Celebrating 800 Followers with Indian Motichoor Laddoo!

800 FOLLOWERS!!!!!

Gosh, I can’t believe it!! In my mind, I keep on hearing the conversation between hubby and me before I started afoodiehousewife….

Hubby- “You do so much of baking and stuff….why don’t you start a food blog? So many people are doing that nowdays.”

Me- “Ho Ho! Who on earth will be interested in reading about my cooking……????”

I know who…… EIGHT HUNDRED PEOPLE!!!!!!!!

THANKYOU guys for giving this blog so much love. It keeps me happy, excited and most importantly- BUSY! I have never had so much fun doing something before.

I. AM. ECSTATIC. 😀

So….coming to the recipe of the day!

Motichoor laddoo or Boondi Laddoo is a beloved and rich Indian sweet which is prepared at every major festival of India. It is prepared with ‘boondis’ (droplets) made of gram flour, which are fried, then soaked in fragrant sweet syrup and later formed into round shapes called Laddoos.

This was my first time making these laddoos at home and let me tell you, making ‘boondis’ from scratch is not a child’s play. Atleast for someone like me, who has very limited utensils in her tiny kitchen, it was trickier than it seemed. How you ask? Well….

• Firstly, I have just one very small vegetable-grater with which I had to make do (you will know the significance later on in the post) and my first 1-2 batches of  ‘boondis’ kept getting  lumpy in the hot oil, while I tried to work my way around it.
• I also have just one little pan in which I do all the deep-frying, and halfway through, I realized that the broader sauce-pan would have helped a great deal.
• Lastly, I didn’t have a straining spoon that’s little enough to get the tiny boondis out of the hot oil fast, so that they don’t burn. The boondis kept escaping the spoon to slip back into the oil as the holes in my strainer were too big. So, in the end I had to use a regular spoon instead, burning my hands a couple of times in the process.

I figured it all out at the end but there was some wastage while I was struggling through it.

Rest of the process was very easy and fun. This is a good recipe to try, now that the festive season is about to begin. If I could figure it out, you surely can!!

Give this recipe a go friends, and enjoy! Again- Thankyou for all your love!! ❤

Ingredients:

For the batter:

– 1 cup gram flour

– 1 tbsp fine semolina

– A pinch of baking soda (optional)

– A few drops orange food colour

– Around ¼ cup of Water (Approximately)

– Oil for deep frying

For the sugar syrup:

– 1 cup sugar

– ¼ cup water

– A few drops of orange food colour

– ½ tsp cardamom powder

– 1 tbsn lemon juice

Also needed:

– A fine vegetable gratter

– Some cashews, finely sliced

– Some almonds, finely sliced

Method:

– In a large bowl, combine the gram flour, semolina, orange food color and a pinch of baking soda.

– Next, add the water little by little and prepare a thin and smooth flowing batter.

– Heat the oil for deep frying.

– Now comes the tricky part, take your vegetable grater and hold it over the oil. Keep the flame on medium heat.

– Pour a tablespoon full of batter on the grater and gently tap so that the drops of the batter fall into the oil.

– After 3-4 seconds, take out the ‘boondis’ from the oil and drain them over the kitchen towel to get rid of the excess oil. They should not be browned at all! Frying the boondis right is a very critical stage as if they get even slightly over-cooked, your laddoos will smell burnt.

– Fry all the boondis carefully in batches and set aside. They should be yellow and crunchy if done right.

– Let us make the sugar syrup for our laddoos now. In a pan, combine your sugar and ¼ cup of water. Also add some orange food color.

– Heat and let simmer till you attain a ‘1 string consistency’ i.e if you take a drop of syrup between your thumb and forefinger and open them apart, you should get a string between them.

– Switch off the gas and add lemon juice to your sugar syrup. This will prevent the crystallization of the syrup.

– Finally, add cardamom powder and give a good mix.

– When the syrup is still hot, add the prepared boondis to it.

– Mix well and see that the boondis are all coated nicely with the sugar syrup. Cover and let it sit for ten minutes.

– Add your chopped dry fruits to the mixture and mix well.

– Grease your hands with a little ghee. Taking a fistful of mixture in hand each time, make your laddoos one by one. They should come together very easily.

– Top each laddoo with a sliced cashew and enjoy!

*Notes:

– If your grater is not too fine and your boondis come out bigger than you wanted them, you can easily grind the prepared boondis coarsely in a blender for a few seconds.

– While mixing the ‘boondis’ with the syrup, if you see a lot of liquid in the pan, put the pan back on simmer and cook the mixture for a few minutes before proceeding.