Dry Fruit Fiesta ....a Shahi Affair !!!

The Holiday season is almost here. Diwali is around the corner and the entire atmosphere at least in India is getting festive. One of the biggest banes during Diwali is the sweets that you end up getting and the dry fruit that comes along. You really end up having so much, that you do not know what to do with it.
The other day while I was cleaning the Kitchen, I came across a huge supply of dry fruit stashed away (among other things ...my wife stashes away stuff, as if, in preparation for a nuke lockdown or something). Anyways, with Diwali around the corner and the possibility of receiving more such boxes I decided to do something about it.
The choices were fairly limited. Either make a dessert or a snack mixture with cornflakes. I decided to have a third option...make a main course dish. In the end, the dish turned out good..I liked it, my wife liked it, we had folks over for dinner...they liked it. One piece of caution though ...with the richness oozing out of this one...eat moderately.
I still haven't come around to naming this one...thought of Dry Fruit Medley ...wife didn't like the ring to it. She wanted some "Dhasu" name ( I'm really bad at this). So feel free, call it what you like. That's the best part of cooking you can really give fancy names to dishes.

Ingredients:

Dates, Seeded - 1/2 cup
Raisins - 1/2 cup
Cashews - 12-15 in number
Almonds - 12-15 in number
Figs, dried - 1/2 cup
Pistachio - 12-15 in number


Ginger Paste - 1/2 Tblsp
Garlic paste - 1/2 Tblsp
Zeera (Cumin) - 10 gm
Onion Paste - 1/2 Cup
Tomato paste - 1/2 Cup
Turmeric Powder - 1.5 Tsp
Red Chilli Powder - 1 Tsp
Garam Masala Powder - 1 Tsp
Amchur Powder - 1 Tsp
Salt - To Taste
White Butter / Ghee - 3 Tblsp
Rum - 30 ml


Method:
Pre-Preparation:
1. Soak Dates & Figs in water for 2 hours. After soaking, chop coarsely.
2. Soak Raisins in water and rum for 2 hrs. Drain after 2 hrs and keep aside. Do not throw away water.
3. Soak almonds in water and blanch.

Preparation:
1. Heat white butter/ghee in a wok.
2. Add zeera and let it crackle. Add in the onion, ginger & garlic paste. Fry till it turns golden brown.
3. Add in the turmeric, red chilli, garam masala and amchur powder. Fry for 2 more minutes till masala is done. (DO NOT burn it)
4. Add in the dates, figs, almonds, cashews, pista and raisins. Stir for 3-4 minutes.
5. Add in the salt, tomato paste and rum water(in which raisins were soaked).
6. Add some water, cover & cook till the dry fruits are tender and a thick gravy is formed.
7. Serve Hot.

Posted in: Indian Cooking,North Indian Cuisine