Festival of kites and good food: Make Uttarayan happier with our delicious recipes!
One of the biggest festivals in Gujarat is Uttarayan — the kite flying festival — which falls on January 14.
This is one festival which is celebrated with a lot of fervour and enthusiasm by all communities — Hindus, Muslims, Christians and smaller groups such as Parsis, Jews and non-Gujaratis too.
The day of Uttarayan sees everyone up on their terraces, flying kites, assisting fliers by holding the spindle, or just shouting and cheering. A special cheer goes up every time someone from your group cuts the kite of another group.
You will see boys and girls of all ages, parents, uncles, aunts, even grandparents on the terraces, celebrating this festival with music and lots of food. People bring up huge speakers and each terrace has loud music playing and people dancing to popular songs. Even FM radio stations play party music to suit the occasion. There is a lot of competition to ascertain who is the best kite flier — and the most accomplished at cutting others’ kites.
Uttarayan was always a huge festival, but after the business summit 'Vibrant Gujarat' and the International Kite Festival were tied up with it, the event took on an even bigger scale.
This festival is also called Makar Sankranti in the Hindi-speaking belt of India
In Gujarat — as indeed, across the country — there are specific dishes and sweets made for every festival. Uttaryan, too, comes with its share of culinary cheer.
One of the most popular dishes during this time is Undhiyu, eaten with puri and jalebi. Interestingly, all communities make Undhiyu, Hindus, Muslims or Gujarati Christians.
Solomon Benjamin, a resident of Maninagar East, loves Uttarayan. Speaking about the festival, he told me: “We start preparations one day in advance. We tie the kinna (anchor thread) to the kites the previous night itself, so that the next day, we can start flying them immediately, without wasting time. On Uttarayan, we are up on the terrace early in the morning with music systems, kites and threads. We also make Undhiyu and buy jalebis, ber (jujubes), guavas and chikkis to eat. Kite-flying makes everyone hungry, so there should be enough to eat throughout the day.”
He adds, “We make non-vegetarian Undhiyu, we add chicken in it.”
Of course, Undhiyu takes a lot of time to prepare, so it’s easier to just buy it from the hundreds of eateries that sell it by hundreds of kilograms.
Long lines can be seen outside eateries selling Undhiyu and jalebi on Uttarayan day.
But what all households prepare is the sweet dish Chikki, made out of jaggery and peanuts or sesame seeds or even dry fruits. Since the weather is cold, Chikki is hugely popular as people keep snacking on it while flying kites.
Other delicacies very popular on the festive day are various seasonal fruits like guava, bers and sugarcane cubes.
Another popular preparation is Khichda — which is something like Khichdi, but instead of rice, broken wheat is used with several lentils. The Muslim community makes this with mutton, or sometimes chicken.
In many places in Saurashtra, people prepare sweet Khichda, which is made out of wheat. Sweet Khichda is also made in Rajasthan on Makar Sankranti.
In Muslim localities, there are barbeques at night along with Tukkal-flying on the terrace. 'Tukkals' are paper lamps that are lit and hung to the kite thread, so that they light up the entire sky at night. Barbequing is a more recent culinary trend seen in Muslim localities.
Zahid Qureshi, a resident of Raikhad in the old fort city of Ahmedabad, said to me, “In our area, people fly kites the whole day. We eat Undhiyu, jalebi and chikki in the day and at night, we fly Tukkals. That’s when we have barbeques too. Later, we burst firecrackers. In fact, in the old fort city, everyone bursts crackers late into the night.”
Kite flying is a passion with most and young boys have grown up learning this art. Ankit Patel, a resident of New Ranip in Ahmedabad, recounted: “We always start early in the morning on the terrace of a friend and after lunch, we move to someone else’s terrace. In the whole day, we might move to 3-4 locations. In between, we continuously chomp on chikki and Undhiyu.”
