Many people are aware of the city of Nagpur being popular for its best quality of oranges that are also exported. Many have written and discussed about the reason, origin and popularity of the fruit in this part of the country but missing out one of its tastiest contribution in the field of desserts is a nothing less than a crime.
Nagpur, popularly known as the ‘City of Oranges’, also offers one of the most unique desserts of India that is mainly found in Nagpur. The sweet dish is popularly known as the ‘Orange Barfi’, in which ‘orange’ refers to the main ingredient fruit of the dish and ‘barfi’ refers to a styling form of sweet meat cut out in a square or diamond shape.
This particular dish is highly popular among the locals and the tourists come looking for it from different parts of the country. It originated in Nagpur itself as an experimental form of sweet dish. It is found in almost every sweet shop of the city but only selected few serve it best.
Preparing this dish at home is as easy as it can be, its ingredients are minimal, simple and easy to find anywhere in India. It is a completely Indian sweet dish with a dash of the best Indian oranges. The preparation time for this dish as less as 30 minutes and takes only 5 minutes to savour it. Even if you are not a fan of oranges, you would surely enjoy this little piece of Nagpur’s cultural cuisine.
Ingredients for Orange Barfi
This super tasty and super simple dish requires only 6 ingredients, as are listed below:
- Peeled Oranges (2-3)
- Orange Peel or Zest (½ cup)
- Sugar (4 cups)
- Milk (1 cup)
- Saffron (1 teaspoon)
- Ghee (3 tablespoons)
- All Purpose Flour or Maida (1 cup)
Preparing Orange Barfi
At first you need to heat the ghee in a pan, to which the Maida should be added to it, which should be stirred continuously at low heat so that it doesn’t get burnt. Make sure that the flour does not stick to the pan. As soon as the flour turns golden brown, it needs to be removed from the heat and kept aside to cool off a bit. Mix the saffron with 2 teaspoons of warm milk so that the essence and colour can be extracted from it.
Skin the peeled oranges and de-seed them so that you can recover the pulp or the juice from it. Then you need to heat the milk in a separate pan, add the orange pulp, sugar and stir the mixture continuously until it reduces considerably in amount.
Once the milk mixture thickens, the sauteed flour should be added to it and mixed well to avoid the formation of any lumps and until the flour takes in the color of the thick Orangey milk mixture. Add the Saffron extract milk to the base mixture and let it take in the beautiful saffron colour. Mix it for some more time at really low heat and then take it off the heat and placed it in a dish greased with ghee.
Once it cools off, cut the mixture in to small square pieces and garnish it with orange zest and strands of saffron. You can add almond slices or pistachio pieces to make it look even more beautiful. The most popular and the best Orange Barfi is found in Haldiram’s which is a famous fast food chain that is highly regarded across India. They make it with pure home-made ghee or as we call it ‘desi ghee’ and no one else makes it like them. They have popularized it across India due to their extensive food-chain all throughout the country. Next time you visit Nagpur, make sure you do not miss out on Haldiram’s Orange Barfi.