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India is a land of festivals and one of the most enjoyable aspects of each of these festivals is the mouthwatering food that is served to family members and friends on such special occasions. Children or adults, everyone looks forward to fun and laughter over a delicious spread on a festival celebration. From appetizers to the main course to the desserts, Indian food is popular the world over for its variety, spiciness and combinations of different flavors.
If you are wondering what to prepare for your loved ones to make Raksha Bandhan 2018 special, we have a complete menu plan with recipes ready for you right here. Serve each of these items and your family members will be licking their fingers and looking forward to the next festival celebration..
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Jalzeera (Appetizer) |
Ingredients:
• 2 tablespoons cumin seeds
• a few mint leaves
• a few fresh coriander leaves
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• ½ tsp black salt
• 5 cups water
• ½ tsp of sugar
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Method:
• Grind the mint and coriander leaves together to make a fine paste
• Roast the cumin seeds over a hot tava and then grind the roasted seeds finely
• Take the water in a jug and add the mint and coriander paste, cumin seeds powder, lemon juice, black salt and sugar. Mix everything well by stirring for a minute.
• Garnish with the few remaining mint leaves
• Serve chilled
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Shahi Paneer Korma (Main Course) |
Ingredients:
• 1 medium-sized onion
• 1 cup of tomato puree
• 250 grams paneer
• 2 teaspoons ginger and garlic paste
• 1 teaspoon of red chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder each
• 2 teaspoons garam masala powder
• ½ cup of water
• ½ cup of milk
• salt to taste
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Method:
• Shallow fry the cubed paneer till it becomes light brown in appearance. Remove from heat and keep aside
• In a separate pan, heat some oil and add the cumin seeds. After 3 seconds, add the grated onion and cook that till it turns brown. Add the ginger garlic paste and cook for another minute till the paste too gets cooked.
• Add the tomato puree next along with the salt, coriander powder, turmeric powder and chilli powder
• Allow the spices and tomato puree to cook for a minute while stirring occasionally
• Add water and bring to a boil
• Pour the milk next along with the fried paneer cubes and reduce the heat to allow the dish to simmer for another 3 minutes.
• Serve hot.
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Masala Poori (Main Course) |
Ingredients:
• 1 cup wheat flour
• water for kneading
• Salt to taste
• ¼ tsp ajwain
• 1 pinch asafoetida
• ½ tsp Red chili powder
• 2 cups of oil for frying
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Method:
• Sieve the wheat flour and salt together in a bowl
• Add the salt, ajwain, asafoetida and red chili powder into the bowl and knead the dough well using water
• Keep the dough a bit firm by regulating the amount of water you use carefully
• Keep the kneaded dough aside for half an hour after covering it with a lid.
• Heat oil in a kadai that is suitable for frying
• Take small portions of the dough and make circular balls out of it
• Using a rolling pin, roll these balls into small circular pooris.
• Once the oil is hot enough, gently slide the rolled dough into the kadai and fry it well
• Serve hot with the Shahi Paneer Korma
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Rasgulla (Dessert) |
Ingredients:
• 1 litre milk
• ½ tbsp lemon juice
• 4 ice cubes
• a small piece of muslin cloth
• water
• 4 cups sugar
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Method:
• Heat milk and bring it to boil
• Add 1.5 tbsp lemon juice to the boiling milk and stir. You could use curd alternatively
• When the milk and the water separate well, remove from heat and add the icecubes
• Take a muslin cloth and pour the all the curdled milk into it after the ice cubes have melted into the mix
• Squeeze the water out and hang the cloth for half an hour to allow any remaining water to drain completely
• Now, knead the paneer well to make a soft and smooth dough out of it. This is an important step so make sure your dough is fine and smooth since the final texture of the rasgullas will depend on it
• Roll the dough into balls now and keep aside
• To make the sugar syrup next, heat water in a vessel that is wide-bottomed
• Add cardamom powder and sugar next and keep boiling the water until the sugar dissolves completely
• Reduce the heat and add the rolled paneer balls into the mixture carefully
• On a middle flame, cover the vessel with a lid to allow the rasgullas to cook and become enlarged in size
• Keep opening the lid from time to time to ensure that the rasgullas remain in the middle of your vessel and don’t slide to the ends of the vessel
• After around 10 minutes, the rasgullas will be ready
• Allow them to cool and then transfer to a refrigerator.
• Serve chilled
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Enjoy Raksha Bandhan on 26th of August 2018 with the delicious spread you can now prepare using the recipes given above. If you will not be able to meet your brother or sister in person on the festival, you can send
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Every festival enjoys a special place in the heart of the family mainly because of the sweetness that is derived from it. The sweetness of togetherness, fun and laughter, light moments, fancy clothes and decorations, and of course, special sweets. Raksha Bandhan is just as festive as any occasion, and sweets take up a lot of time, attention, and place in the stomach.
Rakhi
and Recipes go hand in hand.
Yes, celebrations of
Rakshabandhan festival seem
incomplete without sweet
dishes. Sweets of all kinds,
from Laddoos, Jalebis, Barfi,
Balushai, Rasgullas to Gulab
Jamuns are hot favorites.
Here we
have lined up a few
finger-licking Rakhi Recipes
which will surely win
applauds to all sisters. The
recipes are presented in
detail here along with their
ingredients and the method
of preparation. So get ready
to treat your brother,
sister, friends and
relatives and make sweet
memories of Rakhi etched in
their minds forever.
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Balushahi Recipe |
Ingredients:
• 6 cups Maida
• 8 cups Sugar
• 3 cups Water
• 1 tsp Soda (bicarbonate)
• 1/2 cup Pistachios
• Ghee for frying
• 2/3 cup Ghee (for adding
in maida to make dough)
Method:
• Mix maida, soda, and 2/3
cup ghee to make stiff
dough.
