Chefs’ corner: Holi-special food recipes for house parties
- Featured Food & Beverage
RIDDHI DOSHI- 29 minutes read
Pooja Patel
The festival of colour is here and who doesn’t want to celebrate after almost a year-long pandemic-induced slow down? However, considering the rising COIVD-19 cases, it might be best to celebrate Holi with your near and dear ones. But the low key festive party doesn’t mean you have to miss out on good food! We bring to you a few Holi special recipes that you can make at home and add lots of fun to your family gathering!
Dahi Ke Kebab by Chef Rajesh Wadhwa, Executive Chef, Taj Palace, New Delhi
Ingredients:
Hung curd, 250 gms
Chopped onions, 50 gms
Chopped fresh ginger, 10 gms
Chopped fresh green chillies, 5 gms
Chopped fresh green coriander, 10 gms
Salt, 5 gms
Cumin powder, 10 gms
Fenugreek powder, 5 gms
Black salt, 2 gms
Rice flour, 15 gms
Cooking oil or Olive oil, 10 gms
Method:
In a pan, heat around 2 ml of oil and add the chopped onions, chopped ginger, chopped green chilies and sauté. Remove from heat.
In a bowl, combine the hung curd with the sautéed onions’ mixture. Add the spices – cumin powder, fenugreek powder, black salt, chopped green coriander, rice flour and salt. Mix well.
Divide the mixture into small sized balls and flatten to create small patties.
Shallow fry the patties till light golden brown in colour.
Serve hot with mint sauce
Whole Wheat Puran Poli by Chef Vivek Tamhane, Senior Executive Chef, BLVD Club, Bengaluru
Ingredients:
1 cup powdered jaggery
1 cup chana dal (skinned split Bengal gram)
1 teaspoon fennel powder (ground fennel seeds)
4 to 5 green cardamoms crushed
¼ teaspoon nutmeg powder (ground nutmeg)
For the poli (outer covering)
2 cups whole wheat flour + ½ cup all-purpose flour
4 tablespoon oil or ghee (clarified butter)
½ teaspoon salt or as required
¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
Water as required to knead the dough
Oil or ghee as required for roasting the puran poli
Method:
Preparing Puran
In a pressure cooker, cook the soaked chana dal for 6 to 7 whistles. The dal must be cooked well. Now strain the cooked dal.
Heat ghee in a pan and add the ground ginger powder, ground nutmeg powder, ground cardamom powder and ground fennel powder. Fry for a few seconds on low heat.
Add chana dal and jaggery. Stir and let this puran mixture cook on a low flame till the mixture becomes dry and thick.
Let it cool and make it a smooth paste. Keep aside.
Preparing the poli dough:
Take whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, and salt in a bowl and mix well.
Add a little bit of water and ghee and mix. Knead the dough adding water as required.
The dough should be smooth and soft. Keep the dough in the oil. Cover and keep aside the dough for 15-20 minutes.
Making Puran Poli:
Take a medium or large size ball from the dough. Roll it 2 to 3 inches in circumference on a banana leaf. Place a portion of puran mixture in the centre of the rolled dough.
Bring the edges together towards the centre. Join all the edges and pinch them and roll it like a roti.
On a medium heated tawa or griddle, spread some ghee. Place the rolled poli/dough circle on the tawa. When one side gets browned, turn over and cook the other side till you see some brown spots.
Once the second side gets browned, then turn over and apply ghee. At this stage, the puran poli will puff up. The poli should be cooked well with brown and golden spots.
Make all puran polis this way and stack them in a casserole or in a kitchen napkin.
You can serve puran poli with coconut milk.
Organic Palm Jaggery Malpua by Chef Thimma Reddy, Executive Chef, THE Park Hyderabad
Ingredients:
1 cup refined flour
½ cup semolina
¼ cup refined grated organic palm jaggery
½ tsp fennel
¼ tsp cardamom powder
½ cup milk
Water – 120ml as required
Oil for deep frying
Ghee – 30ml
Rabri for serving
Dry fruits for garnishing
For sugar syrup:
1 cup palm jaggery
½ cup water
¼ tsp cardamom powder
Few threads of saffron
Method:
In a large mixing bowl, take refined flour, semolina, grated palm jaggery, fennel and cardamom powder.
Add milk, mix slowly in one direction, ensuring there are no lumps in the batter, later add water and mix well, batter to be of smooth pouring consistency.
Further whisk the batter for at least five minutes, cover and rest the batter for 30 minutes.
Now pour a ladle quantity batter into hot oil/ ghee, once the malpua starts floating, splash oil over the malpuas. Also, press gently with the help of a perforated spoon. The malpuas will puff up like pooris.
Now fry both sides till they turn golden brown, drain the malpuas onto a kitchen towel to remove excess oil and soak the malpuas into hot jaggery syrup.
Rest for 10 minutes making sure both the sides of malpua are soaked well, finally, serve malpuas hot with rabri (optional) and garnished with few nuts
Thandai Cheesecake by Monaz Irani, Founder & Chef at Plate & Pint
Ingredients:
Digestive biscuits 50 gms
Butter (salted) 15 gms
Honey 5 gms
Cream cheese 200 gms
Condensed milk 50 gms
Thandai 80 gms
Whipped cream 125 gms
Gelatine powder 5 gms
Garnish (optional) rose petals and a handful of almond slivers
(This recipe makes about 5 mini cheesecakes or 1 half kg cheesecake)
Method:
Prepare the ring –cover the bottom of the ring with foil and tightly secure it onto the top circumference of the ring such that the base of the ring is covered with a foil. Place this onto a plate/tray to support the base.
