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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!

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Tosha For AlifBe~6

Alka Keswani — Sat, 20 Feb 2021 07:08:17 +0000

We are now at 6th letter of AlifBe i.e Sindhi Alphabet series and the letter is ت which is त in Devanagari while in Roman Sindhi it is written as T~ i.e by using a Tilde (~) as suffix as we don’t have a corresponding alphabet in English. It is pronounced as T~ as in Taiwan, Taliban, Tabassum etc. In Sindhi it is taught as T~ for Taaro i.e a star! And the Sindhi dish starting with T~ is Tosha! Tosha are very popular Sindhi sweets and these are mostly distributed in Temples as prasad and also in condolence meets, particularly if the departed soul was an elderly person! There are many theories about why this particular sweet is called Tosha (Singular is Tosho). Tosha in Swahili language means enough/suffice but then the word Tosha comes from the Persian word Tosha which means provisions. Also the term ‘Toshasi rah’, which in Persian means ‘provisions for the journey’ or Viaticum, points out the connection as the Tosha sweet was also carried by many people in the past when they would travel for official purposes or otherwise! Also in Punjabi the word ‘ToshaKhana’ is used for the secured storehouse for valuables and there is a Toshakhana in Darbar Sahib in Amritsar. Toshakhana (Meaning Treasure house) in Jammu and Kashmir, during the Dogra rule were the secured rooms in Mubarak Mandi complex where precious antiques were stored. It is interesting to note that there is sweet dish called Tosha (Toosha) popular in North of Kashmir which is different from Sindhi Tosha but is similar to Sindhi Bhori (crumble) and is made by first crumbling a maida roti (Sindhis make whole wheat flour rotis) and mixing it with sugar and nuts along with poppy seeds and the crumble is then shaped into oblong balls. In Punjabi the term Tosha means happiness or satisfaction and in Fazilka (a place in Fazilka district, Punjab) Tosha sweets are immensely popular but those are made using cottage cheese as base. Sindhi Tosha too are made in varying ways. Some use beaten curds while other use milk to knead the dough. Some add pepper and shahi jeera while others don’t. Some add sweetened milk while others add sweetened water in the dough. Sometimes rose essence is used in the syrup made for coating Tosha. Basically Tosha are oblong or pod shaped fried dough rolls coated with sugar syrup ( somewhat similar to the syrup coated Shakar para!) The syrup is of almost 3 thread consistency and hence once cooled, it crystallises as a crumbly coating on Tosha. If the syrup is of less than 2 thread consistency when you add Tosha to it, the fried dough will turn soggy after cooling. I have tried many recipes for making Tosha but today I am sharing the one that gave me best results! Print Tosha For AlifBe~6 Tosha are oblong shaped fried dough balls with a coating of crystallised sugar! Ingredients 1 cup All purpose flour 2 tsp Ghee 1 tsp sugar 3-4 tsp of water 2 very small pinches of Baking soda A pinch of salt A tsp of milk powder Oil for frying For Sugar Syrup ½ cup Sugar ¼ cup water Few strands of Saffron (optional) Method In a small bowl mix a tsp or so of sugar and 3-4 tsp of water till sugar dissolves. You can use milk or beaten curds in place of water. In a mixing bowl (or use a paraat or thali) mix the flour, milk powder, a pinch of salt, baking soda (be very careful, as excess of soda will not only impact the flavors but also the texture) and ghee till the mixture resembles bread crumbs. The mix when packed in a fist should retain the shape and not crumble. Add more ghee if needed. Using the sweetened water, knead the dough. It should neither be too hard nor too soft (somewhat like the dough for samosa/ pakwan). Let the dough rest for 30 min. Knead the dough again to smoothen it as much as possible and then cut small portions and roll each to make smooth oblong shaped rolls. From one cup of maida I got 8-9 rolls. You can increase or decrease the size of the rolls. Take a frying pan and add sufficient oil for frying. Heat oil till medium hot. Fry Tosha, in batches, first on medium flame and then on low flame, constantly stirring so that the Tosha are fried evenly. Once pale brown, remove Tosha from oil and drain on kitchen towel/Tissue! Take a pan or Kadai and add ½ cup sugar and ¼ cup water and let it boil. Cook the syrup till it starts to froth. Check the consistency. It should be around 2 thread consistency. Mix in the fried Tosha and stir well so that the syrup coats each Tosho evenly. By this time the syrup would be too frothy. Switch off the flame when you can see only a little of syrup around the edges. Remove Tosha from the pan and spread on a plate. Make sure that Tosha are not piled up on each other. Once cooled, the syrup will crystallized and form a pale while crumbly coating on Tosha. Allow Tosha to cool down completely before consuming. Store in an airtight container. These stay well for 4-5 days! 3.5.3251 And if you are interested in learning how to read and write Arabic Sindhi then do join me in my journey of exploring the Sindhi language and script along with Sindhi food. To begin with you can check these small videos that are created to help you understand how the consonants/alphabets are formed or written. To make it easier to understand Devnagari and Roman Sindhi Alphabets are given alongside! Do let me know if you too are learning the script and the language along with me. I can share helpful tips/notes or learning material that will help you immensely! Can you guess the next alphabet or the dish??

