sindhialphabet Archives | Sindhi Rasoi |Sindhi Recipes

Dothiyun~Sindhi Saata~AlifBe~20

Alka Keswani — Tue, 11 May 2021 10:55:10 +0000

Dothiyun (singular – Dothee) or Saatta, the popular Sindhi sweet, similar to Kutchi Saata or Gujarati Devada are highly addictive and a delight to relish. Basically a dothee (D^othee in Roman Sindhi) is a fried, sugar glazed cookie made from all purpose flour and ghee/vanaspati. Dothiyun are generally send in to married daughters and sisters on Vadhi Thadri . These are also a part of the ‘Phula Jalan’ or ‘Phula bhugra’ ritual after a child is born, when the mother is given Puffed rice, roasted chana, Mesu (Mysore Pak) and D^othiyun by the parents (maiden family of the new mother), and thus my parents gave me these as per the traditional ritual, says Prisha Galani! One can relish these at any time of the year provided, you have a Sindhi sweets’ shop around or if you make these at home 🙂 To make Dothiyun, you need to knead a dough using maida and ghee and some semolina soaked in milk to provide crunchiness. Ghee or vanaspati is used as a moyan (similar to shortening used in cookies) for the flaky texture. A thick sugar glaze flavored with cardamom and rose essence (both optional but preferred) for enhanced flavors and a garnish of almonds, pistachios and dried rose petals , all work together in a harmony, to make dothiyun alluring and a treat for your eyes and tastebuds! Ideally the sugar syrup needs to be of 2 and half thread consistency or tad bit thicker than that (the syrup should look cloudy) but if you, like me, are not fond of very thick sugar glaze then do not wait for the syrup to turn cloudy and switch off the flame when syrup reaches 2 thread consistency. Sometimes you may even find the perfectly glazed sugar coating over commercially available Dothiyun or saata and it may not be the one made using sugar syrup but by mixing powered sugar/icing sugar, milk and liquid glucose. This type of glaze looks smoother and the common issues like re crystallisation of sugar or getting large grainy crystals could be avoided using this type of glaze. I have used the traditional method of making sugar glaze i.e by cooking sugar and water till desired consistency is obtained. AlifBe: Well the 20th letter (consonant) is ڏ in Arabic Sindhi, ड in Devanagari and D^ in Roman Sindhi. Sindhi and Devanagari Orthography credits: Deepak Keswani and Barkha Khushalani, respectively! It is a peculiar Sindhi consonant and is used in very few other languages ( eg:Vietnamese). To understand how it is pronounced, you can check this video! And as obvious, the dish with the name starting with D^ is D^othiyun! Print Dothiyun~AlifBe~20 D^othiyun are sweet fried cookies coated with thick sugar glaze and garnished with nuts and dried rose petals! Ingredients For Cookies/Mathri 1.25 cups All Purpose flour A pinch of Salt Two small pinches of Baking soda 4-5 tsp Ghee 2 tbsp Semolina 4-6 tbsp milk or as much needed Oil/Ghee/Vanaspati for frying For the Syrup 2 cups Sugar ¾ cup Water 3-4 Green Cardamoms 3-4 drops of Rose essence 8 Almonds, 5-6 Pistachios and few dried rose petals, chopped finely Method Take 2 tbsp of semolina and add 2-3 tbsp of milk. Mix and keep aside, covered for 10-15 minutes. Now take the flour, salt and baking soda and sieve the mixture. Rub in Ghee in the sieved mix. The mix must look like bread crumbs. To this mix add the soaked semolina and start kneading the dough. Keep adding milk, a tbsp at a time till the mix binds well into a dough. You may need around 2-3 tbsp of milk here. Cover the dough and let it rest for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, knead the dough to smoothen out a little. You can make small pingpong size balls and flatten each by pressing between palm or you can roll the dough and use cookie cutter or small katori with sharp edges to cut out small discs. Commercially available Sindhi Dothiyun are around 3 to 3 and half inch in diameter and ¾th of an inch in thickness. But since frying thick dothiyun takes longer time, ideally home made dothiyun are preferred to be 2" in diameter and ½ inch or less thick. Heat oil/ ghee/ mix of both or vanaspati (makes cookies crisp but health-wise it is not recommended) in a frying pan and once it is hot, lower the flame. Add 3-4 discs at a time and deep fry on low flame, till light golden brown. Repeat the process till all 'cookies' are fried. Drain on a kitchen towel and allow to cool completely. Keep covered with a mesh. Covering hot cookies with any plate or thick towel will make 'cookies' soggy. Start working on the syrup after 'cookies' are cooled for at least 2 hours. I left fried ones overnight. Before starting with sugar syrup, grease a steel thali with ghee and keep the chopped nuts and petals handy. In a pan mix sugar and water and cook it on low to medium flame. Add green cardamom, slightly pounded, if using. Keep stirring the syrup till it reaches 2 thread consistency. It may take around 10-12 minutes depending on the flame. Ideally the syrup should be cooked beyond 2 and half thread consistency (it should look cloudy) but I cooked the syrup till just around 2 thread consistency stage. Add few drops of rose essence, stir and switch off the flame immediately. Donot stir the syrup anymore.. Let the syrup cool down a touch (3-4 minutes). You will have to work quickly now. Ask someone to help you, if needed. Now stir the syrup vigorously for a minute and dip a fried 'cookie', turn around a few times and place the soaked cookie on the greased thali, pour some syrup over it, top it up with the garnish of nuts and petals. Take another cookie and dip in the syrup and repeat the above process. You will have to go on garnishing each as soon as you pour syrup over it as the sugar will start crystallising almost immediately and garnishing it later wont work well. If you are not quick enough, chances are that the syrup in the pan will start crystallising before you can dip all the cookies. Don't panic. Just mix few spoons of hot water, mix (warm the syrup again, if needed) and start working again. Allow the sugar glaze to settle well. It may look transparent in the beginning but worry not. After a while you can see lovely thick sugar glaze. (Please refer the short video for this!) Store Dothiyun in an airtight container. It stays well for a fortnight but then it hardly lasts till then! 3.5.3251 Please do watch the following video for the alphabet formation. I have shared a small clipping of making of D^othiyun in the same video. Do check and let me know if it was helpful or not!

