With half the household in diet-mode and the other half preferring chocolates to traditional sweets, my Diwali sweet-making has dwindled down to just half of what my grandma used to make.

Well, in Granny’s time, everyone went to Grandma’s for Diwali. Nowadays, everyone goes to the beach. Or some exotic destination. Or anywhere at all to escape the tedious uncles and aunts that one meets only on this occasion.

So the question of making traditional foods for traditional festivals doesn’t really arise. But this year, I decided to make some of the traditional sweets myself, especially since my kitchen is now renovated. Besides, I quite like the idea of being one of the few people who still cook traditional food at home albeit in a thoroughly modern way.

The Diwali snacks that make up part of the traditional repertoire are known as ‘faral’ and are particularly eaten as a breakfast treat on Diwali morning. These homemade treats are also distributed among friends and relatives.

Luckily, our menus are set and one doesn’t have to figure out what to make and what not to make. Somethings are a given: the ladoos that are sweet, the Karanjis that are stuffed with sweet and the savoury Chivda and Chakli to balance out all the sweetness.

Many people have outsourced these snacks to home chefs (like my father used to say – these are homemade but not in my home) or to regular shops selling traditional foods. Some people have done away with traditional sweets altogether, preferring to gift fancy stuff like designer chocolates, designer mithai, food hampers or fruit baskets.

Home sweet Home

So this year, I made two kinds of This year I made ladoos which are one of the mainstays of Diwali: the ones made from chickpea flour ( Besan) and the other made of Semolina and Coconut ( Rava). Both these are roasted in pure ghee, a process that takes a long time. The of course the sugar is added and finally with slivered almonds, saffron and powdered cardamom to add to the taste and richness, the mixture is rolled into balls. I make mine small because I hate it when people take just the half leaving the other half looking like a lost soul. And I also use cupcake wrappers so that they can be lifted easily.

To balance the sweetness, I made chaklis, which are deep-fried and crisp, made out of a multigrain dough.

And since I’m not too sure how many people will eat them at home, I packed them off and sent them to my friends to enjoy.

You can see from the size of the packing that the friends too are just getting a wee bit – everyone is on a diet after all and if not our figures, we have to watch our health parameters.

Watch this space for recipes, which I shall post after the festival is over. Otherwise, just go online and check out Madhura’s website or better still Swiggy it to your doorstep!

I’m off now to make some more goodies…

Ciao,