Diwali has come to America finally as a VIP, a Rock Star – and Indian-Americans couldn’t be happier.
Browsing: mithai
What can be easier to whip up than carrot coconut ladoos? Nandini Mukherjee shows how to make them in easy steps.
We all want chocolate but we also want our traditions – and we want them quick!
This chocolate barfi satisfies all the conditions!
When Indian-American men cook, it’s considered cool and they are anointed chefs and stars and given all the respect. But when women cook, they are the housewives, the home-cooks and kitchen-bound who are doing what they’ve done for millennia. But now change is happening and some Indian-American women are taking the rolling pin and the tawa, and turning them into money-making startups!
As a journalist, I’ve always been intrigued by the unique experiences, sights and sounds of individual lives, a billion stories waiting to be told. Immigrants who’ve traveled to a new country always have their idiosyncratic cache of memories, of a past which belongs only to themselves.
How do you create sweet things and also sweeten life for others? Ask Surbhi Sahni – the mithaiwalli of New York. A Michelin-starred chef, she recently became the pro-bono Director of the Tiffin Project operated by the nonprofit organization SAPNA NYC through which low-income South Asian immigrant women train for marketable jobs in the culinary industry.
This Diwali are you longing for the special holiday vibes experienced only in Indian cities and towns? Do you hanker for the mithais made by the women of the house, the unique taste of home and the touch of the individual hand?
Do you also miss the hustle and bustle of the mithai shops, the crowds waiting to buy the ready-made sweets made by the halwais?
Getting Hooked on Indian Sweets…
We all love kaju rolls – the cashew nut mithai which comes in cool cigar shapes with a pistachio filling – but I didn’t quite expect a one-year-old Italian- German toddler to be such a fan of this Indian sweetmeat! Call him a Mithai Monster instead of Cookie Monster but he sure loves the desi sweets.
The fireworks still explode in the memory, and the taste of nuts and cream and sugar still linger on the tongue. For immigrants from India, the childhood memories of Diwali are strong, for it is a time when India transforms into one glittering celebration. Public buildings are illuminated with neon lights and every home, no matter how humble, is ablaze with earthen lamps. In fact, entire villages are turned into fairylands, dotted with millions of lamps, glowing in the dark of night.
“In the Hindi language, there are no sweeter words than ‘Muh Meetha Karwaho’ – ‘Make Your mouth Sweet’ – and any occasion of joy needs a sweet ending. Something about the idea of how no meal was truly complete without a sweet bite and how every major celebration, gathering and even religious event is commemorated with sweets has resonated with me.
I can’t count how many times I’ve heard someone say, ‘Make your mouth sweet’, but I do it happily every time. However, it is Diwali that I especially remember from my childhood because it featured an abundance of sweets.”
Sponsored Guest Blog by Shefalee Patel
Diwali in America is all about innovation and creating new traditions and each family follows its past rituals but also adds in new ones. Indeed, Floyd Cardoz, the celebrated chef of North End Grill in Manhattan, is a Catholic married to Barkha, a Hindu, and is an avid celebrator of Diwali.
“Even though Floyd and I come from different religious backgrounds, our kids are lucky and blessed to be able to celebrate both holidays,” says Barkha. “They absolutely love Diwali – we do Lakshmi puja in the evening and then it’s followed by the food that is a tradition from when I was a little girl – Pooris with aloo rassa, makhani dal, a paneer dish, gobi sabji, lots of mithai and then the all time favorite – sabudana kheer.”
(Barkha Cardoz with extended family at the Diwali table)
Fondly nicknamed Jaikishan Heights, this gritty Little India has been the salvation of new immigrants for decades, bringing them a sweet piece of their lost homeland. It is here that they find the remembered tastes and sounds that make them feel whole again.