Karanji
Recipe submitted by Manish Paranjpe,
Fourth Grade (with help from a parent)
Nationality/Ethnicity – Indian
The Story Behind the Recipe
It is November in India and everybody is celebrating the festival of
Diwali. People are lighting fireworks in their yards.
I
had been asking my mom to make this delicious traditional sweet that is
eaten during Diwali. So she decided that I could help her make it. The
sweet is called Karanji. It is a pastry filled with sweet stuffing. I
have tasted many styles and I thought my mom’s was the best. We started
off by getting all the ingredients to make the dough and the stuffing.
My mom rolled out the dough into small, flat circles and I filled them
with the stuffing. Once they were filled, my mom fried them. I could not
wait to take a bite!
Then we sat down for dinner. My mom had cooked many dishes and the aroma
was wonderful. The crescent-shaped sweet was mouth-watering. My mom and
I really enjoyed eating this because we knew it was a tedious job to
make this sweet. As I took my first bite, I could smell the flavor of
the spices and taste the coconut stuffing. It was delicious, so soft and
chewy! I wish I could have this every day instead of just once a year.
Ingredients:
Dough
-
1½
cups plain flour
-
½ cup fine semolina
-
4 teaspoons oil
-
1 cup warm milk
-
Oil for frying
Stuffing
Preparation
Directions:
Dough
In a large bowl combine the flour, semolina and milk. Knead the dough
until stiff. Keep covered for 4 hours.
Stuffing
Shell the cardamom pods and remove the seeds. Pound into a fine powder.
Heat a pan, add the coconut, cream and sugar. Mix well. Cook on medium
heat, add cardamom powder and mix well. Remove from heat and let it
cool.
Dough
Separate the dough into 30 equal parts. Roll into a ball. On a flat
surface, flatten the balls using a rolling pin, flatten the balls into
circles about 3 inches in diameter. Place 1 to 2 teaspoons of the
stuffing in the center of the circle. Fold into a semi-circle shape and
squeeze the edges. Heat oil in a frying pan. Fry each karanji until
golden brown. Leave to cool.
