Boondi Laddu

For Deepavali, I usually make Boondi Laddu and Mixture.

If you would like to read the story of why I started making laddu's please go to the end of the recipe...

To make 20 laddus, you need the Laddu Ladle and

You need

Channa Flour (Besan) - 1 Cup

Water - 1/2 to 3/4th cup

Oil - to deep fry

Sugar - 1 and 1/2 cup

Water - 1/2 cup

and optional

Kalkandu (Square sugar candy) - 1 handful

Cashews - sliced and roasted in ghee

Raisins - (Optional) Roasted in ghee

Pachai Karpooram (Raw camphor) - 1 pinch

Saffron - 1 pinch

Method

---> To the besan add 1/2 cup water and mix well. Make sure it does not have any lumps in it. If you want colored laddus you can add the food coloring to the besan.

---> The consistency you want is thick. It should not be runny.

--->If you want you can add a pinch of baking soda to it. I have not added it at all.

---> In a kadai, add cooking oil, enough to deep fry the boondis and keep on medium high flame.

---> You can deep fry in ghee also, but I used canola oil.

---> When the oil is ready, take a small ladle with the premixed boondi flour and pour it slowly on the laddu ladle on top of the oil, and swirl as fast as you can until the smaller ladle is completely empty.

---> When the boondi's are 3/4th fried (not too crispy and also cooked), take it out of the oil. If you let it become crisp, it will not absorb the sugar syrup.

---> Repeat this process until you are out of all the mixed flour.

---> In another kadai, add the sugar and the water ad heat on medium high flame.

--->And heat this until you get in between the single thread and the double thread consistency.

--->Let it cool down completely.

---> Mix the boondis to this and also add your optional nuts, raisins whatever you want

---> Leave the mixture for an hour or so, and when you come back you can see the sugar has become crystals.

---> Now just make the laddus and store.

This will last fresh up to three weeks, left outside.

Happy Deepavali!!! There is a story of why I made a tradition of making Laddus .... for that we have to go back about 15 years... when my son was born. (Imagine a spiral going backwards with a sound drooiiinngggg)

When my son was born, my dad got him a book to teach the tamil letters. My son loved to read and whenever he wanted to read he used to pick this book and we would go over all the tamil letters with him and he knew all the words for each letter.

(The word for the letter la, in that book, was laddu....)

Fastforward 4 years, we visited India when he was 4 and my daughter was 4 months old. My mom had made laddus for him, and when she handed him one, she asked him, whether he knew the name of this thing... and he said "la.... laddu, bookla irukkume!"

whch translates to, la is for laddu and it is in the book...!!

My mother was so moved that she vowed to make it for him whenever possible. When she visited us the next time, she brought with her the laddu karandi, (Ladle to make it) and ever since I try my best to make it every year.