Besan ke Laddu - Indian festival dessert made from gram flour

This is an Indian dessert usually made during festive times, Besan ke Ladoo is round ball shaped sweet made from gram flour or besan roasted with ghee in a kadhai, flavored with sugar and cardamom. Basically, there are two type of laddu – one made from Besan and other is made from Boondi which is called Motichur ki laddu as well. Ladoo, if stored well has a long shelf life so you can relish them for many days. You can make these ladoos on special occasions as well as whenever you wish to have a light Indian sweet, since it doesn't take much time to prepare. Decorated with almonds and pistachios, this ladoo recipe makes for a mouth-watering swwet on festivals like RakshaBandhan or Janmashtami.

Preparation Time: - 5 min

Cooking Time: - 25~30 min

Servings: - 5~6 persons

Ingredients:-

Please note that Cup here denotes 200 gm. material 

1. 2 Cups gram flour
2. ½ cup ghee or clarified butter
3. ¾ cup sugar, powdered
4. ¼ tsp green cardamom, powdered
5. Blanched almonds, for garnishing
6. Blanched pistachios, for garnishing

 Preparation:-

1. In a kadahi (wok), melt the ghee and add the gram flour. Stir-fry over low heat. It takes about 30 minutes for the flour to get cooked through and it gets a pasty look when done. The nutty flavor indicates that roasting is finished.
2. The color should be a light brown. Shut off the heat and leave the mixture to cool completely. If it does not cool entirely, it becomes moist when sugar is added.
3. Either use readymade cardamom powder or take few pods of green cardamom with the help of pestle and mortar, dehusk them and grind to make powder.
4. Add the sugar and cardamom and mix well by rubbing it with your open palm against the base of the bowl. Rub till blended thoroughly.
5. Shape into tight, hard balls, pressing hard at every stage. At the final stage, keep it pressed a little longer, so that the surface becomes smooth.
6. Blanch the almonds and pistachios in arm water.
7. Decorate the top of each ball with almonds and pistachios.

Now your yummy besan ke laddu is ready to consume…. eat as much as you can.

Please note the following facts about the recipe.

1. If you dry roast the besan and then add ghee , it would be easy to time the roasting. Otherwise you will keep stirring consistently.
2. You need to roast the gram flour in low flame. Otherwise the risk of burning the mixture may arise.
3. If it is becoming difficult to form the round shaped ball after the mixture cools off you can keep it in refrigerator for  20-30 min to solidify the Ghee and it will help you to bind the balls properly.
4. These ladoos can be stored for almost 4-6 weeks in an air tight jar.

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As always please feel free to comment, criticize and seek if any help is required. I am all ears.

Happy Independence Day - India and my readers

Happy Independence day to every Indian and my readers of this blog.

Shahi Tukda - A Royal Mughlai / Indian bread pudding

Shahi Tukda is a very famous Hyderabadi dish and is a very simple, but rich dessert. It is great for a large dinner party like Iftar as the recipe can be easily multiplied to make more. Shahi means Royal and tukda means piece. This piece of Royal Mughlai cuisine takes a lot of time if prepared in the traditional way but the taste is so yummy that we can endure the effort.:-

Preparation Time: - 1 hr.

Cooking Time: - 30 min

Servings: - 2~3 persons

Ingredients:- 

For frying bread pieces

1. 4 pieces or approximate 50 gm. of White Sandwich Bread. You can use whole wheat bread as well if you are health conscious
2. 1½ tbsp. Ghee or clarified butter

To make Sugar syrup

3. 1/3 cup Sugar
4. 1/6 cup water
5. 3 pods of Green Cardamom or 1 tsp Kewara Jal ( Rose water) or a drop of rose essence

To make Rabri

6. 3 cup Full Cream Milk
7. 2 tbsp milk powder (optional) or 2 tbsp Corn Flour
8. ¼ tsp Cardamom Powder
9. 1 tsp Rose or Kewara (pandanus water) water or a drop of Kewara essence or Rose essence
10. Pinch of Saffron

For Garnishing

11. 8 ~10 Almonds
12. Few strands of Kesar (Saffron) (optional)
13. 5~6 nos. Pistachios – blanched and sliced
    

Preparation:-

Preparing the garnishing of dry fruits

1. We need to peel the almonds and pistachios now. For that put the almonds in warm water for 5 min.
2. Now put the almonds in cold water and after few seconds peel them. The hot-cold treatment will make the peeling easier. Break the pistachios, blanch and slice them. Keep both the dry fruits aside.

Preparation of Rabri (condensed Milk)

3. Take a broad thick bottomed wok or Kadai to boil milk.
   
4. On boiling reduce the flame and stir continuously. Collect the thick cream / Malai from the top and mix again in milk. Scrape the sides of the vessel as it gathers the thickened milk.
   
5. After about 10 minutes of such operation introduce milk powder. This would reduce the time to make Rabri. Otherwise simmering time will be more. You can use corn flour here as well but mawa or milk powder can enhance the taste. This is how Shahi tukda is made in Jumma Masjid.
   
6. Continuous stirring, collecting malai, putting it back and scraping sides of the vessel to prevent burning should continue for about half an hour. This would have been 1 hour if you do not use milk powder or corn flour. The Rabri needs to be real thick for the Shahi Tukda to be a yummy. Mughlai dishes take a lot of effort to make but the taste is worth it.
7. Next add the saffron strands, crushed cardamom or cardamom powder and kewara water or rose water or drop of rose essence. Stir to mix properly and keep aside.

Preparing sugar syrup

8. Take a bowl and heat the water in low flame with sugar to make the sugar syrup.
9. Crush the pods of cardamom with the help of pestle & mortar. Remove the husk and add with the sugar syrup.
10. When sugar gets dissolved fully switch off the flame and keep aside.
    

Shallow fry the bread pieces

11. Slice the bread into Triangular shapes. You can make rectangular or square shapes as well but I prefer triangle.
12. Heat Ghee in a tawa or frying pan.
13. Toast the bread pieces in Ghee in medium or low flame.
14. Once the color of one side is golden brown flip the bread to toast on both sides.
15. Drain the excess Ghee of the bread slices in paper towel. Keep aside.
    

Final steps for preparing Shahi Tukda

16. Dip the bread slices in sugar syrup. Push them with a spoon so that the syrup is evenly soaked by the bread slices.
17. Arrange the soaked slices in a plate neatly.
18. Pour the Rabri on the bread slices.
19. Garnish the tukdas with almond and pistachios. Optionally add strands of Kesar (Saffron)
    

Now your Rich Royal Tukdas are ready to serve. You can consume it hot or cold after refrigeration. When the deliciously sweet bread pieces will melt smoothly in your mouth you will feel the Royal in you.

If you like the recipe, then click my Facebook Page and like my page for regular updates. You can even share the recipe via Facebook, twitter or pinterest.

As always please feel free to comment, criticize and seek if any help is required. I am all ears.