The festival of Navratri and Durga Puja is never complete without well-decorated pandals, vibrant clothes, and taste of various sweets. Different avatars of Goddess Durga are worshiped during this festival. Foods and flowers are offered to the goddess as a part of devotion and ritual. It is believed that the goddess blesses her devotees with prosperity, wealth, and wisdom while protecting and destroying the evil.
As the time of the year is in paranoia with the spike of Covid-19 cases, you can prepare homemade sweets to offer to the goddess while making your signature taste for your family and friends. With more people who prefer to have a safe-home celebration, you can have fun while crafting with your kids. Add your own design and shapes for more exclusive flavour and creation.
But, here are some of the simple sweets recipe you can make for the celebration:
Fruit Kesari
It is a very popular recipe for Navratri. The recipe is very simple yet delicious. Though it resembles ‘sooji ka halwa,’ it gives a better taste with the infused of the fruits of the season. It is famous in the southern part of the country.
Ingredients: Sooji (semolina), finely chopped fruits (apple, mango, pineapple, papaya), water, sugar, ghee, cardamom powder, cashews and raisins, saffron
Directions: Roast the sooji in the pan till the fragrance starts to spread. Then put it at rest for a while. Fry the nuts and raisins in ghee. Set it aside. Fry the chopped fruits in another pan for at least 3 minutes. Then, add the saffron, sugar, and water and make it boil. After it starts boiling, add the cardamom powder and the roasted sooji. Then keeping stirring to avoid lumps. Cover the pan and cook till the sooji are properly done. Mix the fried nuts and raisins.
Coconut Barfi
This particular type of barfi is easy to make the recipe and gives you a mouth-watering taste of the coconuts. It is a very popular Navratri Prasad in South-India.
Ingredients: Grated coconut, sugar, cardamom powder, milk, ghee, fried gram dal
Directions: Use ghee to grease a steel plate and keep aside. Roast the grated coconut in a pan till it gives an aromatic smell. Then add sugar and the milk. Stir and mix the ingredients on medium flame and continue stirring. Reduce the flame when the sugar starts melting and stir continuously. Then add cardamom powder and the fried gram dal. Transfer all the mixture to the greased plate and level it with a flat spatula or use the back of a spoon. After the mixture is cooled, cut into your preferred shaped and sized pieces with a sharp knife as the burfi hardens.
Apple Sondesh
There are various sondesh you have probably tried from the sweet shops. But, make your home-made sondesh with the flavor of apples this year. Sondesh is a very famous Bengali sweet which one will definitely have a bite during the Durga Puja festival.
Ingredients: Apples, lemon juice, milk, kewra essence, saffron, crumbled paneer, powdered sugar
Directions: Soak the saffron in water till it dissolves. Cook the grated apples with the sugar and lemon juice in one tablespoon of water. Stir and keep it for 8-9 minutes and put off the gas to cool. Then, mix the apple mixture, paneer, kewra essence, and the milk on a blender. Remove the mixture into a bowl and refrigerate it for 20 minutes. Shape into round balls. You can also make with orange peels or other fruits.
Fruit Rabri Tartlets
To make the kids go excited, make this colorful rabri tarts with fresh fruits.
Ingredients: Milk cream, dry fruits (grapes, pomegranates, and cherries), saffron, sugar, plain flour, cold butter, powdered sugar
Directions: Beat the flour, sugar, and butter in a blender till the texture of breadcrumbs. Add a tsp of milk and beat till it becomes a dough. Wrap the bowl of dough and refrigerate. Boil the milk till the quantity reduces to ¼ of the actual quantity. Separate the layers of the cream to the side as it boils. Add sugar and dry fruits and stir it well as it thickened. Add the strands of the saffron and put off the flame. Keep the rabri to cool and take out and roll the dough and cut it into small circles. Bake the round dough in a pre-heat oven at 180 degrees till it becomes golden brown. Take out the tart shells after its cooled. Then, pour the chilled rabri into the tarts and add the chopped fruits.
