Author: szk6258

 

The final sweet we will go over is not specific to any part of the subcontinent. It is just from the subcontinent as a whole, and has spread around the world in many different forms. It is a food that you have probably heard of and tried, if you don’t have a peanut allergy. In English it is known as peanut brittle, in Hindi and most other Indian languages, it is called chikki. There is obviously differences between the two and I will be focusing on chikki, so it you don’t know what peanut brittle is, click here.

 

 

Chikki is a traditional Indian sweet generally made from nuts and jaggery/sugar. The biggest difference between chikki and peanut brittle, is that chikki can b made with many different types of nuts. There are several different varieties of chikki in addition to the most common groundnut (peanut) chikki. Each variety of chikki is named after the ingredients used, which include puffed or roasted Bengal gram, sesame, puffed rice, beaten rice, or khobra (desiccated coconut), and other nuts such as almonds, cashews and pistachios. You can find a list of types of chikki here.

 

 

My favorite type of chikki is peanut chikki. While on the surface it may seem like peanut brittle, the key difference is that it is made with jaggery and not normal sugar. It is an unrefined pure sugar, and it adds a lot to the flavor. It creates a very different flavor profile to peanut brittle. Of the different types of chikki, peanut is not neccissarily the sweetest, but it is on the sweeter, probably adding on to why it is well liked. It is definitely the most popular type of chikki and the easist to find at stores.

 

 

Another very popular type of chikki is sesame chikki. It is made in a similar process to peanut chikki but with sesame seeds instead of peanuts. It is less sweet than peanut chikki and has a different texture. This difference is caused by sesame being much finer than peanut. I also really like this version of chikki and it is a nice contrast to the peanut variant.

 

There are many other types of chikki, but none are nearly as popular as the two mentioned, and are more specific to certain regions on the Indian subcontinent. Beyond these two the regional variations are caused by what is the regions major crop. From whatever nuts they have available to whatever fruit is around. There is no limit to the types of chikki.

 

Many of the other sweets I have gone through you either can only try if you make it, at specific restaurants and vendors, or if an Indian market is selling them for somoe event. Unlike those sweets chikki can be bought at nearly every Indian market. Here are recipes for both peanut and sesame chikki if you would like to try making them, but I would reccomend buying a bar from your local Indian market. At State College there atleast two places where you can buy chikki(that I am aware of) at Krishnan Indian Market and Penn Halal.

 

 

Hmm I am a bit late to this one. This year Holi was on March 18, and I am writing this on March 31. I decided to cover this topic after realizing Holi had past and hearing from my friends back home who went to the festivals. There was fun to be had and lots of food. Similar to my Diwali blog, to understand the sweets had during Holi, one must learn about the holiday itself.

 

Holi has been celebrated in the Indian subcontinent for centuries, with poems documenting celebrations dating back to the 4th century CE. It marks the beginning of spring after a long winter, symbolic of the triumph of good over evil. It is celebrated in March, corresponding to the Hindu calendar month of Phalguna. There are varying accounts of Holi’s origin mentioned in several works of ancient Indian literature. According to one popular version of the story, an evil king became so powerful that he forced his subjects to worship him as their god. But to the king’s ire, his son Prahlada continued to be an ardent devotee of the Hindu deity Lord Vishnu. The angry king plotted with his sister, Holika, to kill his son. Holika, who was immune to fire, tricked Prahlada to sit in a pyre with her. When the pyre was lit, the boy’s devotion to Lord Vishnu helped him walk away unscathed while Holika, from whom the festival derives its name, was burned to death despite her immunity. To learn more about Holi, check here.

 

Gujiya, Puran Poli, Malpua, Thandai are some traditional Holi delicacies that are prepared during the festival in almost every home. I have done a blog post for gujiya, which can be found here.

 

 

Puran Poli is made by stuffing soft whole wheat dough with soft-cooked yellow lentils, jaggery/brown sugar, cardamom, nutmeg, and saffron. It is then rolled thin and cooked on a pan with lots of ghee to make it into a crisp golden brown, flavorful, and aromatic flatbread.

 

 

Malpua is a sweet dish that is basically a sugar syrup soaked pancake prepared from a batter of flour, milk and cardamom. These pancakes are usually fried in ghee till crisp along the edges, soaked in sugar syrup, garnished with pistachios and served warm with a topping of rabri aka rich thickened milk.

 

 

Thandai is an Indian cold drink prepared with a mixture of almonds, fennel seeds, watermelon kernels, rose petals, pepper, poppy seeds, cardamom, saffron, milk and sugar.

