The art of mindful indulgence

A comedian friend recently shared her thoughts about the Deepavali snack makeovers. Chakli losing its crunchy edge in the air fryer, oats added for fibre in laddoos, sugar-free barfi stealing the joy of living, vegan gulab jamoons that warrant the disdain of even the Gods, she lamented about several fads. 

This got me thinking about how we’ve slowly, yet surely, veered away from traditional methods of preparing festive delicacies at home. Our focus tends to be on all the supermarket aisles filled with choices and the complicated, sometimes convoluted ways in which ingredient lists are marked on the labels. The reason we pick sweet treats that have jaggery rather than sugar, savoury snacks that scream “baked, not fried,” or “no palm oil,” is mostly because we wish to make healthier choices — but are they? Further, online delivery apps have several mark-downs that are enticing, making it convenient to get festive goodies delivered at home — but have you looked at the “best by” dates on these packets? In our quest to eat right, we’re often making the wrong calls. 

The way we celebrated

I was pleasantly surprised by a friend’s Deepavali hamper, which was so thoughtfully put together. It was made to order by a home chef, packed in eco-friendly packaging, presented on a steel plate. This took me back to festive days at home, when my mom would have our family caterer over for a couple of days, and they’d spend hours prepping doughs and syrups to make chakli and kodbale, om pudi and mucchore, rava and besan laddoos, Mysore pak and coconut barfis, and fill up old, large dalda dabbas.

This would be apportioned and distributed to friends and family, in re-usable bowls procured from the steel paathre seller through barter: vessels in exchange for old clothes. The behind-the-scenes work was fascinating for me, as I witnessed her wash the grains and sun-dry them on the terrace, before taking them to the mill to make flour mixes. Most of the grains were sourced from either the neighbours’ farms on the outskirts of Bengaluru, or the ration shop. The dry fruits, nuts and seeds were from the kirana shop around the corner, except the cashews, which came from our own garden.

The sugar would be melted and strained through a fine muslin cloth, where a ball of impurities would clot and we’d fight over who would get to eat it. The oil, sourced from a local pressery, would be used just once, then rubbed and mixed into the soil from the garden. There was a lot of physical activity involved in the whole festive affair, leaving us tired and happy to be sugar-high. 

Here are some pointers on festive-forward celebrations:

•Portion control with home-made goodies is a better way to watch how we consume what we do, rather than bingeing on store-bought snacks. Making small batches of savouries (pick a lighter option like corn flakes chiwda over entirely deep-fried mixtures) and sweets (coconut barfi with sugar is perfectly okay, as long as you’re not going gluttonous).
•Sourcing ingredients from local farms and stores helps keep you closer to the quality check line while also boosting local economy. 
•Prepping ingredients ahead of time is a great way to set the tone for festive fervour among young ones, while also passing on skills that would otherwise be lost to zip-locked packages on store shelves.
•Sharing home-made treats with the community is also an enabler of future-forward food practice because it promotes cohesion and inclusion, and also encourages cultural conservation, reciprocity and resilience. 
•Refraining from made-over versions of traditional foods helps us get closer to our roots and truly experience the stuff that nostalgia is made out to be, on social media. It’s a great way to find connection and meaning within the framework of ancient practices that urban living is making harder to hold on to.

Here’s a traditional recipe for Mysore Pak, from my mom’s diary:

1 cup kadale hittu/ chickpeas flour
1 tablespoon ghee for greasing plate/ tray
1.5 cups sugar
½ cup water
1.5 cups ghee

•Sieve the kadale hittu/ chickpea flour and keep it aside
•Grease a thick steel plate or tray with ghee, set aside
•In a large, thick-bottomed pan, take sugar and water
•On a low flame, boil it until it comes to a rolling boil + 5 minutes
•Add the ghee into the hot sugar syrup, stir well
•Add the kadale hittu/ chickpea flour slowly, keep stirring to avoid lumps
•Once the ghee separates to the sides of the pan, and you see the mixture forming bubbles, pour it on the greased plate/ tray, and allow it to set and cool down
•Cut into squares and store in airtight container for upto a week

(Ranjini is a communications professor, author, and podcaster, straddling many other worlds, in Bengaluru. She’s passionate about urban farming and sustainable living, and can mostly be found cooking and baking in her little kitchen, where, surrounded by heirloom coffee kettles and mismatched tea cups, she finds her chi.)