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Kamarkat/ Coconut Jaggery Balls

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MinimintMurukku-4Last minute 4 Ingredient Indian version of coconut sweet candy!

Wishing you all a Happy Diwali! 🙂

I made this for Diwali, the festival of lights with Motichur ladoo, Mini Mint Murukku, Ragi Oats murukku and few other snacks and sweets. I have had kamarkat at home, but my mom makes it from leftover jaggery and coconut I guess. So, it was never made as a special recipe. I came to know about kamarkat only about few days back. Kamarkat is a hard ball coconut sweet candy which we used to get in India In road side shops ( petti kadai). It is famous along with jigarthand, javvu mittai, elandha vadai and Thaen mittai. We are not using sugar here and we are using jaggery here which is healthy than usual sugar sweets. We don’t find them in the petti shops often now, but we get in usual grocery stores sealed and everything. 🙂 But somehow I guess some things are meant to be where they are. It reminds in my memory as a petti shop sweet! 🙂 When I made these, it came out very flavorful and tasty 🙂 I did share it with my friends and family! 🙂 The way we eat these sweets is not by biting, it’s by chewing them for long!

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My other favorite Diwali sweets: Basundi, carrot ladoo,Gulab jamun, kala jamun, rice kheer, thaen mittai, rasgulla,coconut ladoo, coconut burfi, beetroot halwa aval payasam,rava ladoo, semiya kesari

My other favorite Diwali snacks : Spicy curry leaves seedai,cashew pakoda, karasev/ chickpea snacks, ribbon pakoda,Spicy curry leaves murukku, Ribbon pakoda, Uppu seedai

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Kamarkat/ Coconut Jaggery Balls
Author: 
Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: Indian
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 15 balls
 
Ingredients
  • Jaggery – 1.5 cups, grated
  • Fresh coconut – ½ cup grated
  • Cardamom powder – 1 tsp
  • Ghee – for greasing hands & 1 tsp – to toast.
Instructions
  1. Take a pan with 1 tsp of ghee in medium flame and toast the coconut for a minute. And Keep the toasted coconut on a side.

  2. In the same pan, add the jaggery with ¼ cup of water. Mix well and heat it till it is melted. Now strain it.

  3. Add it back in the same pan and bring it to the boil.
  4. When it gets little thick, add in coconut, cardamom powder and mix well. Keep stirring and cook this. It will get thicker gradually.
  5. When you think it is thick enough, take a small bowl with cold water, drop a tsp of that mixture in water, it should not separate and you should be able to make a hard ball. That is the consistency you want.

  6. Now transfer the whole mixture on a plate and let it cool a bit. But do not wait long then you might not be able to make round balls. It might stick. So make round balls when you handle the heat by greasing your hands, take a small portion and shape it into balls.
  7. It will get harder after some time.
  8. Store them in an airtight container for a week and enjoy!
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Motichur ladoo/ Mothi laddu

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Traditional Diwali sweet made from chickpea flour droplets and soaked in sugar syrup. Perfect thing ever for an After Dinner Bite-Sized sweet!

Before you guys ask, I am going to tell you I did not use much colour, I used a pinch of orange color( actually not even a pinch), thatsy it is bright orange. I believe color is not important 😉 Its the taste. Right? 🙂 I wanted to gift these to few friends so did not want to feed them with unhelathy orange color 🙂 so that is the reason for this color. :)Ladoos refers to anything round and sweet and we make a lot of ladoos. I already have some on my blog like carrot coconut ladoo, rava ladoo, coconut ladoo  and there are so many more.  These ladoos are quick and delicious. Whenever someone goes to India, I ask them to buy motichur ladoo 🙂 I love them! So this time I wanted to make it myself for Diwali. This time I made few snacks like kamarkat/coconut jaggery balls, motichoor ladoo, ring murukku, ragi oats murukku and mini mint murukku. Nice, right?. This ladoo is made with besan flour (Tiny drops of chickpea flour are deep fried) and dipped in sugar syrup to make round balls. They are made as boondi (round shaped droplets) first and then dropped in sugar syrup, blended and then made into round balls. The normal boondi ladoo are made using water instead this moitichoor ladoo is made using milk. And Boondi ladoo , the size of the boondi is large and in moti choor it is very tiny. I did not have the perfect ladle with the tiny perforated one, so I used normal ones but pulsed a bit. I have made some tips to make these ladoos perfect.