 

The names of all three of the sweets  are hyperlinks to recipes of all of the sweets respectively. Holi is a time for fun and great sweets. I would highly recommend going to a Holi festival if you have never been and ever get the opportunity. Not just for the food but all great activities there.

The next sweet on the list also does not necessarily hail from India. It is a popular sweet snack in south and west Asia, Africa, and Mauritius. It goes by many names, including jilapi, jilebi, jilipi, zulbia, jerry, mushabak, z’labia, or zalabia. Jalebi is the Hindi name for the sweet, and it is extremely popular in the subcontinent. Jalebi is a variant native to India, however all the sweets are extremely popular in their respective regions. Nobody knows exactly where it originated from, but it is extremely popular wherever it ended up. Most believe it did originate either originated in the Middle East or Indus River Valley Civilization, but the exact origins are unknown(source). While I will still talk about the food, this post is mainly to discuss how a foreign food assimilated into India culture, and the evolution of it.

 

 

With the onslaught of Turkish and Persian traders and artisans on the Indian shores in the medieval times, Zalabiya was introduced to Indian cooking and became an integral part of Indian cuisine. In India the sweet began to be known as Jalebi, a local pronunciation of Zaalabia. By the 15th century, Jalebi became a mainstay in festive occasions, weddings and even temple food. Priyamkarnrpakatha, a famous Jain scripture penned by Jain author Jinasura, composed around 1450 CE, mentions how jalebi was relished in gatherings of rich merchants. In the 16th century, jalebi was mentioned in ‘Bhojana Kutuhala’- one of the subcontinents first book on recipes and food science written by Raghunath. The recipe that was mentioned in the book is still used to prepare jalebi now. Gunyagunabodhini, another Sanskrit work dating before 1600 CE, lists the ingredients and recipe of the dish, which are very close to the ones used to prepare jalebis today. Some more instances of the mentions of jalebi can be found here.

 

 

 

 

Jalebi is made by deep-frying maida flour (plain flour or all-purpose flour) batter in pretzel or circular shapes, which are then soaked in sugar syrup. A proper recipe can be found here. It is often served with sweetened condensed milk, rabri or eaten with kachori and vegetable curry in the North India. It is a popular snack in Kerala and a popular breakfast snack in Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh, equally popular as dessert at celebrations in other parts of the North India. It is often served as a sort communion at Indian Temples.  I quite enjoy the sweet. It makes for a good breakfast with tea, or just a good sweet to eat in the middle of the day like a cookie. I would definitely recommend trying this if you have a serious sweet tooth.

is a cold drink/dessert is said to have originated from Shiraz in Persia (currently Iran). It is known as Faloodeh/Faludeh in Persia and is a traditional Persian dessert. It is one of the oldest known desserts and is in existence since 400BC. The basic version of Falooda made in Persia included vermicelli noodles made of corn flour, rose water, and a dash of semi frozen sugar syrup. So why am I talking about a Persian sweets in a blog about Indian sweets? The reason is what the sweet evolved into.

 

 

Falooda, meaning shredded in idiomatic Hindi, was introduced in the Indian subcontinent during the Moghul period. The name refers to the thin vermicelli noodles that are integral part of the drink. In India, the vermicelli noodles are also known as falooda sev. Today there are a variety of Falooda versions available, such as faloodas made without the trademark vermicelli and blended with fruits, faloodas with kulfi, wheat starch noodles and different flavors of sugar syrups, and faloodas that are served as milkshakes. Most varieties of the drink originate in the various parts of India, each region having its own take. A list of faloodas can be found here.

 

 

Falooda is a dessert, beverage, sundae, ice cream float all rolled into one concoction. There are two major types of falooda, a basic falooda and a kulfi falooda. A basic falooda is made by mixing rose syrup, sweet basil, vermicelli noodles, fruit jelly, milk, ice cream and sabja seeds (holy basil seeds) into one, chilled drink. Depending on the recipe, you might see almonds and pistachios sprinkled on top as well as a variety of other Indian toppings. A recipe for an unedited falooda can be found here.  A Kulfi falooda a, is usually served in a steel bowl or plate and consists of pistachio kulfi (blog on kulfi can be found here) frozen to the consistency of a popsicle, a few strings of cold vermicelli noodles and a splash of rose water-flavored syrup. A recipe for kulfi falooda can be found here.

 

Of the two of them, my favorite is definitely the kulfi falooda. Both are great, but I personally am partial towards kulfi. If you like something that is sweet and cold, but not exactly ice cream like, this is the sweet to try. Personally this in not my favorite sweet ever and of the sweets I have reviewed it is on the lower end, but It is worth trying if you like really sweet food. It has a great depth of flavor and every bite(or sip) tastes different. I just prefer foods on the more savory end. If you like a sweeter taste profile this is the sweet to try.

