As the month of February ends and winter moves towards spring and harvest, nature renews itself all around us and March and April bring new colours, new smells; And as the gray land turns into fresh shades of green, and as crops, vegetation and stems grow, India celebrates the change of seasons with vibrancy and vibrancy. Spring is the beginning of the harvest season, and most parts of India welcome this new season of happiness and prosperity with many different festivals. And need I say that what makes Indian festivals so exciting is all the food that these festivals bring.
The first festival that literally inaugurates the spring season is ‘Vasant Panchami’. Coming on the heels of ‘Makar Sankranti’ and ‘Pongal’, ‘Vasant’ means spring and ‘Panchami’ means “fifth day”. This festival is celebrated every year on the fifth day of the month ‘Magha’ and is like a pre-welcome ceremony for Vasant and Holi, which comes about 40 days later. Seems a bit complicated? It really isn’t. It is the festival of spring, 40 days before Holi, but sets the tone and mood for the season to come.
Like most festivals, it is also associated with the divinity, in this case, the goddess Saraswati. Saraswati is the goddess of knowledge, so this is considered a good time to start new endeavors. But the most endearing aspect of this festival is the use of color to emphasize its importance. The color of ‘Vasant Panchami’ is yellow, the alleged favorite colour, of Goddess Saraswati. But it is also the color of the mustard fields that bloom at this time, the color of the ripening harvest, the color of the sun that shines in all its glory, as well as the color of light, prosperity and optimism. Yellow defines the season, and children and people alike not only wear yellow clothes but also cook yellow food and make yellow sweets.
When I say yellow food, what immediately comes to mind is yellow moong dal and khichdi. Vasant Panchami is Khichdi festival. Especially during Saraswati Puja in Bengal. In Bengal they cook khichdi, or “kitchuri”, with aromatic gobindo bhog rice, and split moong dal. This ‘Khichuri’ is celebrated with carrots, green peas, cauliflower, potatoes and a range of similar vegetables. The strong aroma and strong flavor of this “kitchuri” comes from ginger, garlic, cumin, green chilies and garam masala. And then there is ghee. It just eliminates the kitchuri and gives it the righteousness and sanctity of the festival.
The other yellow food cooked in Bengal during Saraswati Puja is beguile. Beguni is a pakora made from brinjal. Like Beguni, nothing is better than Dal-Torkari-Rice or Khichdi. It’s actually quite simple, thin slices of brinjal dipped in a batter of gram flour, rice flour, salt, sugar, turmeric powder, and Kashmiri red chili powder, carefully deep fried, into crisp golden yellow discs of joy. As out.
Basant Panchami khichdi is simple because after that we have a feast of rich, delicious and saffron filled sweets which are not only yellow but filled with cream, milk and dry fruits. Let us start with the favorite halwa of North India and Rajasthan, the golden yellow colored moong dal halwa. Made well, this pudding can be rich and decadent. It’s a simple mixture of moong, which gets smothered with sugar, ghee and cardamom powder, and is slow-cooked in milk and khoya, garnished with chopped nuts and painstaking, but all this without hassle. Worth it. Coarse moong dal turns into a sweet, soft, crunchy moist and sumptuous dessert.
My favorite yellow sweet is Boondi Ka Laddu. As we all know that the word Bundi is derived from the Hindi word ‘Boond’ which means drop or drop. So boondi is made from gram flour or gram flour. Small round balls of gram flour batter are deep fried in hot oil or ghee to make crunchy pearls which can be either sweet or salty. These besan beads are soaked in saffron flavored syrup mixed with ghee, dry fruits, cardamom and dry fruits and then rolled into small balls or boondi laddus. Another variant of Boondi Ka Laddu is Motichoor Laddu. These are the same laddus, only the laddus of Bundi are bigger and the laddus of Motichoor are smaller. Both the laddus are made with gram flour or gram flour mixture. But in Maharashtra we make boondi laddus, crunchy, tough and impossible to bite, but otherwise it is a sweet and soft decadent affair.
Talking about sweet balls, there is Rajbhog in Bengal. A return to the royal culture of Bengal, Rajbhog is often made during special occasions and festivals such as Vasant Panchami or Saraswati Puja. Rajbhog is a rasgulla, rather a big rasgulla. This giant yellow rasgulla made of paneer (chhena) is stuffed with almonds and pistachios and dipped in sweet saffron syrup. The challenge is to eat this sweet yellow ball in one mouthful.
In South India, spring sunset is celebrated with the yellow color, rava kesari, called sooji halwa in the north and rava shirra in Maharashtra. Rava made from rava (semolina or semolina) is roasted in ghee until it turns golden brown and emits a nutty, delicious aroma. Then add raisins and dry fruits, soaked in saffron and reduce with condensed milk. The end result is a soft, fluffy, luscious and melt-in-your-mouth pudding with a silky but grainy texture. In Maharashtra, Rava Shira is considered auspicious and is served as “prasad” or “bhog” during most of the pujas. I don’t know why, but our family always added some small sliced bananas to the pudding.
We also make Yellow Shrikhand in Maharashtra and Gujarat. Creamy and flavorful Shrikhand is made from hung curd. Curd is not hung long enough to turn into cheese, but hung for just the right amount of time to lose some of the moisture. Then a little crunchy curd is mixed with powdered sugar until it becomes thick, smooth and creamy. Saffron and dry fruits are mixed in it. Especially pistachios. Shrikhand is often eaten with hot fried puris.
And finally, a very tasty yellow dessert is Meetha Chawal or Kesari Bhaat, which is similar to Rava Kesari, but made with rice. The rice is cooked in ghee with the addition of cinnamon, and cloves and then sugar and saffron. When the rice is fully cooked and a little sticky, the rice has a taste of cardamom and nutmeg. So similar to Zafrani Paulo or Zarda. To be blasphemous, I like to eat my Kesari Bhaat with spicy mutton kheema or prawn pickle. After all, aren’t festivals supposed to make you happy? And that makes me very happy.
Kunal Vijaykar is a food writer based in Mumbai. He tweets @kunalvijayakar and can be followed on Instagram @kunalvijayakar. What is the name of his youtube channel? The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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