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Tips to make perfect ladoo

  1. Sugar syrup should have single thread consistency, if you touch it, it should
  2. Sieve the besan flour before use and also get the course variety of besan flour.
  3. Do sieve the besan flour before use.
  4. Make the batter not very thick or not very watery. It should be in the consistency of bajji or little watery than pancake.
  5. Do not fry the ladoo crispy, you don’t want crispy ladoo.
  6. Try avoiding adding more color to the ladoo, food colors are not good for health.
  7. If you use tiny whole ladle, you don’t have to pulse it, but I used normal, so pulsed it.
  8. Do not blend the ladoo much; you should still feel the texture of ladoos.



 My other favorite Diwali sweets: Basundi, carrot ladoo, Gulab jamun, kala jamun, rice kheer, thaen mittai, rasgulla, coconut ladoo, coconut burfi, beetroot halwa aval payasam, rava ladoo, semiya kesari

My other favorite Diwali snacks : Spicy curry leaves seedai, cashew pakoda, karasev/ chickpea snacks, ribbon pakoda, Spicy curry leaves murukku, Ribbon pakoda, Uppu seedai

 Vegan note: Avoid ghee/butter if vegan 🙂 otherwise its a vegan snack.

You can store them for 3-5 days in an air tight container and enjoy 🙂

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5.0 from 1 reviews
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Motichur ladoo/ Mothi laddu
Author: 
Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: Indian
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 12
 
Ingredients
  • Besan flour/ Kadalai maavu – 1.5 cups
  • Rava – 1 tbsp, fine powder
  • Baking soda – a pinch
  • Sugar – 1 ¼ cup
  • Orange food color – 1 tsp
  • Saffron – few strands
  • Almonds
  • Pistachios
  • Rose water - 1tsp
  • Milk – 2 tbsp
  • Cardamom powder – a pinch
  • Ghee – 2 tbsp
  • Oil – for deep frying
Instructions
  1. In a bowl, combine the besan, rava, baking soda, orange food color, and milk. Mix well, and then add the water to get the desired consistency. The batter should be not too tight or too runny. Set aside.

  2. For the sugar syrup, add 1 ¼ cup sugar, saffron and 2 cups of water to a pan and allow boiling. Keep stirring every few minutes until it reaches one string consistency. (one string consistency, if the syrup between your index finger and thumb stretches to form a string).

  3. Add rose water and cardamom powder at this stage. Keep aside.

  4. Now heat oil on other side in medium flame, start making boondis by pouring a ladle full of boondi batter on a perforated ladle and press it into hot oil.

  5. Please make sure that fried boondies are not very crispy. And have them on paper towels.
  6. Add them to sugar syrup and mix it well to coat the boondis. Add a tbsp. of ghee to it before mixing. It takes around 20 mins to absorb the syrup.

  7. Then pulse them quickly. Do not blend them because you still want the texture. Just give 3-5 quick pulses.

  8. Add the chopped almonds and pistachios and combine well. Apply some ghee/oil on your palm ( I did not, the oil was more than enough) and shape into round ladoos.
  9. Make round balls when they are little hot, not when they are totally cold & dry.
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Spicy Curry leaves seedai / Crunchy Lentil Nuggets

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Seedai-7Crispy curry leaves flavoured nuggets – A perfect snack to have while sipping a cup of hot chai.

Hello all , It’s Janmashtami/ Krishna Jayanthi on Saturday 5, September 2015. It’s the birthday of the Lord Krishna. I have a collection of festival recipes like uppu seedai, murukku, aval payasam, ladoos and so on, you could check it for more. But the main savory we do for this festival is the “Uppu seedai/sweet seedai”. I am going to uncover my own version of a revised “uppu seedai” recipe today here. I like savory more than sweet after coming to Canada. When it comes to seedai there are chances that it would burst out easily. I am not trying to scare you, but be careful when you do this. May be in older days they used to have lot of stones in the rice which made it burst. These days its loads better and also if you sieve it well, it should be very fine  I have made spicy curry leaves murukku before for last year Diwali and it was the best in the whole recipes I made. So, I wanted to share this with you all 🙂

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The correct way to do this recipe is to soak one cup of raw rice in water for two hours, dry them completely by placing on a cloth/paper and grind them. I used the ready-made rice flour instead. It was equally good. I have no complaints. Let me know someone if you get to know the reason why we need to do the former method.

