Besan Ladoo

HAPPY HOLI !!!

Holi is one of the most popular festival in india. This festival is celebrated at the end of winter season and on the last day of lunar month which usually falls in the later part of February or March. Also, known as Vasant Utsav which literally means Spring festival and we welcome spring here onwards.

This is celebrated by throwing coloured powder and coloured water on each other. Every festival in india is associated with sweets and savory delicacies. I remember mom used to plan days ahead, she will make dishes which she can store and serve on the holi day..she will get up early morning to prepare dishes which will be enjoyed  throughout the day. As soon as, she is done with cooking and clearing up, the guests will start coming to wish happy holi. And the house will be filled with colours, noise, chatting up which I really miss out here.

It used to be fun watching and throwing up water balloons on everyone who goes under our building. On this day nobody can scold you or can stop you doing this, you can get away by saying HOLI HAI!!!. In between doing this fun activities, we pile up ourselves with food every now  and then. In my opinion these festivals are only a way to bring people closer and enjoy their companies. In fact it is also said that if you have enemies this is the best day to patch of things together and move forward.

Apart of so many other delicacies, Ladoo is the most important sweet to be prepared on festivals. Ladoo or Laddu is sweet, rich dessert which is part of south asian cuisine.  It is normally prepared on festivals or given as prasad  at temples. It is usually made with flour and sugar which is binded together to form small golf sized balls. There are lots of varieties of ladoo like besan ladoo(made from gram flour), suji ladoo (made from semolina), bundi ladoo, motichor ladoo and so on.

Besan Ladoo

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup gram flour(besan)
• 2 tablespoon semolina flour(sooji)
• 1 stick unsalted butter, melted
• 3/4 cups sugar
• 4 tablespoon chopped almonds
• 1/4 teaspoon coarsely ground cardamom seeds
• chopped pistachios for garnish

 

Preparation:

• Mix gram flour, sooji and melted butter in a large skillet.
• Roast the above mixture on medium heat until light golden brown in color or until you smell the roasted flour. Keep stirring the mixture so that it does not burn.This will take about 7-10 minutes depending upon the heat.
• Remove the skillet from the stove and let the mixture cool down a bit but still warm to touch.
• To this warm mixture, add sugar, chopped almonds and cardamom seeds.
• To make ladoos, take a spoonful of mixture in your hand about the size of a lemon and roll in between your palms to form a smooth and round balls.
• Keep the ladoos on a plate and garnish with pistachios on top which will stick to ladoos.
• Cool the ladoo to serve. This can also be stored in air-tight container for 2-3 weeks.

 

Besan Ladoo

 

Wish you all a very Happy Holi…Enjoy!