Double Ka Meetha-Double Ka Meeta-Diwali Sweets Recipes

One of the only things I miss about Hyderabad, apart from the people, is the food. Nothing beats Hyderabadi Biryani with mirchi ka salan and the gongura dal and, of course, the famous Hyderabadi double ka meetha.

My colleague-friend Anil's lovely wife Lalitha made this for us almost a year back when we went to their place for dinner (along with this Bengali Fish Fry I posted a while back). We went early so she was still making dessert and I totally got in her way taking pictures and asking way too many questions. I had to live up to the infamous 'food blogger' tag after all.

Hyderabadi Double Ka Meeta Recipe

Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 25 minutes
Serves 4-6
Recipe source: Lalitha (All measurements are approximate, based on my observation of her making the dish)

Ingredients:
10-12 slices of bread (white or milk bread works best)
1 cup of ghee or vanaspati for frying
1 cup of water
3-4 green cardamom seeds, crushed
2 cups of full fat milk
½ cup of sugar (adjust to taste)
A few almonds or cashew nuts or a mix of both
A few raisins (optional)

Instructions:

1. Cut the bread slices into halves diagonally creating triangular pieces.

2. Heat the ghee or vanaspati and fry the bread pieces until golden brown. Set aside in a wide bowl that will hold all the bread pieces comfortably. Lalitha used the Gottis bowl from Ikea (I have so much random information in my head, right?)

Once done with frying the bread, fry the nuts and raisins until golden and set aside separately.

3. Meanwhile. bring the water to boil and add the sugar and crushed cardamom seeds. Let it simmer for about 4-5 mins. There's no need to check for thread consistency, etc.

4. Pour this over the prepared bread slices evenly, taking care not to allow the cardamom pieces to fall through. It's ok if you like biting into them but if not, pass the sugar syrup through a sieve. Let this mixture soak for about 5-10 mins.

5. In the meantime, bring the milk to boil in the same pan and while still hot, pour over the soaking bread slices.

6. Add the nuts and raisins on the soaking bread pieces and let it sit until you need to serve.

Lalitha had this interesting nut grater that she used to add some shaved nuts on the double ka meetha. Love the idea!

Double ka meetha is usually served hot but I love mine chilled. Go with what your heart says, I say.

This is a great recipe idea for Diwali sweets this year especially since you can make this in advance and it doesn't take much expertise or time.

Notes:

- There have been many 'lighter' versions of double ka meetha' perfected over the years. Some of the ideas I saw were to shallow-fry the bread slices in ghee which I'm sure works just as fine, or even toasting it. I am not very keen on the toasting idea because the bread will be dry to begin with. I haven't tried this though so give it a shot if you feel like.

- To make the dessert (even) richer, you can add some cream or condensed milk to the milk when boiling it. You can also add some saffron to it for additional flavour.

- If you feel like the bread slices are not soaking uniformly, stir once in between but not too much otherwise the soft pieces will start breaking up.

- There's no need to trim the bread. Really, no need to waste that time.

What other Diwali recipes (sweets or snacks) would you like to see on Edible Garden? I will try to cook it up over the next few weekends.