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Little Krishna loved to eat. Brought up in a cowherding community, his tastes (quite naturally) veered toward dairy products. Which of us haven`t seen pictures of baby Krishna caught in the act of stealing butter and curds from jars? On the occasion of Krishna`s Janma (or birth), there is the mandatory blob of butter or pot of curd placed in front of the idol. As for lesser mortals, there is an array of foods to tickle the most fastidious of taste buds.

Sweet Cheedai

Ingredients Rice 2 cups Jaggery 2 cups Black gram dhal flour (dry fried and powdered) 1/4 cup Gingelly seeds 1/4 cup Coconut 1/2, Cardamom powder 1 tsp. Oil for deep frying.

Method

Wash rice and soak. Pound. Sift through coarse sieve. Roast the flour in a hot iron pan. Sift once more and rub the lumps, break and sift. Prepare a thin syrup with jaggery adding a little water. Add grated coconut and boil it. When it boils well, add the flour slowly and stir continuously. Cook till it can be rolled. Keep it in a vessel and mix the other ingredients. Knead well and roll into balls. Heat the oil in a frying pan and put 8 - 10 balls and cook to a dark red colour. Drain the oil and keep in a perforated plate.

Salty Cheedai

Ingredients Rice 4 cups Black gram dhal flour (dry fried and powdered) 1/2 cup Butter 100 gms Gingelly seeds 1/4 cup Coconut 1 Cumin seeds 2 tsp Asafoetida 1 tsp Oil to deep fry Salt to taste Method. Dry fry rice to a reddish colour and grind into a not-very-smooth flour in a handmill. Dry fry black gram dhal to a dark red colour and grind into a very smooth flour. Break cumin seeds and pepper into a coarse powder. Grate the coconut. Dissolve asafoetida and salt in water separately. Add all these ingredients to the flours along with butter. Knead well into a firm dough. Take a small portion of the dough in hand and make small balls of even size and spread it on a white cloth. Heat the oil in a pan and fry as many cheedais as possible at one time. Cook to a golden brown colour, till the hissing noise of water in the oil ceases. Drain the oil and keep it in an airtight container so that the cheedais remain crispy.

Poha Kheer

Ingredients Milk - 2.5 cups Poha - 4 tbsp (Beaten rice) Sugar - 3/4 cup Almonds finely chopped 2 to 3 tsp Cardamom powder - 1 tsp Ghee 3 tsp. Boil milk on low fire until it reduces to half the quantity. Roast cut almonds and keep aside. Clean poha and fry it in 2 tsp. of ghee. Cook poha until tender. Add sugar and stir until sugar melts completely. Then add cardamom powder and roasted almonds. Remove from fire. Now add the boiled milk. Mix well. Serve hot or cold