Dry Fruits Laddoo for Bhogi

First, let me wish all of you a happy and prosperous new year 2018. Days are quickly passing by and we are almost closing the first month of this year.
We celebrated Thai Pongal after missing celebrations for three years in a row. In these recent years, our celebrations are quite low key; to make ado for just two of us seems pointless. Nonetheless, to not celebrate, will never be my option. I love all the festivals and connected rituals and would not wish to skip.
Nostalgia sets in when between our sisters and cousins we reminisce the elaborate festive arrangements that used to take place in our childhood.
The other day, we were talking about the long hours we spent drawing the kolams for three nights in a row; the back breaking competition like effort we put in to show off our skills. One thing lead to another and we remembered helping arrange the flowers for the kaappu kattu on the Bhogi day and so on. Naturally we were asking each other about their choice of sweets and such.
I decided to move away from my comfort and go to Tirunrlveli halwa that I repeatedly made over years. I wanted to try doing something more healthy and less-on-effort sweet. I zeroed in on this easy and very quick, almost no cooking involved, laddoo with dry fruits. Last year for Ugadi, my friend had made it for us and we spoke about the recipe which goes by eyeball measures. However, I decided to measure in volume so I can keep a staple basic recipe and play around if I fancied. I have been keeping stock of nuts, seeds and dry fruits to snack on. So, it was quick to pull out a few and combine them in a delicious mix. I have used a small list of these. One can always put any nut, seed and dry fruit in any number of combinations. You can make it vegan by using coconut oil in the place of ghee.

Dry Fruits Laddoo

Ingredients:
Makes 20 laddoos , small in size - about 1'' in diameter
2 cups roughly chopped fleshy dates ( packed somewhat tight )
1/3 cup almonds in skin
1/3 cups cashews broken in big pieces
1/3 cups unsalted pistachios
1 tablespoon white sesame seeds
1 tablespoon pumpkin seeds
1/4 teaspoon cardamom powder
A pinch of nutmeg powder
4-5 strands of saffron
1 tablespoon ghee / clarified butter (divided)
1/4 cup desiccated coconut

Method:
Put a heavy and wide pan on heat. Dry roast the almonds until they are nicely warm, not browning quickly.
Add the pistachios and pumpkin seeds to the same pan and toss them around on low heat.
Add half of the ghee into this and drop the cashew nuts. Roast them until the cashews are golden in colour.
Add the saffron and the sesame seeds. Allow the sesame seeds to pop and remove the pan from the heat.
Allow the roasted nuts and seeds to cool down. Transfer them to a blending jar and pulse to a coarse powder that still has bits of the cashews and almonds that are not processed fully.
Transfer this nut mix to a wide bowl.
In the same blender jar pulp the dates roughly. Add to it the rest of the ghee and pulse further until it comes together in a mass. Few chucks of dates also left out in the process add a bite to the sweet.
Transfer the pulp to the nuts mixture, add the cardamom and the nutmeg powders.
Grease your palms, very lightly with ghee or coconut oil and gather the mixture in a slightly stiff dough like mass.
Pinch out small portions and roll them in laddoos/ balls.
Place the desiccated coconut in a flat dish and roll the laddoos in it to coat evenly on them.

Store in containers until need to use.
These have long shelf life. We have only just finished consuming all of them, ten days later.

Besan Laddoo

The first time I had tasted besan laddoo was when, for my daughter's school International Fest, we had to represent India by displaying our culture, history and food. We prepared a few dishes that other parents, teachers and the students can sample. One of our friends had then made besan laddoo.
At home, we only made the boondhi laddoo which also has the same ingredients but prepared differently in an elaborate process. That has to be another post in future.
The other day, my friend mentioned that she made besan laddoo as her daughter wanted to learn to make it. Then I requested that she makes for me and I shall put a post on the dish.
July, in my home, is a month dotted with frequent occasions to celebrate, through the month. It happened to be my daughter's birthday on the weekend and my friend suggested that we can celebrate with the sweet. We drove down to their home and after a leisurely meal, she set out to prepare them while I only watched. It seemed easy enough to prepare, the hardest part being roasting the chickpea flour/ besan in ghee until it is aromatic and shining without allowing it to burn. That takes quite a while and after that it the mix has to cool sufficiently in order that the sugar will not melt while added to it. She made it seem easy as she rolled out about 25 laddoos in minutes.They are mildly sweet and fragrant from the ghee and the roasted flour, a good sweet dish to prepare anytime.