The post Dothiyun~Sindhi Saata~AlifBe~20 appeared first on Sindhi Rasoi |Sindhi Recipes.

Dal Dimma~ AlifBe ~ 18

Alka Keswani — Tue, 04 May 2021 03:40:52 +0000

We have arrived at the 4th shape group in Sindhi Script with the 18th letter and it is د or ‘D~’ as in Daawat or as in Dehradun, in Roman Sindhi while द in Devanagari. To Check a recap for AlifBe series kindly click here ! The Sindhi dish starting with د is Dal Dimma or Dal mung! Folks from Sindhi populated areas might know how common it is for people to flock around the carts selling Dal pakwan, early mornings. Though traditionally Sindhi Pakwan is served with Chana dal, it is very common to find carts where you will get an option of Dal Dimma or Dal mung as many call it. Dal mung is a mix of Whole mung, chana dal and Yellow mung dal, slow cooked separately and mixed while serving. Those who hail from Ulhasnagar would know the popular Doli Naashta waala, well known for traditional Sindhi street foods like Dal pakwan, Dal sandwich, Samose, Gulabjamun etc and Dal mung is one of its best seller. Those living around camp 4 of Ulhasnagar would vouch for Dal mung at Shankar Uncle’s New Delhi Nashta House, near Canara Bank. Interestingly around the same place (Canara bank) and previous to that, near Jungle hotel, an old frail, tall Uncle ji (I think his name was Hari or Hiru) used to sell Dal Dimma on fresh leaves (Can’t recollect if those were Paan or some other leaves). Barely 3 tsp of mung and 2 tsp of dal, garnished with spice powder and chutney @ 25 paise, in late seventies and early eighties would be enough to satiate your morning hunger as it was often had with Pao or roti or even with home made Koki. Anyone remember that Uncle ji? The plain mung dal used to be so dense that you need to actually scoop it with a roti/bread. Slow cooked on charcoal sigri for hours, with only salt and turmeric, garnished with black pepper powder, the piping hot buttery soft dal used to be a delight to relish. As a kid studying in Bal Mandir ( Preschool of yore), I was privileged enough to enjoy hot dal from that Uncle’s cart with mom made Koki courtesy the lady who would bring tiffins for the kids from their respective homes during lunch break. I also have memories of savoring Dalmung Sandwich from the cart opposite building number 6, or amazing Dal pakwan at Vig, in Chembur, while enjoying a stay at Grandparent’s home, pampered with food, food and more food by aunts, Uncles and cousins. You can read more about Chembur Street food here! I have already shared recipes of Dal mung and Dal moth on the blog but today we are talking about Dal Dimma! Honestly speaking I was not aware of the term Dimma as it is called Dal mung in my home town. But thanks to the Sindhirasoi facebook group I got to know that a dal preparation without using tomatoes or onions/garlic is called Dimma. I am yet to find the actual meaning of the word Dimma but I need to thank Mr Manohar Pamnani, Mr Sanjay Lulla, Ms Dolly Atmaram Chandwani and Ms Shashi Nagpal who shared their valuable inputs and their memories about Dal Dimma when I approached them to understand what exactly a Dimma preparation is. Will share more about that some other time! Also a big thanks to Barkha Khushalani Di for always helping me out with the Devanagari script. And of course, heartfelt thanks to my better half, Deepak Keswani too, for being there at every step of learning be it Alif Be or reading dictionaries, recording videos/ Insta reels or for helping out in editing clips. Here is the video of