Lanterns

Diwali is almost here, and I have become too busy with work at office. So I had finished preparing all the recipes over the weekend. But the name caught my attention. I heard about this recipe, and wanted to try it out for Diwali. The recipe is quite simple, yet attractive! So after coming home, I made preparations and just finished preparing it. It's still hot as I am writing this! It's a great snack item and should go well with tea. So here is the recipe. I tried it with small proportions, so give it a try. It a great item, and one can't resist munching one after another!

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup coarse semolina /rawa (don't take the fine one)
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour maida
• 2 tsp finely chopped cilantro
• 2 tsp finely chopped curry leaves
• 2 Green chilies finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp Ajwain/ Ajowan caraway/ carom seeds
• 1/2 tsp Cumin seeds
• 1 tsp sesame seeds
• 2 tsp dessicated coconut
• Salt to taste
• 2 tsp ghee
• Oil for frying

Method

1. Heat ghee and mix well in the semolina. Add in other ingredients and make a dough using warm water. The dough should not be too thick, we want to roll it into really thin disc later.
2. Knead well, and set this dough aside for at least 15-20 minutes.
3. Divide the dough into 2-3 parts.
4. Take one of it at a time and knead very well. Roll it into a very thin disc. Cut the rolled out dough to make rectangles (about 1.5" X 2" in size) in it. Make 3-4 parallel vertical lines with a cutter inside the rectangles as we do to make lanterns.
   
5. 
6. 
7. Pick up a rectangle and fold it to shape it like a lantern. Bring the edges together and apply little pressure to join them.Make remaining lanterns similarly.
   
8. In a pan, take some oil and on medium flame fry these lanterns till they are golden brown.

Tips

1. The cilantro, curry leaves and green chilies give this a very nice look, and the sesame seeds give great taste.
   
2. I guess the shapes would have been better if the cuts had been parallel to the height and not the width, so next time I am going to try it that way.