Making up for lost action – Gujjiyas with a twist!

Holi just went by.  Hope that all of you had a colorful and a very happening Holi!

As for me, Holi is not the same it used to be anymore.  My childhood days were spent celebrating Holi with the burning of Holika one day prior and on the colorful day, I would be up as early as 6 A.M to get the festivities started.  Festivities included getting my water balloons organized (close to 300 or more), making sure my pichkari was all filled up with colored water and arrange different packets of color powder that would soon be smeared over all my friend’s faces.  I distinctly remember it used to be my duty to go wake up the neighborhood.  I would dutifully go and knock at my neighbor’s door, wake up two of my best friends, when I’m assured they are up and would be out to play Holi in a few minutes, I would continue down to the other houses of the neighborhood.  It seems really silly now, but the enthusiasm and energy I had was unimaginable! By the time it was 9 A.M, we would slowly have all our friends trickling down one by one to play Holi.  Usually around 1 P.M my mom would connect the garden hose pipe and it would be another blast with water! We would retire to our respective homes somewhere around 3 P.M when we were absolutely beat and dead hungry and a scrumptious Holi buffet would be awaiting us! 

Though I come from a south Indian home and Holi is not celebrated with the same fervor as a north Indian home, my mom still kept up with the Mumbai spirit and made it very very special for me.  While the men folk would have a secret Bhaang party, ladies just spent time in the kitchen cooking.  If you ask me I call that the real party!

But this Holi I was quite saddened as things were just not the same anymore. Over the last 6 years that I’m back to living in Mumbai I have noticed that number of people who came down to play Holi just trickled down to fewer each year.  Finally this year, Nada! Not a soul was out.  Blame it on examinations or club parties or just simply death of culture and tradition, but I was deeply saddened!  Sadness usually comes with a side-effect and I’m getting quite addicted to this side-effect.  It’s all about getting nostalgic and going into a memory trance!  I did the obvious, picked out my photo albums and started looking for some old Holi pictures that mom has clicked.  I couldn’t find them but what I found were some other great memories.  I promptly scanned all the pictures and posted them on FB and shared the nostalgia with all my dear friends.  And I must add the response was overwhelming, it not only got me out of my slump but also made me realize that I’m really lucky to have been blessed with a childhood that many would envy ;) 

The positive responses from all my friends made me want to party!  I was already craving Gujjiya, so what better way to party than to make “gimme some sugar Gujjiyas”!!  Well that’s how I like to party…with my cookware and ingredients ;)  One thing I really really loved and ate shamelessly were the Gujjiyas that my best friend’s grandma used to make for Holi.  She made the salted variety with a pea stuffing.  I really miss those!  Gujjiyas are made with a variety of stuffing, though the sweet stuffed ones with Mawa and dry fruits are most commonly made for Holi.  I decided to try out my own version, add a twist and come up with a yummy treat for myself.  Gujjiyas are usually semi-circular in shape, but I made mine circular.  Gujjiyas are usually crispy on the exterior, I made mine soft.  They don’t have any sugar syrup or sugar coat, but I dipped mine in saffron sugar syrup and topped them with nuts.  It was purely a very much needed divine intervention in the kitchen and that calls for the recipe to be shared with everyone~

Holy Gujjiyas

Ingredients:

For the dough~

1 and 1/2 cups plain flour (maida)

1 Tbsp ghee

A pinch of salt

1/2  cup milk (or more as needed)

For the filling~

1 cup mixed nuts (I took cashes, almonds, pistachio, walnut and golden raisins)

½ cup sugar

1 tsp ghee

1 Tbsp milk

A pinch of cardamom powder

For the sugar syrup~

½ cup sugar

1 cup water

A few strands of saffron

Ghee or oil for deep frying

A few crushed nuts to garnish

Method:

1.       Combine all ingredients to make the dough and knead well to form a firm to touch but smooth dough.  Cover with a muslin cloth and keep aside until ready to use.

2.       Coarsely grind all the nuts.  In a nonstick pan, heat ghee, add the nuts and sugar and milk.  Let the nuts cook and sugar dissolve.  Add cardamom powder and continue stirring till the mixture starts leaving the sides of the pan and is quite lumpy.  This will only take about 5 minutes.

3.       Let the mixture cool and make 15 equal sized portions.

4.       In another pan combine sugar, water and saffron to make syrup.  Boil the syrup for 5 minutes, remove from heat and let it cool.

5.       Make 30 balls from the dough.  Roll out each ball into a small sized puri (disc).  Place one portion of filling on side of the puri and cover it with another puri.  Pinch the sides either by twisting them or using a fork.  Make sure the sides are well sealed; you can use a little water to damp the edges to help them seal.  Make all 15 gujjiyas and keep aside.

