Panjiri - Ma ke special recipe...

Its been ages since I posted any new recipe but its great to see people still visiting this blog and some of them demanding to start the sanjha chulha again before it dies down. I have to thank bloggers like Mehak and Anks, which kept pestering me to post a new recipe and keep the chulha alive. Although, it took a nudge from one of my co-workers to start the chulha again.

One of my co-workers, who is Punjabi married to a Bengali, told me that she was pregnant with her first baby and needed the Panjiri recipe. Panjiri is a kind of sweet, dried halwa that Punjabi people usually eat as parshad but it is also said to be one food that is recommended for women to eat after Pregnancy. So, the first person I called for the recipe was my Mom and she gladly passed me her secret panjiri recipe. The method of making the recipe is same and can be found in any online site (infact Mom send me the method from some website) but its the quantity of ingredients that distinguishes one panjiri from other.

(Picture courtesy: www.indobase.com)

Panjiri is also special for me because this was my favorite parshad esp. the one from Bangla Sahib Gurudwara. I have always loved parshad, so whether it was going to the Army Gurudwara near my school to eat some everyday or stopping on the way to Shiv Mandir and buying patashe ka parshad for my sweet tooth. Anyways, without further delay here's the recipe.

Panjiri (Contributed by: My Mom)

Dedication: This recipe is dedicated to my friend Preeti (Hyderabad waali) who recently gave birth to a beautiful girl.

Ingredients:

1. Wheat flour (atta) - 250 gms
2. Sugar powder - 750 gms
3. Desi ghee - 1kg
4. Gond - 100gms
5. Sonth powder (dried ginger powder) - 50gms
6. Makhane - 200gms
7. Suji - 100gms
8. Besan (gram flour) - 100gms

Method:

1. Fry the gond in the ghee, first over high and then over low heat, till cooked through (it puffs up, and when cooked through, you can cut through it).
2. Remove with a slotted spoon, and grind in a blender, very fine.
3. In the same ghee, fry the makhanas till brown and then remove
4. Roast the atta in the remainder ghee till a light brown (over low heat).
5. Remove from heat, mix in the sonth, makhana and gond and leave to cool.
6. When cool, mix in the sugar and serve or store.