letter formation and assembling of Dal Dimma: Summary: So from what I gathered from discussing about Dal Dimma is that mung/ dal is boiled with just salt, turmeric and optionally, chillies and is tempered with hing (asafoetida) and cumin seeds and garnished with spice powders/garam masala. Print Dal Dimma~ AlifBe ~ 18 Dal Dimma or Dal Mung is a mix of whole mung, chana dal, mung dal, cooked separately and assembled for serving. It is a popular Sindhi street food. Ingredients Serves 3 Mung Whole Mung 1 cup Salt as per taste Green chillies 2 or as as needed Turmeric powder ¼ tsp Garam masala powder (I used Abana's GM) ½ tsp Ghee / oil for tempering Red chilli powder ¼ tsp Cumin seeds ½ tsp Asafoetida 2 pinches For chana dal Chana Dal ¾ cup Salt as per taste Turmeric Powder ¼ tsp Green chillies 1-2 Ghee/oil for tempering Cumin seeds ¼ tsp Asafoetida a pinch Abana's Dal Pakwan Masala 1 heaped spoon Cumin seeds ½ tsp Mung Dal Mung dal (split yellow) ½ cup Salt as per taste Turmeric powder ¼ tsp Ghee/Oil for tempering Red chilli powder ½ tsp Black pepper powder ¼ tsp For Serving Boiled potato chopped 1 Small Boiled beetroot chopped, 1 Small Tomato chopped, 1 Small Onion Chopped 1 Mint coriander chutney Sour Tamarind chutney * Amchoor powder for garnish Fried or Roasted Green chillies 3-4 Method Rinse well and soak Mung, chana dal and mung dal, separately for few hours. Cook each dal separately using salt, chilliies and turmeric powder, till done. If using Abana Dal pakwan masala, then add it while boiling Chana dal. You can cook each dal in a pressure cooker or slow cook in a pan. Mung and Chana dal are bit mushy but not completely mashed, while mung dal is cooked till buttery smooth. In Whole mung, add a tempering of ghee/oil, cumin seeds, hing, red chilli powder and mix well. Add some garam masala powder. In Chana dal, add a tempering of ghee/oil, cumin seeds, hing and chilli powder and mix well. Remember not to overcook or over-mash this dal. In mung dal, add a tempering of ghee/oil and red chilli powder. Add black pepper powder and mix. Consistency of all three should not be very runny. Chop salad vegetables and season with salt, pepper, chilli powder and amchoor/chaat masala. *To make Sour Tamarind chutney just soak some tamarind in water, squeeze well and discard the pulp. Season the tamarind water with salt, chaat masala, chilli powder and hint of sugar. While serving, pour some whole mung in a bowl, some chana dal on one side and mung dal on other side, garnish with some Abana Dal masala, Amchoor powder, chilli powder, salad vegetables, chutneys and dried or roasted whole chillies. Serve hot with bread, roti or Koki. 3.5.3251 Picture Courtesy: Saarthak Aurora I made Dal Dimma using Abana Brand’s Sindhi Dal (pakwan) spice mix along with Garam masala and Amchoor powder of the same brand. Abana is a Sindhi word referring to something that is ancestral. They make some unique Sindhi spice mixes that no other brand can boast of; Sindhi Dal ( pakwan) spice mix, Sindhi Kadhi spice mix or even Sindhi Sanna Pakora and Tuk patata spice blend. The spice mixes dedicated to the Sindhi cuisine and a brand name that is so Sindhi that it stirs memories of yore like nothing else would (Remember the Sindhi Movie, Abana?), the brain child of Mr Basant Rajan, who, at the age when people retire, ventured in this field purely because of his passion for traditional food and spices. If you wish to try these Sindhi spices, please check this Box of Nostalgia, a box with 14 different spices and spice blends!

