Indian festive recipes ? Get set for Diwali recipes

This Diwali we foresee some reckless indulgence. For those who have the quintessential sweet tooth, it is time to revel! The sweet shops will have feverish sales pitches, and mithais will sell like the proverbial hot cakes, the pricing (though exorbitant) not deterring anyone! It is going to be one huge enthusiastic round of gifting and receiving mounds of laddoos, pedas and kaju katlis. The trend of chocolates coming upfront will continue as also the usual fancily packaged boxes of dry fruits (?the-more-packaging-less-nuts? kind of box).

For those of you who want to provide home made goodies to all your friends and relatives, we would strongly suggest be very wary of the raw ingredients. As far as possible, use homemade ghee or ghee bought from a very reliable source. The quality of ghee can make or mar the sweetmeat. Also the quality of maida and besan. Buy fresh and sieve before use. Sugar ? it is bound to have some dirt factor ? unless you plan to go in for the more pricey qualities.

For your choice of Diwali recipes, you can click on www.sanjeevkapoor.com and in a fortnght?s time, there will be whole lot of them for you to enjoy.

Gujiyas or karanjis can be made some two-three days before the festival. Keep them in airtight tins. As also mohan thaal and besan laddoos. Boondi laddoos should be made just a day early and consumed/distributed as fast as they can be. All khoya-based barfis should be refrigerated or consumed on priority. Those who wish can make jalebis and gulab jamuns at home and serve them hot. All packs of sweetmeats that come along as gifts should be unwrapped and inspected immediately for if they contain some easily perishable Bengali sweets and malai barfi they are best consumed the same day or refrigerated till the following morning.

There is a great influx of kaju katli based mithais. The base is excellent for shaping into miniature watermelons, custard apples, corn-on-the-cob, a kalash and what have you! These look very attractive. Savouries like namkeen shakkarpare, methi mathri, cholafalli and chiwda are other favourites that will be highly visible during the festive season. All these Diwali recipes and more await.

Coming up: Ten top Diwali recipes and serving ideas