My friends and readers on eastern
sea board, in path of Hurricane Sandy, stay safe. I will be praying that Sandy will be
mild while going through your area.
I am happy to welcome all of my readers
and friends to join me in the 3rd year anniversary of my blog Zesty South
Indian Kitchen. I am grateful to all my
readers (both visible and silent), friends and visitors who had made this small
blog to survive all through these years.
Without your help I could not have achieved this. Thanks to you all from the bottom of my
heart.
I started this blog when my baby
girl was six month old; lots happened after that, she is 3 and half year old
now, we welcomed our baby boy beginning of this year. I am happy that in spite
all these craziness, I am able to blog, that I feel achievement. Few great friends geared up to help me with guest post when I was not able to
post at the time of the birth of my son,
so thanks once again for that.
Without any flight tickets, with
this blog I was able to take a culinary travel thought out world from my
kitchen. I am able to make everyday connection with my mom who left me, before
I started the blog, but I connect with her through the memories of her recipes.
Even though this little blog is not having breath taking photos, I still try to
take good photos and step by step clicks to show how the food looks at each and
every steps of preparation. Nowadays I am only able to blog two recipes a weeks,
and also hosting my favorite blog hop Hearth and Soul Blog Hop, and the ever
growing group of Baking Partners, a group of home bakers who try to learn the
nook and corner of Baking. At the same time I enjoy the Favorite recipe Eventsthat rekindled memories of food that we have grown up with.
Blogging makes me happy when
somebody says they tried the recipes and came out well. No awards come close to
it. Making the dishes, taking pictures and writing the blog has been lots of
work most of the time. It also creates
lots of frustration at times, when we are planning to take pictures and arrange
food; hubby who wants to take photos immediately so that he can eat. In the
meantime my daughter also wants to click pictures and also do tastes test by trying
to get to the dishes. An all-round crawler (my son) also is not far behind, crying
at high pitch for mommy’s attention.
I also used to get upset when
Foodgwaker or Tastespotting rejects my photos, now I tuned myself that if they
accept it is well and good if not that is well and good. Not to worry too much.
Life and family is worth more than photos.
This year I got one more taste
tester, my son to the group of taste testers. He too has sense of taste and
doesn’t approve any pre-made baby foods; even his mommy should extra care to
make food tasty.
I am happy that I didn’t repost
any of my post in last three years; I think every day we need to learn new.
Next thing I would like to do is that update photos of all the posts and if
time permits to make video of each recipe. I hope you will also continue to help
and join me in this journey. Every year pass by I would like to add some more
wisdom to parts of brain.
Your helpful criticism, comments
and ideas can me better cook and blogger, so continue to do that. If you like
my blog please follow in face book page, pinterest, twitter, Google plus
For every celebration, we need
sweets, so for blog baby’s birthday I made this boondi laddoo. It is a traditional
sweet from India. Without this sweet, it is hard to think of any festivals and
marriages. My mom used to like this sweets
a lot. My dad used to tease her, that
when I came first to see you (It was part of arranged marriage, visiting
prospective groom to prospective bride) you served tea, mixture and a laddoo. I
was so blind tasting that laddoo said yes to marry you. Then Amma will says, no one else’s in the
world was ready to marry you. That is why I married you. Yes she lived with
appa for about 36 years and left one day leaving him alone. Yes we daughters
are there for him, still he misses her.
This sweet when you look at the videos and read the recipes it seems very easy, but in reality it is not that easy. It is mainly you must be careful with the two step in the process of making it. One sugar syrup consistency and second cooking the chickpeas ball, it should not be crunchy but it should be cooked right. If you can master that, then you are a winner. I was able to get it right this time. Here comes the recipe of this delicious sweet.
First grab besan/ chickpea flour,
rice flour, Sugar (yes this is sweet so close your eyes on calories for a
second) cashew nuts, raisins, cloves, rock candy, saffron, ghee (if you want
vegan free option use coconut oil) cardamom, baking powder, water and canola
oil for frying.
In medium bowl sift chickpea
flour/besan, rice flour, baking powder together and gradually mix with water and food color to form a freely flowing
pancake batter and set aside.
Next make sugar syrup with sugar
and water in a medium sauce pot fitted with candy thermometer. I love my candy
thermometer, as age old technique of checking thread consistency may not work
well for me. First boil the sugar and
water when it starts boiling add a tablespoon of milk, you will see some form
on the top, remove it with spoon (it is impurities in sugar). Boil the sugar
syrup until it reaches 225 F/ or single thread consistency add saffron and set aside.
Heat ghee in small skillet and
roast the cashew and raisins for about 1 minute until cashew become golden in
color and raisins plums up and set aside.
While it is hot transfer the cooked boondi to sugar syrup. Repeat the process until you finish entire batter.
