From Malpuas to Phirni, Savour These Tasty Holi Recipes from ‘The Tastes of India’ Podcast on Audible

With vibrant hues of gulal filling the air and laughter echoing through the neighbourhoods, Holi marks the celebration of colours, love and spring. Amidst the spirited festivities, it is impossible to miss the aroma of gujiyas, dahi bhallas and malpuas wafting from every kitchen window.

Well, what is an Indian festival without its signature delicacies? Join us on a flavourful journey as we bring to you a few simple recipes where every bite carries the essence of tradition and festivity. Explore more of these lip-smacking Holi delicacies from ‘The Tastes of India’ podcast on Audible this Holi!

Dahi Bhalla Papdi Chaat

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of Urad Dal, which must be soaked for 4 hours
• Salt (as required)
• 1 tbsp of ginger
• ½ tsp of red chilli powder
• Oil to deep fry
• 8 Bhallas
• 12 Papdis
• 3 cups of whisked yoghurt/curd (should not be sour)
• 1 tbsp of powdered sugar
• 2 medium potatoes
• ½ cup of boiled and chopped chickpeas
• 1/4th cup of green chutney
• 1/4th cup of roasted cumin powder
• 1/4th cup of dates and tamarind chutney
• 1 tsp of roasted jeera powder
• ½ tsp of chaat masala powder
• Red chilli powder (as per taste)
• 2 tbsp of cut coriander leaves
• Sev (as required)
• 2 tbsp of pomegranate
• Red chutney (as per required)

Method:

1. First of all, you will be making the bhallas. To do that, grind the black gram urad dal with salt and ginger paste with very little water because you want the batter to be smooth but not watery smooth. So grind it with very less water
2. Then, heat the oil and make small fritters with the batter until it turns golden brown
3. Immediately put them into a bowl of lukewarm water and let it soak for about five minutes
4. Squeeze the excess water out of each of these fritters (bhallas) and keep it aside
5. To make the bhalla papdi chaat, add sugar and salt to the yoghurt and whisk it till it is smooth
6. The whisked yoghurt is the most important ingredient in this chaat. Once it is done, keep it in the refrigerator till you use it. It is good if the yoghurt is slightly cold.
7. Arrange the papdis on a plate and place the bhallas and some potatoes on each of the papdi
8. Over that, put some boiled chickpeas, then cover it with chilled yoghurt as much as you want
9. Then pour a little green chutney and the sweet tamarind chutney and also sprinkle a little cumin powder, chaat masala, red chilli powder and salt
10. Garnish with coriander leaves, sev and pomegranate seeds and serve immediately!

Mango Phirni

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of mango pulp. Choose a pulpy mango, not a fibrous mango
• 4 tbsp of basmati rice. If you don’t have Basmati rice, you can also use any other raw rice
• 4 cups of milk
• 3/4 cup of condensed milk
• 1 tsp of cardamom powder
• 10 or 12 saffron strands
• 1/4 cup of pistas
• 1/4 cup of almonds

Method:

• In a bowl, add rice and soak it in water for about half an hour. Then, drain the water and grind the rice coarsely. Just keep in mind that you have to only coarsely grind the rice so that it looks somewhat like rava or suji
• In a heavy bottom vessel, add milk and bring it to a boil.
• Once milk is boiled, slowly add the ground rice and keep stirring so that no lumps are formed. This stage is very important because it is important that no lumps are formed in the mixture. So keep whisking it. Whisking is highly recommended
• Now add a few saffron strands and mix it well
• The milk will have a porridge-like inconsistency
• At this stage, add condensed milk and cardamom powder and mix everything well
• Then, cook for a few minutes more and when you see that the mixture has thickened completely, turn the flame off and let it come to room temperature
• Then refrigerate the phirni for at least an hour. After that, take it out from the fridge and add the mango puree to the phirni and combine it well
• Keep in mind that you have to add the mango purée only into the cold phirni. Don’t add it to hot phirni because then there is a possibility of the milk curdling
• Now add chopped almonds, pistachios and saffron strands. Combine the kesar mango phirni well
• Transfer the kesar mango phirni to individual serving bowls or if you have clay pots, you can transfer it into clay pots and refrigerate further till it is chill
• Then, serve the kesar mango phirni with additional saffron strands, almonds and pistachios

Malpua

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of all-purpose flour
• ½ cup of milk
• 1 tbsp of broken cashew nuts
• 1 tbsp of raisins. You can use the yellow raisins or the black raisins, whatever you prefer. We have used the black raisins for this recipe
• 1 tbsp of dry coconut chopped
• 4 pieces of crushed cardamom
• ½ tsp of fennel seeds, which is optional. If you don’t like the taste of fennel seeds, you can avoid that but we would recommend adding fennel seeds
• To make the syrup, you will need 3 cups of water, 2 cups of sugar, 1 tsp of green cardamom powder, and oil to fry.

Method:

1. Take the all-purpose flour in a bowl and mix milk into it by adding little by little
2. Add some cardamom powder, cashew nuts, raisins, dry coconut, mix it well and leave the batter aside to rest. Resting is a very important process in making malpua because it gives you a nice textured malpua. At least half an hour of resting is recommended. But if you can keep it aside for about 2 to 3 hours nothing like it
3. To make sugar syrup, take sugar and water in a large vessel and bring it to boil, stirring continuously
4. After some time, remove from heat, add the rest of the cardamom powder and set it aside
5. You can also add saffron to it to give it a slight yellowish colour but that’s entirely an optional step.
6. Once the pua mixer has rested for some time, heat oil and pour one small ladle of batter into the hot oil for frying. The method for dropping this batter into the oil is by following small circular motion so that the pua looks like that of a puri
7. Fry the pua on both sides, until golden brown. The right texture of the pua is when it appears slightly golden brown at the centre and a little darker brown on the edges and that you can achieve only if you set the batter aside for resting for sometime
8. Once the pua is fried on both sides, take out the fried pua from oil and transfer it into the sugar syrup immediately and relish this tasty delicacy!