20 August,2020 09:50 AM IST | Mumbai | Jovita Aranha
For children of the Paranjape household in Pune, memories of visarjan of their beloved Vighnaharta (demolisher of obstacles) are incomplete without the crunchiness of desiccated coconut and the sweetness of mishri and dry fruits served together in one traditional sweet, khirapat. "As kids, we would wait wide-eyed for the aarti to get over on the last day of the visarjan in the hope of devouring fistfuls of khirapat," recalls Jayesh Paranjape, who runs culinary tours through his venture, Western Routes. To bring these memories alive and rekindle your festive spirit in these bleak times, we invited his mother, home chef Meena Paranjape, to share a quick and easy-to-nail recipe that is made with everyday dry ingredients available in our kitchens. Don't forget to devour it, but ensure you do the aarti first.
Total time: 10 minutes Yield: 4
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Ingredients
½ cup desiccated coconut
1 tbsp powdered sugar or rock sugar
½ tsp khus-khus (poppy seeds) powder
1 tbsp dried dates powder
a pinch of cardamom powder
Raisins or other dry fruits like cashews or almonds as per your choice
Method
Grate the dried coconut. Set aside the desiccated mixture in a bowl. Set a pan over a low flame. When it's piping hot, add the grated coconut and dry-roast it for a minute or two. Keep the flame low at all times; stay alert so it doesn't burn. When the grated coconut has lost its chewy texture, is roasted enough and becomes brittle and crispy, transfer it to a bowl. Allow it to cool. Add poppy seeds or khus-khus to the pan and dry-roast it till golden. Once done, grind it into a powder and set it aside. If you do not have dry date powder at home, take some dried dates, dry-roast them in a similar manner like the poppy seeds, and grind to get the powder. Once that's done, mix the dry ingredients - the toasted grated coconut, powdered sugar, poppy seeds and cardamom. Throw in raisins, cashew or almonds and it's ready.
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