Diwali, via the Silk Route

Happy Diwali! This is a really fun, festive time to be in back home, with lights, color and good food everywhere. Growing up in India, I would eagerly await the arrival of all the gift boxes laden with sweets and dry fruits, and tuck in merrily without a care. Oh to have the metabolism of a teenager again :(

As I've grown older, though, my palate has gradually moved away from the candy-like sugariness of many Indian sweets, towards those with interesting flavors and textures. And as I reflect on my favorites, I realized that many of their ingredients - almonds, pistachios, saffron - came to India from outside, back when caravans traversing the Silk Route dropped these off and picked up ivory, textiles and spices in exchange.

So as a nod to the people who brought me my favorite once-foreign-and-now-quintessentially-Indian foodstuffs, I decided that my Diwali sweet for this year would be baklava. To give it an Indian flair I used our classic badam-pista (almond-pistachio) combination in the filling, and flavored the syrup with cardamom and rose water. The results are delicious! Even though baklava is not a traditional Indian sweet, it fits in perfectly with an Indian meal. I might even try a version with a saffron syrup next time. Now if only the caravans had brought filo pastry with them, I could have learnt how to make that in the kitchen of my grandmother as well...!

Recipe: Almond-Pistachio Baklava, adapted from here.

I halved the recipe and used an 8" square pan, since baklava is quite rich and a small piece is enough to satisfy even a pretty sweet tooth. I used only blanched almonds and pistachios in the filling, in equal quantities. I replaced the cinnamon in the filling with freshly ground green cardamom, and infused the syrup with cardamom pods instead of a cinnamon stick. I added some rose water to the syrup as well.

Happy Diwali!

Today is Diwali, the Indian festival of lights. It's a time when I always miss being back at home in India, where the excitement of Diwali hangs palpably in the air! Firecrackers light up the skies at the crack of dawn and then later on in the evening. The day kicks off to a great start with a South Indian spread for breakfast. The menu may vary but it always includes dosas, delicious rice-and-lentil crepes served with coconut chutney. During the day, we enjoy dressing up in new clothes and visiting the neighbors bearing platters of home-made sweets and savories, and getting more goodies in return! After dark, the city glows with the light of the many rows of lamps that people light outside their homes. It's also the most secular festival in India, when people of all faiths get together to celebrate.
One of the things I crave at this time of year is my mother's signature Diwali sweet, badam puri. This is a delicious confection of her own creation, featuring flaky layers of fried almond pastry soaked in a cardamom-saffron syrup and garnished with vibrant green pistachios. They're definitely a little labor-intensive to make, but my mother, sister and I love to make them as a team, laughing and chattering as we roll, fry, dip and decorate the pastries. Happy Diwali!

Recipe: Amma's Badam Puri (Sugar-dipped Almond Pastry)

Pastry:

1 cup whole almonds, blanched, toasted and ground fine (or use almond flour such as Bob's Red Mill)

1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

A generous pinch of salt

3 tbs. cold ghee (clarified butter)

1 tsp. baking powder

Ice cold water to make dough

Oil for deep frying

Layering Paste:

3 tbs. rice flour (available from most Indian and some Western grocers)

1 tbs. ghee or clarified butter

2 tsp. thick yoghurt or dahi (like Greek yoghurt)

Syrup:

2 1/2 cup sugar

2 cups water

A few saffron strands, soaked in 2 tbs. warm water

3/4 tsp.ground cardamom

Garnish:

2 tbs finely chopped pistachio nuts

For the dough, pulse the flour, baking powder and salt in a food processor a few times. Add the ghee and pulse a few more times to combine. Drizzle in some ice-cold water, a few tablespoons at a time, to make a dough that is neither too soft nor too sticky. Turn it out on to a floured surface and knead briefly. Leave to rest for half an hour.

For the paste, simply combine all the ingredients and whisk till smooth and well blended.

For the syrup, heat the sugar and water in a heavy-bottomed pan. Cook until the syrup reaches one-string consistency (this corresponds to about 215F on a candy thermometer) and then add the flavorings. Keep warm. While the syrup is cooking, heat the oil for frying.