Crush the digestive biscuits until they become into a coarse sandy texture – you may use a rolling pin for this.
Add the melted butter and honey and mix well with the crushed biscuits. Press this mixture down firmly and evenly onto the base of the ring. Let it set in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes.
Soak the gelatine and let it set for about five minutes.
Whisk the cream cheese until smooth (speed up the process with an electric hand mixer) and add the condensed milk and thandai and beat till mixed evenly.
Add the soaked gelatine (which will now be a viscous mass) and fold in the whipped cream gently with a spatula. Pour this mixture into the ring over your biscuit base. Even out the top with a palette knife or spatula and freeze to set (about four hours) or refrigerate overnight.
Heat the sides of the ring and demould. Top the cheesecake with a thin layer of thandai. Garnish with rose petals and slivers of almond.
Note: You may replace gelatine with a vegetarian setting agent like agar agar or may omit this step completely by serving the cheesecake in mini cups or a big bowl.
Red Wine Poached Gulkand, Dates in Betel Leaf by Chef Rustom Sheriyar Dotivala of Della Resorts, Lonavala
Ingredients:
Betel Leaf – 5 nos
Red Wine – 50 ml
Gulkand – 20 gms
Saffron – 01 gms
Dates – 5 nos
Fresh Grated Coconut – 20 gms
Dark Chocolate – 20 gms
Butter 10 gms
Method:
Chop the dates very finely.
In a pan add some butter, allow it to melt.
Add in the chopped dates, gulkand, dark chocolate, red wine and allow it to cook.
Once the mixture is thick, remove it from flame and let it cool down completely
Once cooled, make small balls.
Wrap the cleaned betel leaf on the prepared mixture and allow it to stand.
Garnish it with finely grated fresh coriander and saffron.
Have it chilled.
Besan Ladoo, Betle Extract, Chocolate Tart by Chef Gautam Mehrishi of Renaissance, Mumbai
Ingredients for besan ladoo:
Besan 150 gms
Sugar 50 gms
Desi ghee 40 gms
Green cardamom (ground)1/4th tsp
Roasted almonds slivered 10 gms
Method for besan ladoo:
Heat ghee in a pan. Once melted, add besan. Initially, it will clump, so stirring it continuously at medium flame for 7-8 minutes will make it into a smooth paste.
Cool and add the cardamom powder and sugar, mix in and make a smooth dough.
Now carve small-sized ladoo and garnish them with nuts and keep them separately.
Ingredients for chocolate tart:
For the crust:
200 gms almond flour
50 gms unsweetened cocoa powder
60 gms melted butter
20 ml maple syrup
Ingredients for chocolate filling:
20 ml milk
150 gms dark chocolate, roughly chopped
5 ml vanilla syrup
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
Mix almond flour, cocoa, butter and maple syrup to make a mix.
Press in a tart mould and bake till firm.
For the filling, melt the broken chocolate, adding the milk gradually and mixing on a double boiler till a velvet finish is achieved.
Pour the chocolate mix in the shell when slightly cool and refrigerate.
Betel extract:
Ingredients:
Betel leaves 8-10 numbers
Coconut Milk 50 ml
Dip the betle leaves in ice water for five minutes, then blend with some coconut milk. Mix thoroughly and microwave for 10 seconds two times with a gap and mixing in between.
Ingredients:
White chocolate 200 gms
Milk 50 ml
Melt the white chocolate adding milk on a double boiler till velvet consistency, add the betle extract to achieve a nice green colour. Pour in a flat tray and let it set. Then cut in round discs of the same size as the tart tops. Make ¾ small holes with a nozzle top and keep them aside.
To finish, take the tarts, top with the beetle extract disc, in the round cutouts lace the bison Ladoo and garnish with chopped nuts and gold leaf.
Thandai Rabdi Ice-cream by Chef Nitin Mathur, Taj Santacruz, Mumbai
Ingredients:
1 cup rabdi
1/2 cup thandai mixture
2 tbsp gelatine
1/2 cup sugar
2 pinch saffron
2 tbsp milk
1/3 cup fresh cream
1 tbsp rose water
1 tbsp rose essence
Rose petals and pistachios ss needed pistachios for garnish
Method:
Make a smooth paste of the following: soaked almonds, a handful of cashews, a tablespoon of melon seeds, a tablespoon of poppy seeds, 2-3 cardamoms, a tablespoon of fennel seeds, a tablespoon of pistachios and ½ tablespoon of black pepper. Grind everything together into a paste.
Further, in a mixing bowl blend the following: 1 cup of rabdi (reduced 1 litre milk with 2 tablespoons of sugar), 1/2 cup of thandai mixture, a pinch of saffron soaked in 2 tablespoons of milk, 1/3 cup of fresh cream, 1 teaspoon of rose water, a teaspoon of rose essence and 2-3 tablespoon of sugar. Mix everything well.
In a small bowl, take a tablespoon of gelatine and mix it with 2 tablespoons of hot water. Proceed to mix this bloomed gelatine in the rabdi mixture.
Now pour this thandai rabdi mixture in the container and leave it to set in the freezer for 6-8 hours.
Scoop it with a scooper and garnish with pistachios and saffron.
Garnish with rose petals and serve chilled.