6.       Heat ghee or oil in a frying pan.  Heat it to smoking point and then completely switch off the heat.  Slowly add the gujjiyas and slow fry them till they are golden brown.  It should take about 8 minutes to fry them.  After 8 minutes, turn the heat back on and for the last bit of color, fry them for additional 1 minute.  Drain on kitchen towel and cool for 5 minutes.

7.       Soak them for 1 minute in sugar syrup, garnish with chopped nuts and let it air dry.  Tasty gujjiyas are ready to be served. 

As they say~

Khaa ke gujiya, pee ke bhaang,
laaga ke thoda thoda sa rang,
baaja ke dholak aur mridang,
khele holi hum tere sang!

 Loosely translated –

Eating Gujjiyas and drinking Bhaang, I apply a little color on you, the musical instruments are playing in the background while we play Holi together!

For the benefit of all my non-Indian friends reading this blog, please feel free to read up more about Holi at - http://www.holifestival.org/

Holi Mubarak! Happy Cooking :)!

Purely Organic - Red Rice Pudding with Honey

Just a couple days back a food blog that I ardently follow posted a recipe for Brown Rice Pudding. I have tried making Brown Rice pudding in the past and it turned out really well.  The most important aspect was of course the “guilt-freeness” of this recipe.  Brown Rice is definitely much lower in calorie as compared to regular rice, plus it comes with a truck load of benefits and to make it even more guiltless the blogger added no cream or butter whatsoever, yet got a rich looking pudding.  It still had sugar, damn! Obviously, creative juices were making a cocktail in my system and I decided to put it to rest!  Two items in my pantry that were really calling out to me were the organic Red Rice that I purchased last Sunday at the Farmer’s Market (those of you interested, it happens every Sunday 10am – 3pm in Bandra, near Kobe’s Sizzlers) and freshly extracted honey (pure 15 kgs yelling out at me)! 

Before I get to details of my experiment and describing the flavors I achieved, let me mention that Red Rice has a natural healing remedy for different health ailments. Ailments range from digestive problems, circulatory problems, to high cholesterol levels (read more: Benefits of Red Rice | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/about_5127094_benefits-red-rice.html#ixzz1FRQAKkut) and of course one need not get into the already well-known benefits of honey!

I made the first batch day before.  Disaster!  Note: If Brown Rice takes long to cook, Red Rice takes forever! When I made my first batch, I did not anticipate that it would take me 3 hours to make this pudding…phewww!! And I’m sure you would not want a recipe for something that takes so long to cook, no matter how good the health-benefits appear ;)

So, I made a second batch today. 

With a few alterations – the first thing I did is pre-soaked the Red Rice.  I soaked it over night and it worked like magic!  It took almost the same time to cook as it would take with regular rice pudding.  What I like about Brown and Red Rice is the nuttiness.  The flavor of these ingredients is defined by its rich nut-like texture and taste!  If you have had Badam Halwa or Akrot Halwa…Red Rice pudding is very close to that experience… minus all the ghee of course! And I completely eliminated Sugar and replaced it with Honey…which again brought with it a very unique taste, some-what middle-eastern twist! Additionally flavored with Cardamom powder and Saffron (like most Indian desserts), added a few chopped almonds (would have loved to add Pistachios, but didn’t have any in the pantry) and results were simply finger-licking good J

What I really loved about this recipe, is that apart from being nutriously beneficial, it is also absolutely guilt-free! Low-cal yet filling!  A perfect end to your spicy Indian meal!  Without wasting much time, I’m getting straight to the recipe~

~Ingredients~

1 cup Red Rice

½ cup Honey (or more as per taste)

4 cups Water

2 cups Low-fat Milk (you can use 2% Milk or Soya Milk)

½ tsp Cardamom powder

A pinch of Saffron

½ cup chopped Almonds (save some for garnish separately)

~Method~

1.      Pick out any husk in the rice.  Wash and pre-soak the rice overnight.

2.      Add water to a pan, add rice and let it boil.

3.      Once it reaches boiling point, simmer until all water is soaked by the rice, about 10 – 15 minutes.

4.      Add milk and let it boil once again.

5.      Once it reaches boiling point, simmer until all milk is soaked by the rice, about 10 – 15 minutes.

6.      At this stage the rice should be well-done and soft and mushy.  Add honey, cardamom, saffron and chopped almonds. 

7.      Let it cool, garnish with additional chopped almonds and a drizzle of honey. 

I love it best at room temperature, though some folks at my place prefer it chilled.  As they say some like it hot, some like it cold…however you like it… its full of flavor in every which way!

Would love to hear your feedback and comments J Happy Cooking J