Article from the November 2015 issue of Food and Home Entertaining Magazine.
Diwali, or ‘Festival of lights’ is an Ancient Annual Hindu Festival celebrated in the Northern hemisphere Autumn. This year, it falls on 15 November. Diwali is the biggest and brightest festival in India, and spiritually signifies the victory of light over darkness. These traditional Diwali desserts with a twist will make for the perfect (and tastiest) end to your celebration.
Now that I’m a mother. I see the beauty and enchantment of Diwali (or Deepavali) all over again, through my daughter’s eyes.
It’s a celebration of light, fire and colour. It’s about having our house overflowing with family, friends, laughter and food. I can see my daughter’s glee and delight as she squats next to my mother outside, helping her make a rangoli – the eye-catching decorative pattern that’s made on the floor of your doorstep or verandah to welcome Maha Lakshmi, the Goddess of Prosperity, also known as Light herself. I see my daughter’s pudgy fingers greedily curl around the brightly coloured sweet meats: almost – neon-orange ladoos, burfees glinting with foil and hundreds and thousands, or the syrupy redness of our gulab jamuns, which we South Africans affectionately call ‘jumbos’. I bask in the joy I see in her eyes as she runs around squealing excitedly with her cousins, screeching and giggling at the crackling sparklers in their hands. I watch too with awe, as the night is lit up by hundreds of little lamps and lanterns that flicker and dance charmingly upon walls and driveways.
For weeks before the event, we call friends and family, sharing or debating recipes and counting off the goodies we’ll be making. With the baking goods and clothes shopping done a week before, the days running up to Diwali are about late nights of baking and taste-testing. The air in the house hangs thickly with the rich smell of boiled or condensed milk, ghee and cardamom. The day itself starts with a ritual bath with sacred oils and prayer. Then family and friends arrive and the eating begins. Samoosas, pies and, my favourite, puri patha (a puffy, deep-fried flatbread that sandwiches a sour and tart vegetarian patty made out of rolled, spiced madumbi leaves, which is then sliced, fried and drizzled with lemon juice), are all consumed in large quantities. An important part of the festivities is about sharing. We choose the sweets and savouries that turned out the best, pack them into boxes specially made for the day and hand them out to friends and family.
Light is synonymous with Diwali. Symbolically, it’s about our journey from ignorance to knowledge or awareness. Some traditions, like ours, base our celebrations on the story of Prince Rama and his wife, Sita, returning home from years and years of banishment. The people of Ayodhya, joyous that their Prince was returning, lit up the way for them with rows and rows of lights to help lead them away from the darkness of the forest. In this tale, we celebrate that good conquers evil.
For me, Diwali is about the light of having family over, inviting spirit into your home and celebrating good food and abundance – these themes truly set the day and night ablaze with joy and love.
Coconut kulfi-style granita style
Traditionally served sliced or as lollies, into a granita, and the coconut milk adds the perfect fresh update
Serves 6 easy 50 mins + 4 hrs, to freeze
The flavour combination
2 x 400ml tins coconut milk
130g sugar
15ml (1 tbsp) cornflour
10ml (2 tsp) boiling water pinch salt
5ml (1 tsp) vanilla essence
2 drops orange essence/5ml (1 tsp) orange flower water
pansies/any edible flowers, to garnish
ClemenGold slices, to garnish (optional)
spun sugar, to garnish (optional)
How to do it
1 In a medium saucepan over medium heat, bring the coconut milk and sugar to a simmer. Slake the cornflour in the boiling water and add to the hot coconut milk. Bring the mixture to a boil, then remove from heat.
2 Stir the salt, vanilla essence and orange essence or flower water into the coconut mixture and allow to cool, 30 minutes.
Pour the mixture into a freezer-proof container and place in the freezer until frozen, 4 hours.
3 To serve, scrape the frozen mixture with a fork to form granita. Spoon into glasses and serve garnished with edible flowers, ClemenGold slices and spun sugar, if desired.
Fig and coconut fruit ladoo with golden almonds
These little morsels are perfect for the health-conscious – free from refined sugar and full of fruity goodness
Serves 8-10 easy 30 mins + 2 hrs, to set
The flavour combination
220g soft-eating Turkish figs
finely chopped
200g dates, finely chopped
100g almonds, roasted
40g sultanas
40g desiccated coconut
pinch salt
5ml (1 tsp) vanilla essence edible gold leaf
How to do it
1 Grease and line a flat 26cm x 20cm container.
2 Soak the figs and dates in boiling water to soften, 10 minutes. Drain and discard the water before blending the dried fruit to an almost-smooth paste. Set aside.
3 Roughly chop 60g of the almonds and combine with the blended dried fruit, along with the sultanas, 20g of the desiccated coconut, salt and vanilla essence. Press the fruit mixture into the prepared container and refrigerate to set, 2 hours.