 

 

 

 

Referred to as the “ancient smoothie”, lassi is recognized as the first smoothie drink in the ancient world. Although lassi itself is a large category for this blog I will be focusing on the most popular variation mango lassi. I will come back and talk about the other types on a later date.

Mango lassi is a traditional Indian drink from Punjab, a region in northwest India. It originated sometime around 1000 BC and was said to have Ayurvedic healing properties, calming the stomach and the mind. While the actual benefits of lassi are arguable, there are various studies of the matter, one of which can be found here. The argument being that since Lassi is produced of yogurt or dahi, it is said to be very beneficial for our stomach. It is moderate on the belly and consists of lactobacilli which are stable microbes that grease up the digestive organs and help in smooth processing lassi is a sound and regular reply for stomach swelling. In the ancient world where medicine was not as developed, this would be extremely helpful, although India was ahead of the world at this time when it came to scientific advancement. It makes sense that the medical properties of the drink were found in this region of the world as the eastern world was far ahead when it came to scientific advancement. Some of the medical achievements can be found here.

Mango lassi is a creamy drink made with mango, yogurt, milk, a little jaggery, and various spices depending on personal preference. The most common of these spices tend to be cardamom, and the jaggery can be substituted for sugar, but the general favor profile will remain largely the same. The main difference between mango lassis is the type of mango used. The first big question is frozen or fresh. Fresh is obviously preferred, but mangoes are not always in season, so frozen is also quite acceptable. The much larger question is how ripe the mangoes are. It all comes down to personal preference. Ripened mangos are much sweeter and thus result in a much sweeter drink. Unripe mangoes are more sour and result in a slightly sour tang to the drink. There is no clear winner over which is better, as it all comes down to personal preference. I personally find the taste of ripe mangos to be fuller and like the drink better is made with ripe mangos. It just feels fresher to me. A recipe can be found here, so you the reader can try it out for yourself. Maybe mix and match the spices and other ingredients and find what you like best.

“ગમતું મળે તો અલ્યા, ગૂંજે ન ભરીયે, ને ગમતાં નો કરીએ ગુલાલ!”Gamtu Male to Alya Gunje na Bhariye, Ne Gamta no Kariye Gulal…” when transliterated from Gujrati means “when you find something worth cherishing don’t hold it in your pocket, rather spread it, share the joy and let others experience the same joy it has brought you…”. It is a saying by the Gujrati’s talking about how it is important to share your joy with others. It is the guiding principle behind the Gujrati people, the merchant peoples of India.

Today I talk about perhaps the most iconic dish from the state of Gujrat, golpapdi, or what it is called in Hindi, sukhdi. I believe this is the first time I am talking about something originating from Gujrat, which also happens to be my ancestral state. Gujrat is the Venice of India, a merchant state, supplying goods to the rest of India. As such one of their iconic foods has spread throughout India in the form of sukhdi, or in Gujrati, gol papdi.

Sukhadi is made from Ghee (clarified butter), whole wheat flour and jaggery. The whole wheat flour is roasted in ample amount of ghee till it turns aromatic and brownish. Grated jaggery, in equal amount of flour is added to the mixture after removing pan from the heat, and stirred to make a mixture that is transferred to a plate to set. After making level of the mixture, pieces are created. This is a very simplified recipe and a real one can be found here.

 

Sukhdi is the Indian equivalent of fudge and can be eaten many different ways with many different topics, although the topics are usually nuts or fruits of somesort. It is a very diverse dish, however being originally from Gujrat and being spread by traders rather than natural spread, there is not much variation in the dish itself.

 

Sukhdi is often made during Diwali or given as a prasad at a temple. Prasada (Sanskrit pronunciation: [pɽɐsaːdɐ],), variantly spelled as Prasadam and Prasad, is a religious offering in Jainism, Hinduism, and Sikhism. Most often prasada is vegetarian food consumed by worshippers after worship. To learn more go here. A lot of Jains tend to be Gujrati so sukhdi is primarily used as prasad in Jain temples. A place very famous for it’s sukhdi is Mahudi. If you are Jain or from Gujarat then you likely have been there. There is the Jain temple in Mahudi, a small town in Gujarat. And you will get sukhdi there as a prasad.

 

I personally have never been to Mahudi, but I have heard that it is some of the best sukhdi in the world. It is supposed to be very soft and is served warm. To learn more about Mahudi  I personally really like Sukhdi and recommend trying it to anyone who gets the chance. It is definitely no my favorite sweet I have written about and it is not for everybody.

