Ganesh Chaturthi Special: Make Your Festival Delicious | Himalayan Natives



We are stepping into that part of the year where it's raining festivals from now on. Among the various festivals in India, Ganesh Chaturthi is a well-known and important one. But, what makes these festivals memorable and delicious? Yes, it's the food. We all make a few healthy recipes throughout each festival, they could be spicy, sweet or even sour in taste. That’s the kind of variety which distinguishes Indian cuisine when compared to others. However, if you're wondering why we usually make sweet dishes for Ganesh Chaturthi, here are some reasons; 

Bhagwan Ganesha loves sweets. Ladoo and Modak are the favourites. That’s the reason why you will find most of the Ganesh Chaturthi dishes to be desserts. 

Explore these 5 tasty and healthy dishes and make this occasion absolutely special. All you have to do is keep reading, delicious recipes coming your way. Here’s the first one;  

Dry Fruit Modak

Dry Fruit Modaks are the easiest ones to make. It only takes around a few minutes to prepare them. Another amazing thing is, you need not add sugar to this, as the sweetness comes naturally from the raisins and dates. Therefore, this is a must try dish which comes handy when you are busy with a lot of other things during the festive day. 

Ingredients:

• Ghee
• Dry fruits and nuts like: Cashews, Almonds, Raisins 
• Dates
• Dry Coconut 

Recipe:

1. Put the cashews and almonds in the mixer jar.
2. To make a coarse powder, grind it. 
3. At this step, add dates and raisins.
4. Add dry coconut as well. 
5. To create a coarse mixture, pulse it once more.
6. Add a teaspoon Ghee
7. Start grinding again till it comes together like a dough, otherwise add a teaspoon of water, grind again. 
8. Take this mixture out onto a plate. To make Modak you will require a Modak mould. To that firstly grease the mould using ghee. Now close the mould, stuff the mixture to it, at the same time press tightly on the bottom hole. 
9. The bottom surface should then be smoothed before being opened and unmolded. 

There you go, your tasty Dry fruits Modak is ready to be served. You might ask;

What could I do, if I do not have Modak Mould? 

You could shape it like a Ladoo too. That’s another way you could enjoy this tasty dish. 

Rice Kheer (The Indian Rice Pudding)

Kheer is an Indian dessert made from the flour of either cereals or lentils. The Indian version of rice pudding is called Rice Kheer. In the northern part it is called Kheer. Whereas, in South India it is called Rice Payasam. Check out the directions for making this simple, slow-cooked meal. 

Ingredients: 

• Basmati rice 
• Sugar
• Milk
• Cardamom
• Nuts
• Saffron

Recipe:

(Note: Normally, we make it in a little larger quantity, but the recipe is trimmed down so that you will get 4 to 5 small servings of this tasty Indian Rice Pudding)

1. Take 1/4 cup of basmati rice. Kindly ensure to always use premium basmati rice to get the desired taste
2. Rinse the rice several times in clean water.  After that, soak it for 15 to 20 minutes in water.
3. Take 1 litre of full-fat milk and place it in a saucepan, or kadai while the rice grains are soaking.
4. Maintain low to medium heat in the pan. To prevent the milk from burning at the bottom of the pan, stir occasionally.
5. Allow the milk to boil.
6. Put 1 tablespoon of the boiled milk in a small bowl. Allow the milk to warm up. The milk will then have a few saffron strands added. Keep this aside.
7. At this stage, drain all the water from the rice and add it to the hot boiling milk
8. With a spoon, thoroughly stir it
9. Low heat is used to simmer and cook rice. The pan need not be covered when the rice is cooking. 
10. Cook the rice grains until they are halfway cooked, or 50% done.
11.  After that, add 5 to 6 tablespoons of sugar, or more if necessary. Stir this sugar in the milk well.
12. On low to medium heat, continue to cook the rice. At regular intervals, stir.
13. Cook the rice by simmering until it is almost done. 

Follow these steps to Garnish your Rice Kheer

1. You can add 1\2 teaspoon of cardamom powder
2. Also add nuts of your choice, you may add few chopped cashews and sliced almonds
3. Stir well and then add the saffron dissolved milk. Remember? We had kept this aside from the main milk pan.
4. Once more stirring, simmer the rice kheer on low heat for an additional few minutes to thicken and finish cooking the rice grains. 
5. When the rice grains are fully cooked, turn off the heat. Kheer will also become thicker.
6. Add 1 tablespoon of golden raisins last and stir it well (Do buy natural golden raisins online) 

That’s how you cook Rice Kheer, easy? 

