Singhara platter

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Navratras bring with them, a festive fervour that we all love to indulge in. It’s that time of the year, when we gorge on recipes and don’t keep a check on calories. Water chestnut, popularly known as singhara is a major component of recipes prepared during Navratras. During these nine days, onion and garlic is forbidden and Singhara recipes definitely make up for the loss in flavours. Using selected spices like cumin seeds, rock salt, red chilli powder and turmeric, here’s what you can do with the delicious water chestnut.
“The easiest to make is the singhare ka halwa. Just boil half cup milk and add a few saffron strings and keep aside. Combine one cup sugar and half cup water and boil to make syrup. Roast singhare ka atta along with desi ghee. Now add sugar syrup in the roasted singhare ka atta and mix well so that there are no lumps. Add saffron dissolved milk and mix again. Add dry fruits and simmer for some time until ghee starts separating. You can serve it hot or cold,” says executive chef Inder Dev from Fortune Select Excalibur, Gurgaon. It’s interesting to see how many households prefer to use singhare ka atta all through the nine days and experiment with it to make rolls with various fillings, tikkis and cakes too.
Says Nikita Mehta, a teacher, “I don’t fast throughout Navratras but restrict my diet and eat only specific things. My mom always made tikkis with singhare ka atta and now I make aloo vadas for my kids. The recipe is simple, boil and peel 3 to 4 potatoes and make potato balls by adding red chillies, coriander and lime juice and some sugar. Keep it aside and in another bowl add 1.5 cups of singhara flour. Add salt and chilli powder according to taste to this and make batter. Now cover potato balls with batter and fry. It’s delicious.”
And it’s not only used in Indian cuisine, but Chinese, Mexican, and just about any you can think of. Delhi, rightly called the foodies’ paradise has it all set for you. Sharing his recipe of Soba noodles, chef Sunil Datt from Lite Bite foods, says, “Heat oil in a wok and add pak choy fresh, chinese cabbage fresh, bell pepper red fresh, bell pepper yellow fresh, capsicum green fresh, bean sprouts fresh, broccoli fresh, sendha namak and sugar. Then add boiled soba noodles and stir, then add bean sprout seasoning to taste and garnish with fresh herbs.”
And how about some grilled vegetarian Tahini with water chestnut? “You can add everything from zucchini yellow, to mushrooms to asparagus along with water chestnut. Cook it in olive oil to keep it healthy,” says a chef from Lighthouse 3.