“Shondesh” is what it is called in West Bengal, “Sandesh” it is elsewhere, & Cheese Fudge is the closest translation I can come up with. “It’s dry yet moist in sweetness. It won’t exactly melt in your mouth but its sweet aftertaste lures your taste buds to bite into more such soft wonders. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the mysterious charm of Sandesh — a term meaning news — a bearer of good tidings for those away from home.” (The Times of India)
Aka Chikki !
Every Indian is familiar with these cute brittle candies made with Jaggery/Gur & nuts (peanuts, cashews, almonds..), sesame seeds, puffed rice or even dessicated coconut, peanut/groundnut being the most common of all. When we were kids, this was one sweet sought after treat we could easily afford with our pocket money. I remember these being available at every street corner vendor, & we would run down to the stores & buy these little rectangle pieces wrapped in clear wraps for 25 paisa a piece.
This is one special recipe I learnt to make this from a very dear friend of mine. Once during a friends meet my dear friend F walked in with a big bowl of something so aromatic that I immediately uncovered to see that it this beautiful orangish yellow cream speckled with green & white nuts was. She smiled & said “It’s Firni, & the color is the color of Saffron“! I wanted to skip food & dive in to this right away…. But we waited & waited till dinner was over…finally when we did get to have this I was totally floored, needless to say Firni was the star of the evening… it tasted divine. Thank you so much dear one for introducing this to me, for this is one of our top favorites now.
Firni is a kind of Rice Pudding, made with Powdered Rice. It is similar to what we call “kheer” or “payasam” in India, but unlike Kheer/Payasam, it does not use whole rice grains. Firni is flavored with lots of Saffron & Cardamom & adorned with a lot of Nuts & sometimes Dry fruits too.
What a strange sounding Translation! Anyway…
India has a large repertoire of sweets. Some sweets are consumed all over the country whereas some are only typical to a region. Traditionally, a lot of Indian sweets are prepared with milk, sugar & flour. In India sweets play a very important role in the culture. Every happy occasion, every ceremony, & festival is marked by distribution of sweets. Just like a box of chocolate, or a bottle of wine is brought in as a gift, a regular form of gift in India is a box of sweets.
Kulfi, or unchurned Indian ice cream (without eggs), is a summer must have that you can whip up at home without an ice cream maker. It’s rich and creamy made with pure milk (traditionally & the milk is boiled down to reduce to half its amount), and it’s usually full of nuts in some form. The most common flavors are malai (plain), badam (almond), Elaichi(cardamom), jafrani(saffron) and pistachio. The nuts and the flavors are added to the reduced milk, boiled for some more time, cooled and put in moulds & frozen. Kulfi is traditionally sold on the street in India, in terracotta molds (matkas) that impart their own beautiful flavor. The dish is of Pakistani or may be even Iranian origin brought to India during the Mughal rule.
Gujias are fried pastries filled with coconut or khoya (Thickened Milk) and dry fruits. It is a festival sweet and mostly prepared during Holi, but what the heck?! Why not during Diwali or any other festival too? During these days of Durga Puja, and all the upcoming festivals I was actually craving for Gujias which I had years ago when we visited india during Holi. My hubby’s Aunt had prepared these delicous Gujias, & till date I have not forgotten them. Unfortunately, I did not get an opportunity to ask her the recipe. This is what I came up with and it might not taste like the unforgetable ones back in India, but these did taste delicous too.
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