Besan Laddoo
Recipe: Lalitha Burde

Ingredients:
Makes 25 ping-pong ball sized laddoos.

4 cups besan/ gram flour / chick peas flour
2 cups sugar (we have used very fine granulated sugar as is. You may powder the sugar, if desired)
                     ( Usually Boora sugar /Tagar is favourable)
1 cup melted ghee
2 - 3 tablespoons mixed, slivered nuts ( We used almonds and pistachios)
2 teaspoons cardamom powder
Few strands of saffron, slightly roasted and crushed

Method:
Sift the flour and removes the grainy lumps.
Reserve a little amount of ghee and heat the rest in a heavy bottom wide pan.
Add the sifted flour and on low heat roast it in the ghee. Initially the flour mix may seem to be dry.
Keep roasting the flour and carefully break any lump that forms. The flour has to lose the raw taste and get very aromatic.
Halfway through the roasting add mixed nuts, cardamom and the saffron. Mix well and continue to cook. If you find the mix dry, add the reserved ghee.
As it cooks, the flour will blend with the ghee and become a mass that will have a shiny coat of ghee.
Remove from the heat and allow the flour mix to cool down.It has to be warm to touch but not hot that you cannot hold.
Add the sugar or powdered sugar and mix thoroughly.
Pinch out small portions of the dough like mix and roll them in a smooth ball.
Arrange the rolled out laddoos on a dish slightly apart from each other.

Cool and store them.
The laddoo may feel sticky on the day of preparation and be very soft. The ghee gets absorbed and the laddoos also firm up by the next day.
They taste good whether served warm or stored.

Vanilla Flavoured Maida Burfi - Deepavali Bakshanam

Activity around any festival is by itself a thrill to experience. Deepavali being one of the widely celebrated festivals and one of the grand occasion, our homes are abuzz with preparations. Different kinds of sweet dishes and savoury crisp dishes are made on a week long process, in huge numbers. There is so much joy in cooking them and sharing with neighbours and friends.
Years ago, we used to get back from school in anticipation of seeing filled stainless steel and brass cylinders filled to the brim with bakshanams. As we only had the tradition of having the 'Ganga snaanam', namely the oil bath, wearing new clothes and cracking fireworks then, there were no special prayers. So we were allowed to taste and munch on all the dishes, as and when they were made, in my mother's kitchen.
These days, living in far away lands, I try to observe the tradition to the best of my ability. Though I hardly have someone to share with, I make a few dishes, in much lesser quantities. This year too, I had made a list of dishes to be made. It was an extra special deepavali, being the first for our daughter after her marriage, earlier this year.
My daughter wanted to try her hand, in her kitchen, making some of them. She wanted me to guide her with them. To be very sure and to pass on proper measures and procedures, I made them at home, ahead of her, took pictures and messaged her in detail. She followed the same and was very happy with her attempts. Over skype conversations and demonstrations, we discussed her list of dishes. She made thirattuppaal  taking instructions from my mother, and badam halwa from the blog.
One of the sweets I tried to make it easy for her was the vanilla flavoured maida burfi. There is already the rose flavoured maida cake in my list. She is not fond of rose flavour and opted for the vanilla flavoured one instead. I altered the procedure a little bit, making it easier. The recipe below is that I sent to her to try. She was happy to have made them and I ticked one sweet dish off in my list.

