Sweets, Indian Sweets, Buy Indian Mithai,Traditional Sweets

India is a land of many cultures, colourful and diverse range of food and tastes to offer but it also offers Indian food is no longer confined to India anymore, it has crossed boundaries and has been tasted my people from all over the world. Many who have tasted Indian food will agree that it has the spice that only a few can muster courage to have. Have travelled a lot in Europe and London and I have seen the effect Indian food can have on people. Not many know but India is well known for its wide range of desserts.

We Indians are born with a sweet tooth as well, there are many regions that divide India and every region has given a new meaning to the word dessert. Indian sweet is known as mithai is available in many shapes, colors and flavours to suit the urge for sweet. Desserts are very tempting and mouth watering it is one of the best ways to end a sumptuous meal. Every Indian always finds a reason to have a sweet on any occassion. Be it at an indian wedding, an Indian puja, a new born baby homecoming, a house warming party we celebrate it with sweets. A mithai is a celebration of happiness and a kind gesture of giving sweet is symbolic of sending good wishes your way.

My family always digs into good food, and they would not mind having a sweet after every meal. Each region has its own specialties, they add their own flavour and special touch in the way they make it. India can boast about a wide variety of sweets, be it traditional or the current diet or sugar free sweets you surely will find something to tantalize your taste buds. Indian desserts can be divided into two categories. The first has to be milk based, all the rich desserts are made up of one or the other form of using milk. Eg Rasmalai, Peda, Burfi etc. The second category of Indian dessert are based on flour such as jalebi, Halwa, Besan Laddo.

The art of  food presentation is an important aspect for any meal, like how garnishing plays an important role in making a meal complete. The mithais or sweet desserts are decorated with raisins, almonds, pistachio all the nuts and makes it difficult to resist.

Milk plays a very important ingredient in the recipes; Most Indian sweets are made by boiling down milk to remove the moisture. It is called khoya which is used in many of the recipes in almost every mithai shop. Adding ghee (clarified butter), sugar and many other flavours in the form of saffron, elaichi powder, these are turned into the final product which may be either a barfi, malai, kheer, rasgulla.

Special and typical sweets that come from Bengal are Sandesh and Rasgullas, made from adding fine sugar to the cottage cheese. It was originated in Orissa but became popular in west Bengal. In the movie Devdas you can find Aishwarya Rai Bachan who goes to meet Shahrukh khan by the means of sending sandesh.

One of my favourites is Gulab Jamun in which you will fry small dumplings of milk powder and flour and add this to thick sugar syrup. Another favourite is kheer which is made of milk, rice and sugar.

Be it in North India or in Southern part of India you surely will find something that will suit your taste buds. It is equally liked by older and younger generation; it is a tradition of passing on goodness in life. This hub is one of my efforts to give you a glimpse into the world of Indian Sweets.