What is Holi without Gujiya & Rang???

Holi is right around the corner and Momsters believe we should celebrate it in a natural and fun way.

Making your own Holi colors can be fun. It avoids you dousing yourself and your children with some of the chemicals that are in modern dyes. Momsters shares a few suggestions for making colored water, which we found online. Let’s celebrate Holi using environment friendly natural colours that are not only cheaper but can also be made easily at home. Explore the fascinating world of natural colors (these are tried and tested recipes).

Red

Dry red rose petals by spreading them on newspaper. Grind the rose petals and use this red powder as gulal.
Red sandalwood can be ground into fine powder and used as natural red colour, but may be expensive and difficult to procure. Sandalwood is beneficial for skin and can also be used in face packs. Boil two teaspoon of red sandalwood powder in five liters of water. Dilute it with twenty liters of water to get red colour solution.
Water can be boiled with peels of red pomegranate or wood of Madder Tree to give a lovely red colour.
Tomato and carrot juice diluted with enough water for natural red colour for Holi.

Green

Gulmohar, spinach, coriander or mint leaves can be dried and ground to get a rich green colour.
To get a green solution, you can mix two teaspoons of mehendi in one litre of water and stir well.

Yellow

Mix one part ground turmeric to two parts of flour or besan. You can also use atta, maida, rice flour, arrowroot powder, Fuller’s Earth (multani mitti) and even talcum powder in place of besan! Mix appropriate quantity of the powder with besan or use separately. You can use cheaper methods like drying the rind of the bael fruit (Aegle marmelos) and grinding it, to obtain a yellow powder.
Traditionally, flowers of the `Flame of the forest`, known as Tesu or Palash are boiled to give a deeper yellowish-orange colour solution.
Dry the petals of flowers like Amaltas or the golden shower cassia, marigold or yellow chrysanthemums and grind them to yield different shades of yellow colour powder.
Boil one teaspoon of turmeric powder (haldi) in two liters of water to yield deep yellow colour. Soak 50 marigold flowers in 2 liters of water and boil it to get yellow colour solution.

Other Colors

Magenta - Grate one beetroot and soak it in one liter of water overnight for deep magenta colour solution. Dilute it with water for desired colour strength.
Orangish-pink colour solution can be prepared by boiling 10 to15 onion peels in half liter of water.
Blue - Jacaranda flowers that bloom in summers or the blue Hibiscus flowers can be dried in shade and ground to get a beautiful blue colored powder.
Blue - The leaves of Indigo plant can yield rich blue colour, when boiled in water.
Saffron - A little turmeric & sandalwood powder added to rose water makes a saffron colour solution.

Now that we talked about rang let us talk about Gujiya, for me Gujiya is one of the best part of Holi. Still I always felt Holi is such a colorful festival and the main delicacy associated with Holi (Gujiya) looks plain... that was till the time I discovered the recipe of Rang-Birangi Gujiya online and I thought sharing it with all of you. This will be a sure shot hit with kids as well.

Rang Birangi Gujiya

Ingredients:

1 cup maida
2 tablespoons ghee
A pinch of food color (red and green)2 tablespoons grated coconut
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon chirongi
1/4 teaspoon cardamom powder
1 teaspoon sliced almonds
8-10 rasins (kishmish)
1 teaspoon sliced cashews
Oil for frying

Process:

Mix food color and ghee in maida. Add water and make a dough
Mix the remaining ingredients in a separate bowl to make the filling for the gujiya.
Roll 4 inch wide puris and add 1 tablespoon of the filling mixture in the center of the puri. Dab water on the edges of the puri and fold it in half (like the letter "D"). Let the puris dry for about 10 minutes.
Once dry, deep fry the gujiyas on medium heat. Enjoy fresh!