Our moods are often governed by what we eat. I always find that on days when I eat well-balanced light meals, drink lots of fluids, and follow my regular Yoga routine, I just don’t seem to get tired or irritable. But when I eat fat-rich food, I feel lethargic for most of the day.
I love sweets but I also realise that sweets can get oh-so-rich in fats! So I keep trying to reinvent the sweet recipes I know with simpler ingredients, or I find new recipes altogether.
It was during one of these ’sweet’ quests that I stumbled on a sweet made out of dates. It tasted quite good. Then I decided to go ‘non-Google’ in my search attempts and simply sample as many date desserts as I could.
Upon much coaxing, my friend Rahim sent me her sister’s recipe for date ‘burfis’.
A ‘burfi’ is a sweet paste that has the propensity to harden when it cools, so that you can cut it into cubes.
Ingredients:
Condensed milk or milk cream- 100 gms
Dates (deseeded and coarsely crushed) – 500 gms
Ghee (clarified butter)- 2 tbspns
Marie biscuits (low sugar biscuits) – 10.12 nos
Procedure:
Heat ghee (clarified butter) in a pan. Add the dates and condensed milk.
Cook it well, constantly stirring the contents, until the mixture leaves the sides of the pan.
Add powdered biscuits and cook for another couple of minutes.
Spread the mixture on a plastic sheet or an aluminium foil. Twist it into a roll (like a Swiss roll)
Refrigerate the roll until it thickens.
Remove the roll from the fridge and cut it into small pieces. You can eat it all by yourself or serve to the bunch of folks who are watching with hope.
That said, let me wrap this recipe with a few good words on dates.
Dates have been known to the Arabs and Indians from 5000 BC. The scientific name is real pretty too- Phonenix dactylifera.
Dates are low in calorific value (a single date might contain around 23 calories) and rich in minerals like Selenium. Selenium is said to lower the risk of cancer and heart diseases, keeping the immune system healthy. Dates also contain vitamins A1, B1, N2, B3, B5 and C.
Hope you go date-ing, some day real soon!
