LAPSI

A couple of weeks back my nephew Alok was going to propose to his “now” fiancée, Hiral. Hiral and her mom had come to Charleston and when Alok broke the news to us I began to plan the family get together.

Alok’s parents, my brother and bhabhi are in Mwanza so I wanted to ensure that we celebrated with the rest of the family. So I invited my other nephews around for dinner and began planning the menu.

As with all “shubh”, auspicious events I made some lapsi, a sweet dish made with cracked wheat, ghee, gur, mawo, and garnished with slivered almonds, pistachios, cardamom raisins and mace. In our household, the lapsi is readily devoured by the bowlful.

I also made some dhokla, potato curry, dal, rice rotli etc. For dessert I made two different types of ice-cream. One with honeycombe and another with almonds and pistachios. I will share my recipe for the lapsi here and next time tell you how I made the ice-creams.

2 cups cracked wheat

1 1/2 cups jegerey

3 table spoons ghee

6 cups water

handful raisins

For garnishing

1/2 tea spoon cardamom powder

few strands saffron

handful almonds and pistachios slivers

1/2 cup grated mawa

Boil the water add jagary keep on the side. Heat the ghee in a pressure cooker, add the lapsi mix ( cracked wheat) and sauté on medium heat till it turns little golden brown. Add the hot jagary water top with raisins. close the lid and pressure cook on high heat for 3 whistles. Let it cool before opening the lid. Add the mawa mix well and Pour the lapsi in the serving bowl and garnish with almonds, pistachios and saffron .