Diwali! The festival of lights!

The biggest festival has come by and already past us.. :( This time I have to completely blame my work for making me miss out on it.. I had made elaborate plans for Diwali.. I was planning to make rangoli (colorful design patterns) everyday! But instead I had to work to my day's end! Anyhow I of course tried to do my bit for Diwali and this post is going to just document that!

First of all, I have to tell you all, how great my fiance is! All my plans started falling apart on the main day of Diwali..but my sweetheart took the initiative did all the shopping,decoration and also the actual puja for Goddess Laxmi. Look how pretty.. :)

Diwali means making yummy treats- both savory and sweet and sharing them with your loved ones. I of course had to make something on a healthier side..and I have found that there isn't really any thing that falls under that category. Nevertheless I decided to make my favorite savory treat - Chivda and a sweet which was originally called Dilpasand burfi.

Masala chivda
Chivda is a crispy snack made from puffed rice. It has a lot of variations and of course I had to make my favorite variation.

Ingredients:
For the masala:
1 tbsp asafoetida seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp black peppercorns
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp amchur powder
2 tsp red chili powder

• Mix all the ingredients and grind them to a fine powder. You can vary the amounts as per your liking. 

For the chivda:
2-3 tbsps chivda masala
4 cups thin puffed rice (thin/medium poha) - I lightly roasted them to get them crispy.
10-12 curry leaves
1/3 cup peanuts
1/3 cup cashews
6-8 green chilies cut into small pieces
1/3 cup sliced dried coconut
1 tbsp mustard seeds
2 tbsp turmeric powder
oil as needed
salt and sugar to taste

• Mix masala, sugar and salt. Keep it aside.
• Shallow fry the peanuts, cashews,coconut and curry leaves in oil and keep them aside. Crush the curry leaves lightly.
• Heat oil in a deep vessel. Once heated add mustard seeds and let them crackle. Add the chillies and let them get crisp in the oil. Now add turmeric powder followed by the masala.
• Once the masala separates itself from the oil, add the puffed rice and mix well and let it stay on medium heat to come together and keep mixing it frequently but delicately. Be careful to not break the puffed rice.
• After the mixture has come together add the peanuts,cashews,etc mixture to it. Mix everything well and let it get roasted for a few more mins. Check the taste and adjust the spices,salt and sugar. Let it cool down and store in a air-tight container. The chivda is ready to enjoy!

Sorry for the poor picture quality but this chivda was over before I could get any more pics. :( But that's not really a bad news..is it!

I had different plans for the sweets, but of course nothing really goes as planned. So without wasting too much time, I decided to pick a recipe and make it. I chose the well know Tarla Dalal recipe for Dilpasand burfi.

Anjeer-badam-kaju Burfi


Here is the original recipe, I didn't have any pistachios at home and decided to substitute it with almonds. But to my despair, it didn't turn out as well as it should have. :( The flavor was definitely up-to-par. The cashew burfi and badam burfi weren't reduced to the right level and ended up having excess moisture. Due to this I couldn't really roll them as desired. If you get into a similar trouble, then refrigerate the individual burfis for a few hours and then roll them together. I was in a hurry since it was almost 1am and I had an early workday to begin and so in a hurry I just rolled them together, due to this the cashew and almond burfi got meshed in together. Anyways hopefully next time I will be more careful. Nonetheless everyone loved them!