Break of lime-sized balls of the dough and roll them on a lightly floured surface into 4" circles. Place a few dabs of the layering paste and spread it over the circle. Fold the circle into half and then quarters, repeating the process of layering. Roll the dough quarter-circle out into a larger triangle. Prick all over with a fork and then fry in the oil till golden brown. Remove with a slotted spoon and drop into the sugar syrup, turning once to coat. Dry on a wire rack that has been set over a plate. Repeat till the pastry is used up.

Collect all the leftover syrup from the plate and heat it once again till any crystals have dissolved. Working quickly, dip each pastry in the syrup again, and then remove to the wire rack to dry. Decorate with the pistachios and leave to dry. These pastries can be stored in an air tight tin when dry but are best eaten within 3 days of making.

An Indian-themed cheesecake for Diwali

Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, has always been my favorite of them all. Even as a young child, I loved to hang out in the kitchen, watching my mother as she skilfully kneaded dough, ground nuts and spices, and stirred the boiling vats of syrup that would eventually become mountains of delicious sweets and savories to eat and share. My sister and I would be up at the crack of dawn to have the ritual oil bath and don our new clothes. Then, our guests would arrive to enjoy a huge, traditional South Indian spread for breakfast; and before we fell into a food-induced coma, we'd head out to visit friends and family with trays of goodies for them. In the evenings the neighborhood would come alive with the glow of the rows and rows of oil lamps that we'd set out; and the sky would light up with dazzling fireworks.

Here in the US, Diwali is a far more tame affair, since it is celebrated only by a small minority. Since this year's festival occurred over a weekend, I was keen to continue the festival tradition by inviting some friends over for a vegetarian Indian meal. Since Indian sweets can be a bit too sweet for most non-Indian palates, I knew I'd have to pick a dessert from another part of the globe. I finally settled on cheesecake, whose rich creaminess provides a good foil for spicy food. A good basic cheesecake recipe is very useful to have in your recipe file - you can mix in any number of added flavorings to suit your need! And the good part is that it needs to chill overnight before serving, so you have to make it ahead of time and thereby avoid any last-minute rush. In honor of Diwali I decided to flavor it with some of our favorite ingredients for festive sweets: saffron, cardamom and pistachio.

I mixed in some pistachio paste into one half of the cheesecake batter, poured it over the crust and let it bake until just set. The other half of the batter had saffron and cardamom and went over the first layer. The layers ended up mixing in the center, where it was probably not as fully set as the periphery when I poured the second batter on top; still, the bi-color effect came through and I was quite pleased with the results!

Recipe:
Saffron-pistachio (Kesar-pista) cheesecake (Makes 8-10 servings)
Crust:
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup skin-on almonds, ground
3/4 stick (6 tbsp) butter, melted
2 tbsp sugar
Pinch salt
Filling:
3 8-oz packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup sour cream
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
Grated zest of 1 lemon
Optional flavorings (use different ones if you wish):
1/4 cup pistachio paste
Generous pinch saffron threads, dissolved in 1 tbsp warm milk
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
Preheat the oven to 350F(180C). Wrap an 8" springform pan in a double thickness of aluminium foil. Have a large baking dish ready that is big enough to hold the springform pan with room all around to pour hot water - this will be the bain-marie or water bath to bake the cheesecake in.
Mix the ingredients of the crust in a food processor. Press the mixture firmly into the base of the prepared pan. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until browned. Remove to cool and turn the oven temperature down to 300F(150C).
Mix the filling ingredients in a stand mixer, food processor, or by hand with an electric mixer. Scrape down the sides from time to time to ensure everything is well mixed. Divide the mixture into two equal parts. Mix the pistachio paste into one half, pour into the pan, and place the pan into the water bath with enough hot water to come halfway up the sides. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until just set.
Meanwhile, mix the saffron liquid and cardamom into the other portion of the filling. Spoon the second batter gently (gently, unlike what I did!) over the part-baked cheesecake, return the pan to the water bath in the oven, and bake for another 45-50 minutes. The cake should still be jiggly in the center.
Turn off the oven and let the cake stand in the cooling oven for an hour. Remove the cheesecake from the water bath after an hour has passed, and let cool completely. Refrigerate overnight before serving. Cut into portions with a knife that has been dipped in hot water, and rinse the knife in hot water in between cuts.