Rava Laddoo

Dish Type: Indian Traditional Dessert

Time required: 45 min

Yield: 30 nos. (approx. )

Ingredients

Sooji Rava                            2 bowl

PC: Sooraj Nair

Ghee                                       ¾ bowl

Cardamom                            4-6 nos.

Vegan sugar                         1 1/4 to 1 1/2 bowl, 
                                                        depending on how sweet you like

Mawa/khoya                        Made out of ½ ltr milk

Desiccated coconut or raw coconut 1/2 bowl

Broken cashews/badam and raisins 1/2 bowl

Milk for rolling

Directions:

Fry sooji rava on low flame adding ghee little by little. Towards the end add coconut, cashew/badam raisins. Continue frying for another 5 min

As you fry rava on the other stove, boil and reduce the milk to make khova ready.

Powder sugar and cardamom and add to rava mix and mix well

Add khova and mix well

Add hot milk and roll the laddoos. Rava Laddoos are ready.

Offer to Sun

Recipe Contributor: Ms. Sreeja M

Boondi Laddoos

Dish type: South Indian Dessert
Time required: 45 min

Yield: 12 nos. approx

Ingredients

For batter:

Besan                                  1 cup

Milk                                    Just enough to bring besan to idli batter consistency

Turmeric Powder                1/2 tsp

Sandalwood powder           1/3 tsp

Salt                                      A tiny pinch

For sugar syrup:

Sugar                                  3.5 cups

Water                                  Just enough to cover sugar in bowl

Cardamom                          2 or 3 nos.

Clove                                  5 to 6 nos.

Cashewnuts                        2 or 3 tsps (broken pieces)

Raisins                                2 or 3 tsps

For frying:

Pure ghee (or butter)          100 gms approx. for each batch of frying

Directions:

Mix milk (preferably Good Life milk), besan, sandalwood powder and turmeric powder. Bring it to idli batter consistency.

Heat 100 gms of ghee / butter in an iron kadai.

(to check if ghee is hot enough for frying, drop a drop of besan batter into hot ghee. If it flattens, it means batter is dilute. Add 1 sp of besan to adjust the consistency. If it forms a tail, it means batter is thick. Add 1 sp of water to adjust its consistency)

Before you begin to fry boondis, fry broken cashews and raisins, remove and keep aside.

Start preparing boondis using a boondi ladle. Using one hand, keep boondi ladle a little above the kadai. Using the other hand, pour batter on to the ladle so that it falls into the hot ghee in the kadai through the holes in the ladle. Wipe the ladle clean and dip it back into the batter. Use another ladle for frying and not the one dipped in batter.

Fry the boondis normally, don’t let it brown or burn. Ideally it is to be fried with sufficient ghee so that boondis have space to float. If you are comfortable using the extra ghee, do in small batches with lesser ghee. When boondis are in the last stage of frying, separate stuck boondis with light pressure.

Towards the end of boondi preparation, prepare sugar syrup to one string consistency and transfer fried boondis to sugar syrup.

Preparing Sugar Syrup:

Boil sugar in 500 ml water. Let sugar dissolve and boil for a few minutes till the syrup reaches a light thread consistency.

Add fried boondis, raisins, cashews, cardamom and clove to the boiling syrup. Let it boil for 2 to 3 min. When ladle starts getting sticky or stiff, switch off the flame. If syrup quantity is more, continue frying for another 2 to 3 min.

Let it cool down, enough for you to handle. .Add pinch of camphor and mix well. Transfer it to a wide basin, make portions and then form laddoos. Start making rough balls from these portions. Press well, but don’t squeeze out all the sugar syrup. Laddoos will become dry. Repeat 3 times. At this stage, it will be a well formed laddoo.

Boondi Laddoos are now ready. Offer to Guru/Jupiter

Tete – a – Tete:

For perfect round and dense laddoos, take out a ladleful of soaked boondis, powder them in a mixie and add it back to the rest of soaked boondis before forming them into laddoos.

Cardamom powder can be added either to sugar syrup or to besan mix.

It is important that sugar syrup reaches light thread consistency.

If batter is too thin or if ghee is not yet hot, boondi will absorb more ghee.

It is better to heat just the required amount of ghee for every batch of frying rather than heating larger than required quantity of ghee at a time.

Adding milk to besan softens the boondis.

Recipe contributor: Ms. Sreeja M

JALEBI

Chapaathi chup chup jalebi jhum jhum kene mosaranna uppinakaayi….doesn’t this ring a bell…of those tiny totty montessory musings? For a moment, let’s pause at the second item in the menu….hmmm…jhummmm isn’t it? Why waste time humming and rim jhimming.. when our mouths are already watering …Ready, get set, let’s Jjhumpstart to JALEBIing those spirally, syrupy frybees

Dish type: Traditional Sweet

Time required: 30 min

Yield: 10 to 12 nos.

