Lip-smacking recipes for Holi

Holi is not just about colouring your friends’ faces till they’re unrecognisable and then spending the rest of the day trying to scrub the colour off your face and hair. It is also about gorging on delicious food, made especially for Holi. After all, the fun and running around is bound to make you hungry. Here is a compilation of some mouth-watering recipes to celebrate Holi even more special!!!

Malpua
Ingredients
• 200 gm all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 1 teaspoon powdered green cardamom
• 1 cup ghee
• 250 ml water
• 50 gm khoya
• 100 gm semolina
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 500 ml milk
• 250 gm sugar
• 1 pinch saffron
Method
• Malpua is a delicious recipe soaked in sugar syrup and it’s worth indulging. Here’s a simple way of preparing this dish at home, following some very easy and simple steps. To prepare the sugar syrup, place water in a pan over medium flame. Add sugar in it and stir until fully dissolved. Then add 2-3 tsp milk and stir again, after a few minutes remove the scum that rises to the top. Once the sugar syrup is thick, remove the pan from the flame and keep aside.
• Mix maida, rava, khoya, baking powder, fennel seeds, cardamom powder and milk. Ensure the mixture is of pouring consistency and not too thick. Once the batter is ready, keep it aside for few minutes so that the flavour of spices and herbs gets absorbed.
• Now heat ghee in a pan over low flame and pour a ladleful of the mixture and spread evenly. Keep the flame low and cook till it is light brown on both sides. Remove the cooked malpua and drain the excess ghee. Drop the malpua in sugar syrup and allow it to soak for 10 minutes. Repeat the same with the remaining batter. Drain the malpuas from the syrup, garnish with pistachios and serve hot.

Dahi Bhalla
Ingredients:
• 3 Cups Fresh Curd
• 1 Cup Urad dal
• 1/4 Cup Moong dal
• Pinch of Asafoetida
• 1 Green Chili (finely chopped)
• 2 tsp Cumin Seed (roasted and grounded)
• 1 tsp Chili Pepper
• 1 tsp Garam Masala
• 6 tsp Sweet Tamarind Chutney
• Coriander leaves (chopped)
• Salt to taste
• Oil to fry
Method
• Wash and soak the two dals overnight in water. Drain out excess water. Add asafetida, salt and green chilli. Grind to make a thick batter, beat till fluffy. Now heat oil in a large frying pan then add spoonful’s of dal batter in oil and fry until turned golden brown. Remove excess oil.
• Drop the hot badas in a cold water bowl and leave for about 3-4 minutes. Take each bada out from water, squeeze and set aside. Now add garam masala, pepper and salt in beaten curd.
• Pour curd mixture over badas, place it on a deep bottomed dish. Sprinkle with roasted cumin powder and chopped coriander leaves.

Aloo Kachori
Ingredients:
• 1/2 kg Potatoes
• 100 grams Arrowroot
• 1 Coconut (grated)
• 2-3 Green Chilies
• 1 tsp Cardamom Seeds
• 1-2 tbsp Lemon Juice
• 1-2 tsp Sugar
• Salt to taste
Method
• To make covering, first boil and mash the potatoes. Mix it with 50 grams arrowroot, salt and knead it into stiff dough.
• To make filling, mix the grated coconut with crushed green chilies, sugar, lemon, cardamom and salt.
• To make kachori, take a small portion of the dough and pat between palms to make a small puri.
• Now stuff this puri with coconut mixture and form into a ball. Repeat the process to make rest of the kachoris.
• Douse the balls in the remaining arrowroot and deep fry in hot oil until golden brown.
• Aloo Kachori is ready to eat. Serve hot with chutney.

Thandai Recipe
Ingredients
• 4 1/2 Cups Full- Fat Milk , Boiled And Cooled
• 1/4 Cup Powdered Sugar
• A Few Saffron (Kesar) Strands
• Few Drops Of Rose Water(Gulab Jal )
• To Be Soaked
• 1/4 Cup Almonds (Badam)
• ¼ Cup Cashew
• ¼ Cup Pista
• 2 Tbsp Poppy Seeds (Khus-Khus)
• 2 Tbsp Fennel Seeds (Saunf)
• 2 Tbsp Watermelon Seeds
• 1 Tsp Cardamom (Elaichi)
• 20 Whole Peppercorns (Kalimirch)
• 3-4 Rose Petals Dry
METHOD
• Soak the above ingredients for 20 minutes and then grind it into coarse paste
• Put milk in a deep bowl, add sugar, mix well using a whisk and refrigerate for 2 hours.
• Add the paste and mix well and refrigerate
• Slightly roast the saffron strands and in a small bowl add little warm milk and add the saffron.
• Chill the thandai and add few drops of gulabjal before serving
- Khandani Rajdhani