It’s the eighth day of Chaitra Navratri today. Navratri is a festival of nine nights, “Nav” means nine and “Ratri” means night.

The beginning of spring and the beginning of autumn are considered to be important junctions of climatic and solar influences hence it is observed as an auspicious period of worship for Hindus.

During this period, people fast and do not eat non-vegeterian food and avoid onions and garlic. We ended our fast today with prayers in the morning and made the ‘bhog’ i.e. offerings of poori, Semolina Halwa and Kale Chane.

I have featured here a recipe for Kaju peda, it’s a traditional Indian cashew nut fudge recipe. It’s very simple to assemble and easy to make as well. I made this for Diwali last and again on Gudi Padwa.

200 grams cashew nuts

2 tsp clarified butter / ghee

1/2 to 3/4 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp cardamom powder

Few tsp of full fat milk

Slivered Pistachios to garnish (optional)

Soak the cashews in warm water for 2-3 hours. Once the cashews are soft, drain them and blend with very little water in a blender.

Pulse the cashews until they are creamy.

In a thick bottom wok on low heat, heat ghee and add the cashew mixture. I usually oil the wok so that the cashew mixture does not stick to the wok.

Add powdered sugar, cardamom powder and full fat milk to this mixture and keep blending it well until the sugar dissolves.

After a few minutes, the mixture will start leaving the sides of the wok. Turn off the heat at this point.

Let the mixture cool until it is ok to handle the mixture. Make bite sized balls from the cashew mixture. Let me show you my attempt previously around Diwali which I was not quite happy with.

Result this time, the difference just adding 2-3 tsp of milk to the mixture so that it does not dry out. Also I did grease my palms well and hence you see the sheen on the peda this time around. Win!

Press down a pistachio sliver in the cashew ball and roll it well.

You can also use silver vark easily available in Al Adil stores to add a nice festive touch to the pedas.

I will bring you some Navratri recipes over this week before it’s too late. Happy Cooking! 🙂