A plateful of winter special Maharashtrain sweets
Like most Mumbaikars, winter is my favourite season. It’s not too cold (in fact, some days are so hot that it feels like May), but pleasant and cosy. In Mumbai, wearing sweaters is unheard of, although in the night it’s a little chilly and feels great to snuggle into your thick camphor-smelling blanket.
It is my favourite season because, this is the time of the year when you get the most variety of vegetables and sweets! Yes, I have always been a bit on the sweeter side when it comes to taste preferences, and the coolness of December and January allows me to unabashedly indulge my sweet tooth. Having lived in Dadar all my life, I am a huge fan of all the Maharashtrian sweets that are lined up at the shops near my house. I’ve never had to buy them though; my lovely Maharashtrian neighbours have always made sure of that.
To begin with, winter is a great time to make milk-based sweets that you haven’t made all year long. There is no fear of the milk curdling or your basundis and mishti dois turning sour.
Apart from these routine sweets, which are available all year long now, my neighbours make a variety of laddoos and barfis. My most favourite of these are the ‘Dinka laadoo’ (laddoos made of “dinka” meaning edible gum, poppy seeds and dry fruits) and “Aale pak” (barfi made of ginger and sugar syrup). Then there is also the rich dry-fruit laddoo my friend’s mother makes with crushed dry fruits, sugar and ghee.
Another sweet made in every house in winter is Gajar Halwa. Of course, you can make it anytime of the year, but the juiciest and sweetest carrots are available in December, and so the best halwa can be made then. Gul Poli, or rotis with a jaggery stuffing, are also consumed at this time.
It’s good to eat such rich, heavy foods in winter
All the above mentioned foods have a few things in common – they are sweet, are made in ghee (or oil) and contain dry fruits of every sort, sometimes even saffron and dry ginger (saunth). While most of you might not even attempt to taste any of these fearing the calorie intake, here’s news – it’s actually good and advisable to eat such rich, heavy food in winter.
When the temperatures outside drop, the body is forced to produce heat internally to sustain. These halwas, laddoos and barfis help the body in producing the necessary heat and balancing the temperatures. Take jaggery, for instance. Jaggery in itself is a heating food; eating it in summer can lead to nose bleeds and other complications. But in winter, it’s an excellent ingredient to combat the cold. The same goes for saffron too. Ghee keeps the skin lubricated. And although ghee and dry fruits are very heavy, they are easily digested in winters due to the excessive body heat. Most people, in fact, make it a point to eat a saunth laddoo or any other sweet once a day during the winter months.
So, grab the chance while you still have it and gorge on those winter sweets. At the end of the day, of course, nothing works like a big mug of spiced hot chocolate.
More On >> Drinks & Desserts
