Chirote is a flaky, pastry-like Maharashtrian Diwali treat.
This mildly sweet snack is prepared in every Maharashtrian household as a part of the traditional faral or assortment of sweet and salty Diwali snacks served up, which also includes chivda, chakli, sev, karanjis, shankarpales, anarsas, barfi and laddoos.
At my home, Chirote typically marks the beginning of faral prep as it doesn't involve much hassle.
It's lovely how the bewitching fragrance of ghee and sugar takes over entire home when the batches of Chirote are being fried.
This rush hour in the kitchen and the eagerness to bite into delightful snacks is the true charm of Diwali for me. After all, culinary indulgence is an integral part of our celebrations!
Made from a dough of all-purpose flour, semolina, ghee and milk, the dough is then flattened, deep fried, dusted with sugar and decorated with nuts.
Sounds easy? Because it really is!
Go ahead, put that apron on and whip it up in the kitchen yourself. Happy Diwali :)
Chirote
Servings: 18 to 20
Ingredients
Method
Mayur's Note: For a vegan version, replace milk with warm water and ghee with cashew butter. For frying, stick to any neutral oil.
Instead of sugar dusting, you can also soak the chirote in sugar syrup right after frying.
For the sugar syrup, bring ¾ cup sugar and ½ cup water to boil over low heat until it reaches a one-string consistency.
You may flavour the syrup with cardamom powder or a few saffron strands. Soak the chirote in the warm syrup for 1-2 minutes and take out.
Chirotes can be stored up to 20 to 30 days in an air-tight container. Double the recipe to make a larger quantity.
One-string consistency: It is important to keep testing for consistency while the sugar syrup is boiling.
The test for this is: Dip a spatula, preferably wooden, into the boiling sugar syrup and take out.
Some syrup would have coated the spatula.
Let it cool.
Touch the cooled syrup with your forefinger. Some syrup will come onto your finger.
Touch that with your thumb and separate thumb from forefinger.
When one little continuous delicate thread is formed by the syrup, when the coated forefinger is pulled away from your thumb, you have a one-string or one-thread consistency sugar syrup.