A LITTLE SWEET & 100's of SPICE ... Ras Malai & Spicy Chickpeas for Diwali!

"I can't wait for tomorrow..." that phrase has been echoing through the house since yesterday. The boy is over the top excited , and the daughter wonders why he can't 'grow up'. His excitement is for Diwali, one of the prettiest festivals in India. Diwali, is popularly known as the "festival of lights"; it's most significant spiritual meaning is "the awareness of the inner light".It's to do with lighting of lamps, making rangolis or floral designs on the floor, and for the boy, the chance to shoot off some fire crackers... and enjoy more sweets! He has 3 'most favourite' festivals, as he calls them ... Holi, the festival of colour, Diwali, the festival of light (or crackers in his case), and Christmas. Both kids enjoyed the flowers, festivities, sweets and crackers when young, though crackers have been significantly reduced in number over the past few years. Too much pollution. We haven't been able to convince the kids to let them go entirely though, but we still try, year after year! Giving in to the hubs sweet tooth, I often try something new on Diwali, both sweet & savoury. I did Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Fudge and Spicy Almonds last year. Was twittering with Alessio @ Recipe Taster the other night, and he said he made some yummy Indian pudding with condensed milk and cream. That set me thinking, and I eventually settled for Ras Malai, an Indian soft cheese based dessert. This was a stove top recipe, but there is another one, ricotta based, baked in the oven that I will try soon.It's a very popular North Indian dessert, and was surprisingly easy to make at home. 'Ras' meaning juice and 'malai' meaning cream. It's a soft cheese based dessert, where the cottage cheese roundels are cooked lightly in a sugar syrup to form a sponge like cloud. These are then gently squeezed and immersed in a creamy reduced milk base, flavoured sensuously with saffron & cardamom. Mine didn't come out a 100% light because I used 2% milk for the cottage cheese / paneer, but they tasted out-of-this-world good! Make sure you serve them chilled, which is how they taste best. I made one batch out of ricotta as well, and that was delish too. They're a great make ahead dessert & very indulgent. I'm sending these off to Mansi @ Fun & Food Cafe for her event, Sweet Celebrations.

For savoury, I went to a recipe I've had bookmarked for ages, a spicy chickpeas recipe off Cathy's blog @ Noble Pig. I loved the way she wrote that you can have a few thousands of these. I changed the spices a teeny bit to adapt to an Indian theme, and they were yum. A nice twist to the regular chickpeas / cholas / chanas we eat at home. Play around with spices as you like, but don't forget the lime! I daresay this will also make a nice tossed Indian salad with chopped onions and tomatoes too.It was fun making the spicy chickpeas, and you can make it simpler by using canned chickpeas. Do stop by at Noble Pig to see her version, made out of canned chickpeas.