Now Pour the kheer into separate dishes for serving. Rice kheer can be served warm, cold, or hot. 

Panchamrut

Panchamrut is generally a recipe that is served at most Hindu religious celebrations. Its name, Panchamrut, is appropriately given because it has five ingredients. It is offered as prasad and also used during puja, because it is seen to be nutritious and purifying. Prepare this healthful cuisine by following these simple steps.

Ingredients:

• Milk
• Fresh Curd
• Honey 
• Sugar
• Ghee

Recipe:

1. First add ½ cup milk to a bowl
2. Now add 2 tablespoon of curd
3. Add ½ tablespoon of sugar
4. Add ¼ tablespoon of natural ghee
5. Add ½ tablespoon of honey
6. Using a whisk, thoroughly blend this panchamrut.
7. Tulsi leaves can be used as a garnish while serving.

Wow! It is such a simple dish that even someone with no prior cooking experience could make it. We believe even kids would find this recipe super easy to make. Let's move onto the next delicious recipe. 

Moong Dal Halwa 

Get ready to stir, stir and stir. This is indeed a very interesting dish.The reason being you need to prepare this dish with extreme caution. The more care you take, the better the outcome. We are sure you will have some great fun if you mess up! But it's worth all your efforts when you taste this halwa, absolutely delicious. So try preparing this when you have some good time. 

Ingredients:

• Moong Dal
• Ghee
• Sugar ( (Instead of Sugar you can use jaggery powder too. It's really healthy option)
• Milk
• Water

Recipe (How to prepare Moong Dal Halwa?)

1. Firstly you need to soak 1 cup moong dal (also known as yellow mung lentils) in water for 4 to 5 hours. 
2. In this step, Moong dal should be drained and then ground into a paste using some water.
3. Put 9 to 10 tablespoons of Ghee on to a pan and melt the same
4. Add the prepared moong dal paste to this pan at this time.
5. Stir well (try to use a non-stick pan, otherwise you may find it very difficult to stir)
6. Continue to stir over a low flame until the aroma of the moong dal is entirely gone and the fat separates from the side. 
7. We have a small task now, while the halwa is cooking, put 2 cups of water and 1 cup of milk in a bowl and add 1 cup of sugar to this. Stir the sugar until it dissolves while keeping the pan on the burner. This mixture of milk, water, and sugar should be heated until it boils.
8. Coming back to the Moong dal, by this time the fats are completely separated and colour and aroma has also changed. 
9. At this stage add the milk that was boiled to this fried moong dal
10. Stir well
11. Once the liquid has been absorbed, the ghee should once more begin to separate. When you reach this stage, give yourself a pat on the back. The Moong dal halwa is almost ready.

What’s Missing? 

1. 1 Tablespoon of golden raisins and 1/4 cup cardamom powder should be added. The moong dal halwa is now complete and ready to be served.  

Grilled Badam Barfi 

This dish is a guilt-free way to celebrate the festive season. You can prepare this with or without sugar or use natural sweeteners like Jaggery. This barfi, which only calls for three ingredients, is made with flavorful khoya that has been perfectly grilled and is brimming with the goodness of almonds. Read on to learn how to cook this.

Ingredients:

• Need a cup of pure almonds (Crushed) and few roasted ones
• Sweetener, 40 grams 
• Khoya, 500 grams  

Recipe: 

1. Khoya should be grated and set aside.
2. If using a sweetener, add 40 grams to the heated pan along with the khoya and cook for 3 to 4 minutes on low heat.
3. Now, remove from the burner and stir in almonds that have been toasted and ground. 
4. Spread the mixture evenly in the baking tray. 
5. The leftover sweetener can be added on top. To caramelise the sugar, place the baking tray in a hot oven. Set to 200 C with top heat only. 
6. Cut it into squares after removing. Serve it right away after adding some sliced almonds as a garnish.

So, this Ganesh Chaturti, what’s cooking up in your Kitchens? You must definitely try any of the 5 dishes we’ve shared with you! We hope you enjoyed reading this. Stay tuned on our social platforms and blogs so that your journey to explore useful content like this never stops. The Himalayan Natives Team would love to wish you and your family a blessed and Happy Ganesh Chaturti.