Boondi Laddu

An easy way of making Boondi Laddus. My mother gave a big order to some girl who makes Ladoos/Laddus back in India and in the last minute she could not bring those. So, she was kind of upset about it and I thought of making her happy by making these easy Laddus for us to eat.

I never tried this recipe this way before but I felt this was quite easy to make and in less than 30 mins, we made about 25 laddus with 350 g Bhoondi. Make sure you buy plain bhoondi with no spices added to it.

To print this recipe click on the name: Boondi Laddu

You need..

a packet of Bhoondi from an Indian Store (350g)

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup water

2 cardammon, crushed

few dry fruits

ghee according to your taste

milk to bind (optional)

1. First make sugar syrup of 1 string consistency.
2. Fry dry fruits in ghee (this is optional).
3. Warm Boondi in microwave for few seconds and crush some, say 1/4 cup and then add all to the sugar syrup and mix well till the boondi absors all the sugar.
4. Add crushed cardammon and dry fruits and mix well.
5. Switch off the stove and leave that aside just for few minutes until the mixture becomes little cold and start making laddus immediately. Keep a glass of cold milk on the side, rub your hands with milk or sprinkle some on the boondi and make Laddus. You should finish making those Laddus when the boondi is warm otherwise it is difficult for the boondi to stick together.

You can remove some boondi aside and add colors like red or green to make those look more colorful and beautiful.

Badusha

If you want real authentic recipe with correct quantities, please refer to the recipe here

I made Badusha many many times and each time it turned out different, I don’t know why. May be the quality of maida or yogurt made them different. I learnt little from each experiment and I used that experience today while making this Badusha. Seriously speaking, I have not measured oil and yogurt in this recipe. And the Badusha has turned out really well. Ravi and Naveen loved those instantly and we finished all at one go.

What I did was, I took 2 cups of maida, added little salt to it, a spoon of baking powder and 1/6th cup of rice flour and mixed them thoroughly (usually people sieve the whole thing together). I kept on adding oil instead of ghee (as I ran out of ghee) until the mixture became like breadcrumbs. Then I kept adding yogurt until the mixture looked like layers and made that into a ball. Do not put water. These are the ground rules for making badusha. Oil/ghee and yogurt form an important part of the recipe. Then covered it with a wet cloth for half an hour. Made small balls out of the dough and pressed in the center. Made thin sugar syrup on the side. Deep fried the balls and soaked in sugar syrup for 15 mins. Took them out and left them aside for an hour.

You can store them for more than a month in a refrigerator. Heat those for 10 sec before eating.

Chana Dal Payasam

It's a quick way of making this payasam. I heard people making this payasam but never made one. My mom makes Polelu (Puran Poli) on Ugadi with Pachadi and some kind of dal with the dal and jaggery/bellam (gur). I never thought I would make this when I started cooking, but somehow ended up making this dish.'

You need...
1 cup chana dal
1 cup water
1 cup milk
1 tsbp ghee
dry fruits
3 cubes Jaggery/bellam
1 spoon cardammon powder

1. Cook chana dal in pressure cooker. Mash half of it.
2. Make jaggery syrup in the pan by adding a cup of water to jaggery. Let it come to a boil.
3. Heat 1 cup milk in a microwave and add it to the syrup.
4. Add chana dal and cardammon powder.
5. Heat a small pan, add ghee, fry dry fruits (cashews, almonds, raisins) and add it to the payasam.

Serve hot or cold, it tasted good both ways. You can try adding dried cocunut pieces along with other dry fruits. For the picture, check my previous post.