Gach For Mahalakshmi ~ AlifBe ~39

Alka Keswani — Mon, 20 Sep 2021 06:18:22 +0000

A G^ach, literally means a quarter in Sindhi language. The sweetened dough ball is rolled into a thick ‘roti’, cut into quarters and deep fried. These fried ‘cookies’ are then garnished with powdered sugar, chopped nuts, dried rose petals and a spoon full of hot oil is poured on sugar. It sort of, forms a crunchy sugar glaze and makes the cookie more visually appealing though, more calorie rich. Ideally G^ach are made using All purpose flour (Maida) with ghee for moyan but these taste good enough even if made with whole wheat flour. Video Recipe of G^ach: This time I made a vegan version by using oil instead of Ghee. These fried cookies are made for Thadri and Mahalakshmi festival and are mostly sent to the married daughters/sisters as food gifts. Shall share about Mahalakshmi festival in a separate post as we will be observing the festival towards the end of this month. These are also known as Chotha/ Chautha (as in 1/4th). And if you cut these in round shape using a cookie cutter or rim of a bowl/glass, these are called Mithi Tikkyun (Singular: Mithi tikki), meaning sweet tikkis. And well, the 39 th alphabet of Sindhi AlifBe is ڳ in Sindhi, ग in Devanagari and ‘G^‘ as in G^arho (Red), in Roman Sindhi. This is one of the peculiar consonants used in Sindhi language. As obvious the corresponding dish starting with ڳ is G^ach. Print Gach For Mahalakshmi ~ AlifBe ~39 Serves: 8 servings G^ach , the fried cookies are made for Thadri and Mahalakshmi festival. Ingredients 2 cups flour (I have used whole wheat flour but these are made with Maida too) 2 tbsp Semolina ½ cup Ghee / oil ½ cup water ¾ th cup Sugar ¼th tbsp of Green cardamom powder 8-10 Almonds 8 -10 Unsalted pistachios Some dried rose petals for garnishing Oil for frying Method Grind ¾ th cup of sugar. Use ½ a cup from this and leave the rest for the garnish. Add that ½ cup of powdered sugar to ½ cup of water and mix. It may not fully dissolve but that's ok. Just make sure to stir it well while adding to the flour. Take 2 cups of flour and add semolina, elaichi powder and ghee/ oil. You may need ½ cup or little less of oil/ghee. Do not add oil at once since if it is in excess the G^ach will crumble while frying. Adding little oil at once, in the flour, keep mixing the flour to form crumbs. Take a portion and try to bind it in a fist. If the dough retains the shape, the moyan is sufficient. If not, then add little more of ghee/oil. Refer the recipe video! Now stir the sugar water mix and gradually add it to the flour. Knead to make a hard dough. Divide the dough into two portions. Take one portion and roll it using a rolling pin to make a roti of ½ or ¼ inch thickness, depending on how thick you want the G^ach to be. Slice this 'roti' into 4 quarters. Remember that these take a long time to fry. Thicker the gach, more the time needed for frying it. The edges may be rough. The beauty of Gach lies in the rough edges but if you wish you can use a mould to smoothen the edges. Heat oil in the pan and once oil is hot, lower the heat. Carefully add the quarters (do not crowd the pan) to the hot oil. Allow it to cook on low heat. Stir the oil but do not flip the G^ach yet. Allow it to 'set' well. If you flip it too early, the G^ach will crumble. If you flip it too late, it will over cook. Carefully flip the sides and continue frying on medium to low heat, till golden brown Remove from oil and drain on kitchen towel/ tissue paper. Now garnish each G^ach with a tbsp of powdered sugar that we saved in the beginning. Sprinkle some chopped nuts, dried rose petals and pour a tbsp of hot oil on each fried g^ach. Repeat the process with the remaining dough. Allow G^ach to cool well. Once cool, the G^ach turns darker and crunchier. Store in an airtight container. These stays good for almost a week if made with Ghee or for 3-4 days if oil is used. But I bet these wont last that long. 3.5.3251 To watch the short video tutorials about how to write in Sindhi, do watch the video!

