Indian Marriages & Ladoo

India & You

Nov-Dec 2015

A plate of Ladoos

Indian weddings are incomplete without sweets. Although various new desserts have been introduced over the years, ladoo remains an important dessert for the big day.

It is believed that anything auspicious should be welcomed with something sweet. Indian celebrations are incomplete without the traditional sweets. One such sweet which is omnipresent is ladoo (a traditional ball-shaped Indian sweet made with different ingredients in different cultures and regions). It is immensely popular throughout the country. Traditionally, halwais (local Indian confectioners) were employed to prepare sweets for the marriages. Though in metros people now turn to sweet shops to place their orders, the practice is still prevalent in small towns even today. And interestingly, in India a shaadi (wedding) is compared to this traditional Indian sweet as the much popular saying goes as, “Shaadi is that kind of a ladoo that the one who tastes it regrets and the one who doesn’t taste it also regrets!”

INGREDIENTS:

For making boondi: 1 cup chickpea flour (gram flour) A pinch of baking soda ½ cup water

For the sugar syrup: 1 cup sugar ½ cup water

Other ingredients: 1 teaspoon cardamom powder A pinch of edible camphor A pinch of nutmeg powder 10 to 15 cashews

METHOD:

Making boondi
1. Sieve chickpea flour and baking soda and add water. Make a smooth batter. Batter should be thick, only then one can get perfect boondi.
2. Heat oil to fry boondi.
3. From the top put the batter over the ladle. It will spread in the oil, falling drop by drop and take a perfect shape.
4. Drain them and keep aside.

Making the sugar syrup
1. Boil sugar and water together and check that it should become a thick syrup. The syrup should not be combined with water.
2. Then add boondi to the syrup along with cardamom powder and a pinch of edible camphor and nutmeg powder. Set this aside.

Making boondi ladoo
1. Heat ghee (clarified butter) in a small pan and add cashews in it.
2. Add the fried cashews to the boondi and mix well.
3. Now make ladoos out of this composition by taking a handful of mixture for every ladoo.
4. Repeat this for the entire mixture. Keep it for 30 minutes to get firm. And serve it all together by making a grand pyramid of ladoos on one big plate just as Indians do.