Nariyal Ki Barfi-Coconut Barfi Home Made and KarvaChauth

Nariyal ki Barfi- Coconut Barfi .
My favourite Mithai.
Regular readers will wonder if that is true.
On the one hand I profess to love sweets and on the other , I profess to not like many sweets.
I am not too much in love with any mithai made with dairy products.
That should suffice for now.

All this fuss is for the festival of Karvachauth.
Another fast.
Yes, I know , the amount of fasts we Indian women observe,we really should be stick thin!But its not always about the food.
This festival is special for the faux practitioners of customs like me. Bend all to suit oneself.
Pray when it is convenient, follow rituals when they suit us and celebrate always.
That's what life should be all about .
Celebrations!
And Henna tattoos on the hands.

This festival is celebrated in North India, where in a married woman fasts for her husband. We make a fuss and wake up at 4 in the morning, try and eat sargi सर्गी of mathi and feni and add a cup of tea and the mandatory analgesic or two-yup, a disprin or two at 4-30 am in the hope that the dehydration will not cause a headache.And try to down a litre or two of water before the sun rises.
The remainder of the night is spent trooping to the loo and back to bed.
Then there is this drama of the bangles, and the blingiest ,brightest out fit to be worn for the actual pooja, and the wait for the moon to show itself.
A small prayer and offering of sweets and water and rice and flowers to the moon, then you look at hubby dear and yay...the ordeal is over.
Yup, try staying 14 hours without water and caffeine...
The food is OK,its the water that hurts the most.

As with the mehendi/henna,the bangles come out only once a year.And the shopping for something pretty to wear...even though you'll not wear it ever again...
Hubby dear realises that it is that time,when henna and eat bread for dinner come in the same sentence.With a resigned look ,he accepts. Sweet child is growing too, he actually fed me lunch, when I expressed my inability to eat...
Celebrations,that is what they do to you.
All these festivities need the mandatory sweets. 
What with all the scare of milk adulteration and impending blog posts, small servings of home made sweets/mithai's for Diwali seemed a better idea.
Last year, I posted on Diwali- Semolina Coconut Laddoos.
Coconut it had to be, at least for the first lot of Diwali Sweets.
So this was the easiest sweet/mithai that can be made with two basic ingredients-coconut and sugar.
Took all of 10 minutes to make and maybe half an hour to set.I tasted them only after I ended the fast, so the aroma was tantalising....and I was fasting. So the feast had to wait...
If you have a fresh coconut, you can start ASAP!
for the 

Nariyal Ki Barfi-Coconut Barfi Home Made...

you need

1 cup grated fresh coconut(peeled)
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
2 drops green food colour-optional
2 tsp desi ghee-clarified butter
1 pinch elaichi/cardamom powder

Start with a non stick pan,helps the cleaning up.
The sugar and the water in.
The syrup needs to boil till it is of one string consistency.So it will take about 10-15 minutes.

That is the peeled-you don't want hard brown bits of coconut skin in your barfi,coconut.

Once the sugar syrup is thick and bubbling, place a drop of the syrup on a cold surface, touch it with a fingertip. Try and touch the fingertip to another and slowly pull apart. If the syrup makes a single string- that you can probably not see in the picture-but generally get the idea- the syrup is ready.
Just be careful,hot sugar is really, really hot.
You may need to do this a few times once your syrup starts thickening ...Don't let the syrup become too thick...or you'll need to then dilute it.

Time to add the coconut and the cardamom powder.

Mix well, it will look all watery and wrong, but patience pays.Oh and I added the colour here...why?? know not...sometimes my mind surrenders to flights of fancy.
Hubby dear will willingly testify.
Also lightly grease a small plate-6 inches diameter with the ghee/clarified butter.
Pour in the rest of the ghee into the cooking barfi.

On a medium flame, keep stirring , keep stirring till the mess on your pan comes together...I couldn't taste-but the smell of coconut roasting in sugar and ghee was killing.
At least it kept me from feeling thirsty-salivating!

Now, its all come together, place on the greased plate and with a wet spoon spread to about 1/2 inch thick.About 6 -7 inches in diameter.Mark out the slices you want to cut while it is still warm.

Now cool, about half an hour...cot the slices with a sharp knife. The Ghee on the plate will allow you to lift the pieces easily.

Agonising wait for the moon, who did a no-show...RAIN!
So, an hour after the TV channels were showing the moon in all its glory in all cities except Ranchi, did the final pooja and broke  the fast ...

With the home made coconut Barfi...yum!
totally simple ,totally sublime!

Yup, the mehendi/henna is pretty short lived...but one prays that hubby dear lives healthy and long ...

So what are you baking today???

PS coming up Til Chikki-sesame chikki! with jaggery and sesame seeds!