Vanilla Flavoured Maida Burfi

 

Ingredients:
200 ml plain flour/ All purpose flour/ maida

200 ml ghee melted

450 ml sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

150 ml water to dissolve sugar

2 teaspoons ghee to grease the jelly pan

Method:

Heat a tablespoon of ghee in a heavy bottomed pan, add the flour and over a very low flame roast it for about  5-7 minutes.
Transfer to a flat large dish and allow it to cool. Once it has come to room temperature, add 100 ml of the ghee to it and mix well. Break tiny lumps that may form with the back of the ladle.
Take this mixture to the pan and cook over a low flame until the mixture is a bit frothy. This may take about 5 minutes. Transfer this to a bowl. Keep aside.
Rinse the pan and place the sugar and water in it. Place the pan on the stove over medium heat. Dissolve the sugar and continue boiling  to make a syrup.
The correct consistency of the syrup to be achieved can be tested by dropping a small quantity in a little water. If the syrup flattens and holds, but is not rolling to a soft ball while rolled, then the right consistency is achieved.

Now bring the heat to the lowest and add in the flour - ghee mixture into the syrup.

Stir constantly and cook the mixture. Add the rest of the ghee in small increments and incorporate it into the cooking mass. 
When the mixture is well cooked and almost done, it will have white foam around the edges and big bubbles appear towards the middle. It will leave the sides when stirred and very slowly get back.
At this point turn the heat off. 
Keep the pan on the stove and briskly stir the mix until it is thickened enough to pour from the pan to the greased jelly pan in a uniform smooth, but thick batter that is almost like a loose dough.
(Ideally we take the pan off the stove and keep stirring strongly until the mass collects in a soft ball dough. I kept it on the hot stove with the fire off and stirred.)
Once you have transferred the dough to the jelly pan, tilt the pan a little to level the mix. Grease the back of a ladle, or a banana leaf and smoothen the top. The ghee will bring the extra glaze needed to this top surface also.Allow the mix to cool a little bit and while still warm, make cuts with a knife.
Let it cool completely before removing the pieces from the jelly pan.

The above recipe makes 25 numbers of 11/2 inches squares that are about 1/2 an inch in thickness.
This is slightly on the sweeter side in taste, that is how we like them. If you do not want them as sweet, reduce the sugar about two table spoons, but not more.

Pottukadalai Urundai

With the festival of Navarathri / Dhussera on I am cooking foods that are usually done for special occasions. And navarathri is special in a way that we celebrate over nine days +1 the tenth day that of Dhussera. This ensures that we make different offerings each day and enjoy the food. Once a neighbour gave me a list of the neivedhyams that are offered each day and then on, I stick to making the variety rice fare accordingly. But then festivities are not complete without a payasam and particularly for navarathri sundals (legumes cooked and stir fried) have to be part of the offering.
For those days when young children would visit to view the kolu arrangement, people make some sweet stuff that can be easily consumed by them. My grand mother used to stock up some laadoos and urundais or the powdered and sweetened roasted gram powder and such to distribute to children. It used to be the season for the guava fruit and many people gave away those to the children. When we were young, one visited homes of neighbours and friends, inviting them to visit your home during the festivities. It was not a routine, like what it is now, to gift or stock giveaways. The thamboolam and sundal or the kind sufficed. However, sundal was part of the offering and it was considered a good evening snack.
I have been seeing, on my social network sites, that my friends have been posting pictures of their arrangements and the offerings. I am hoping to get recipes for certain dishes I have seen and would want to try them here. Seeing the shared pictures have given me some new ideas to make a shift from routine. Aparna put pictures of her pottukkadalai urundais on facebook and seeing those I was remided of all of such sweetmeats that my grandmother and mother would cook. I made them soon after, and here is my post with the recipe of a simple, 'could-be-combined-in-about-half-an-hour' kind of sweet dish.

