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Mithai 101
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Shahi Maharani owner Chitra Mirpuri, and Tiffin Room chef de cuisine Kuldeep Negi talk about Deepavali sweets.
LADOO (above)
What: Ball-shaped sweets made of flour, sugar and a variety of flavours cooked in ghee.
Flours commonly used include chickpea, rava (wheat semolina) and ground coconut.
Another popular item is motichoor ladoo, made from sweetened, fried chickpea flour.
BURFI (above)
What: Popular variations of this mithai include besan burfi, which is made with chickpea flour, pure ghee and pure cane sugar.
Normally garnished with chopped nuts such as pistachio.
Nuts such as cashews and almonds can also be chopped and cooked together with the dough. Burfi can also be milk-based, or made with dried rose petals.
KAJU ROLL
What: In Hindi, Kaju means cashew nut. The rolls are made by grinding the nuts finely and adding them to sugar syrup.
It is cooked over a low flame until a soft dough is formed.
The stuffing is made with ground pistachio.
A small amount of ghee is added to make the dough more pliable.
The pistachio can be used as a filling for the cashew dough, or placed in layers to look like a Swiss roll.
Silver leaf is rolled over the entire surface of the roll.
JALEBI (above)
What: Circles of wheat flour batter are deep-fried and then soaked in a saffron sugar syrup.•
RAS MALAI
What: In Hindi, ras means "juice", and malai means "cream". These soft milk dumplings are cooked in a sugar syrup with saffron-infused milk.
GULAB JAMUN
What: A milk-based dessert, commonly made with milk solids (also known as khoya, a dairy produce made with dried whole milk or milk thickened by heating milk on a low flame).
The milk solids are made into a dough, fried and then soaked in sugar syrup.