SWEET SPOT

Since it’s been a year of missed celebrations, here’s an indulgent way to stay together

- BARRY RODGERS

Everything about the festive season, and its giddy celebration of mithai, seems new and unusual in Covid times. Despite the low-key celebrations this year, we decided to keep the magic of sweet-making alive with a little help from Bombay Sweet Shop. These recipes, by Chef Girish Naya, re-imagine Indian sweets as contemporary, conscientiously made, relevant, and a fun indulgence. Go ahead, celebrate all that is nostalgic and traditional about mithai.

Pistachio Barfi

Ingredients:

• Pistachio – 1,000 gms

• Sugar – 800 gms

• 1 no. orange for zest

Method:

1. Soak one kilo of pistachios in two litres of hot water for five minutes until the outer skin comes off.

2. Now remove the skin and keep the green pistachios aside.

3. Puree the pistachios into a fine paste (without any lumps), add sugar and let it sit for 30 minutes. 3. In a kadai, add the puree, and on slow heat cook the mixture to 100º C.

4. Remove from the kadai and put it in a dough mixer with a paddle attachment along with the zest of one orange; let the paste cool down to 45º C or put it in a mixing bowl and use a spatula to cool it down manually.

5. Remove the barfi, roll it onto a tray to 2 cm thickness and coat with chopped pistachio and cut as desired.