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Thadri festival~ Food And Rituals

Alka Keswani — Thu, 03 Sep 2015 12:26:35 +0000

Thadri, a festival celebrated by Sindhis, 7 days after Rakhsabandhan, to please Goddess Jog Maya, is a day to consume cold (cooked a day ahead) and pro biotics like curds and pickle. It is similar to the Shitla Ashtami and Basoda festivals and generally the lady of the house cooks food like Lola, koki, paratha etc and the next day the whole family is supposed to consume the cold food. While many people write off this tradition as regressive, there is some science involved here, to support the rituals, to some extent. Without engaging into a debate of right or wrong, I am sharing the recipes and rituals for Thadri festival, since I am finding it hard to reply individually to everyone inquiring about it. Please note that traditionally everything was cooked on a sigri/chulha, later on a kerosene stove and that chulha /stove was not used on Thadri to cook anything (i.e it was kept cool). Since it is a time consuming process hence nowadays food for thadri is cooked on a gas stove and you can use kerosene stove just to cook lola. Some people cover the burner of gas stove that was used to cook lola and on Thadri nothing is cooked on that particular burner. You can use other burner to cook tea, milk etc, or satvik food for those who cannot eat cold food for the whole day) Do whatever works for you! Generally the food that is consumed on Thadri consists of: Lola (mandatory) For recipe of Lola, click here Koki For recipe of Koki, click here Besreen/besani Dal paata phulka: To make dal paata phulka, rinse well and soak moong dal for an hour. Drain and roast slightly in some oil in a pan, add salt, turmeric powder and green chillies (optional) and boil in some water till al dente. Drain if there is any excess water. You can add a tempering of cumin seeds, coriander powder and red chili powder and add some amchoor too. Cool properly and use this to make stuffed parathas, the way aloo parathas are made. Around 1 cup of cooked dal is needed to make 4-5 parathas. Dahi vada For the recipe of dahi vada, click here Methi subzi For the recipe of Methi subzi, click here Karela daas For the recipe of karela daas, click here Mirchi pakora For the recipe of mirchi pakora, click here Along with the above mentioned food, Sindhis like to relish: Bhindi aloo (fried okra and potato chunks, spiced with salt, coriander powder, red chilly powder and turmeric) Veg sandwich (without toasting bread and made using ingredients that are boiled or made a day ahead) Sai (green) chutney Basar ji khatairn (Onion Pickle) Singar (Nylon sev) Also some people make fried lola (rottah), ghach or chautha, literally meaning the quarters (sweetened maida or atta dough, rolled and cut into quarters, fried and sprinkled with powdered sugar on which some hot ghee/oil is poured) and satpura (layered, fried, crispy puris made from maida) too. Here is how you can plan to cook the whole meal with ease. The day before Thadri, in the afternoon, mix sugar/ jaggery in water and mix it well. Keep it aside. Soak Mung dal, chop onions, green chilies etc for koki and besani. Peel garlic for subzis. Gather all the ingredients to make green chutney (Coriander leaves, chilies, mint, tamarind, garlic, ginger, cumin) in a bowl covered with cling film and refrigerate. If you wish to make dahi vada, then soak urad dal too. Mostly dry subzis like methi, karela dhaas, bhindi aloo etc are also cooked along with mirchi pakora. So if you plan to make all these, simply clean a bunch of fenugreek leaves and peel bitter gourds, make a slit (lengthwise) and add salt. Similarly, slit the bhavnagri mirchi (or the chilies that are thick and are used for pickles or fritters) lengthwise and stuff a mixture of salt and amchoor (or lemon juice) and keep aside. Then go ahead and take a nap, if possible. To begin the marathon cooking, start with boiling mung dal (to be stuffed to make parathas) till it’s just cooked but not mushy (al dente). Add spices to it and let it cool. Prepare stuffing for karela. Knead the dough for parathas and let the dough rest