Festive recipes for a sweet Diwali: Laddus and more!

Whip up these delicious traditional preparations to celebrate the festive season.

We invited readers to share their festive recipes with us. Here is the first set of responses!

First up we have this one from Mayuresh Sudhir Mokal of Dadar, Mumbai. He says it's a recipe "created to please my darling wife!"

Jhatpat Panch Ratna Rabdi

Ingredients:

• 1 litre milk
• 4 tbsp milk powder
• 4 sachets sugar free
• 8-10 roasted almond, sliced into pieces
• 8-10 roasted pistachios, sliced into pieces
• 8-10 roasted cashew, sliced only in half
• 8-10 raisins
• Pinch saffron or kesar
• An earthen pot or matka

Method:

• Put the milk for boiling in a pot. Add milk powder to the milk while it is boiling. Stir continuously.
• Add the sugar free sachets. Keep stirring continuously.
• Take the saffron in a small bowl and add two teaspoons of milk. Stir it and heat the bowl in microwave for just a few seconds. Transfer this warm solution to the boiling milk.
• Keep stirring continuously till the milk reduces in content to less than half (you will generally find the a change in the viscosity or flow the of milk).
• Transfer the content to an earthen pot/bowl/matka. Add sliced almonds, pistachios, cashew and raisin to it and allow it to cool for a while and then refrigerate.
• You can use a regular bowl instead of a matka but using a matka will help remove the excess water and the end result is thick, tempting and mouth watering Panch Ratna Rabdi.

Send us your favourite festive recipes. Write in to us at getahead@rediff.co.in with your name, hometown and any interesting details about the origin of the recipe, along with a photograph if possible. We'll publish the best preparations right here on rediff.com and in India Abroad.

Next we have this tasty kheer preparation from Nalini Jagnat Kudalkar. She says it's her grandmother's and has been passed down through generations in her family.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup flattened rice or poha
• 1 cup semolina or rava
• 2-3 pods green cardamom
• 200 gm sugar
• 1/2 cup mixed dry fruits
• 1/2 litre milk
• Rose petals for garnishing

Method:

• Roast rava till light brown.
• Soak poha for half an hour.
• Add soaked poha to 1/2 a litre of milk and bring to a boil.
• Add sugar and rava to it along with dry fruits and boil till thick consistency.
• Garnish with rose petals.

This recipe sent in by Niveditha of Coimbatore has a story behind its origin. She says, "This recipe is from my friend's mom. We stayed in a hostel/dorm together in college and we were best of friends. She would bring her mom's vadai for all of us pals. The vadais were mouth wateringly scrumptious. It's been days since I tasted this delicious vadai. So I decided to try and make it myself. I pinged my friend and got the recipe from her mom. The yummy taste of the vadai is because of the pattani paruppu or yellow split peas, as her mom specifically mentioned to me. So, dear friends don't substitute any other paruppu instead of pattani paruppu."

Ingredients:

• 1 cup yellow split peas or pattani paruppu
• 1 small tapioca
• 1 tsp fennel seeds
• 3-4 dry red chillies
• 3-4 cloves garlic
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• Coriander leaves, finely chopped
• Oil for deep frying
• Salt to taste

Method:

• Wash and soak the yellow spilt peas for two to three hours. Then drain the water completely and keep aside.
• Peel off the skin from raw tapioca, wash it and grate it finely, it will be like a paste.
• Grind together fennel seeds, garlic and red chillies with pattani paruppu coarsely, no need to add water. If it's too dry, sprinkle little water while grinding. At the end, add the grated raw tapioca and grind briefly again. The reason for grinding it at the end is because after grating the tapioca will already be paste. The batter should be little thick.
• Transfer the batter to a bowl. Add finely chopped onions and coriander leaves, salt and mix well.
• Heat oil in a kadai. Meanwhile, make small balls and flatten them, arranging all in a plate. You can fry three to four vadais at a time. Fry on medium heat only. Flip the vadais while frying.
• Once the vadais are golden brown, drain excess oil and transfer into a bowl lined with kitchen paper towels.

Note:

• Using pattani paruppu is very tasty, so avoid substituting with any other paruppu.
• Pulse the raw grated tapioca just two or three times while grinding it together with paruppu mixture.
• A raw grated tapioca should be used; no need to boil it.
• You can prepare this vadai without using tapioca too.

And finally we have this lip-smacking dessert from Abraham and Susan Chacko of London who run the website www.chackoskitchen.com. They say: "Sweeten your mouth with homemade Coconut Laddu. One of the simplest Indian sweets to make. Nutritious. Tasty. Children will love them."

Ingredients:

• Two and a half unsweetened desiccated coconuts
• 1 cup Nestle condensed milk
• 1 tbsp homemade ghee
• 10 raisins
• 1/2 tsp cardamom powder
• 1 tsp vanilla
• Desiccated coconut for rolling

Method:

• Heat ghee in a pan, add raisins and stir for about one or two minutes, when the raisins start swelling like a balloon remove from pan.
• In a separate heavy-bottomed non-stick pan add two cups of coconut and condensed milk. Stir continuously till it leaves the edges of the pan, on a medium flame.
• Add the raisins, cardamom powder and vanilla essence. Stir till all ingredients are mixed well.
• Take off heat and make golf-ball sized spheres of this mixture. Roll into the spare desiccated coconut so the laddus are not sticky.

Tips:

Do not let the coconut mixture cool entirely, as it will become a sticky lump, and you will not be able to make balls out of it. Alternately use freshly grated coconut for a traditional feel and taste.