Pottukadali Urundai

 Makes 21 ping-pong balls sized roasted gram laddoos

Ingredients:

(I use my 1/2 aazhakku measure which measures exactly 125ml)

375 millilitres/ heaped 1 and 1/2 cups roasted gram

125 millilitres/ packed 1/2 cup powdered jaggery

1/2 teaspoon cardamom powder

Little coconut oil/ ghee to grease your palms

Method:

Pick and clean the roasted gram and set aside. Bring the jaggery to boil until it is reduced to a thick syrup (hard ball consistency) in a kadai or any heavy bottom pan.
Test for syrup is that you drop a few drops in normal room temperature water and turn it to a ball in your fingers, it should quickly roll into a hard ball; and should you lift it off the water and drop it back in, it will hit the bottom with a ringing noise.
Remove the jaggery syrup from the stove, add the cardamom powder and all of the roasted gram. Quickly stir the mixture to coat the gram with the syrup.
Allow to cool just until your palms will be able to hold the heat.
Grease your fingers and palms with ghee or quality coconut oil. Take small portions of the gram-jaggaery mix and tightly hold them in ball shapes.
Place them on a large round plate and holding the plate at two edges, turn it around so the prepared laddoos roll all around. This ensures that they will remain spherical and, also from all the heat of the jaggery, not stick to the plate.
In case the mix cools so much that you cannot hold it in a ball, return the pan to heat to just soften the syrup and repeat the shaping.

I used 375 ml of roasted gram and 125 ml (tightly packed jaggery). I had 21 laddoos in all.

Fried Modhakams for Ganesh Chathurthi

Food and festivals are part of Indian tradition. Every festival has its own special dish that would be cooked, offered to the Gods and consumed. While the lunch menu by itself is more elaborate, the neivedhyams, the offerings are extra and unique to each festival. Ganesh Chathurthi is just about few days to go.
This festival is celebrated all over the country with much fervour. As part of offering  for Ganesha, modhakam, a sweet dish made of rice flour with sweetened coconut filling is something every household makes. This deep fried version, that I have here, is also quite delicious. It is convenient too for they can be made ahead and stored.
With the children away from home, the festivals are low key affair. Cooking big meals for just two  seems pointless. This is the case with me and my sisters.This year both of my sisters have other commitments. They have to plan something simple, yet not stray from tradition. My mother suggested the fried modhakams for neivedhyam along with some fruits. I thought it would be a great idea for my daughter. She is yet to learn celebrating festivals on her own. It would be better to start with simpler stuff.
During the first few years of my marriage, my mother would write long letters that will give detailed procedures to conduct a festival in its spirit. She would write recipes also, even though I had  cookbooks to guide. However many books I may have had, I would, follow her directions and recipes. I am trying to do the same with my daughter. The other day she had asked me to keep myself available on the day before the festival, to guide her through.This post is one such that gives her a recipe to make and offer.


Fried Modhakams:
Makes 15 medium sized modhakams.

Ingredients:
For the covering dough:
1/3 cups all purpose flour/ maida
1/4 cup semolina/rawa (I use a fine variety one, but regular Bombay Rawa works well too)
A small pinch of salt
1 teaspoon coconut oil


For the Coconut poornam filling:
1 cup packed freshly grated coconut
2/3 cup packed powdered jaggery
pods from 5 whole cardamoms crushed

Oil for deep frying

Method:
Making the Coconut poornam
Take the powdered jaggery on a heavy bottom pan. Add 1/3 cup of water to it and place the pan on heat.
When the jaggery has just about dissolved, strain it through a wire mesh strainer to remove impurities.
Clean the pan and transfer the jaggery solution back to it. Place this on the stove and boil the jaggery down to a soft ball syrup.
At this point the solution will be bubbling all over with a few large bubbles here and there. If you take a little of the solution and tilt the ladle from a short height, thick syrup will flow off the ladle.
Add the coconut to the syrup.
Stir it in to blend with the syrup. In about 5 -7 minutes, the poornam will thicken with a light hiss.
Stir in the powdered cardamom and toss around for about 2 minutes longer.
Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
When the poornam has cooled enough, you may be able to gather it in a ball and it will be sticky to feel.
The poornam can be made ahead and stored.

