Salman Ramzan 
Chocolate modak is the new-generation prasad — the sweet that appeared in festival thalis barely a generation ago and now refuses to leave. It keeps everything that matters about the original idea: the pleated, peaked modak shape, pressed in the same little mould, and the soft, fudge-like bite of a mawa sweet. What changes is … Read more
Fried modak — talniche modak — is the crisp, keeping cousin of the famous steamed ukadiche modak, and in many Maharashtrian homes it is the one actually made most often, precisely because it can be fried in the morning and still be shattering-crisp at evening aarti. Where the steamed modak is soft, white and delicate, … Read more
Besan ladoo is the sweet that survives every festival season on sheer usefulness — it keeps for weeks, travels well in a box, and asks for nothing more exotic than gram flour, ghee and sugar. But its simplicity is deceptive. Everything depends on the roasting: besan cooked too briefly tastes raw and pasty, besan caught … Read more
Mawa peda is the original peda — the one mithai shops have made for generations from nothing but khoya, sugar and cardamom, long before the sensible shortcuts with milk powder and condensed milk existed. The difference is not snobbery; it is texture and taste. Real khoya, crumbled and cooked down slowly, gives a peda that … Read more
Ada pradhaman is the payasam Kerala holds above all others — the one without which no sadya feels finished, no matter how many other sweets crowd the banana leaf. Its pleasures are deep and unhurried ones: soft, silky ribbons of rice ada, jaggery cooked down to a dark caramel sweetness, and coconut milk added in … Read more
Jackfruit payasam — chakka payasam, and in its grandest form chakka pradhaman — is the sweet Kerala waits all year for: the short season when the fruit ripens so perfumed and honeyed that half the neighbourhood tree seems to end up in somebody’s kitchen. Ripe jackfruit, cooked down until it turns jammy, meets the deep … Read more
Palak kofta is the kofta for people who claim to be eating their greens: crisp, golden balls of spinach, potato and gram flour, fried until their edges catch, then lowered into a silky spinach gravy that has been built patiently on onion, tomato and spice. It has all the comfort of the richer restaurant koftas … Read more
Semiya payasam is the sweet that closes a South Indian festive meal — and the one that appears, with almost no warning, when guests arrive and something celebratory has to reach the table within half an hour. Fine vermicelli, roasted in ghee until it turns the colour of pale gold, simmers in milk until the … Read more
Rava ladoo is the sweet of busy festival kitchens: no syrup to judge, no khoya to reduce, nothing that can go badly wrong — just semolina roasted slowly in ghee until it smells like toasted nuts, sugar and cardamom stirred through, and warm, fragrant balls rolled while the mixture is still pliable. It is often … Read more
Vati dal khaman is the quieter, older cousin of the instant khaman dhokla in the shop window — and Gujarati homes will tell you it is the real thing. Instead of a box of besan stirred up in minutes, this one begins with chana dal soaked for hours and ground in a stone grinder’s bowl … Read more