• Roll out small balls from
this dough.
• Heat ghee and fry these
balls till it turns brown.
• Prepare sugar syrup of two
thread consistency.
• Dip fried balls in sugar
syrup.
• Drain the excess syrup.
• Adorn with pistachios.
• Balushahi is ready.
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Jalebi Recipe |
Ingredients:
• 2 cups All purpose flour (maida)
• 11/2 tbsp. fine grained
semolina or rice flour
• 1/4th tsp. baking powder
• 2 tbsp curd (plain yogurt)
• 11/4th cups warm water
• 1/2 tsp. saffron threads,
slowly dry-roasted and
powdered
• 3 cups sugar
• 2 2/3rd cups water
• 1/2 tsp green cardamom
seeds powder
• 11/2 tbsp. kewra water or
rose water
• Ghee or vegetable oil for
frying
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Method:
• Mix the flour, semolina or
rice flour, baking powder,
curd and 3/4th cup of the
water in a bowl (preferably
a ceramic bowl). Mix
well with a whisk.
• Mix well and then add
remaining water and 1/8th
tsp. of saffron powder, and
whisk until smooth.
• Set aside for about 2
hours to ferment.
• Whisk thoroughly before
use.
• Prepare string syrup by
dissolving sugar in the
water. Just before the syrup
is ready add saffron and cardamom powder.
• Heat oil in a kadhai. Pour
the batter in a steady
stream (or coconut shell
with a hole) into the kadhai
to form coils. Make a few at
a time.
• Deep fry them until they
are golden and crisp all
over but not brown.
• Remove from the kadhai and
drain on kitchen paper and
immerse in the syrup.
• Leave for at least 4-5
minutes so that they soak
the syrup.
• Take them out of syrup and
serve hot.
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Gulab Jamun Recipe
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Ingredients:
•
1 cup All Purpose Flour
•
2 pinch Soda Powder
•
100 gms Ghee
• 3/4 Liter Milk
• 6 Cardamoms (crushed)
• 1 tbsp Sugar
• 1 tsp Rose Essence
• 2 Pinch Saffron
For Syrup:
• 3 cups Sugar
• 3 cups Water
Method:
• Boil the milk till it
reduces to half cup.
• Cool and add soda powder
and 1tbsp sugar.
• Mix properly and make it
smooth.
• Slowly add flour and
prepare a fine dough. Leave
it for an hour.
• Apply little ghee on the
palms.
• Make small balls from the
prepared mixture.
• Pour ghee in a pan and
heat. Fry the balls in ghee on a low flame.
• Boil water with equal
amount of sugar. Also add cardamom and saffron.
• Filter and add rose
essence to it.
• Put the fried balls in
this solution.
• Remove after 3-4 hours.
• Gulab Jamun is ready to
serve
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Rava Laddoo |
Ingredients:
• 1 cup rava (semolina)
• 3/4 cup sugar
•
1/2 cup water
•
1/4 cup ghee (you can use
less if you want, it is not
critical to the recipe)
•
3 tbsps cashew nuts
•
3 tbsps golden raisins
•
1 tsp powdered cardamom
powder
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Method:
•
Melt the ghee in a saucepan
or wok.
•
Fry cashew nuts till golden
brown and remove with a
slotted spoon.
•
Fry the raisins in the same
ghee and remove with a
slotted spoon.
• Fry the rava/semolina gently
till golden brown and
fragrant. There should be
very noticeable change in
color and aroma when compared with the raw
semolina. Set aside.
•
Mix the sugar and water in a
pan.
•
Heat gently to a rolling
boil and keep stirring.
•
Check the sugar syrup for a
1-string consistency. This
means that when you lift the
spoon from the syrup and
feel the syrup
coating the
back of the spoon, it should
be very sticky. Blow on it a
bit before you touch it - it
will be hot!. Gently pinch
and spread apart your
forefinger and thumb. The
sugar syrup should trail in
a single strand between the
two fingers. This is known
as "one-string" sugar syrup.
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Slowly stir in the the
semolina to avoid forming
lumps.
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Stir in the cashews, raisins
and cardamom powder.
• Remove from heat and let
cool.
• When warm enough to handle,
squeeze a handful of the
mixture between your fingers
and palm to form small
balls.
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Sandesh |
Sandesh is an extremely
popular Bengali sweet which
has found widespread
acceptance over the country.
For its melt in the mouth
quality and wonderful flavour, sandesh makes the
ideal sweet this year for
raksha bandhan. To make
sandesh, you will need: |
Ingredients:
• 2 cups of paneer or cottage cheese
• 2 cups of sugar
•
4 tablespoons lemon juice
•
1 tsp rose essence
•
Pistas and almonds sliced finely to garnish
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Method:
• Start by bringing the milk to a boil. Once this occurs, pour in the lemon juice and wait for the milk to start curdling. Remove from fire and pour the milk through a fine cloth, preferably made of muslin. This will help the water strain out and give you some excellent paneer. You will need 2 cups of this paneer to make the sandesh.
• Take a pan and in it heat the paneer and sugar together until the sugar and paneer have mixed and the sugar has dissolved completely. To this, add the rose essence.
• Pour this into a plate and let it cool. Once cool, roll it into soft round balls and place aside. Garnish. Ensure that you use very light hands so that the sandesh can retain its softness and texture.
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Sweeten this raksha bandhan
further with a range of the
finest online rakhi, or send
rakhi gifts to India with
the utmost ease. No matter
what you are looking for
this festive season, you can
be sure that we have it
ready for you.
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