Making the dough:
Take the coconut oil in a container and place it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. It will obtain a semi solid texture like ghee.
In a bowl, add the maida, rawa and salt and whisk to mix them well.
Take the coconut oil from the refrigerator and with light strokes of the tips of your fingers, rub it into the flour mix. Allow it to mix thoroughly.
Add sufficient water to the above mix and make a slightly stiff dough.
Cover and keep aside for about twenty minutes.
Knead the dough well to make it pliable. I drop the dough in the jar of my Indian mixer-grinder and run it for a good minute to make it pliable. if you are making more in quantity, you might use the processor or the kneading hooks fitted to the hand mixer.

Shaping and frying the modhakams:
Divide the dough in 15 portions.Roll each in a ball and place it in the bowl covered while working on one portion.
Roll out the small balls in circular discs. Keep the rolled out discs covered too.
Once all the dough has been rolled out, place about two teaspoons of the filling in the centre of each disc.
Using a cotton bud, brush a little water along the edges of the dough.
Gather the edges in a pleated manner towards the top, covering the filling completely. Pinch the dough tightly closed at the top.
Work on all of the dough in the same manner.
Meanwhile, place the oil in a frying pan and put it on heat.
When the oil is hot, gently slide the shaped modhakams into it in small batches and deep fry until well fried,
Remove with a slotted lalde draining the oil and place on kitchen tissues if needed.
Allow to come to room temperatue and store in airtight containers.

These keep well for about four to five days. They will be crisp on the first day and the next, after which they may be a bit softer, not saggy or chewy yet.

These are offered to Ganapathy on many occasions, not just on this festival. they also make for a good sweet snack.

Aval Ladoo for Janmashtami

 Friendship has been beautifully dealt in our greatest epics. The examples are of  the bonding that were created by Sri Rama with the boatman Guha,  the monkey chieftain Sugreeva and even the sibling of the enemy whom he was battling with. The Mahabharatha points the friendship of  Karna with Duriyodhana. The former fought the battle on his friend's side even after having indicated that the opponents were his brothers, and knowing well that he was on the side of evil.
Likewise the Bhagavatham emphasizes Sri Krishna's love for His friends irrespective of  status. It is a well repeated story that Sudhama went to seek the King of Dwaraka's help for a living. He was so poor that his wife had pounded the last few handful of rice to aval/ poha/ beaten rice to offer. It is a norm that you do not go empty handed to visit God, saints and superiors. Thus Sudhama carried in his tattered upper cloth some aval to offer to his friend, and the All-knowing Krishna had granted him riches against each small portion that He consumed.
Every year for Sri Krishna Janmashtami it is a prctice to offer something prepared with beaten rice to the Lord in line with this.

I try to change the dish with the aval and prepare the rest of the goodies every time. This year I had a small quantity of the thick variety hand pounded aval from home. I intended to use that and made this for the neivedhyam. Though I celebrated the birth of Krihna last month, it happens to be celebrated tomorrow also as indicated in the calender. So I decided to share the aval ladoo that I made then.

The aval had some dust as it was almost getting over and hence I undertook a long drawn procedure of washing it and drying for hours and then roasting with some ghee before  pounding it. You may skip all of the cleaning process and just roast and pound if you do not want to labour with your aval. Usually, it is clean or tossing once or twice in a winnow will help clean it.

