Lohri Special Recipes

Smita Mishra

Lohri offers a great opportunity for people of Punjab to enjoy the traditional delicacies that are cooked using the recipes passed on from generation to generation.

DRY FRUIT CHIKKI

Ingredients:

1 cup almonds
1 cup chopped pistachios
1 cup chopped cashew
¼ cup (grated) jaggery
Saffron-few strands soaked in milk
2 big tsp ghee

Procedure:

Mash jaggery. Heat 2 big spoons of ghee in a kadai. Put grated jaggery, mix well and melt nicely to a fine paste. To this add kesar, badam, pista and cashew nuts & mix well until the mixture leaves the sides of the kadai. Spread little ghee in a tray and pour the dry fruit mixture and spread evenly, cool it and cut it into pieces.

TIL KHOYA LADOO

Ingredients:

1 kg white sesame
½ kg khoya (finely grated)
100 gms cashew
100 gms raisins
50 gms pistacho
50 gms almonds
½ kg sugar(powdered)
1 tsp cardamom powder

Procedure:

Take sesame, cashew, rasin, pistacho and almonds and grind them together. Put a heavy bottomed pan on fire. Put the mixture in pan and roast on low flame. When the colour becomes golden brown add khoya and stir constantly till the mixture acquires a deeper hue.Add sugar and cardamom powder. Mix well, remove from fire and round into ladoos. Serve as a sweet dish in Lohri.

RASSE KI KHEER

Ingredients:

1 litre fresh sugarcane juice
150 gms Basmati rice

Procedure:

Put the sugarcane juice in a pan and heat. Wash and add the rice to it and allow it to cook in the juice on a slow fire. Continue cooking till the rice and sugarcane juice form a smooth mixture of thick consistency. Take it off the fire. Allow it to cool. Refrigerate and serve cold.

KURMURA LADDU

Ingredients:

1/2 lb puffed rice (murmura, churmura)
1/2 lb jaggery
1/2 cup roasted peanuts
1/2 cup dry coconut flakes
A few cardamoms

Procedure:

Take a large cooking pan add jaggery and enough water till it gets immersed and boil till it forms to thick consistency. To ensure that this syrup had reached the correct consistency, add a few drops into a bowl containing water and it shall solidify immediately. Add puffed rice, roasted peanuts, dry coconut flakes and cardamom powder and stir in all the ingredients. Let it cool for a couple of minutes. Grease your palm with oil or ghee and roll into balls.