Indian Sweets and Desserts
Indian food has been popular worldwide because of its uniqueness and diversity. Particularly, Indian sweets and desserts are becoming more and more popular because of their delightful taste. Sweets are part of the life of the Indians and play an important role in their cuisine.
An Indian meal is always incomplete without sweet dish like kulfi or gulab jamun or jalebi. These sweets, which are also known as mithai in India, are created from assorted ingredients ranging from vegetables to fruits, from grains to milk. Below are some of the mouth watering Indian sweets and desserts that you must try out.
Parwal Ki Mithai is an Indian dry mithai that is most popular in the region of Bihar. Its outer covering is parwal (a popular vegetable in Indian) while its inside consists sweets mixed with milk products. Khaja is another sweet popular in Bihar. It dates back from 2000 years ago and is also a dry sweet stuffed with liquid sweets inside. This fantastic mithai easily melts in the mouth.
Another Indian mithai, probably the most well known is the rasagolla, or cheeseball in sugar syrup. This mithai can be found in almost all parts of India and is considered to be a national mithai. It is most popular in Orissa situated in the east coast of India, the place where the recipe for this sweet originated. Rosogolla is made from paneer boiled in sugar syrup and set to dry.
Apart from the sweets just mentioned, there are a whole lot more sweets that are well known in India and other parts of the world. The next set of Indian sweets that we will be mentioning have recipes that call for milk and milk products, something that is unique in the Indian cuisine.
First in the list is the Rasa Malai, a sweet that is usually served chilled and immersed in sweetened, thickened milk flavored with spices such as pistachio, almond, saffron strands and cardamom. This Bengali sweet resembles a dumpling made from cottage cheese and is a highly popular sweet among all Diwali sweets and also one of the easiest to make. Another dumpling like sweet is the Gulab Jamun considered the king of all Indian mithai usually served at festivals or major celebrations, such as marriages and Diwali and most often served after dinner. It is made of a dough consisting mainly of thickened milk and soaked in a sugary syrup flavored with cardamom and, depending on the recipe, saffron or rosewater. This very sweet and rich mithai derived its name from the word Gulab meaning rose from the rose flavored sugar syrup and Jamun meaning blueberry from the dark color when it’s cooked. Unlike the Rasa Malai, this sweet is served warm or at room temperatureand is usually eaten with ice cream. For best result, immerse the gulab jamoons in syrup overnight. Chum Chum, on the other hand, are sweets intended for loved ones and are commonly called Pleasure Boats.
Mentioned above are just some of the hundreds of mithai varieties that could be found in India. There are many more to discover and try. A list of other traditional sweets are Chiroti, Mitha Kajha, Jalebi, Badam Seera, Badusha, Sweet Kachori, Dal Seera and Boondi. Other sweets served occasionally or during special days are laddus , burfis and halwas. Burfees include Mysore Pak, Kaju(Cashewnut) Burfi, Dates and Dryfruits Burfi and Milk and Coconut Burfi. Halwas and Laddus include Boondi Laddoo, Rava ladoo, Coconut Ladoo, Chickoo Halwa, and Dryfruits halwa.
