Some special recipes for Ganesh Chaturthi

Team L&M

The Ganesh Chaturthi special recipes by Swapnadeep Mukherjee, Executive Chef, The Metropolitan Hotel & Spa, New Delhi.

LAUKI KESAR KHEER

Ingredients                                Quantity
Grated Lauki                                1 ½ cup
Milk                                                  2 ltr
Kesar                                               few strands
Rice                                                   300gm
Sugar                                                 200gm
Green Cardamom                          10gm
Kewra   Water                                10 ml
Crushed Almond, Cashews, Raisins         20gm

Method
Heat a heavy bottom pan. Add a tablespoon of ghee. Add chopped almonds, cashews, and raisins, and fry till golden brown. Remove the nuts onto a plate and set it aside.
In the same pan, add the remaining 1 tablespoon of ghee and grated lauki. Sauté the lauki over medium heat for 5-7 minutes or till it turns translucent. Keep stirring frequently.
Meanwhile, Soak rice in water for some time. Then drain water and grind rice in to smooth paste.
In a non-stick sauce pan, boil milk over a moderately low heat and add rice, cooked lauki, sugar, kesar and cardamom. Stir constantly till milk turns thick or of a desired consistency.
Remove from heat and chill. Add kewra water for flavor (optional). Garnish kheer with almonds or nuts of your choice and serve

SOOJI CASHEW BURFI

Ingredients                        Quantity
Sooji                                       250 gms
Ghee                                         200 Gms
Boora                                       175 gms or to taste
Cashew Nut                            15-20 finely chopped
Cardamom powder              1 tsp

Method
Take wok, heat ghee on medium flame.
Add sooji and roast it on low flame. Sauté nicely. Stir continuously until becomes aromatic flavor. Turn off the gas. Keep aside the roasted sooji dough for cooling in room temperature.
Add coarse sugar, cardamom powder and cashew nuts in a mixer. Take it out in a bowl.
Now, add the sooji dough to the mixture and mix all well either with spatula or hands.

Grease little ghee/oil/butter on a small tray and spread the mixture. Make shape of Barfi on flat tray
Garnish with nuts or as per your choice and enjoy with friends and family!

COCONUT LADDOO

Ingredient                                              Quantity
Condensed Milk                                           1 tin (400g)
Coconut Powder, desiccated                    4 cups (350g)
Cardamom Powder                                      1 tsp
Gram Flour                                                      1 cup (optional/ as per liking for binding ladoo)

Method
Take a mixing bowl. Add condensed milk, gram flour, coconut powder (300g), and ardamom powder to it. Mix well to make a smooth mixture.
Divide the mixture into 10-12 portions, and make tight balls out of them.
Now roll each ball in remaining coconut powder.
Let the balls settle for 15 minutes. Instant coconut laddoos are ready to be served. Enjoy the flavourful laddoos!

CHOCOLATE LADDO

Ingredients                                                        Quantity
Dry Roasted Peanuts                                        ½ cup
Dry Roasted Sesame                                         ½ cup
Dry Roasted Desiccated Coconut                  ½ cup
Dark Chocolate, Chopped                                1 cup (here, used 81% cocoa)
Fresh Juicy Dates, Deseeded                           1 cup
Almonds                                                               ¼ cup
Raisins                                                                   ¼ cup
Vanilla Extract                                                     1 tsp
Honey                                                                    ¼ cup
Rose petals or nuts (for garnishing)

Method
Put all the ingredients into a blender and blend well. Your mixture should look sticky at this point. If your mixture seems too dry to shape, squeeze in a little more honey.
Make lemon size balls. Add few sliced almonds and roasted peanuts, roasted sesame or any one of these depending on your liking to the mixture for the crunchy bite.
When the laddoo is still sticky, garnish it with dried rose petals or nuts of your choice, in a way that it covers the laddoo. You can skip garnishing, in case you don’t want to.
Leave them aside for about 30 minutes to stick well together. Once set, enjoy the flavorful Chocolate laddoo!

BEETROOT MODAK

Ingredients                                             Quantity
Besan/Gram Flour                                 2 cups
Sooji                                                          2 tbsp
Beetroot Color                                        ¼ tsp
Water                                                        1 ½ cup
Oil for frying

For Sugar Syrup
Sugar                                                              1 cup
Water                                                           ½ cup
Cardamom Powder                                   ¼ tbsp
Lemon Juice                                                ½ tsp
Cashew/pistachio or nuts of your choice, chopped      2 tbsp

Method
Take a bowl and mix the above ingredients with water, let it sit for 30 mins.
Prepare oil for frying and use perforated spoon to jerk and make small globules
Make sure it is slow cooked and deep fried, remove from the oil and place it in paper towel to remove extra oil. Let it cool down to mix it with sugar syrup
Keep a pan on low flame, to prepare sugar syrup, add sugar, water, cardamom powder and lemon juice. Stir continuously to avoid burning.   
Now, to the hot sugar syrup add above prepared modak mixture
Continue cooking for 2-3 minutes or until sugar syrup thickens and you get the desired consistency. Cover and keep aside for 10 mins
Once, sugar syrup is completely absorbed by the mixture, add cashew and pistachios.
Mix well. Prepare modak by taking a small amount of mixture. Add milk, if required to moisten modak. Once set, enjoy!