INSTANT FESTIVE SWEET

 

The festive season is here again.... our biggest festival Durga Puja is at the doorsteps.... for the rest of India it is Navratri... All clean, lit up homes with everyone in it in a festive mood. Happier are the souls, yet we miss that feel of Kolkata during this time of the year. In a foreign land, unless and until we are at the festival venue, we do not even understand it is Durga Pooja. I love to sit quietly at a corner and watch the priest performing, watching the all decked up crowd and off course diving into the array of food in offer. 

The best part of Durga Pooja for me is to visit the Ramakrishna Mission and watching the Maharaj performing the rituals, listening to the boys of the home singing. There is not much of cooking in our home during these five days. In my parental home, it was / is an all vegetarian fair during the four days of Durga Puja. The reason is that the paternal grandfather did Durga Puja whilst they stayed in Comilla, Bangladesh. In general, in all the Bengali homes, it is the time for an exotic food fair with a variety of vegetarian and non vegetarian dishes.

Taking into account both Navratri and Durga Pooja celebrations, I wished to share a quick and easy vegetarian sweet recipe with everyone so that they can prepare it during this festive season. By Instant Festive Sweet, I did not mean it is a no cook sweet. What I meant is that it requires less of cooking time. I think like me, many of you will wish to spend less time in the kitchen during the festivity. The basic idea for this sweet is drawn from a famous food site which I have mentioned below. Let us prepare this easy to make Instant Festive Sweet together. The making of the sweet took less than 30 minutes in the microwave oven.

Recipe Inspiration : tarladalal.com

INGREDIENTS :

Evaporated Creamer or Milk : 250 ml
Shredded Coconut : 1medium tea cup
Semolina [suji] : 1/2 small tea cup
Sugar : 4 tbsp
Green Cardamom Powder : 1tsp

METHOD :

Take together all of the ingredients in a microwave proof deep bottomed bowl. Mix well so that no lumps are there.

I think I should have used the green cardamom powder later. Also, if you are using evaporated creamer, the cooking time will be little less than the sweet made with evaporated milk.

Keep the mixture for rest at least for 15-20 minutes, then place it inside the microwave oven. Cover it with a microwave proof lid.

Cook at low temperature for 12-13 minutes, pausing & stirring in between. I used the quick cook mode of my machine. They differ, be careful.

Once done, wear your gloves and take the bowl out. As it cools a bit, take in a plate and knead for 3-4 minutes.

Transfer to a squared mould, cut, garnish with your choice of dry fruits & nuts. Serve and eat them fresh.