LADOO’S !!

Author Rekha Gupta

Let us be honest, when someone utters the word ladoo, or you visit a temple, what is the image that instantly comes up in your mind? Boondi Ladoo, what else? Despite the fact that there are various, more than a hundred kinds of ladoos, boondi ladoo takes away the crown. It has become almost generic with the word ‘ladoo’. Today Im going to pen down this complex looking, yet delightful & easy to make dessert. There are essentially two types of Boondi ladoos : one is Moti choor Boondi Ladoo : tinny boondi’s that resembles tiny pearls hence the name and the second is Moti Boondi Ladoo: bigger and fat in size ; Made from gram flour/Besan , Ghee and Sugar.These are called boondi ladoo’s as the batter is poured through a perforated ladle while frying ,which makes round droplets called boondi that is derived from the word boond that means water droplets.Today we make Moti Boondi ladoos and my favourite line to you all 😄 trust me once you taste the home made ones, you will never again want to eat the halwai ones .

We stopped buying sweets from mithai shops for more than 2 decades now ever since the news of adulterated Khoya came to light and the cooking oil they use with preservatives ,food colour and artificial flavouring agents that are added too. C@Rg

You maybe aware by now, I use unrefined sugar, which is rock sugar (dhaga mishri) for me. Its the rawest form of sugar with all the nutrients intact. It has medicinal properties and its taste is completely different as its not biting sweet besides being naturally aromatic. You are free to use regular refined sugar as well. For best results I prefer to use Amul’s Cow Ghee. (and no I’m not brand endorsing, just stating my preference 💁🏻 ).

I make a conscious choice of what to eat ,how to cook ,with which energy its cooked and the ingredients of course are of utmost importance , as such I like to keep every dish completely natural so I skip using artificial/edible colour. Besan’s natural colour + Saffron does all the magic. Usually in market bought ladoos they colour a handful of boondi’s red and another handful to green but you can always attain those colours by using a handful of coloured pistachios. So here you go: C@Rg

U S P – My dishes have to be healthy and tasty both hence no short cuts.

BOONDI LADOO

INGREDIENTS

Besan Batter :

Fine Gram flour (Besan ) – 2 Cups

Cow’s Ghee -1 tbsp

Water- 2 Cups

For DEEP FRYING BOONDIS : Pure cow ghee : 500 gms

SUGAR SYRUP :

Water 1.5 Cups

Rock Sugar -3 Cups

Saffron 40 strands soaked in 2 tbsp hot water.

Cardamom Powder -1 teasp.

Pistachios -1 Cup (chopped in two )

STEPS

1. Take gram flour / besan in a mixing bowl, add 1 tbsp melted ghee, start making a batter with little water at a time ,till you have a lump free smooth batter of dropping consistency. Cover and leave it to rest for at least 20 minutes.( if needed add 1 to 2 tbsp extra water). Be careful at this stage as you don’t want a runny batter or a thick batter, so keep testing till you are confident that it will drop smoothly through the perforated laddle.

2. Meanwhile in a heavy steel pan, keep rock sugar & water to make the sugar syrup on low flame and cover it (please note rock sugar takes longer time to dissolve). When the Rock Sugar dissolves completely, cook without the lid for another 3-4 minutes to get a ‘little more than 1 String consistency‘ . Test a cool drop in between your fingers and thumb, it should be more than one string consistency. Your syrup is ready.( Keep aside and but you will have to warm it to medium hot again on sim flame when you start to add boondis to it ).

3. Add ghee to a deep bottomed pan and keep on full flame for deep frying. When ghee is hot , put it on low flame and we will do a quick check by frying a few boondis to test their shape, IMPORTANT TIPS : If the boondis are turning out flat in ghee then the batter is THIN. At this stage you can add 1-2 tbsp besan/ gram flour to the batter and whisk well , wait for 5 minutes to test again. OR If the boondis get tail ends then the batter is too Thick ,so add 2 tbsp water and whisk well and now test fry again.

4 If the Boondi shape is round and perfect , we are ready to fry the entire lot. Pour a little batter through the perforated laddle, the gas flame should be on medium, fry for 2-3 minutes then remove on a plate.

5. Hold the perforated ladle just above the kadahi , ( not too high ) pour 2 tbsp batter onto the ladle and with a spoon help it to drop as boondis in hot Ghee ( else they stick to each other) lower the flame immediately to sim . Do not colour them as this will make the boondis too Crisp that will Not Soak Syrup well then the ladoos wont be melt in mouth ,so take one batch out in less than 3 min. (when being taken out onto a plate boondis make a Crunchy Sound).

6. Directly and immediately add the hot batch of boondis to the HOT Sugar Syrup.( if the boondis cool down or the syrup is not hot they will not absorb the syrup)

7. Pour the second batch of boondis in ghee, flame medium ,remove when done and immediately add them to the hot syrup. Repeat till you have fried the entire lot.

8. Add chopped Pistachios , cardmom powder and leave it covered for 30 40 minutes till all syrup is soaked. Once every ten minutes stir the mix with a light hand.

9 . When all the Syrup is soaked by Boondis ( check at the base of the pan, there should be no syrup) Mix again and shape the mixture into ladoos . Garnish with slivered pistachios.

Do offer bhog to bhagwanji before relishing these sweets. 🙏

And Friends, this is my 50th blog – ‘thodi mithai toh aur banti hai‘ .😋 😍 so here are some more lip smacking mithai pics for you, prepared on Deepawali ! And a sincere thanks again for all the love and support you keep showering.♥️

Author Rekha Gupta