When you are cooking last batch of boondi, instead of putting directly into sugar syrup crush the cooked boondi using a food processor and then transfer to sugar syrup with rest of the boondi.
Add crushed cardamom, roasted
cashew nuts and raisins, cloves and rock candy into the sugar syrup containing
boondi mix everything to combine well.
When they are warm start making
them balls, make small golf sized balls. Make fast as sugar syrup cooled it
will become thick and you make not able to make balls.
Enjoy this delicious sweet as
much you want. Practice makes perfect boondi. So next time you will be making
better boondi.
Print Recipe from here
Boondi Ladoo: Sweet chickpea flour balls
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Serves 25 no
Ingredients:
1 ½ Cup Besan/ Chickpea Flour/Garbanzo bean flour
1 ½ teaspoon Rice flour
half of 1/8th teaspoon baking powder
1 ¾ cup + 1 tablespoon Sugar
¾ cup +1/8 cup water for batter
1 ¾ cup water for sugar syrup
3 drops of yellow food color
5 nos of Saffron
3 tablespoon cashew nut pieces
3 tablespoon raisins
1 tablespoon rock candy
3 cardamom ( crushed into powder)
5 cloves ( crushed into powder)
1 tablespoon milk
1 tablespoon Ghee( if you want vegan free option use coconut oil)
4 cups Canola oil ( for frying)
Steps:
In
a medium bowl sift besan/ chickpea flour/Garbanzo bean flour, rice
flour, baking powder and gradually add water and food color to form a
smooth batter similar to pancake batter. Make sure it is not runny.
Set aside.
Heat
ghee in small skillet and roast the cashew and raisins for about 1
minute until cashew become golden in color and raisins plums up and set
aside.
Heat
ghee in small skillet and roast the cashew and raisins for about 1
minute until cashew become golden in color and raisins plums up and set
aside.
In
a saucepan heat water and sugar and bring to boil on medium -high
heat. When syrup comes to boil turn the heat down to medium and add 1
tablespoon of milk . You will see lot of form coming on the top of syrup
remove it with help of ladle and continue to boil the sugar syrup until
it reaches about single thread consistency of 225 F in candy
thermometer. ( When you pour the sugar syrup into a glass of water at
this time you will able to see a single thread). To this add saffron
and set aside.
Heat
the oil in a frying pan or any wided mouth pan on medium high heat.
The frying pan should have at least 1 1/2 inches of oil. Tip: To test if
the oil is the right temperature, drop a pinch of batter into the oil;
if it rises immediately without changing color then the oil is ready to
start frying.
Hold
the boondi ladle/ slotted spoon about 1 to 1 1/2 inches above the oil
over the center of the frying pan with one hand. With your other hand
pour some of the batter onto the skimmer to cover all of the holes
without spilling over the edge of the skimmer. Tip: if you hold the
Boondhi ladle/ slotted spoon higher than 11/2 inches above the oil
boondi will not be round.
The
batter will start dropping through the holes into the oil. If the
batter doesn’t drop right away through the holes, means batter is thick
and you need to dilute little bit. Drop enough boondi into the oil so
they just cover the surface of the oil in frying pan in a single layer
Fry
them until the sound of sizzling stops and boondis are light gold in
color but not crispy! It takes about 1 minute in medium flame. Remove
the boondi out of the oil with a slotted spoon and transfer to kitchen
towel while they are warm and put them directly into the warm sugar
syrup.
Before making the next batch of boondi, wipe clean the boondi ladle. This helps to keep the boondi round.
Repeat
the process of making boondi and adding to the syrup with rest of the
batter. When you are cooking last batch of boondi, instead of putting
directly into sugar syrup crush the cooked boondi using a food processor
and then transfer to sugar syrup with rest of the boondi.
Add the crushed cardamom seeds, cloves, roasted cashew nuts and raisins and rock candy to the sugar syrup.
While boondi are warm start making balls. If the boondis become cold you will not be able to form them into ladoos.
To
make the ladoos, scoop up some of the boondi mixture into your palm
with a spoon. Gently squeeze the mixture between both palms to shape
into a round ball about the size of a golf ball.
As you finish making each ladoo, put it on a plate and continue on to make the next ladoo.
As the Ladoos cool to room temperature they will become firm but they should still be moist.
Ladoos will keep at room temperature in a covered container for up to 10 days and for one month in the refrigerator.
Tips
Make sure the syrup is at right temperature, you will not be able to form the ladoos.
If the boondis cool down to room temperature before being shaped into balls, the sugar will crystallize.
Don’t worry if you are not able to make ladoos You can still enjoy them as sweet boondi.
I am linking this delicious treat to Hearth and Soul blog hop hosted here.