Ingredients

For grinding:

Urad dal                   1 handful

For frying:

Pure ghee                 2 cups

For sugar syrup:

Sugar                        1 cup (for medium sweet taste)

Water                       1.5 cups

Rose essential oil       2 to 3 drops (can be added to syrup when syrup is ready)

Saffron pods             Few strands (approx. ¼ tsp)

Directions

Soak urad dal in water overnight. Drain out the water completely and grind it to a smooth batter (vada consistency) with absolutely no water. Water that’s still left out in urad is sufficient, because more the water, more the ghee that gets sucked in by jalebi.

Boil water in a vessel along with sugar and rosewater till syrup reaches sticky (and not string) consistency. Keep the flame low.

Method of frying: 

Heat small quantity of ghee (quantity just enough to fry 1 or 2 jalebis at a time) in a kadai on medium flame till hot, but not too hot (no fumes should emanate from ghee since it is carcinogenous) Make a small hole at the bottom of a 3” x 4” plastic cover. Transfer urad dal batter into this cover. Holding the filled cover, squeeze the batter slowly in circular pattern into the ghee. Getting decent shaped circles is difficult initially. For a start, it’s better to concentrate on taste and consistency. Fry till done.

Let urad batter fill the cover. You will be holding only at the top.

Dip this into the warm sugar syrup. Let it soak for a minute. Then turn over so that the other side is also soaked in the syrup. Let it soak for another 1 minute. Total soaking time must be about 2 to 3 min approx. This also depends on softness of jalebi after frying and thickness of syrup. More they are soaked, darker will be the colour. Avoid jalebis from breaking.  Remove them from the syrup. Transfer to a plate.

Jalebis are now ready.

Tete a Tete

Whole white urad dal tastes better than whole black urad dal.

While grinding soaked urad dal, add a tsp of curd or milk. This helps to get smooth consistency.

If the batter becomes thin, add a spoon or two of maida (all purpose flour)

If sugar syrup is of string consistency, then jalebis will not be soft.

No need to ferment the batter. Jalebis taste sour if batter is fermented. Choice is yours! Also fermenting the batter makes it thinner.

It is better not to keep the batter in fridge for your convenience of doing jalebis later.

Rosewater (1 tsp) can also be used instead of Rose essential oil.

Instead of using saffron pods you can also grind separately ¼ of a small size Beetroot (peeled and grated) and 2 nos. Carrot (medium size, peeled and grated), extract the juice and add to boiling sugar syrup.

Avoid reusing fried ghee.

Recipe contributor: My dear friend Ms. Sreeja M

Recipes viewed here are a part of  "Mangala's Potluck" section in this blog  

NAIVEDHYAM RECIPES

Sajjige for Sathyanarayana Prasadam
Jalebi
Red Rice Laddoos
Aravana Payasam
Boondi Laddoos
Mysore pak
Rava Laddoo
Puranache Dive
Navagraha - Navadhanya Table: Ready Reckoner

Recipes viewed here are a part of  "Mangala's Potluck" section in this blog  

SAJJIGE FOR SATHYANARAYANA PRASADAM

Dish type: Sweet Pudding / Dessert

Time required: 40 mts

Serves: 12 persons approx. (1 scoop each)

Ingredients

Chiroti Rava    1 cup (chiroti rava/semolina/fine sooji)

Sugar               1 cup

Ghee                1 ¼  cup

Milk                 2 cups

Banana            1 ¼ cup (riped ones, fine chopped to pieces)

Method of preparation

Roast rava in a pan on low flame using the whole quantity of ghee mentioned above till you get a very nice aroma. Make sure it doesn’t turn brown. Switch off the flame. Then keep the pan aside. Mix this well with thoroughly boiled milk. Make sure there are no lumps. Now keep this mix for boiling.

Note: Milk can be boiled in advance and mixed later with roasted rava.

Add sugar, start stirring at intervals and let it continue to boil for 10 to 15 min. Now add fine chopped ripe banana pieces, mix well and stir for 2 to 3 min. more. Switch off the flame.

Sajjige Prasadam is now ready.

Tete - a - Tete:

Recipe Contributor Smt. Yashodamma, a regular cook for preparing Prasadam recipes as offering in Jambul Ganapathy temple, 5th Main, 5th Cross Malleswaram, Bangalore (where her son Shri Venkataramana is a priest) has this to say:

“Top up ingredients like raisins, cashewnuts, saffron and elaichi generally used for sajjige are not used when I prepare as Prasadam for offering to God”
This dish is prepared as offering to Lord Satyanarayana Swami for Satyanarayana Puja performed on every pournami at the temple

Recipes viewed here are a part of  "Mangala's Potluck" section in this blog