by Sande Waybill

Created on: September 21, 2009

Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, is celebrated in several ways. Amongst the festivities is the tradition of making and consuming delicious sweets. Burfi is one of the most popular and versatile choices, but a multitude of additional options are available. Many of these recipes are simple enabling many people to make them at home.

Kesar & Kaju Burfi
Soak 500g of cashew nuts in water for circa three hours. Next, drain the nuts and grind them. Place the ground nuts in a pan with 300g sugar. Gently roast the nuts, stirring continuously. Add teaspoon of saffron strands and complete the roasting. Remove the mixture and roll it between two sheets of either butter or greaseproof paper. Finally, remove the top sheet and place a layer of edible silver foil onto the burfi. You can then cut the sweet into bite-sized pieces.

Badam Ka Seera
This sweet is made by peeling, rinsing, and grinding 1.5 cups of almonds. You heat 250g ghee in a pan and then add the ground almonds. Stir and cook on a low heat until the mixture browns slightly. Add 3 cups of hot milk and stir on. When the sweet thickens, add just less than a half cup of sugar. Keep stirring and wait until the ghee begins to separate from the rest of the mix. This sweet should be served hot after being decorated with chopped nuts.

Almond Diyas
Soak, peel, and grind 200g almonds. Add the ground nuts to 120g powdered sugar in a pan. Heat on a low heat, stirring continuously, until the mixture falls from the side of the pan. Cool, and then separate the mixture into two. Create teardrop shapes with half of the mixture. Mix yellow food coloring or saffron into the other half. The yellow mix is then placed in the center of the teardrops and smoothed. The final step is to decorate the exterior. This can be done with edible silver foil or other preferred means.

Shakkarpare
Mix a cup of whole-wheat flour with 1.5 cups plain flour, 1/3 cup sugar, and a teaspoon saunf. Add a small amount of water and mix into a dough. Roll out the dough and then cut the pastry into small diamond shapes. Rest the cookie dough in a cloth for an hour. Deep-fry the cookies in ghee or oil until they turn golden brown. Finally, drain and cool the shakkarpare.

Semolina Halva
Heat 3 tablespoons of ghee in a skillet. Add a teaspoon or cardamom powder and stir it in. Add a cup of semolina to the mixture and keep stirring for several minutes. cup of sugar can then be added along with a tablespoon each of raisins and cashews. Continue to stir, using a low-medium heat setting. Next, add 1.5 cups of both milk and water. Keep heating and stirring until the preferred consistency is achieved. Finally, decorate with a second tablespoon each of raisins and cashews. This sweet can be eaten either hot or cold.

URLs used to assist my research:
http://dailytiffin.blogspot.com/2008/10/diwali-sweet -treats.html
http://www.top-indian-recipes.com/blog/celebrate-wit h-diwali-sweet-recipes/
http://www.stephen-knapp.com/diwali_sweets.htm

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