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Reply to "The Unique Use of Dals in Our Favourite Indian Desserts"

desserts besan barfiThe small desi chana is hulled to make the Bengal Gram-one of the most widely used pulses in India. The dal got its English name because the English first encountered it in Bengal. Kabuli Chana, bigger and fairer, on the other hand, as its name suggests only came to India much later in the 18th century from an overland route from Kabul. The Bengal gram is used to give us besan. And this is the base for a host of sweets that we find in our midst. Besan Ladoos are common all over northern and central India, the much loved food of many a deity and human.

Achaya suggests that laddoo as a term can be found in the Mahabharata and perhaps the older modak was also a ladoo though now it refers to an entirely different sweet. In any case, this is one of the oldest desserts of India. The same base-besan and ghee can in fact be used in different ways for sweets ranging from besan barfi, set on steel thalis  and then cut into diamonds, or halwa.Mysore Pak, the most popular sweet from Karnataka (which ostensibly does not find a mention in old literature from the region and is most likely a relatively newer creation) is just besan barfi by another name: cooked in sugar and finished with copious amounts of ghee.

FM
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