Navratri Sweet Making & Prasad, page 4

Sweets are offered as bhog every day of Navratri and shared as prasad afterwards, and in many homes each of the nine days has its own offering. This section of our Navratri groceries holds what you need to make them. Fasting sweets include makhana kheer, sabudana kheer, samo kheer, kuttu halwa, coconut laddoo and peanut chikki, while kanya puja on Ashtami or Navami calls for halwa and puri.

Many fasting families sweeten with jaggery in preference to white sugar. Gur is the familiar block jaggery, and shakkar is a softer powdered form that dissolves quickly into warm milk. See jaggery and gur for blocks, powder and liquid jaggery. Mishri, the crystallised rock sugar, and sugar candy are offered as prasad on their own or with makhana, and some households use honey in cold drinks and laddoos.

Kheer and payasam mixes save time on a busy festival evening, firni mixes set into the cool ground-rice pudding served in clay bowls, and sheer khurma mixes give the vermicelli, milk and date pudding in a fraction of the time. Several of these contain rice or vermicelli, called semiya in the south, so read the pack if your fast excludes grains. Milk powder thickens kheer and basundi quickly and makes khoya for barfi without hours of reducing. A few drops of rose water or kewra water, the fragrant extract of screwpine flowers, finish a kheer or payesh, and mango pulp and slices go into aamras, mango kheer and shrikhand. Farali and kuttu flours for halwa are in Navratri vrat staples and flours, and cashews, almonds, raisins and desiccated coconut are in Navratri dry fruits and nuts.

When sweetening milk with jaggery, melt it first in a splash of water and strain out any grit. Take the kheer off the heat and let it cool for a few minutes before stirring the jaggery in, since adding it to boiling milk can make it split.