Mangala's Potpourri: BOONDI LADDOOS

Waving to the dawn of this daintily drizzling day, while Smt. Lalithamma Ramamurthy, Cream Contributor of
recipes to Mangala’s Potluck wakes up to turn a new leaf in her life…Page 1 - Age 91, may we too enjoy the privilege of partaking in this celebration with…..

A flour that floors you no end, used not just in cuisine but also as facepack for dead cells to disappear and make one’s skin glow. A mask that can make even a doggedly canine look swiftly shift to a humanly feminine look! Wow you age old glowy tip…Do take a bow!!

Ubiquitous in a variety of cuisines, be it as farinata in Italy, fritter in Sicily, tortillitas in Spain or Koliva in Greece and back home, in our very own Mahan Bharat, wah wah list is Maha Bruhat!! Bhajji, Bonda, Boondi, Bhujia, Dhokla, Patra, Pakora, Puri, Pancake, Pak (of Mysore fame) or Sev (of street food fame!) Uffh….and now, can you guess which among these is “The Dish of This Day”? Draw your luck right here!

Dish type: South Indian Dessert

Time required: 2 hours
Yield: 90 nos. (approx. )

Ingredients for making Boondi

Besan 875 gms (3 ¼ cups – cup measure 250 gms)

Water Just enough to bring besan to Idli batter consistency

Salt 1 tsp

Ingredients for making Sugar Syrup

Sugar 750 gms (3 cups – cup measure 250 gms)

Water Just enough to cover sugar level in a bowl

Few other Ingredients

Oil 250 ml (approx..) for frying each batch of boondi

Pure ghee / Oil 50 gms for frying rasnins and cashews

Cardamom 2 or 3 tsps. powdered

Clove 5 to 6 nos. powdered

Borneo camphor 1 no. powdered (also known as edible camphor, pacha karpuram)

Cashewnuts 100 gms

Raisins 50 gms

Directions:

For preparing Sugar Syrup:

Boil sugar in water. Let sugar dissolve and boil for a few minutes till the syrup reaches sticky consistency. Keep it aside.

For preparing Boondis:

Mix besan, water and salt. Beat it or mix by hand and bring it to idli batter consistency. Make sure lumps in besan are removed. Let it stand for about 10 min. (You will fall in love with its goldielooks….so custardish it is!)

Heat oil in a kadai. Using one hand, keep boondi ladle a little above the kadai. Using the other hand, pour batter on to the boondi ladle so that it drops down into the oil in the kadai through the holes in the ladle. Unlike standard frying procedure, here you don’t have to continuously keep stirring while boondis are being fried. Once in a way is fine and enough. Transfer fried boondis either to a colander and later into sugar syrup or directly into sugar syrup. Choice is yours.

Add raisins and cashews (both fried in ghee), cardamom powder, edible camphor powder and clove powder to fried boondis soaked in sugar syrup. Let it stand for a while say, 10 min. Transfer it to a plate, make portions and then form laddoos. Start making rough balls from these portions. Repeat 3 times. At this stage, they will take the form of full round tasty tempting laddoos.

Boondi Laddoos are now ready. Pick them up fast…stock won’t last!!

Tete a Tete:

In the process of making boondis, if you find the holes in the ladle blocked, wash the ladle, wipe them dry and dip it back into the batter.

Clove can either be used whole or in powdered form. If using it in powdered form, better to lightly heat the cloves for easier powdering.

It is important that sugar syrup reaches sticky consistency. No more no less.

If batter is too thin or if ghee is not yet hot, boondi will absorb more ghee. At the same time, don’t overheat the oil lest boondis too will be overfried and turn brown too quick.

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

Take out a ladleful of soaked boondis, powder them in a mixie and add it back to the rest of soaked boondis before froming them into laddoos. This helps in bonding boondis better with each other.

Difference between boondi and laddoo: Can be compared to atom and molecule.

Recipe contributor: Smt. Lalithamma Ramamurthy, nonagenarian and expert cook.

Smt. Lalithamma Ramamurthy seated in the heart of this pic is also firmly rooted in the hearts of those around her!