Now back to our regularly scheduled blog about sweets. With Diwali having come to and end, let us go back to the roots of this blog and talk about sweets.

Ice cream. Perhaps the most well known sweet from the west. Nothing can be compared taste of ice cream, it is just so unique. Here at Penn State we have a bit of a culture surrounding ice cream. The Creamery is perhaps one of the most iconic things about Penn State and many people visit just to try the ice cream. Ice cream is indeed a serious business, not just in Penn State but across America, and it is an eight billion dollar enterprise. Americans consume almost 23 pounds of ice cream every year, on average (source). But in India there is a healthier version of ice cream which forgoes preservatives and eggs for natural flavors, milk, and sugar.

It is known as Kulfi, and it is creamier and richer than traditional ice cream. Kulfi is a frozen dairy dessert that was invented in the 16th century and originated in the Indian subcontinent, during the reign of the Mughlai empire, under Emperor Akbar. The word “kulfi” or “Qulfi” is derived from Farsi indicating that it is of Arabic origin. The word means covered up. Kulfi is a mixture of dense evaporated milk that started gaining popularity in sweet dishes in the Indian subcontinent. During the Mughal era, this thick mixture was usually flavored with saffron and pistachios. Then packed solid into metal cones and plunged in slurry ice, thereby resulting in the invention of Kulfi.

The Mughal Emperor Akbar kept a detailed count of how Kulfi was made. To him it was an important sweet to how the empire was run. His daily life could not continue it. At the time he was one of the most powerful rulers in the entire world, and he was at the mercy of the great Kulfi. There is an elaborate record of the from the Mughal emperor which mentioned the use of saltpeter as a method of refrigerating the mixture. There was also a brief mention of the fact that Himalayan ice was transported to warmer regions in order to make the sweet(source).

There are many different types of Kulfi to be found, just like ice cream. The most popular flavor are malai, pista, and mango. Malai kulfi has a thick layer of milk called Malai, added in the mixture of kulfi for good bite. Pista kulfi is garnished by pistachios around the sides of the kulfi which makes it healthier. Mango kulfi is totally made by mango with some mixture of milk. Of the three my favorite is Malai kulfi, a recipe for which can be found here.

At a quick glance Kulfi looks like an Indian version of ice cream, but looking deeper will make one realize that there is so much more to the sweet.

Let me first start of this post by saying Happy Diwali!

I happen to be typing this on the actual day of Diwali, so to you in the future who may be reading this I wish you during the actual celebration. The ICLC Diwali event is coming up so if you happen to be reading this beforehand you should go check it out. They are getting catering from India Pavilion and it will be a lot of fun. TO learn more go here.

Since it is Diwali time it only feels fitting to talk about Diwali. Diwali at home is always a different experience. From eating all the different sweets to normal festival foods, it is always fun experience. Coming to college the thing I miss most is going to those festivals. While in America I remember going to the local temple and eating dosas and pav bhaji. In India it is whole different experience, with all the street food and parades. I am from Mumbai so it gets really crazy during Diwali. Mumbai is one of largest cities in the world and a hub for culture and food. The experience is unmatched. But this is a blog about sweets, so let us talk about sweets. What better way to talk about sweets and Diwali, than talking abut a sweet made specifically during Diwali. This is a tradition specific to where I am from in India however. I am from a region in India called Gujarat.

For Diwali, in Gujarat, they make a sweet called gughara, a sweet fired dumpling.

Gughara is the gujrati word for the sweet, so for those from other regions of India it is also known as: Gujiya (Hindi: गुजिया), Pedakiya (Hindi: पेडाकिया), or karanji (Marathi: करंजी). For a more comprehensive list click here.

Ghughra is a traditional Gujarati pastry that is typically served during Diwali. It is a fried pocket of dough filled with milk powder, ghee, sugar, nuts, and cardamom. The pocket has a signature fold that is tough to learn how to make. It is known for its sweet and savory in taste, along with the nuttiness of dry fruits and coconut. The sweet itself originates from Gujrat and has manifested across India in many forms. In Utter Pradesh the filling tends to be sticky, compared to the dryer texture in Gujarat. In Karnataka and Tamil Nadu it has take a more distinct coconut flavor. The sweet has many forms but a recipe for the most basic(Gujrati of course) version can be found here.

I know I barely spoke about the food this post but I just really wanted to talk about Diwali. So I wish you the reader a Happy Diwali and a happy new year(Diwali is the Indian new year).