The post Dal Dimma~ AlifBe ~ 18 appeared first on Sindhi Rasoi |Sindhi Recipes.

Khhoraak for AlifBe ~17

Alka Keswani — Thu, 29 Apr 2021 07:41:35 +0000

Technically the 17th letter of AlifBe or the Sindhi Alphabet is ح i.e ‘H’ but this particular alphabet is not used for words of Sindhi origin (there is another ‘H’in the AlifBe and it will be covered in future post when we will arrive on it) and hence there is no corresponding dish in Sindhi cuisine. So we will jump to next letter which, again, is used to write words of non Sindhi origin but thankfully we have a popular Sindhi dish starting with that letter. Any guesses?? Well, the 17th letter is خ which is ख़ in Devanagari (Kindly note the Nukta or the dot) and ‘Khh’ in Roman Sindhi. Many a times people are unable to differentiate between ख़ (with a dot) and ख (without a dot) and hence use the latter one inappropriately. A word starting with ख़ is Khalifa as in Burj Khalifa. In Roman Sindhi it is Burj Khhalifa and बुर्ज ख़लीफ़ा in Devanagari ! And a Sindhi dish starting with this letter is Khhoraak! It probably comes from the word Khhoraak or Khhurak i.e a diet (portion of food). Khorak also means a dose of medicine. A small portion of this sweet is good enough to have for a meal with milk (breakfast) and it provides good immunity and nourishment hence the word Khorak is well justified for this sweet. Khhoraak Khhoraak or Khorak as many call it, is a traditional Sindhi sweet made exclusively in winters. It is also popularly made for new mothers as a part of post natal care wherein the new mother is fed with healthy, nutritious food. Since Khhoraak is made using plenty of dry fruits/nuts, ghee and Khaun (edible gum) it is also considered very beneficial for lactating mothers. Sindhis do not consume this sweet in summers since it could lead to heat production in the body and hence I was reluctant to make this. There were no enough nuts in the pantry nor any poppy seeds and since the lockdown (from March 2020) we do not venture out or call in for home deliveries until inevitable. Also from past many days, I have been experiencing moments of (emotional) meltdown thinking of all those near and dear ones fighting with the deadly virus and about all those who succumbed to the disease. Losing a dear friend, Chef Dinesh Keswani was yet another blow and things got more difficult to deal with. I am still struggling to absorb all that is happening around and I know that most of us are going through the hard times, physically, financially and emotionally. So the thought of cooking anything festive or rich in such a scenario felt stupid and inconsiderate and I was actually on the verge of giving up the AlifBe series. But then I needed something to keep me occupied, something to distract me from the chaos around, something that can help to calm down my nerves, to push me out of the bed, to temporarily stop thinking about all the conversations happening over social media with friends as well as strangers, madly seeking help to deal with the crisis. Strangely, I often find cooking therapeutic and sometimes it does help me to gain control over the overwhelming emotions! I don’t know how far I can carry on with this series since circumstances are so unfavourable. Not only I feel emotionally drained out but also the lack of resources to procure required ingredients is slowing down the pace of AlifBe series. And I am in no mood to go out of the way to hunt for the required ingredients. But I will keep marching on, till I can! Coming back to Khhoraak: Khhoraak is a winter delicacy made from whole wheat flour, ghee, nuts, poppy seeds