Diwali – Festival of Lights

So this week we celebrate Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights which is then followed by Hindu new year. When I was younger I used to love this time of year. The main reason because, we got to take a day off school to dress up and spend the day playing with friends at the Temple while our parents socialised and wished everyone a Happy New Year.

I’m sure you would find 1000’s of different stories; I used to love hearing the many interpretations of the story every year with my childhood friends. The most basic story I was taught while studying at Gujarati school was that Lord Rama won a battle against the evil Ravana and rescues Princess Sita whom Ravana had kidnapped, with the help of his brother Laxshman and Lord Hanuman, on their return to the village, they were led home by Diwa’s (or candles) from the forest all the way home and were greeted with a big celebration.

Hindu festivals means there’s going to be food (YAY!). Diwali and New Year are the biggest days in the Hindu calendar, so just as many people start preparing for Christmas in the weeks (and months) ahead of the holidays, many Hindus across the globe will start their Diwali food prep a couple of weeks ahead of the festival. They like to be ready in preparation of the many visitors that will come over throughout the festive period (and often beyond that).

Last year, we were fresh into our new house so I hadn’t quite settled and got everything ready by the time Diwali came round. This year, I’ve done a selection of bits. Infact, I did so many different options I even put together some little Diwali packs for my family and posted them out 🙂

I’ve done:
Airfryed Methi Puri (Indian savoury crackers infusd with fenugreek leaves)
Chocolate Barfi (A nutmeg and cardamom spiced milk powder fudge topped with chocolate)
Mawa Penda (Caramelised condensed milk and milk powder fudge infused with almonds)
White chocolate fudge
Shortbread oat biscuists
And last but not least, a not so traditional but equally delicious banana & nutella cake (recipe for that one here)

 

Today I wanted to share one of the easiest recipes I’ve made this Diwali and also one of the most popular sweets at our house, chocolate barfi (EmJay loves a good chocolate barfi!). I based the recipe on what my mum usually does, although her method is a little more laborious than mine, she heats up the mixture on a stove and stirs continuously for a long long time! Mine uses a little shortcut, and why not I say? I use condensed milk in the recipe which gives it the perfect sweetness without having to add any more sugar.

These make a delicious snack at any time of the day, we usually have them alongside a nice cup of masala tea!

I hope you enjoy the recipe as much as my family and I do, you can make your own chocolate barfi using this method here.

This recipe was also published on the Roots and Leisure website here.

Raksha Bandhan

So today marks quite a special day in Hindu culture, Raksha Bandhan. It’s a day to celebrate siblings.

Sisters tie a sacred thread on their brothers right hand wrist to wish them health, wealth and happiness in their live. The brothers repay by giving the sisters a gift or money in return and vowing to always be there when their sister needs anything.

All my brothers!

This year, it’s the first year EmJay and myself have been settled in our new home so I wanted to do something special for my brothers and make my own sweet snacks to post to them.

I took a look online as I thought from a postal transport perspective, cookies would be the best thing to do, so I ordered some presentation bags from Lakeland and off I went to find some cookie recipes.

One of them had to be chocolate based, who doesn’t love chocolate hey? I adapted a recipe from Sainsbury’s online Jamie Oliver collection, the original recipe can be found here.

The second batch, I wanted something plain and simple and came across a picture on Deena Kakaya’s Instagram feed of some chocolate chip cookies made by her lovely little boy, she kindly sent me his hand written recipe so I used that with some adjustments to make the second batch.

I made a batch of each and allowed them to cool fully and then placed a piece of baking parchment in the bottom of each presentation bag and filled them up.

My adaptation of both the cookies is below:

Double Chocolate chip cookies:
50 g unsalted butter
200 g quality dark chocolate (70%)
1 x 397g tin of condensed milk
25 g ground almonds
2 heaped tsp cocoa
200 g self-raising flour
100g chocolate chips
1 bar of Hershey’s cookies and creme

Method:

• Melt the butter and chocolate in a pan on a low heat until smooth and combined, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and stir in the condensed milk, followed by the almonds and cocoa.
• Sift in the flour and a pinch of sea salt, mix together, then chill in the fridge for 20 to 30 minutes (no longer). Once cool, but still pliable, smash up the cookies and creme bar then mix it all together, at this point you can put into the fridge or freeze in a log until ready for fresh cookies.
• Preheat the oven to 170ºC/325ºF/gas 3.
• Divide the mixture by either cutting circles through the log around half a cm thick and place on a couple of large baking trays lined with greaseproof paper and top with the chocolate chips.
• Bake for around 12 minutes, or until chewy in the middle and firm at the edges.
• Leave to sit in the tray for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

My adapted version of Deena’s Little Man’s Cookies:
125g butter, softened
75g golden caster sugar
175g self raising flour
75g semolina
Sprinkles of your choice

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4. Line three baking trays with baking paper.
• Mix together the butter and sugar until creamy, I usually do this in my Kitchenaid.
• Add the rest of the ingredients including a few sprinkles and mix together lightly. You can put these in the fridge/freezer in a log at this point to use later.
• Cut circles of around half a cm or ping pong size balls, place onto a baking tray and then top with more sprinkles if desired
• Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes until a light golden brown.
• Remove from the oven and leave to stand on the tray for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.