day today ,...got up late ,,,had bed tea,,,still no excitement...of holi...thought of speaking to my siblings back in india to get the holi feeling,..and suddenly i was filled with childhood memories...thanks god for the skype we can connect with our family members however far we are i saw all my cousions,my aunts ,uncles parents and yes my sis and i could feel that its holi today,..:-),...i could see my aunts doing the food preparation,my youngest cousion showed me his pichkari,, and all bubbling with excitemnet suddenly i felt the excitement to cook the delicacies which i had planned for today,...its good it was my hubby's off today otherwise it would have been really difficult to cook so many things and manage my son also together..thanks for your support without which it was not possibel to cook so many things together ,,and that too when i was making these things for the first time,...anyways after taking leave frm my siblings ,...i started the preparation,,,but before that i thought maybe if i bath my son he will sleep and i can cook peacefully,,but...the idea didnt work,,my son was more active he didnt sleep,,so we had to manage him,manage the cooking,it was real fun,,well heres the recipes of the holi delicacies one by one-

heres the ghujia recipe which is the main recipe of the holi festival,my hubby helped me lotz thanks to him,,...

ingredients-

300gm maida flour
one teaspoon oil to knead
water to knead the maida
fried khoa mixed with chopped dryfruits and grated coconut 150gm
powdered sugar to mix in khoa ,..u can vary the quantity depending on how sweet you want the ghujia
solution of maida and water to seal the ghujia
oil to fry the ghujia

procedure-

knead the maida with oil and water and keep aside


mix the sugar in the khoa and dryfruit and keep aside


now make small pori shaped circels of the kneaded dough and cover with squeezed wet cloth so that it doesnt dry


once done start with the filling carefully with the help of spoon add small mixture in the circel and fold it to semicircel shape and seal it starting from the corner with the help of sealing solution
once sealed you can make design by folding the edges in whatever way u like


once all the ghujia are filled u can heat th oil in nonstick wok,..once hot enough lower the flame and fry the ghujia.


hot ghujia is ready to eat.


this is the first time i prepared this holi delicacy,..recipe is my mothers...i think this is the traditional recipe of ghujia..to alter the taste you can use semolina instead of khoa.

now for the malpua recipe the ingredients are-

flour 200gm
sooji 50gm
boiled milk 150ml

sugar 8 teaspoon,..u can vary the quantity of sugar according to the sweetness u wnat
grated coconut 6 teaspoon

chopped dryfruits accoding to your taste

for the sugar syrup 200 ml water and 75gm sugar
oil to fry

procedure-

dry roast the sooji for a minute or two make sure that it doesnot turn brown ,now add the sooji to the flour ,mix it ,now add sugar and mix.

now add the boiled milk to the sooji nad flour mix

stir it to make it into a thick porridge consistency,make sure there is no lump,now add the dryfruits and the grated coconut and mix well.

heat oil in the wok on medium and with the help of tabelspoon add the mixed batter to the wok in the shape of circel u can vary the size according to your preference.

once brown from both sides take it out and keep it on kitchen paper to dry the oil,if u want crispy malpua u can eat it now ,but we soften it by keeping it in sugar syrup.

to prepare the sugarsyrup heat the water and when it boils add the sugar and keep stirring so that no lumps is formed.

now add the malpuas to the sugar syrup and keep them there in the sugar syrup for an hour

after an hour u can take out the malpua and garnish with chopped dryfruits and grated coconut and do place one teaspoon of sugarsyrup on the malpua before serving it will keep the dryfruits in place on the malpua.

recipe was told by my hubby....

i know too many sweet recipes,,,but this one is diffrent,...cause this recipe is from kashmir ,this recipe is my entry for the cuisine of jammu and kashmir,i had tasted phirni at my home prepared by my mother but i never knew that this deicacy is from kashmir,,i got this recipe from the site www.surfinida.com while searching for the recipes,have followed the same method as told in the recipe with slight modification have added grated coconut for the garnishing if u dont want u can omit it,thanks lakshmi for giving me the opportunity to participate in the rci event.

the ingredients are-( for 6 people )

milk 6 cups
basmati rice 3 tabel spoon
sugar 9 tabel spoon
powdered cardamom 1/2 teaspoon
chopped almond.cashewnut and pistachio 2 tabelspoon
few strands of saffron soaked in milk

procedure

wash the rice and soak it in little water for 40 mins,

grind the rice with enough water
in which it was soaked to make a fine paste,keep it aside.

pour the milk in a vessel and bing to boil on medium heat
.

let it simmer,meanwhile take little of this hot milk in a bowl,add the rice paste dilute it to very thin consistency.Add this to the simmering milk and mix,stirring continuously,cook on low heat for 16 mintes ortil the milk has thickened.Add sugar and stir well.keep on low heat fro 5 minutes.Remove from heat add the saffron and sprinkel cardamom powder on top.Garnish with chopped dryfruits.Serve chilled.

enough of sweet dishes i know well now even i feel like having something salty so heres to the recipe of papdi of mathri which can be eaten with tea and pickel or can be used in papdi chat,,well for papdi chat you have to wait but yes i will sure tell how to prepare the papdi.

ingredients-

kneaded dough of maida
oil to fry

procedure-

make small poori shaped circels


now heat oil in the non stick wok and when the oil is hot enough lower the flame and put the papdi in oil for frying



once brown from both sides take it and place it on paper to absorb the oil


serve hot with chai and pickel

well thats it,,,i know still much is there to prepare ,i dint prepare kachodi,dahi wada,allo dum sabji,chat ittems..have saved these recipes for the next times,,,hope you all had nice time reading my memories of holi,do enjoy the snacks which i have laid on the tabel cee ya,....wish happy holi to all visitors of my blog again.