and edible gum. The texture of Khhorak is generally soft crunchy or brittle but it totally depends on the quantities of fat (ghee) and edible gum used. If you use less ghee or gum it will turn out crumbly soft, if you use oil or mix of ghee and oil, then again, the sweet will be more fudge like than crunchy brittle. If you use sugar syrup then too the consistency will vary. Thin syrup will yield softer Khhoraak while thick syrup will make khhoraak hard. Ideally poppy seeds are added but since I didn’t had any, I used thick rawa (semolina). Also I didn’t add any melon seeds as there were none at home. There are no hard and fast rules about the types of nuts/seeds used and about the quantity of each. It’s flexible! Many people confuse Khhoraak with Majun, yet another winter delicacy. But both are very different in terms of texture, ingredients and flavors too. Khorak is made from roasted flour. Majun is made without using any flour. Mawa is used in Majun while Khorak is made without mawa. Edible gum is used in Khorak but not in Majun. Print Khhoraak for AlifBe ~17 Khhoraak is a winter delicacy made from whole wheat flour, ghee, edible gum and nuts. Ingredients 1 and half cup whole wheat flour 1 and half cup Ghee (I used 1 cup) 1 and half cup Sugar (I used 1 cup) 30 gms of Edible gum 2 tbsp of Poppy seeds (Khaskhas) 12-15 Almonds 10-12 Cashew Nuts 10 Unsalted Pistachios A handful each of of Black raisins and Kishmish ¼ cup of melon seeds (I didn't add any) 5-6 green cardamoms peeled and pounded or powdered ¾ cup hot milk or hot water Few thin slices of Kopra chopped into bits or 3-4 tsp of desiccated coconut powder Method Dry roast melon seeds if using. You can dry roast some almonds and pistachios that you can use for garnishing. Mix sugar in hot milk or hot water and keep aside. The idea is to allow sugar to melt as much as possible. Chop or slice nuts. Reserve some chopped nuts for garnish. Take a flat plate with sides or any cake pan/tray and grease it with oil/ghee. This will be used to spread the Khhoraak. Heat a tbsp of ghee in a thick bottomed pan or kadai. Fry edible gum, in batches, till nicely puffed. Drain and let it cool. Grind to make fine powder. Keep aside. In the same pan pour remaining ghee and add flour. Keep the flame on low. Roast the flour on low flame, stirring continuously, till light brown. This will take anywhere from 15-25 minutes depending on the flame and quantity of flour. Add powdered edible gum, poppy seeds, kopra or desiccated powder (whichever using) and elaichi powder. Keep roasting on low flame and add chopped almonds, pistachios and cashew nuts and melon seeds. Reserve some nuts and seeds for the garnish. Once the flour turns nice brown, add raisins and sugar that was mixed with hot water or milk. Mix quickly as the flour will absorb liquid pretty fast. Switch off the flame and quickly pour the contents on the greased plate. Take a flat steel bowl and press the Khhoraak with the base of the bowl, all over, to smoothen the surface. Garnish with remaining nuts/seeds and press a bit again. Let Khhoraak cool down a bit and then using a sharp knife slice it into desired shape (square or diamond) and size. Do not move the slices. Allow it to cool for a few hours and then separate out slices of Khhoraak. Store in an airtight container. It stays good for a few weeks and beyond if refrigerated. A small slice of this with a glass of milk is an ideal breakfast option during winters. 3.5.3251 And before I sign off, here is a small video about how the letter خ !

The post Khhoraak for AlifBe ~17 appeared first on Sindhi Rasoi |Sindhi Recipes.

