In India, festivals and sweets complement each other. No festival can get away without a sweet. Come August, there are quite a lot of festivals lined up, the trend of which continues till the end of the year. One among these is Navratri. Let’s celebrate it by looking into a very simple, yet rich and delicious sweet – Coconut Balls / Coconut Laddoo.
I love the coconut flavour in any food. Be it curries, or for that matter gravies made using fresh coconut, or kheer made using fresh coconut milk, or grated coconut sprinkled over dry curry, and the list goes on. Coconut brings a totally different taste to any dish. This time around, I quickly scanned by groceries and my store and found coconut powder and milk powder. Thought, why not do something with these as the main ingredients. Thus, come Coconut laddoos/Coconut Balls. Coconut laddoo takes about 10 minutes to cook and another 10 minutes to make the balls. And Bingo, the delicious laddoo is ready to relish.
Simple and easily available ingredients like milk powder, coconut powder, sugar and milk go into the making of this sweet.
All the people out there with a sweet tooth, neither do you have to wait for a master chef to cook something delicious for you nor do you need to go to a store to purchase some. You can satisfy your taste buds with this amazing easy to make sweet dish by preparing one for yourself.
For more sweet recipes : Desserts
Total Time: 20 mins
Preparation Time :10 mins
Cooking Time: 10 mins
Ingredients:
Milk Powder: 1 cup
Coconut Powder / Desiccated coconut: ½ cup
Ghee: 3 tbsp.
Milk: ¼ cup
Cardamom Powder: ½ tsp.
Sugar: ¼ cup
Method:
- In a pan heat ghee till it melts and add milk to it
- Immediately add milk powder with continued stirring for about 4 minutes in medium flame
- Now, add sugar and stir well for about a minute
- Add cardamom powder and mix well
- To the above, add coconut powder and continue stirring till it forms a single mass and becomes hard to stir
- Remove from heat immediately and let it cool (cool enough to make balls out of it)
- Grease your palm in ghee and make small laddoos / balls
- Roll the balls in a bowl of coconut powder to form a thick coconut powder layer on the ball
Coconut balls/ Laddoos are ready!
Note :
- Milk powder should be added to the pan as soon as milk is added to it. If it is added after the milk gets heated, then the powder might form tiny lumps and it will be hard to get a smooth paste
- Though this is a quick recipe, the key here is -continuous stirring to avoid forming lumps
- Once the mixture gets hard to stir and forms a single mass, it is a hint for us to remove it off flame immediately. The more it is delayed, it gets harder to form laddoos/balls
- Once removed from heat, keep aside to let it cool. You need not wait it to cool completely. It should cool till you are comfortable in making laddoos/balls out of it
Navratri Stories :
Nine days of festivities followed by Vijaya Dashami – victory of good over evil. In northern and southern parts of India, it is celebrated as Dusshera / Dasara, which marks the victory of Lord Rama over Ravana. Ram Leela is staged during this occasion. In Northern India, on Vijaya Dashami, huge idols are made of Ravana and burnt using firecrackers to mark the end of evil. Down south, Mysore Dasara is world famous. The entire city is lit up for this festival. A major procession, presided over by the king of Mysore, is taken out across the city. In Eastern India, Vijaya Dashami marks the end of of Durga Pooja. In general, Vijaya Dashami not only marks the end of 9 days of celebrations of Navratri, but it also marks the beginning of preparations of yet another major festival in India – Deepavali. It was when Lord Rama came back to his kingdom, Ayodhya, and the people of Ayodhya welcomed him by lighting the entire kingdom with Deepa (small lamps).
I am fortunate to have witnessed Navratri / Vijayadashami / Dusshera / Dasara festivals in different parts of India at different times. Though the celebrations are different, I must admit, the spirit and fervour of festivities is the same.
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