Ingredients:

2 cups aval/ poha/ beaten rice (thick variety)
2 cups sugar
10-15 cardamoms (peeled and seeds pounded)
1/2  cup ghee
3 tablespoons ghee for roasting
2 tablespoons ghee roasted broken cashew nuts

Method:
Clean the aval as indicated. (by tossing it and removing the sand dust, scum, husk etc.)
It is best to roast the aval in small portions at a time to evenly roast it without charring.
Heat a small amount of ghee reserved for roasting and add a portion of aval to it. Roast evenly until the aval puffs slightly and has a tinge of red.
Transfer to a flat dish allowing it to cool.
Repeat until the entire quantity has been roasted.
Pulse the roasted aval in the mixer to a nearly fine powder, not very fine. The coarse powder gives a nice crunch to the ladoo.
Powder the sugar very fine. And have the cardamoms powdered.
Mix the sugar and cardamom to the aval powder well. Add the roasted cashew nuts,
Divide in four parts.
Take quarter the quantity of the measured ghee and heat it to slightly warm. Pour the ghee on one part of the aval mix. Stir briskly and make balls out of small portions.
To make strong and well rounded balls, cup your palm and place the mix. Gently press this with the fingers of the other hand all the while rotating the mass around. If you roll and press evenly the balls will hold good shape and will not crumble with light pressure.
Once done with one portion, heat some ghee for the next batch. Thus the entire ladoos can be done in batches.
It is important to do in batches as the mixture should be warm to roll the balls. Once cooled the mixture will not gather and will crumble.

 

If desired you may add some coconut also, but that has to be roasted also to remove moisture.
This quantity will make about 60 aval ladoos. I had made with 200ml aval and proportionate ingredients. I got 12 pieces.

The aval pulsed to fine semolina consistency will make the ladoo crunchy while not too dry to choke you.
This was my neivedhyam and we liked the taste and texture. Since I made such small quantity, we had it over four days (as there were other stuff too). 

Vella cheedai for Krishna Janmaashtami Version 2

Of the traditional sweets we make for the Krishna Janmaashtami vella cheedai is my favourite. Though it is a sweet you can make and have anytime, most often than not i make it just once a year on the occasion of the birth of the Lord. Somehow we have associated certain recipes to particular festivals and strictly observe them. The cheedais are always made for Krishna.
Vellacheedai is a simple sweet that uses just powdered rice and jaggery as key ingredients and deep fried in oil. But it can prove tricky if the consistency or the quantity of the jaggery is altered. I have already shared the recipe in an earlier post. However, that one deals with having the jaggery to be boiled until just before it gets to the syrup consistency. That part of the recipe often misleads many of us. also if the jaggery is of a very good quality and yields more, there is a possibility of the cheedais to disintegrate in the oil while cooking.

Hence I wanted to share this other version where the rice flour can be cooked along with jaggery and then deep fried. This method is ideal when we have too much to do in limited time on the day of the festival when you are making a variety of dishes.
Ingredients:
2 cups raw rice

2 cups powdered jaggery
1/4 cup roasted urad dhal flour
1/4 cup fresh coconut scrapes
2 teaspoons cardamom powder
2 teaspoons sesame seeds
Oil for deep frying

Method:
Wash the rice well and soak in water for about an hour.
Drain the water and spread the rice on a clean cloth to absorb excess moisture.
Powder the rice to a consistency just short of fine.
Transfer the powdered rice to a heavy pan and dry roast well until the rice acquires an evenly pink tinge. Some lumps of the moist rice will form during this.
Cool the rice flour and pass through a sieve. Pulse the lumps in the mixer and add this to the roasted powder.
Measure this powder to level in a cup. Measure out the exact volume of water in another heavy pan.
Meanwhile add about few tablespoons of water to the jaggery and dissolve it. Strain the impurities in the dissolved jaggery.
Add the jaggery solution to the water and add the coconut to this. Allow to come to a boil.
When the solution is boiling reduce the heat and add the roasted rice flour to it. Cook to a well formed lump texture and then take off the heat.


Allow to cool down and add the powdered roasted gram, cardamom powder and the sesame seeds.
Knead this well to blend them. Knead further for about five minutes.
Pinch out fairly large marble size balls.
If the dough is too stiff, sprinkle a teaspoon of warm water and roll the dough in balls.
Deep fry in oil.
You can make the dough ahead also. Just before frying knead the dough well and pinch the balls out for deep frying.
This method ensures that the vella cheedais will not break open in the oil and also they will be very crisp.