3 fusion recipes to impress your Diwali guests

Try giving regular Indian dishes a creative twist that's high on imagination and taste.

Udupi Paneer Popcorn
Prep time: 15 mins
Cook time: 15 mins
Serves: 2-4
Ingredients
For the batter:
250 gm tempura flour
5 gm turmeric
10 gm deggi mirch
8 gm salt
5 gm baking powder
For the paneer:
250 gm paneer
10 gm deggi mirch
6 gm salt
½ tsp lime juice
Method
Cut paneer into ½ inch cubes, and mix with deggi mirch, salt and lime juice.
For the batter, mix all the ingredients together and add water till you get a thick consistency.
Mix marinated paneer into the batter and deep-fry.
Serve along with podi masala and tomato garlic chutney.
Dal Chawal Arancini
Prep Time: 40 mins
Cook Time: 60 mins
Serves: 2-4


Ingredients
20 gm clarified butter
6 gm whole cumin seeds
15 gm ginger, chopped
75 gm tomato
125 gm onion
10 gm green chilli
5 gm cumin powder
10 gm deggi mirch
5 gm coriander powder
100 gm arhar dal, boiled
800 ml water
100 gm rice, steamed
10 gm fresh coriander
6-7 lentil poppadum, roasted

Method
Heat clarified butter for 3-4 mins. Add whole cumin, chopped ginger, tomato, onion and green chilli; sauté and cook for 10-15 mins. Add cumin powder, deggi mirch and coriander powder. Add the boiled dal and water. Cook for 30-40mins before adding steamed rice. Cook the mixture for another 10-15 mins till the water dries up and add the fresh coriander.
Cool the batch and make balls of 30 gms each; crust with roasted papad and deep-fry.
Serve on a bed of tomato salsa and top with pickled mayonnaise, mint chutney and roasted poppadum.
Rasmalai Tres Leches
Prep time: 30 mins
Cook time: 50 mins
Serves: 2-4

Ingredients
For rasmalai:
2.5 L milk
Juice of 2 limes
For sugar syrup:
2 kg sugar
2 L water
For carrot cream:
30 ml ghee
250 gm carrot
500 ml milk
50 gm sugar
100 ml fresh cream
For saffron milk:
2.5 L milk
50 gm sugar
5 gm green cardamom powder
¼ tsp saffron
Method
For the rasmalai, boil milk, remove from heat and add lime juice. Once it curdles, strain in a muslin cloth for 30 mins. Shape into round discs; keep aside.
For sugar syrup, boil sugar and water till sugar dissolves completely. Add the discs into this syrup; cook for 2-3 mins and leave in the syrup.
For carrot cream, add ghee and carrot to a heavy bottomed pan and sauté. Add milk and bring to a boil. Add sugar and cook till the mixture thickens. Remove and cool. Add the whipped cream to the mixture and set aside. For saffron milk, boil the milk with saffron. Add sugar and cardamom powder. Reduce the milk a bit and set aside to cool.
For presentation, cut the rasmalai in half and soak in the saffron milk. Stack up the cut rasmalai with carrot cream making three layers. Serve in a deep dish with the cold saffron milk and nuts to garnish.

• Food and Dining