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Meetha Khazana: Diwali Recipes From All Over India

Last updated on: November 09, 2023 12:38 IST

A treasure of traditional Diwali recipes from all corners of our India.

Children enjoying Diwali sweets

Photograph: ImagesBazaar/Getty Images/Rediff Archives

A fortnight before the Diwali festivities begin, housewives all over India set about sweeping and scrubbing down their houses. Many have their homes repainted with sparkling white chuna or lime. The practical angle of this being that the home and the kitchen is cleared of any dirt or micro-organisms that may have accumulated after a sweltering, hot summer and a long, humid monsoon.

And then, the herculean tasks of grinding, roasting, rolling, chopping, frying and basting to produce huge baskets of sweets begin.

 

Nuts are ground to a fine powder and kneaded with sugar, ghee or clarified butter and khoya (a type of milk solid) to make barfis. Besan or chickpea or gram flour is roasted in ghee and thickened with sugar syrup to make besan laddus.

Maida ka dough is rolled out into all imaginable shapes, stuffed with raisins and grated cocounut, deep fried and then coated with sugar. And a legion of fragrant laddus, khajas, barfis and balushais emerge from the kitchens of every home.

Most of these recipes have been handed down over generations. Which is why, it is quite possible that, for the last five decades, besan laddus have been made in exactly the same manner.

Each region in India is famous for its own variety of sweets made specifically for Diwali.

A collection of sweet recipes from the various states and regions of India, including the former province of Sindh, where Diwali is celebrated.

These are all recipes for homemade sweets collected from grannies and ammas and housewives in the know. And they are all very traditional -- one hundred per cent!

Shubh Deepavali, Dear Readers!

Bihar Maharashtra Rajasthan
Gujarat Mangalore Sindh
Haryana Palakkad Tamil Nadu
Madhya Pradesh Punjab Uttar Pradesh

 

These chickpea or besan balls are savoured with great relish all over the North, as well as Bihar and is a favourite at all auspiscious functions.

Servings: 20-25

Ingredients

Method


This is a typical sweet especially made for Diwali in many states, but it is known by different names. Though the ingredients are quite common, this delicate mithai, requires technique to turn out right!

This is placed as an offering for the Lakshmi puja as well as served as prasad. In Maharashtra, they make it this way:

Servings: 15

Ingredients

Method


This is the Rajasthani version of malpua but it is made slightly differently. Served with cream or garnished with pista, it is a Diwali favourite.

Serves: 5

Ingredients

Method


One of the most popular sweets served by Gujaratis during Diwali or on the New Year, the day after Diwali.

Servings: 30

Ingredients

Method

Editor's Note: One-thread consistency sugar syrup: It is important to keep testing for consistency while the sugar syrup is boiling.
The test for this is: Dip a spatula, preferably wooden, into the boiling sugar syrup and take out.
Some syrup would have coated the spatula.
Let it cool.
Touch the cooled syrup with your forefinger. Some syrup will come onto your finger.
Touch that with your thumb and separate thumb from forefinger.
When one little continuous delicate thread is formed by the syrup, when the coated forefinger is pulled away from your thumb, you have a one-string or one-thread consistency sugar syrup.


A typical sweet of the Konkan belt, these laddus are made from rice flour and jaggery.

Servings: 20

Ingredients

Method


A very traditional Sindhi sweet, this dryish halwa should ideally be eaten hot and fresh. Kuti is cooked for most Sindhi festivals and pujas and for Diwali too.

Serves: 5-8

Ingredients

Method


This yummy sweet, a kind of a fudge made from rice flour, is a must for Diwali in Haryana and Punjab. If properly made and stored, it will keep for several days!

Servings: 8-10

Ingredients

Method


Parts of northern and central Kerala are the only areas of the state where Diwali is celebrated. Residents of Palakkad have special rituals and cuisine that are very particular to their community. Rawa Laddus are standard Diwali fare.

Servings: 18-20

Ingredients

Method

Editor's Note: One-thread consistency sugar syrup: It is important to keep testing for consistency while the sugar syrup is boiling.
The test for this is: Dip a spatula, preferably wooden, into the boiling sugar syrup and take out.
Some syrup would have coated the spatula.
Let it cool.
Touch the cooled syrup with your forefinger. Some syrup will come onto your finger.
Touch that with your thumb and separate thumb from forefinger.
When one little continuous delicate thread is formed by the syrup, when the coated forefinger is pulled away from your thumb, you have a one-string or one-thread consistency sugar syrup.


This is a sweet rice preparation from Tamil Nadu, which can be stored in air-tight tins, through all the days of Diwali

Servings: 10-12

Ingredients

Method


Balushais, khasta or crumbly doughnuts without holes are part of the traditional offerings at Diwali in Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Bengal for Kali Puja.

Servings: 15-20

Ingredients

Method

Editor's Note: Two-thread consistency sugar syrup: It is important to keep testing for consistency while the sugar syrup is boiling.
The test for this is: Dip a spatula, preferably wooden, into the boiling sugar syrup and take out.
Some syrup would have coated the spatula.
Let it cool.
Touch the cooled syrup with your forefinger. Some syrup will come onto your finger.
Touch that with your thumb and separate thumb from forefinger.
When two little continuous delicate threads are formed by the syrup, when the coated forefinger is pulled away from your thumb, you have a two-string or two-thread consistency sugar syrup.

 


This milk fudge is a favourite all over India. At Diwali, pedhas are a must in both, Uttar Pradesh as well as in Punjab. They are also known as peda or penda in other states.

Servings: 20

Ingredients

Method


No festival in the northern and central states of India is complete without these laddus. Though traditionally made at weddings and sent to friends and relatives Bundi Laddus,< as they are also called, are auspicious This is how this laddu is made in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Making them is a difficult and time-consuming and if you are successful it's a feat.

Servings: 20-25

Ingredients

Method

Editor's Note: Three-thread consistency sugar syrup: It is important to keep testing for consistency while the sugar syrup is boiling.
The test for this is: Dip a spatula, preferably wooden, into the boiling sugar syrup and take out.
Some syrup would have coated the spatula.
Let it cool.
Touch the cooled syrup with your forefinger. Some syrup will come onto your finger.
Touch that with your thumb and separate thumb from forefinger.
When three little continuous delicate threads are formed by the syrup, when the coated forefinger is pulled away from your thumb, you have a three-string or three-thread consistency sugar syrup.
For hard ball sugar syrup, boil the syrup a little longer.
Keep a small bowl of cold water handy.
Drop a tsp of the sugar syrup into the bowl of water and when it slightly cools see if it is malleable enough to mould into a ball.
Take out of the water and allow the ball to cool and if it hardens the sugar syrup is ready.
If the balls remains soft, cook the syrup a little longer.

Happy Diwali!

REDIFF FOOD