Cooking with Shail

Hey peeps….today’s recipe holds a special place in all households in any Indian kitchen during Diwali. Diwali is celebration of lights, colors and loads and loads of yummy food being cooked. It is celebrated by lighting up your homes and making rangolis. Neighbors, family and friends meet up in each others homes and eat yummy food. Ghughra/Karanji is one such item which is a common Diwali food item. The stuffing/filling varies but the essence of this food is the same everywhere. We love Ghughra/Karanji and it is a tradition that the first item made in at our home for welcoming Diwali is Ghughra/Karanji. This dish requires a bit of your patience but if made with love it turns out very yummy. This is my mother in law’s special recipe which we have been following to the T since the beginning. The Ghughra/Karanji turns out very soft and will just melt in your mouth. So take some time out from your busy schedule and surely try this sweet dish it will melt your hearts and make you feel the essence and love of the festival creeping in.

Ingredients:

For the Dough:

All purpose flour- 250 gms

Milk- 1/4 cup

Ghee/Clarified Butter- 2 tbsp

Water for kneading

For the filling:

Mawa/Solidifed Milk- 250 gms

Rawa/ Semolina – 100 gms

Powdered Sugar- 100 gms

Roughly chopped dry fruits (almonds, cashews, pistachios, raisins)- 100 gms

Elaichi/Cardamom powder- 50 gms

Milk- 1 cup

Others:

Ghee/Clarified butter for frying

Ghee/Clarified butter (for saute)-2 tbsp

Method:

For Dough:

1. Mix all the ingredients. Bind to a semi-soft dough.

2. Cover and keep under a moist muslin cloth for 15 minutes.

3. Knead the dough again till smooth.

4. Divide the dough into 25 equal portions.

5. Cover with a moist muslin cloth and keep aside.

For Filling:
1. On low flame in an heavy bottomed pan take 1 tbsp ghee/clarified butter and saute the mawa/solidified milk for 5 mins.

2. Similarly sauté the rawa/semolina.

3. Now in a mixing bowl mix all the ingredients for filling together.

4. Taste and check if required you can add sugar or dry fruits as per your taste.

To proceed:

1. Thinly roll out each portion of dough into a puri of about 2 inch.

3. Take out some of the filling in a separate bowl and add a few spoons of milk to it to moisten it a bit. Keep taking the filling separately once the previous batch is done and add milk. By doing this the filling does not go dry.

4. Neatly spoon one portion of the filling, little at a time in the puri. As you fill, gently press the filling tight with your finger. Moisten and seal the edges.

5. Place the index finger under the top end of the sealed edge.

6. Put the thumb over the edge.

7. Gently pinch, twist and turn the edge to make equal flutes.

8. Continue till the bottom end. Trim or fold it.

9. Fill all the puris, to make ghughras. Cover and keep under a moist muslin cloth till deep-frying.

10. On a medium flame, heat enough ghee in a frying pan. Lower the flame. Deep fry, few ghughras at a time till the colour changes a little. Remove on an absorbent paper. Repeat till all ghughras are deep-fried. Cool. Store in an airtight box.

NOTE:

• Size and decorative edges of ghughras can be made as your choose. Ghughras can also be shaped in special ghughra moulds.