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AlifBe Of SindhiFood~1

Alka Keswani — Sun, 31 Jan 2021 20:23:50 +0000

So here I am, as promised, trying to bridge the gap between Sindhi Language and cuisine, with a series of posts, sharing a Sindhi Alphabet and a corresponding Sindhi dish!Firstly some interesting facts about Sindhi Script:To begin with, there is no consensus about the origin of Sindhi language. While some authorities believe that the language may have its roots in Pre Sanskrit era, in one of the most ancient civilizations known to us, the Indus Valley Civilization, others believe it to be originating from Prakrit. The carved stone seals excavated from Mohen Jo Daro (the place and era that Sindhis believe that their ancestors to be from ) are yet to be properly deciphered but many claim it to be Proto Dravidian. I am in in touch with some experts in Sindhi Language and trying to gain as much information as possible and I will make sure to share it with those who are interested.As mentioned in my previous post, the Persian-Arabic Sindhi script (that I will be following for # Alif Be), is one of the many scripts that were used by Sindhis in bygone era and it was imposed on Sindhis under British rule in 1853 as a result of which other scripts started vanishing. Unlike many popular scripts of the world, Arabic Sindhi is written from Right-to-left which means that the first letter of a word is on the right edge and we start writing from the last page of the notebook, moving towards the front pages as we progress! Interesting, no?Arabic Sindhi Alphabets or the Varnmala, also known as Alif Be is a set of 52 consonants and thus it is difficult to transliterate Sindhi words or alphabets in Hindi or English since Hindi script consists of 33 (or 35) consonants while in English there are just 26 letters!Sindhi language is so phonetically rich that the Arabic script used as a base for writing Sindhi was heavily modified. The 28 letters of Arabic script were modified by adding or arranging dots to the existing consonants to do justice to the Sindhi Language.Devanagiri and Roman Sindhi are currently used as alternative scripts to write Sindhi.Sindhi consonants in Alif Be can be divided into 16 groups depending on their shapes. The base structure of consonants in a particular group is same but the position of dots (or absence of any dots in some cases) is a differentiating factor when it comes to identifying a consonant.Shall share many other facts, interesting insights and other details of the language and script and may also rope in well known linguists to share their knowledge. So stay tuned!Coming to the Alif Be…‘ا’ -Alif is the first letter of Sindhi Alphabet and is pronounced as A in Affection, and in Sindhi it is taught as “Alaf/Alif Ambh (Ambh is Mango in Sindhi) Since new beginnings must always begin on a sweet note, let us start Alif Be series with a sweet dish. So #AlifBE with Sindhi Food~1 is ا – Atte Ja ladoon. To understand the construction/ formation of letters in a better way, hubby dear helped in creating a small video explaining the same.Please do check the video: Atte Ja ladoon are shared with near and dear ones on happy occasions like marriage, birth of a child, housewarming, baby shower etc. In olden days when a child would pass school exams with flying colors, ladoo were distributed in the neighborhood. Coming to the Recipe of Atte Ja Ladoon:Ingredients:2 cups of Whole wheat flour (Coarse)1 cup of Sugar1 cup of melted ghee4-5 green cardamons pounded 3/4 cup Chopped nuts (optional)A handful of raisins (optional) Method:Dry roast flour on medium to low flame in a heavy bottom kadai till faintly aromatic.Gradually add melted ghee and keep stirring to assure that lumps are broken. Add pounded cardamoms. You can use cardamom powder if you wish (1/4 tsp or more, depending on the quality of powder)Once the flour is nicely roasted i.e the color appears to be nice brown and the aroma is more pronounced, switch off the gas.Add sugar immediately (you can use powdered sugar if you wish).Add raisins and chopped nuts ( I prefer almonds and pistachios) and mix well.Let the mix cool down till it is tolerable to work with. Make ladoon of preferred size. Cool and store in airtight container.

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