Mawa Kachori

So a lot of people, out of genuine curiosity, asked me “How are you guys celebrating Raksha Bandhan (I have 2 sons)? I am sure that the kids’ cousins must have sent Rakhis for them.” Most of time my answer is a simple “yes” and rarely do I bother with the real answer. 🙂 Simply because (a) It’s time-consuming to have to explain every time. (b) It doesn’t matter how each individual chooses to celebrate it. Raksha Bandhan, for me, has never been about a sister tying Rakhi to a brother and a brother promising to protect her from all the evils because honestly, it’s a good prime-time-story concept but it doesn’t work like that, all the time in real world. Of course, as kids we did exactly that because there isn’t too much freedom for kids in India to do things their way when it comes to couple-of-hundred year old, cast-in-concrete traditions.

Raksha Bandhan, for me, has always been about siblings. Siblings, promising to take care of each other and looking out for one another, forever. So, even though I truly and greatly appreciate my kids’ cousins sending rakhis from thousands of miles away, my kids not only tied their cousins’ rakhis on their wrists but of each other too. Both my kids, eventually, will promise to take care of each other because (for me) Raksha Bandhan is not about older or younger, sister or brother, it’s about the unconditional love for your sibling.

This Raksha Bandhan, I made the very popular dessert of Rajasthan and specialty of Jodhpur, Mawa Kachori. Ok, I need a moment to stop salivating. Make it two! This dessert might not be the prettiest one out there but I promise you, if you serve ten people, 10 desserts and ask them to take a second helping of just one of them, 8 out of 10 will come back for mawa kachori. It is one of those sweets that is recommended to every tourist visiting the city of Jodhpur. The very crispy, flaky, but melt-in-mouth kachori, filled with lots of mawa and nuts, fried in pure ghee and soaked in sugar syrup. yum….that’s the stuff food heavens are made of. This one is a must try!

Yum

Mawa Kachori

Prep Time: 35 minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes

Yield: 16 kachoris

Ingredients

For the dough
• 2 cup all purpose flour
• 5 tbsp. ghee (at room temp - semi solid state)
• 12 tbsp. water
For filling
• 150 gms. mawa
• 25 gms pistachios
• 25 gms cashews
• 30 gms almonds
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg powder
• 1 tsp cardamom powder
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
• 1 tbsp. plus 2 tsp. sugar
• 2-3 tsp milk
For sugar syrup
• 1 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cup water
• 2-3 tsp lemon juice
• pinch of saffron
• Ghee for frying

Instructions

1. Grate the mawa and in a pan, heat the mawa for few minutes until soft and pliable.
2. Grind all the nuts very finely (little coarser than fine powder). Add sugar, cinnamon, cardamom and nutmeg.
3. Mix well and turn off the heat. Add milk as needed until mixture comes together as a dough.
4. Let it cool and then make 16-17 balls.
5. In a wok, add ghee and let it heat up on medium low heat. (mark 4)
6. In a bowl, take all purpose flour, add ghee and mix well until crumbly.
7. Add water as needed to make a soft and smooth dough.
8. Make 16-17 balls from it.
9. With your hands, flatten a ball into disc, keeping the center thick and edges thinner.
10. Put the filling on the disc and close it properly. Make a ball again with both hands to smoothen out the sealed side.
11. Now flatten it again by using your palms gently into about 3 inch disc.
12. Drop it in ghee and continue the same procedure with other balls.
13. Strain them out when golden brown.
14. Let them cool.
15. In a pan, add sugar and water and make a one string consistency syrup. Add lime juice to it and let it cool too.
16. Right before serving, warm the syrup. Poke a small hole in the center of kachoris and dip them in syrup for 2-3 minutes. Serve.

Notes

If you are planning to fry 3-4 kachori at a time, make sure you cover them with wet cloth so that they don't dry it. Normally, they are fried as soon as you make them.

It is important to smoothen the sealed side well else the kachoris might open up while frying.

The nuts should be finely ground else it will tear up the kachori.

Fry the Kachori at a low temp so that they are crisp and not raw.

It is important that you let the kachoris and syrup cool down else kachoris will get soft in syrup.

If you are using home made mawa then skip adding any milk.

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