'Indian Sweets and Snacks' - A Recap
Readers who follow my blog might me aware that I am a part of blogging marathon group where we sign up to post recipes each month. April and September months are meant for month long marathons where we post recipes each day with set themes, barring Sundays. I have been part of these mega marathons since it started excepting a few owing to my India trips. I posted some traditional sweets and snacks from India this September. Before posting round up of those recipes, below are links for my previous mega marathons with the mentioned themes. If interested, click on those links and you will find about 26 to 30 dishes in each category.
Apr 2019 A - Z Indian Biryani / Pulao / Khichdi Series
Apr 2018 A - Z Indian Street Food
Sep 2016 A - Z Indian Rice Dishes
Apr 2016 A - Z Andhra Cuisine
Sep 2015 Buffet on the Table
Apr 2015 Fire up Your Oven (Baking Recipes)
Sep 2014 Around the World in 30 Days (International Recipes)
Apr 2014 Indian Food Odyssey - Recipes from 30 States
Sep 2013 A - Z Event with 4 Set Themes
Apr 2013 Event with 4 Different themes
This September's marathon was based on Indian sweets and snacks, divided between four themes. This marathon was a learning curve with some surprises thrown in, indeed. I would have never thought that I would even try making the tricky khandvi or the tedious khakras from Gujarat, at home. For a person who doesn't even make urad dal vadas to avoid deep frying, Uttar Pradesh's dahi gujiyas were a revelation. I had no idea such a recipe even existed where a batter would act as an outer covering for stuffing a gujiya instead of a flour based dough and more surprising was that I enjoyed it with full gusto. Neither I had an inkling that I get to try and enjoy a delicious treat sitting in my home, that was originally created for the officers of British Raj in Ooty, a hill station in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu. There was this snack from Ratlam in Madhya Pradesh, a spicy sev that was created to satiate the Mughal emperors and now boasts a GI tag to it's name. What was new and extremely pleasing in the sweets category was a simple yet flavorful kheer made with coconut water, coconut milk and the tender coconut meat which has become now my 'favorite' kheer. The black eyed peas based dumpling, pandoli was an interesting addition to my idli repertoire. Apart from these, if you are interested to see what other delicious Indian snacks I got to try this marathon, check out the below links.
The first week was meant for sweets and I went ahead with simple yet festive treats keeping in mind Navratri and Diwali festivals. What conjures up in my mind when I think about an Indian sweet is a laddu / burfi / kheer / halwa, or a stuffed sweet rather than dairy based sweets. My mind automatically associates the latter category or the deep fried varieties like jalebis / jhangri kind to a sweet shop / bakery somehow. I included a recipe from each of the above categories along with the ever popular jamun recipe, a dry one this time.
Malaadu / Hurigadale Unde (South India)
Dry Gulab Jamun (North India)
Elaneer Payasam (Tamil Nadu)
Godhuma Sojjappalu (Andhra Pradesh)
The second week's theme was to pick some traditional snacks from one particular state. I did not have to think much and blindly picked Gujarat, a state in the western part of India that happens to be the land of farsans aka snacks. The local cuisine not only has a wide range of deep fried snacks that have become popular among the Indian diaspora but also can boast about guilt free ones. I went ahead with the latter category picking the healthy, traditional snacks that can be enjoyed by everyone, including diabetics. Five of those dishes are steamed snacks and most of them can be enjoyed as a mini meal too.
Damni Dhokla (Gujarat)
Doodhi Muthia / Lauki Muthia (Gujarat)
Dal Pandoli (Gujarat)
Sev Khamani (Gujarat)
Methi Khakhra (Gujarat)
Pressure Cooker Khandvi (Gujarat)
The third week was a free choice and we could pick whatever we preferred. I went ahead with some more guilt free, regional snacks that were mostly quick fix ones as well. None were deep fried except the kalmi vada chaat, where I used the vadas that were fried as part of the final week theme.
Jhal Muri (West Bengal)
The fourth week was meant for eight traditional Indian snacks that were agreed upon beforehand by the participating team. The snacks chosen were from four corners of the country and a few proved to be new and delectable surprises to me.
'Aakukoora' Pappu Chekkalu (Andhra Pradesh)
Baked 'Millet' Handvo (Gujarat)
'Jowar' Kothimbir Vadi (Maharasthra)
Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#104.
Comments
6 comments:
It was a pleasure to go through all the treats all in one place. The must try recipes from this list are elaneer payasam and millet handvo. I would definitely try all the steamed snacks from Gujarat too. Bookmarked this page :)
Suma, thanks for putting this in one place for us to enjoy all over. I enjoyed reading through the intro and having a glance at the recipes again. What feast it has been! What I love most about our group and especially the Mega BM, is the gusto with which each member participates and puts in the efforts. It makes the whole experience so much more worthwhile and interesting. I loved all your dishes and how seamlessly you had incorporated healthy snacks was something I need to learn. As I always think, your pictures are so well set and clicked, simple and so elegant, kudos on the wonderful job done.
The recap is a treasure for keeps . Suma all your recipes are excellent with informative introductions , beautiful pictures . I loved reading this post as well , you make things sound very simple and yet exotic .
It’s wonderful to meet the challenges during these marathons , and I seriously love them . Kudos ! Your efforts show 😊
Such a lovely recap of this wonderful mega marathon Suma, loved your healthy variations of the dishes. Thoroughly enjoyed.
Wow.. Drooling over the pictures. I liked all your very well explained recipes, healthy twist using millets and beautiful presentation.
A variation of the much popular chaat as the taste of our Samosa crush marries the piping hot Choley gravy.
Samosa
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