Ladoo

Ladoo - another Indian sweet, that is close to our hearts. May it be a festival, or any other happy occasion - personal or professional, ladoos are a must to be served to share the happiness. Its after having seen the English Vinglish movie that I got an idea to try these :).

                      

It was like turning my promise of making it, a reality. Yeah, I had been asking my husband, if he liked ladoo and everytime the answer would be a big YES. One day he asked me if I really had the intention of making it or was I just making him tempt for it. Now when you are questioned like that , would you give up? Well, in my case, the next day there were ladoos at home when he was back from work.

After having gone through multiple videos and recipes , I sticked on to one. All went fine till the time came when I had to give them its shape. It seemed hopeless to form a ball out of it and thought of having them as bhoondi's but the trick did help. Check out the recipe as well as tips to know what helped me give them a shape.

Ingredients

For the Boondi

1. 1 cup of chickpea flour(Besan)
2. 1 tbsp of clarified butter(ghee)
3. Water
4. Oil for deep frying

For the syrup

1. 1 cup of sugar
2. 3/4 cup of water
3. A pinch of saffron
4. 1/4 tsp of cardamom powder

Method

• Sieve the chickpea flour.
• In a bowl mix the chickpea flour, ghee and water. Form it into a paste, free from lump. The paste should be such that it should easily drop through the holes of the slotted ladle.
• For the syrup - add sugar, water and saffron in a pan. Cook it on medium heat for about 9-10 minutes. Then simmer the heat and let it cook for another 3-4 minutes untill the syrup reaches 1/2 thread consistency. Turn off the stove and add cardamom powder to the sugar syrup.
• Meanwhile, heat the oil for deep frying.
• Once the oil is hot, drop small amounts of batter on to a slotted spoon(with small round holes as shown in the picture) and tap the sides of the spoon such that the batter droplets fall directly into the oil.
• Fry the boondi untill golden brown and then drain out excess oil from them and drop it into the sugar syrup. Give it a mix in the syrup so that all of them get coated well.
• Wipe the bottom of the slotted spoon before you start with the next batch of boondis.
• After the boondis are done and are mixed in the syrup, let it sit for 10-15 minutes till its cool enough to touch and turn it into small balls of ladoos.
• Wet your hand with water and make small balls out of it having pressed it with both your palms.
• Once you are done with all the ladoos, another round of shaping the ladoos could help them stick together and form better shapes.

Tips

1. Always wipe the bottom of the slotted spoon before you go ahead with the preparation of the next batch of boondis.
2. Do not let the syrup-coated-boondis to completely cool down before you form ladoos. Else it would leave you with  sweet boondis and not ladoos :).
3. You could choose to add powdered nuts to the mixture of boondi and syrup if you wish to or may be press a cashew or raisin while you form ball of ladoos.

Recipe courtesy : Show me the curry