Holi is as much about good food, as it is about playing with colours. Celebrate the culinary palette by taking a cue from expert chefs who share easy to make recipes for Holi at home. If you love snacking then go for the Dahi Bhalla Papdi Chaat or to satiate your sweet cravings hot Malpuas are always an option. Check them out below.
Dahi Bhalla Papdi Chaat
Make an exception from your diets by opting for this cheat treat. Sweet, sour and spicy, this Dahi Bhalla Papdu Chaat is the perfect street-food snack you can ask for. Now make it at home by following these easy steps.
Ingredients:
· 1 cup of Urad Dal, which must be soaked for 4 hours
· Salt (as required)
· 1 tbsp of ginger
· ½ tsp of red chilli powder
· Oil to deep fry
· 8 Bhallas
· 12 Papdis
· 3 cups of whisked yoghurt/curd (should not be sour)
· 1 tbsp of powdered sugar
· 2 medium potatoes
· ½ cup of boiled and chopped chickpeas
· 1/4th cup of green chutney
· 1/4th cup of roasted cumin powder
· 1/4th cup of dates and tamarind chutney
· 1 tsp of roasted jeera powder
· ½ tsp of chaat masala powder
· Red chilli powder (as per taste)
· 2 tbsp of cut coriander leaves
· Sev (as required)
· 2 tbsp of pomegranate
· Red chutney (as per required)
Method:
To make the bhallas, grind black gram, urad dal, salt , ginger paste with very little water because you want the batter to be smooth but not watery.
Heat the oil and make small fritters with the batter until it turns golden brown.
Immediately put them into a bowl of lukewarm water and let it soak for about five minutes.
Squeeze the excess water out of each of these fritters (bhallas) and keep it aside.
To make the bhalla papdi chaat, add sugar and salt to the yoghurt and whisk it till smooth.
The whisked yoghurt is the most important ingredient in this chaat. Once it is done, keep it in the refrigerator till you use it. It is good if the yoghurt is slightly cold.
Arrange the papdis on a plate and place the bhallas and some potatoes on each of the papdi.
Over that, put boiled chickpeas, then cover it with chilled yoghurt as much as you want.
Then pour a little green chutney and sweet tamarind chutney. Sprinkle a little cumin powder, chaat masala, red chilli powder and salt
Garnish with coriander leaves, sev and pomegranate seeds and serve immediately!
Malpua
No festivities are complete without the dessert in the end. For all your sweet cravings, here is an easy-to-make Malpua. Make these in minutes and win the hearts of anyone who eats them.
Ingredients:
· 1 cup of all-purpose flour
· ½ cup of milk
· 1 tbsp of broken cashew nuts
· 1 tbsp of raisins. You can use the yellow raisins or the black raisins, whatever you prefer. We have used the black raisins for this recipe
· 1 tbsp of dry coconut chopped
· 4 pieces of crushed cardamom
· ½ tsp of fennel seeds, which is optional. If you don’t like the taste of fennel seeds, you can avoid that but we would recommend adding fennel seeds
· To make the syrup, you will need 3 cups of water, 2 cups of sugar, 1 tsp of green cardamom powder, and oil to fry.
Method:
· Take the all-purpose flour in a bowl and mix milk into it by adding little by little.
· Add some cardamom powder, cashew nuts, raisins, dry coconut, mix it well and leave the batter aside to rest. Resting is a very important process in making malpua because it gives you a nice texture. At least half an hour of resting is recommended. But if you can keep it aside for about 2 to 3 hours nothing like it.
· To make sugar syrup, take sugar and water in a large vessel and bring it to boil, stirring continuously.
· After some time, remove from heat, add the rest of the cardamom powder and set it aside.
· You can also add saffron to it to give it a slight yellowish colour but that’s entirely an optional step.
· Once the pua mixer has rested for some time, heat oil and pour one small ladle of batter into the hot oil for frying. The method for dropping this batter into the oil is by following small circular motion so that the pua looks like a puri.
· Fry the pua on both sides, until golden brown. The right texture of the pua is when it appears slightly golden brown at the centre and a little darker brown on the edges and that you can achieve only if you set the batter aside for resting for sometime.
· Once the pua is fried on both sides, take out the fried pua from oil and transfer it into the sugar syrup immediately and relish this tasty delicacy!
For more such recipes you can indulge yourself in The Tastes of India podcast by Audible.