for a while. Knead the dough for koki and besani and start cooking. Please be patient and cook these on medium flame. Do not cringe on oil/ghee. Make sure you boil enough of milk if you wish to set the yogurt at home. Boil some potatoes and beetroot too and buy some fresh sliced bread so that you can make veg sandwiches (without toasting bread) on Thadri. While Koki/besani is being cooked, you can start cooking subzis like methi aloo, stuffed karela, bhindi aloo etc. Using cooked moongdal, make ‘dal paata phulka’ or the stuffed dal parathas. Grind urad dal for vadas (bhalla). Fry in batches and keep aside to cool. Make the batter for coating mirchi pakodas and fry pakore till golden brown. Make green chutney. Now using the sugar syrup, knead the dough for lola. Reserve some dough to make 3 lolris and 7 akhris (explained below). Cook lola on medium to low flame using generous amount of oil/ghee. Once you are done with cooking lola, place a mud/clay plate; daangi and cook akhryun and lolryun using the extra dough that you have reserved after making lola. You need to divide that portion of reserved dough into 7 lemon sized balls and 3 slightly bigger ones. The 7 akhryun are rolled between palms and slightly pressed while the 3 lolryun are rolled into small discs. Cook all these on the hot mud plate and keep aside in a bowl and cover it well. In absence of a mud plate you can use a tawa but make sure that you do not use it on Thadri for cooking anything. When you are done with cooking, carefully sprinkle some water on daangi to cool it. Some people switch off the flame after sprinkling water, while some do so prior to sprinkling. If there is any water remaining on the daangi, drain it. Place some raw rice and sugar (akho) and keep it covered. Let everything that you have cooked, cool down properly and then place everything in suitable containers. As a common rule, Lolas are kept in a separate container, while koki, besani and dal paata can be kept together in one container. Pack subzis, vadas, mirchi pakoras in airtight boxes. You can refrigerate vadas, boiled potatoes and beetroot, green chutney but everything else need be kept outside at room temperature. Set the yogurt before sleeping. Soak a handful of chanadal (or kabuli chana, depending on your family rituals) and rice, in water either at night or do so early morning on Thadri. Next day i.e on Thadri, the lady who has cooked Lolas needs to follow the rituals. After taking a bath (preferably with cold water), wearing the same clothes that she had worn while cooking, needs to carry a lota (made of steel, brass or copper) and place this lota on the stove/burner that was used to cooked the lola and apply some kumkum. Placing the akhryun and lolris on a plate, a dot of dahi and kumkum is applied on each. To perform puja, take a bowl and mix the soaked chanadal, rice, akhryun ( keep the lolryun aside), some dahi and kumkum. Take a portion of this mix into your left hand and while patting it with your right hand, recite the following: ” Hik seeyar, bha seeyar, tey siyar chaar, laakhro saakhro , nandhi maayi, wadi maayi, langhaye paar, mai maata je aadhar”(this is a prayer, for requesting Goddess of fire to save the family from the wrath of diseases like chickenpox, measles and mumps). You have to do this thrice with your left hand and thrice with your right hand. Also a portion of this enclosed in your fist, is made to touch the closed eyes of each family member. This mixture is then immersed in any water body/ river, along with daangi, on the day following the Thadri. One lolri is given to any girl child, the other, to a cow and the remaining one is distributed as prasad among family members. Once the rituals are over, the family can have the cold food. Soak vadas in water and then add to the beaten curd. Try to consume parathas in the morning and the other stuff later on, since parathas tend to spoil fast. You can also make veg sandwiches and chaat in the evening . Don’t forget to share some food with your friends or neighbors :-).

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Gach For Mahalakshmi ~ AlifBe ~39

Thadri festival~ Food And Rituals