Tag Archives: holi

Mar13

Zarda Pulao / How to Make Zarda Pulao at home

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Zarda Pulav or Sweet Rice is prepared as a dessert most commonly during Ramzan and at times of Holi. This is most commonly prepared as a dessert in north Muslim weddings, also called as a Meeti Chawal, as it is sweet.

Zarda Pulao is very simple and easy to prepare, and a richest dessert whereas is flavored with cardamom, saffron, flavored spices and consists of dry fruits like cashew nuts, kalonji, badam/almonds and raisins.

Zarda Pulao / Zarda Rice / How to make Zarda Rice, zarda rice recipe, dessert, muslim wedding recipes, muslim dessert recipes, ramzan, ramzan recipe, ramzaan recipe, EID, EID recipe, holi, holi recipe, holi special recipe

Zarda Pulao / Zarda Rice / How to make Zarda Rice

Due to the beautiful color and wonderful aroma thought of preparing it for Holi. Let me share the recipe…

Ingredients:

  • Basmathi rice – 1 cup
  • Sugar – 1 cup
  • Saffron strands – 10 to 15 strands
  • Desiccated coconut or slices of dry coconut – ½ cup
  • Ghee/Clarified butter – ½ cup
  • Salt to taste
  • Bay leaf – 1 no
  • Cinnamon (1”inch stick) – 1 pieces
  • Cloves – 4 nos
  • Cardamom – 3 nos
  • Cashew nuts – 20 nos
  • Raisins – 15 nos
  • Chironji – 1 tbsp

Making of Zarda Pulao / Zarda rice –

Preparation:

  • Soak saffron strands in ¼ cup of warm water and keep it aside.
  • Blanch the almonds/badam and slice them to pieces.
  • Heat 3 cups of water in a heavy bottomed vessel, add cloves, cinnamon, bay leaf and cardamom to it, wait until it boils.
  • Add the rice to the boiling water and cook for almost 90%.
  • Drain the water from the rice and keep it aside.
  • Heat ghee/clarified butter in a kadai, add the cashew nuts, chironji, almonds and cook until they start turning golden brown in color.
  • Add the raisins, desiccated coconut and cook until they double in size, make sure they don’t get burnt.
  • Add the sugar and cook until the sugar melts.
  • Pour in the saffron water and mix it well (make sure no lumps are formed).
  • Add the rice once the sugar gets melted, stir it well so that the sugar syrup will coat the rice.
  • Cover the vessel with a lid, keep in low flame and cook for 10 to 15 mins.
  • After 15 mins, remove the lid from the vessel, stir it gently with a ladle.
Saffron water
Nuts getting roasted in Ghee/Clarified butter
Rice steamed with flavored spices
With desiccated coconut
With sugar
Sugar getting melted
With saffron water
Syrup ready
With rice
Rice after 10 mins of low flame cooking
Zarda Pulao / Zarda Rice / How to make Zarda Rice

Serve hot. Garnish with roasted nuts.

Mar28

Nutty Gujiya

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Gujiya is a sweet dumplings made with Maida/All-purpose flour or wheat flour and stuffed with khoya. You can also fill the gujiya with dry fruits, khoya, coconut, nuts and fruits.

I prepared Gujiya stuffed with nuts for holi, because of the long weekend I was not able share the recipe immediately. Now let us move on to the recipe…

Do check out my other snacks recipes in this link: https://madraasi.com/recipes/snacks/ and holi recipes in this link: https://madraasi.com/2016/03/23/holi/.

Gujiya with colored coconut gratings
Gujiya

Ingredients:

  • Maida / All-purpose flour – 1 ½ cups
  • Ghee/Clarified butter – 2 tbsp
  • Water – for kneading
  • Cashew nuts – 15 nos
  • Almonds / Badam – 15 nos
  • Grated coconut – 2 tbsp
  • Condensed milk – 1 ½ tbsp
  • Salt – a pinch
Nuts coarsely grounded
With condensed milk
With grated coconut
Maida flatten
With the stuffing
Stuffed and shaped
About to fry
Getting fried
Fried ones
Gujiya with colored coconut gratings
Gujiya

Preparation:

  • Soak almonds/badam in hot water for 20 mins, drain the water, peel out the skin and chop them into small pieces.
  • Chop the cashew nuts into small pieces. Mix both the cashew nuts and almonds/badam together in a bowl.
  • Blend the chopped nuts all together to a coarse powder.
  • Take maida/all-purpose flour in a wide mouth bowl, add in a pinch of salt, mix them all together. Make a well in the center of the flour, pour in little water, and start kneading it to a dough by adding water little by little every now and them.
  • Pour in a tbsp of ghee/clarified butter and knead the dough for another 5 mins, keep it aside and let it rest for 15 mins.
  • Meanwhile, heat a tbsp. of ghee/clarified butter in a kadai, add in the coarsely powdered nuts, fry until they start turning golden brown.
  • Pour in a tbsp. of condensed milk, add in the grated coconut and cook until it thickens.
  • Remove from fire and wait until it comes to room temperature.
  • Now divide the dough into small portions of ball, flatten it using rolling pins, place a tsp of stuffing in the center and gently fold the corners and pierce it with shape or use gujya moulds.
  • Heat oil in a kadai, gently drop the gujiya’s one by one, and cook both sides until they golden brown.
  • Remove from the oil.

Serve hot or at room temperature. Garnish with nuts or grated coconuts.

Mar23

Holi

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Holi is a spring festival in Nepal and India, also known as the festival of colors or the festival of sharing love. It falls somewhere between end of February and Mid of March in the Gregorian Calendar. Holi celebrations start on the night before Holi with a Holika bonfire where people gather sing, dance and party. The next morning is celebrated as Rangwali Holi – a free for all carnival of colors, where participants play, chase and color each other with dry powder and colored water, with some carrying water guns and coloured water-filled ballons for their water fight.

The evening after sobering up, people dress up and visit friends and family by sharing Holi delicacies, food and drinks.

Above details collected from Wikipedia.
Holi
Holi
Holi
Holi celebrations

Wish you all a Happy Holi

Holi means colourful, I could see people in Holi from toady morning itself. As the streets and the people over streets are sprayed with colors and the kids running with their water pump (pichkari). Moreover all my social media pages getting filled with Holi posts and Holi recipes.

My kids and their friends in the apartment, had fun with water pump, beautiful colors and this was the first time my kids celebrating Holi. I was very happy to see these kids having fun, got few clicks when they were spraying colors.

Holi
Holi
Holi
Holi
Holi

This pulled me to Holi mood, even after getting dragged with these celebrations, I was not fully into not only the Holi mood, but not in good mood. Later when my kids (my stress buster and mood moderator) wanted me to prepare some sweet for holi. And now I am into kitchen for Gujiya. Stay tuned for the recipe. But let me share my few other Holi recipes…

Thandai
Bottlegourd / Surakkai / Lauki Halwa
Carrot Almond Milkshake
Carrot payasam / Carrot kheer
Milk Poli / Paal Poli
Jeera Poli
Pumpkin Kheer / Poosani Payasam
Doughnuts
Gujiya with colored coconut gratings
Maa Guijiya