Must-try desserts for a sweet Eid celebration in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: Eid ul-Fitr, meaning ‘festival of the breaking of the fast,’ is one of the most significant celebrations in the Islamic calendar. It marks the end of Ramzan, a holy month during which Muslims fast from dawn to sunset, abstaining from food and drink. Fasting is considered a way to strengthen faith and draw closer to God. Since the Islamic calendar follows the lunar cycle, the date of Eid al-Fitr varies each year. This year, it is likely to be on March 31, which is a government Gazette holiday. Eid al-Fitr is a time of official receptions and private visits, when friends greet one another, presents are given, and new clothes are worn.

There is a vast array of food and desserts made for family and friends, the most famous being Sheer Khurma. Sheer Khurma is a delicious and rich Mughlai dessert made for Ramzan. It is the most popular and commonly served dessert in Hyderabad and is made with fine vermicelli, dates, milk, chiroli seeds and nuts. But there are many other equally beloved desserts made in Hyderabad for Ramzan.

These are some of my favorite recipes of Hyderabadi Desserts:

Qubani ka Meetha

Ingredients:

200 grams dried round small apricots,

2 cups water

Nuts extracted from apricot kernels

4 tablespoons sugar

Method:

Place apricots and water in a saucepan, bring to boil and cook over low heat for 30 minutes. Mash apricots with their water, remove the kernels, extract the nuts and return to saucepan. Cook until the mixture begins to thicken, and then stir in sugar and cook for a few minutes. Chill and serve with whipped cream, fresh cream, custard sauce or ice-cream.

Kaddu ki kheer

Ingredients:

2 cups of grated pumpkin

Milk 1/2 cup

Sugar 1/2 cup

Green cardamom powder 1/4 teaspoon

Almonds 10 (sliced finely)

Cashews 10 (cut into small pieces)

Pistachios 10 (sliced thinly)

Ghee 1/4 cup (or Cooking Oil)

Method:

Take a heavy-bottomed pan and put it on medium heat. Add ghee or oil, and then add the grated pumpkin. Stir continuously until the pumpkin is partially cooked. Now add milk and cook till the pumpkin is absolutely tender. Stir till the ghee or oil starts separating from the pumpkin mixture. Add Sugar and stir on low flame. Remove from heat, add the dry fruits and serve.

Gil-e-Firdaus

Ingredients:

100 grams rice

3 tablespoons ghee

200 grams red pumpkin

2 liters milk

100 grams khoya

100 grams Sugar

A few drops of rose essence

12 sliced almonds

2 pineapple slices, chopped

A few rose petals and chopped cherries.

Method:

Soak the rice for 20 minutes.

Peel, wash and grate the pumpkin. In a pan, boil water and add the pumpkin; cook till soft, drain and keep aside.

In another pan, add ghee, add the soaked rice and mix for 2 minutes.

Add the milk and bring to boil. Cook till rice is soft.

Mash the rice with a spoon, add the pumpkin and simmer for 10 minutes.

Add the khoya, sugar and cook till the mixture coats the back of a spoon. Add rose essence.

Remove from flame, add in the chopped pineapple and stir.

Pour in individual serving bowls, and cool.

Decorate with sliced almonds, rose petals and cherries and serve chilled.

Badam ki jaali

Ingredients:

1-kilogram almonds or cashew nuts;

1 kilogram sugar;

½ kilogram powdered sugar;

Silver warq or edible silver paper.

1 teaspoon cardamom seeds powder;

20 pistachios, powdered and a few drops of rose water

Method:

Soak the almonds overnight in water. Next morning, peel and grind them to a paste with rose water. Put sugar, cardamom powder and almonds together in a pan. Cook, stirring all the time till the mixture leaves the sides of the pan. Form the mixture into two balls. Roll out each ball as thinly as you can. Dust both the board and the rolling pin liberally with powdered sugar. Stamp out small rounds with the help of a biscuit cutter.

Now, take half of the rounds and make a few round holes in them. Cover the remaining rounds on one side with the silver paper/warq. Fit this over the round with holes. Dust the top with powdered pistachios.

Double ka Meetha

Ingredients:

1 loaf of bread

1 litre milk

500 grams sugar

1 cup thick cream

4 tablespoons ghee

100 grams chopped cashew nuts

100 grams almonds (soaked and chopped)

A few strands of saffron dissolved in a little warm milk

8 cardamoms powdered

Method:

Cut each bread slice into four pieces. Fry them in ghee till golden brown. Make sugar syrup by adding half a litre of water to the sugar and boiling it for 10 minutes. To this, add the powdered cardamom and the saffron dissolved in milk.

Boil milk until it is reduced to half the quantity. Arrange the fried bread pieces on a flat tray and sprinkle the chopped nuts on them. Pour the sugar syrup, double cream and milk alternately over the bread pieces while they are still hot.

Refrigerate and serve.