Dassera pics n Mohan thal-Gramflour Fudge

Sorry friends haven't posted  any recipes since the last week.Did cook a lot but couldn't blog as had a super  busy week with Navratri,Dassera,pooja,havan at home and if that wasn't enough our town hosted their annual Diwali function last  week and my kids  had participated in a dance for that.So in between school, dance practices,dress rehearsals and temple visits I was also allocated by the choreographer the task  of buying thirty yards of fabric and cutting 16 skirts ,scarves and dupattas out of them which were then stitched into dance costumes by the moms .Believe me I haven't cut so much as  a handkerchief in my life so with this enormous task on hand had a really busy time juggling several things at once..Everything turned out great in the end.The costumes and the kids in them looked oh so cute,the dance went off well,managed to clean and prepare the home before the pooja and havan and could also visit the temple for a couple of nights on Navratri and  the Ram -Leela and Raavan dahan on Dassera.Here are some pics below as well as a recipe for Mohan -thal a fudge made out of gramflour. 

Mohan thal

A delicious ancient recipe made out of gram flour which stays good even without refrigeration.Gram flour when roasted in ghee emits a delicious nutty aroma and taste. 

Ingredients:

250 gms gram flour/besan (you can use mohan thal flour which is also gram flour but coarser in texture if you find it or regular gram flour is fine)

200 gms ghee

300 gms  sugar

 2 tbsp ghee 

2 tbsp milk

pinch of saffron

few slivered almonds

1 tsp cardamom pwdr

1/4 tsp nutmeg pwdr

Directions :

Take the gram flour in a dish .Add the 2 tbsp warm milk and 2 tbsp warm ghee to it .Mix  the flour well and leave aside for 5 mins. Seive it through a thin seive .The consistency of the seived flour will be like semolina/rava .

Heat the ghee in a non-stick pan. Add the seived flour to it and roast stirring constantly till the flour changes color to a light brown and emits a lovely nutty aroma.Once it cools adds the cardamom and nutmeg opwders to it.

In another vessel,make the sugar syrup by adding equal quantity of water to the sugar and boiling it together to a one thread consistency.Add a pinch of saffron to it while it boils.One both cool mix them well..grease a steel thali and spread the mixture evenly on it. Decorate with slivered almonds. .Once cool cut into rectangles.

Mohan thal

Dassera pooja and havan at home

38 ft Raavan effigy




Ram Leela- US style

 

add warm milk annd ghee to the gram flour  

seive through a fine seive

measure all ingredients

roast in ghee to a light golden brown

remove on a greased plate

making saffron flavored sugar syrup