Sunday, October 30, 2016

Telangana’s quintessential sweets of Deepavali are Garijalu and Pheni.

Deepavali, the festival of lights is also the festival of sweets and crackers. Two sweets are the most important Deepavali - traditional sweets for us in Telangana, Garijalu and Pheni (Pheni now and earlier Sevalu). Other sweets however delicious and attractive come next.
Deepavali festival starts for us early in the morning by bursting a few crackers. Then before breakfast, it is time for Harathulu – that is receiving blessings. You may click on Harathulu to know about this tradition. Then it is breakfast time and it starts by having Garijalu and some Namkeen prepared at home followed by regular breakfast dishes.
You can see Garijalu in the topmost picture, to the left, the ones in a semicircular shape. They are fried sweet dumplings made of Maida - refined wheat flour and stuffed with a mixture of Khoya, sugar, dry fruits, cardamom and grated dry coconut. Obviously, they are very delicious.
The other sweet; Pheni is a bought out item. The tradition of having Pheni on Deepavali day is very popular among locals. It is so popular that it is sold by every Sweet Shop in Hyderabad and Secunderabad in very large quantities. This is also made with refined wheat flour and ghee. It is thread-like crisp noodles spun together into round shaped layers few millimetres thick and pre-fried. You can see these in the above three pictures. We sprinkle powdered sugar on Pheni, pour warm milk over it to soak it for a few seconds and it is ready to eat. It tastes heavenly, cool, soft, a little crunchy and sweet.

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