With the festive season upon us, it's time to look forward to some lip-smacking dishes and desserts. So, we asked readers to share their Diwali recipes with us. As part of a continuing series, we present five recipes that we received:
Nalini Jagnat Kudalkar shares a recipe for Boondi Raita Bahaar:
Cuisine: Rajasthani
Type: Vegetarian
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Ingredients:
- 1 cup salted boondi
- 1 cup sweet boondi
- 2 cups curds (with excess water drained)
- 1 tomato, finely chopped
- 1 onion and capsicum (optional)
- 2-3 green chillies, finely chopped and pounded
- Sugar to taste
- 1 tsp oil for tempering
- 2-3 pods garlic crushed for tempering/mustard seeds also can be used (tempering is optional)
- Coriander leaves and grated ginger to garnish
- Salt to taste
Method:
- Mix salty and sweet boondi in a bowl along with all the vegetables.
- Add sugar and salt to the curds and along with it mix all the vegetables and boondi mixture.
- Add crushed and pounded green chillies to the boondi curd mixture and mix it up well.
- Temper it with mustard seeds or crushed garlic.
- Garnish it with grated ginger and coriander leaves.
Health quotient: This is a very healthy and tasty salad especially for small children and aged elders who find it difficult to digest and chew hard foods.It is quite cooling also.
Next, Sudhir Mehra shares his recipe for Dahi Gosht:
Cuisine: Frontier
Type: Non-vegetarian
Preparation time: Two hours
Ingredients:
- 80 per cent boneless mutton
- 20 per cent nali
Method:
- Clean the mutton, place in deep pan containing stirred yoghurt with pepper, turmeric, red chilli powder, vinegar, garam masala and salt.
- Leave this to marinate overnight.
- Heat oil in shallow pan add jeera (cumin seeds), add chopped onions and fry till they are light brown, add cloves, cardamom pods, bay leaves.
- Add chopped tomatoes and the yoghurt from the marinated pan till the yoghurt starts leaving oil.
- Add the mutton and cook on low heat constantly stirring.
- After some time when the mutton becomes tender, add water and continue to cook on low heat till ready.
Health quotient: Very little ghee/oil is used.
Gautam Gadkari shares his mum's recipe for Masoor Biryani:
Cuisine: Maharashtrian CKP
Type: Vegetarian
Preparation time: 45 minutes
Ingredients:
- 150 gms akha masoor (black lentils)
- 300 gms Basmati rice
- 5 onions
- 3 tomatoes
- Ginger-garlic paste
- Khada garam masala (whole, not powdered)
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp red chilli powder
- 1 tsp dhania powder (dried coriander powder)
Method:
- Cook the rice in a big conatiner, put a spoon of lemon juice so that the rice grains dont stick. Drain the extra water.
- Pressure cook the masoor dal with one chopped tomato, turmeric powder and some dhania powder as well. Pressure cook till two whistles.
- Chop the onioins and fry them with one table spoon of oil untill they are golden brown.
- Make a paste of tomatoes, ginger, garlic.
- Heat a utensil, add one spoon of oil and the khada garam masala.
- Put the tomato paste and the boiled masoor. Add some salt and powder garam masala as well.
- In a separate utensil, put the fried onions and then layer the masoor and rice alternately.
- Garnish with fried potatoes and onions with green coriander.
This would go good with any kind of raita/ salad.
Health quotient: The dish only uses about two spoons of oil so it's quite healthy.
Next up is Anil Manchanda's recipe for Pudina Mutton:
Cuisine: Indian
Type: Non-vegetarian
Preparation time: One hour
Ingredients:
- 1 kg mutton
- 750 gm onion
- 150 gm tomatoes
- 1 medium piece of ginger
- 1 pod of garlic
- 1bunch pudina (mint leaves)
- 1/2 bunch coriander
- 6 green chillies
- Chilli powder/ coriander/ turmeric powder/ salt/ mutton masala as per taste
- Sarson (mustard oil) as per requirements
- Garam masala
Method:
- Wash and cut the mutton in medium pieces.
- Marinate with oil, chopped onions and a paste of pudina, coriander, tomatoes etc for an hour.
- Heat oil and add all the mutton with the marinade all at once and fry for approx 30 min.
- Keep adding a little water till the colour changes to a greenish brown and the pudina lets off its frangrance.
- A little pure ghee will add to the richness and taste.
- A thick gravy with paratha /steamed rice/ pav (bread buns) is an ideal combination, also baby potatoes without slicing can be added.
Health quotient: Mutton, pudina, mustard oil all add to a healthy, nutritious protien-enriched meal.
Ending on a sweet note, Monika Gupta shares her recipe for Vermicelli Orange Twist:
Cuisine: Indian dessert
Type: Vegetarian
Preparation time: 10-15 mins
Ingredients:
- 2 cups vermicelli, crushed
- 1 cup sugar (as per your sweet tooth)
- 1/2 cup ghee (clarified butter)
- 1 tbsp elaichi powder (cardamom)
- 1 cup cream
- 1 tbsp orange peel
Method:
- Heat a non-stick pan on medium flame.
- Add 1/2 cup of ghee into the pan.
- Add crushed vermicelli to the pan and roast for 2-3 mins, till golden brown (make sure vermicelli is not very finely crushed).
- Add 1/2 cup sugar to the roasted vermicelli and mix well.
- Once you see the sugar mixing add one tablespoon of cardamom powder and mix lightly.
- Remove the pan from the heat and set aside.
- In the mean time take a bowl, add the cream and the remaining sugar and mix well with an egg beater (make sure cream doesn't become watery).
- Grate the orange peel in to the cream mix and mix well.
- Now serve vermicelli on a plate with a dollop of orange cream mix on top.
- You can also grate some more orange peel flakes on top of this serving to get a tangy sweet aromatic flavour.
Health quotient: Since it does not require any tinned products, it can be made with every-day kitchen ingredients.
Do you have any special Diwali recipes that you'd like to share with us and other readers? Simply fill in this quick form and we'll publish your recipes right here on rediff.com.