4 Once the mixture has set, use cookie cutters to press out shapes. Dust with the remaining desiccated coconut.
5 To make the golden almonds, brush the remaining almonds in a little water and press the edible gold leaf onto the almonds.
6 Serve the fruit ladoo sprinkled with the golden almonds.
Kesar peda with toasted pine nuts and salt flakes
These slightly spiced chewy milk sweets are perfectly complemented by toasted pine nuts and a delicate sprinkling of sea salt Makes about 20 small pieces.
Easy 20 mins + 1 hr, to dry + 3 hrs, to set
The flavour combination
125g powdered milk
50g tinned dessert cream
30ml (2 tbsp) milk pinch saffron strands 60g sugar
pinch ground green cardamom
10g butter/ghee (clarified butter), to grease
50g pine nuts, toasted sea salt flakes, to sprinkle
pansies/any edible flowers, brushed with edible gold dust, to garnish edible gold dust, to sprinkle
How to do it
1 In a large bowl, combine the powdered milk and dessert cream and rub the mixture until fine crumbs form. Place the crumbly mixture on a flat tray and allow to dry out, 1 hour, tossing occasionally.
2 Place the milk in a small bowl with the saffron and heat in the microwave, 30 seconds. Stir to crush the saffron.
3 Place the dried milk mixture in a medium pan with the sugar, saffron-milk and cardamom. Stir continuously over medium heat until the mixture forms a thick paste, 5 minutes. Remove from heat and continue stirring, 5 minutes.
4 When the mixture is cool enough to handle, grease your hands with the butter or ghee. Roll the dough into small balls, 2cm in diameter, and indent the centre with your finger. Press a few toasted pine nuts into the indent and place on a tray lined with greaseproof paper. Top the sweets with the tiniest sprinkle of sea salt and refrigerate, 3 hours.
5 Serve as a sweet garnished with edible flowers brushed with gold dust and a sprinkling of gold dust.
Pistachio and rose gulab jamuns
These little biscuit-like morsels soaked in a syrup are intensely sweet, so a few is all one needs to satisfy a sugar craving
Serves 4 Easy 35 mins + 1-2 hrs, to soak
The flavour combination
500ml (2 cups) water
300g sugar
4 green cardamom pods
juice of 1/2 lemon
10ml (2 tsp) rose water pinch salt
Jamuns
200g powdered milk
80g cake flour
pinch salt
5ml (1 tsp) bicarbonate of soda
10g butter/ghee (clarified butter), softened
60g plain yoghurt
vegetable oil, to deep-fry
fresh rose petals, to garnish pistachios, halved, to garnish
How to do it
1 For the rose syrup, combine the water, sugar and cardamom pods in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, without stirring at all, and boil until a sticky syrup forms, about 15 minutes. Stir in the lemon juice, rose water and salt and set aside.
2 For the jamuns, combine the milk powder, flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda in a medium bowl. Mix in the butter or ghee and half of the yoghurt. Mix and continue adding the yoghurt until a soft, sticky mixture forms – the dough should not be crumbly or dry.
3 Heat the vegetable oil in a deep-fryer or deep pot to 160°C. While the oil heats, form the dough into small balls, about 2cm in diameter. Fry the dough balls in small batches until golden brown, about 2 minutes on each side. Add the balls to the warm sugar syrup and allow to soak, 1 – 2 hours. Serve a few jamuns in a bowl at room temperature, garnished with rose petals and pistachios.
Vanilla burfee with golden blueberries
Makes about 40 pieces a little effort 20 mins + 1 hr, to dry
The flavour combination
500g powdered milk
200g tinned dessert cream
330g sugar
250ml (1 cup) cold water 2 vanilla pods, split pinch salt
25g butter
5ml (1 tsp) vanilla essence
blueberries, brushed with edible gold dust, to garnish edible gold leaf, to garnish
How to do it
1 Grease and line a 23cm-square baking tin with cling film. Spray the cling film with cooking spray.
2 In a large bowl, combine the milk powder and dessert cream and rub the mixture until fine crumbs form. Place the crumbly mixture on a flat tray and allow to dry out, 1 hour, tossing occasionally.
3 When the powdered milk mixture has dried out, blend in a food processor to a fine crumb and set aside.
4 In a small saucepan, combine the sugar, water, vanilla pods and salt. Bring to a boil over medium heat, without stirring at all, and boil until the syrup reaches 130°C on a sugar thermometer, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and remove the vanilla pods. Allow to cool slightly, 1 minute, before stirring in the butter and vanilla essence.
5 Add the sugar syrup to the crumbled powdered milk mixture and mix to combine well, working quickly. Once well combined, tip the mixture into the prepared tin and press down evenly. Allow to cool a little, 5 minutes, before portioning into 3cm squares.
6 Sprinkle the squares with gold-dusted blueberries and edible gold leaf to serve.