 

 

This blogpost will mainly be focusing on Diwali with the food as a side thought. Diwali is next week and ICLC is hosting a celebration on November 6th. You can sign up to join in the hub at the stand near Panda Express.

Diwali, or Deepavali, a Sanskrit word meaning “rows of lighted lamps,” is a Hindu-originated festival celebrated in India and by the Indian diaspora. During the five-day celebration — also known as the “festival of lights” — clay lamps known as diyas are lit to signify the victory of good over evil. Over time, Diwali has become a national festival marked by most Indians regardless of faith, with Jains, Buddhists, and Sikhs also celebrating. Diwali also celebrates the goddess of wealth and prosperity, Lakshmi. Some believe it falls on her birthday and the day she married Lord Vishnu, the Hindu god of preservation.

Hindus interpret the Diwali story based on where they live. In northern India, they mark the story of King Rama’s return to Ayodhya after he defeated Ravana by lighting rows of clay lamps. In southern India, people celebrate it as the day Lord Krishna defeated the demon Narakasura. In western India, the festival marks the day Lord Vishnu, one of the main gods of the Hindu trinity, sent the demon King Bali to rule the nether world. Meanwhile, in Jainism it marks the nirvana or spiritual awakening of Lord Mahavira . And for Sikhs, it celebrates the day a major guru was freed from imprisonment. More of the differences can be found here.

The most prominent of these stories is the King Rama story. Diwali is the day Lord Rama, his wife Sita Devi, and brother Lakshmana return to their homeland after 14 years in exile. The villagers lit a path for Rama, who had defeated the demon king Ravana with diyas. The general theme behind the story is the same with the Lord Krishna story. More can be learned about Diwali here.

 

Diwali is a five day festival with the second day being the day of giving and sharing sweets. Many people visit friends and family on this day and take sweets with them as gifts. Some will send cards to loved ones who they cannot celebrate with in person and often attach a box of confectionery. Some of the most common sweets to be eaten during this time are many that I have already spoken about in previous blog posts. Hulwa, laddu, Gulab Jamun, Kaju Katli, are all sold and given throughout this festival. All the different foods and sweets that can be found throughout Diwali can be found here. All of those sweets can be eaten throughout the the year, but there is one sweet that is only eaten at this time of year, gughara/gujiya. But that will be the topic of next weeks blogpost.

This blog will be a bit different due to the Hindu festival Diwali coming up in a few weeks. I decided to focus more on Ganesh Chaturthi as a build up to talking about Diwali. While I will still be talking about the sweet it will more of a build up talking about what types of sweets are offered at festivals and some of the mythology behind the festivals.

The Hindu god Ganesh is said to have had the head of and Elephant, although he was not always this way. He is the son of the Shiva, the destroyer(also a Hindu god), and Parvathi, the mother goddess. He was not born to Parvati as humans are. It is said that she was lonely. Shiva was away as was often the case. In her loneliness it appears  she decided to create a child by forming him, Ganesh, through molding a substantial accumulation of her body dirt. And so Ganesh was born and Parvati was happy and occupied. The story goes that one day, while Parvati was having a bath, Shiva came home. When he attempted to enter the house though, he was met with resistance in the form of the boy Ganesh. Neither of them knew they were related. Shiva got angry at not being allowed in and dealt with the situation by chopping off Ganesh’s head. It was at this moment that Parvati came out to find what Shiva had done. She was inconsolable but managed to tell Shiva that the boy whose head he had cut off was in fact his son. Angry at the situation, Shiva decided to fix it. He went out and hunted the first animal he saw, the elephant, and brought back its head to replace the boy’s. That day on the Hindu lunar calendar is known as Ganesh Chaturthi, the birthday of Ganesh, and is celebrated with parades and festivals lasting for weeks. On that day there are two types of sweets offered to Ganesh, laddu and peda. Those two sweets are offered to him because they are the sweets that humans have noticed that Elephants like eating, and thus over the years they became known as Ganesh’s favorite.

Peda or pera is a sweet dish hailing from the Indian subcontinent. It originated from Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, India. Usually prepared in thick, semi-soft pieces, its main ingredients are khoa, sugar and traditional flavorings including cardamom seeds, pistachio nuts and saffron. There are many types of Peda, but the one that Ganesh likes is known as kesar modak peda, and is made of Mawa (milk solids) and sugar, flavored with cardamom and kesar (saffron) and shaped in to modak (dumplings). A recipe can be found here. No offering to Ganesh would be complete without the sweet and it is given to those who go to temples all over the world as a sweet to eat. There is a lot of cultural significance to the peda and no Ganesh Chaturthi would be complete without it.

 

Next week will be the beginning of talking about diwali and the foods involved.