Saandhano For AlifBe Of Sindhi Food ~10

Alka Keswani — Fri, 12 Mar 2021 09:59:54 +0000

In my first post of AlifBe series I have mentioned that the 52 letters of Sindhi Alphabet, known as AlifBe or Alaph Ambhu, could be divided into sixteen basic shape groups. A short recap: ا (अ/A) is the only alphabet in first shape group! ا as in ‘Attack’ or ا as in Atte Ja Ladoon The following 9 alphabets come under the second basic shape group characterised by a boat shaped base with varying numbers and positions of dots. Also kindly note that different literary authorities follow a slightly different sequence of these alphabets. ب (ब/B) as in Baby or as in Besan Ji Aani ٻ (B^) as in B^aaru (child) or as in B^itto Lolo پ (प/P) as in Parrot or P as in Pali ڀ (भ/Bh) as in Bharat or as in Bheendi Khatti ت (त/T~) as in Taiwan or as in Tosha ٿ (थ/Th~) as in Thirsty or as in Thumaro ٽ (ट/Tt) as in Towel or as in Tamate Ji Chutney ٺ (ठ/Th) as in Thakur or as in Thab^ak Vadiyun ث (स/S or C) as in Simple or Circle or as in??? Well, we will cover that in a while! In Arabic Sindhi there are 3 letters for the sound S/C as in Cylinder. These are ث , ص, س . Out of these three, two alphabets i.e ث and ص are used only while writing Arabic or Urdu words in Sindhi script while س is used to write words of Sindhi origin. In Roman Sindhi and in Devanagari, these 3 alphabets are denoted with letter S and स (respectively) only. So we will cover the three ‘S’ i.e ث,ص and س in a single post by picking this س, which is commonly used for words of Sindhi origin. And the dish for ث ,ص and س is Saandhano or सांधाणो which in Sindhi means Pickle/s! In Sindhi, generally sour pickles are known as Khatain/Saandhano/Aathano while the syrup/sugar based (preserves) are called Murba or even, Chutney! So basically Saandhano is a pickle i.e a vegetable or fruit preserved in either vinegar or mustard oil or even in brine. And the Saandhano that I am sharing today is a simple Saandhano; carrot pickle, popularly known as Gajrun ji Khatain (Gajrun= carrots) or Saandhyala Gajroon as Saandhyal in Sindhi means something that is preserved or protected. Print Saandhano For AlifBe OF Sindhi Food ~10 Saandhano is Pickle in Sindhi and today I am sharing a very popular pickle recipe called Saandhyal Gajroon or carrots pickled in mustard oil and spices. Ingredients Red carrots 400 gms ( 2 plump carrots) Rai dal * 1 tbsp Turmeric powder ½ tbsp Red chilli powder ½ tbsp Salt as per taste Mustard Oil ¾ cup Fresh green garlic 3- 4 stalks with bulbs Method Heat mustard oil till smoking hot and allow it to cool completely. Rai dal* is easily available in kirana shops but if you wish, you can simply pound mustard seeds or grind coarsely, using a spice jar. Rinse well and pat dry fresh green garlic, remove any yellow or wilted stalks and chop roughly. Pound the chopped bulbs and stalks in a mortar pestle till coarse. Collect in a clean, dry bowl. Use 4-5 garlic cloves, minced well, if fresh garlic is not available. Rinse carrots with water and pat dry using a fresh kitchen towel. Top and tail and peel carrots. You can cut carrots in cubes, batons or wedges or can cut each into 2 inch piece and give a criss cross cut all the way till ¾ th of each piece. The idea is to make a space to stuff spices inside each piece of the carrot. Take the bowl with pounded garlic and add salt, chilli-powder, turmeric and mix it well. Take 2 tsp of mustard oil from the ¾ cup of oil that was heated and cooled and mix it in the garlic-spices mix. Now take a little of this spice mix and stuff each piece of carrot. Place all the stuffed carrots in a clean and dry glass jar and pour remaining of mustard oil. Unlike mango pickle, you need not cover whole carrots with oil. But on the flip side, the shelf life of this pickle is lesser than the pickles that are submerged in oil. Shake the jar well, few times a day, for 3-5 days. In a hot and humid weather the pickle is ready to eat in 4-5 days. The shelf life is 2-3 months, provided it is stored well. To increase shelf life you can add more oil to cover the carrots or can add some vinegar but it does alters the flavors and texture of this pickle, to a certain extent. So it is better to make this pickle in small batches. 3.5.3251 To help those who wish to learn Sindhi Language, I am trying to create small animated videos to facilitate understanding of formation of Sindhi alphabets. Do watch, like, share and subscribe to the Channel.

The post Saandhano For AlifBe Of Sindhi Food ~10 appeared first on Sindhi Rasoi |Sindhi Recipes.