To spread Uttarayan cheer, here are recipes of two dishes generally made at this time — Sweet Khichdo, made amongst the Nagar community of Gujarat, and Mutton Khichda, popular among the Muslim community.
Mutton Khichda is a close cousin of Haleem, but is coarser. Also, one can find meat pieces in it, unlike Haleem, which is smooth and creamy.
Sweet Khichdo - A traditional Gujarati Nagari delicacy
(Recipe by Parul Avashia from Ahmedabad, originally from Junagadh)
Ingredients:
Soaked Wheat Grains (partially grated to remove the skin from the seed): 1 cup
Sugar: 1.5 cups
Milk: 2 cups
Water: 2 cups
Nutmeg: ½ piece
Ghee: 4-5 teaspoons
To garnish:
Grated Coconut: 2 tablespoons
Rose Petals: 10-15 petals
Method:
To make the Khichda wheat (this can be bought from a store too, or you can substitute with broken wheat or wheat daliya)
Soak whole wheat grains (1 cup) in water for approximately 5 to 6 hours, and then partially grind the grains. Wash twice with water to separate the skin from the wheat.
To cook
Put the contents into a pan and boil with 2 cups milk and 2 cups water at full flame for approximately 20-25 minutes.
Add 1.5 cup sugar and cook for 20 minutes, stirring well continuously.
Add nutmeg for flavour and additional taste.
Pour the contents into a big plate that has been rubbed with a little ghee to prevent it from sticking to the plate. Allow it to cool.
Once cooled down, spread hot ghee with spoon all over the contents in a plate.
Garnish with grated coconut and rose petals.
Sweet Khichdo is now ready to serve. (This quantity can serve 3-4 people)
Mutton Khichda
(Recipe by Farzana Kadri of Diwan’s Bungalows in Ahmedabad)
Ingredients:
1 kg mutton (shoulder meat is best for khichda)
300 gm wheat with its skin removed (you can also use daliya or broken wheat) soaked overnight
200 gm Chana dal soaked overnight
100 gm each of Tuvar dal, Masoor dal and Mong dal, soaked together overnight
Fistful of rice soaked overnight
Ginger Garlic paste: 2 tablespoon
Red chilli powder: 4 tablespoon
Turmeric powder: 1 teaspoon
Coriander powder: 4 tablespoon
Salt to taste
Garam masala powder: 1 tablespoon
Cumin: 1 teaspoon
Black pepper: 1 teaspoon,
Cinnamon: 1/2 inch
Cloves: 1 teaspoon
1 kg onion sliced and caramelised
Bunch of coriander finely chopped
1/2 a bunch of mint leaves finely chopped (don't add too many mint leaves, the dish can turn bitter)
4 to 5 green chillies finely chopped
2 tablespoon lemon juice
1-inch ginger thinly julienned
For tempering:
1 teaspoon chilli powder
1 teaspoon corinader powder
½ teaspoon tumeric powder
1 teaspoon jeera seeds
1 teaspoon ginger-garlic paste
Method
Boil wheat and Chana dal together after adding 1/2 teaspoon cooking oil and salt to taste. Grind them once boiled well.
Boil all the other dals and rice with salt, grind them separately.
Boil mutton separately along with all the masalas and one teaspoon oil in a pressure cooker four four whistles.
Take a deep pan, add 500 gm oil and cumin seeds. Once they crackle, add 1 teaspoon chilli powder, 1 teaspoon coriander powder, 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder, 1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste and roast till the oil separates.
Add mutton and mix it well, roast with the spices.
Add the boiled legumes and wheat. Give it a good stir and simmer the khichda for a good 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add half of the finely chopped greens and lemon juice, give it a fine stir, simmer for a while.
Check the seasoning before turning off the heat.
Serve with fresh greens, julienned ginger and caramelised crisp onions.
One can add a wedge of lemon for taste.
Happy Uttarayan!
Also read: All Indian pickles are great, but non-vegetarian pickles are the best!