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5.0 from 1 reviews
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Spicy Curry leaves seedai / Crunchy Lentil Nuggets
Author: 
Recipe type: snacks & appetizers
Cuisine: Indian
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 2 cups
 
Ingredients
  • • Rice flour – 1 cup
  • • Urad dal – ¼ cup
  • • Sesame seeds – 1tbsp
  • • Ajwain – 1 tsp
  • • Jeera/Cumin – 1tsp
  • • Salt – as needed.( I used 1 tbsp)
  • • Ghee – 1 tbsp
  • • Grated Coconut – 2 tbsp
  • • Oil – to fry.

    To grind:
  • • Curry Leaves - 15
  • • Red chilli - 4
  • • Garlic - 3
  • • Ginger - 1 inch
Instructions
  1. Blend everything under to grind. And keep aside.
  2. Fry the urad dal for 2 – 3 mins. Grind the urad dal very finely. Mix rice flour and urad dal powder together, Sieve them twice.

  3. Mix the ajwain, coconut, jeera, ghee, blended curry leaves & red chilli mixture and salt to the flour mixture.
  4. Add water little by little to form soft dough but do not make it watery/sticky.

  5. Now comes the major step, hold a little dough part on your left hand on the fingers side like shown below. Take a tiny dough part, press them and release them by making anticlockwise directions on the right hand. And the first seedai dough is ready. It should not be hard or very soft. It should be in perfect texture.

  6. Make them all like the above step.
  7. Fry them in hot oil and take them out when it’s in golden color.
Notes
. Try to be careful when you put them in oil, it might easily burst. So, sieve it properly to avoid stones.
2. When you make the balls, make sure it’s not very hard or very soft. It will either break or it will be too hard.
3. Use unsalted butter instead of ghee or if you using ghee adjust your salt accordingly as ghee would have salt.
4. If you think the dough is too hard, add little ghee and water. Very little would be good.
5. Oil should be very hot, or else it will break.
6. Roast the urad dal just for few minutes, which should do the job.
7. Try to use whole urad dal for this recipe. I used the broken one’s, as I did not have the whole urad dal handy.
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Kala Jamun/ Fried milk sweet dumplings

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A double fried dark colored jamuns soaked in rose scented sugar syrup. This is a darker version of famous Indian dessert Gulab jamun. Gulab jamuns are fried milk dumplings in rose scented sugar syrup. These are larger in size when compared to the gulab jamuns and also much tastier.

It gets dark color from the sugar added in the dough. I have used color inside the jamun, you can even use nuts inside and make them. It takes more soaking time than normal gulab jamuns. SO do not try to taste them in 30 minutes.I have a normal gulab jamun recipe in my list. No one would say no to that as well. But if you have tasted kala jamuns from India, you would just go yum! They are beautiful sexy dark colored jamuns which is sweeter than normal jamuns.

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 Tips to make them perfect: (almost similar to gulab jamun tips)

If you get the right consistency in the gulab jamun dough, you will never buy in the stores. I have mentioned some tips and suggestions, which might help.

  1. If you are making this with readymade mix, just mix it with milk till you get the right consistency, (not dry crumble but stickly soft)
  2. For sugar solution, on cooling if the sugar syrup crystallizes, then just add two or three tablespoons of water and warm the syrup again. It will be back to the syrup consistency.
  3. Apply some oil on your palms and make smalls balls from the dough. It may double the size after soaking in water, so be careful to make them small sized.
  4. There should be no cracks on the dough balls. They should be smooth, If there are cracks, then just add some 1 oe 2 tbsp of yogurt/milk and continue making the balls.
  5. Do cover them and keep aside for ten minutes before frying them. it makes a great difference.
  6. Do not make the jamun dough hard, it should be soft or else the syrup will not go inside after soaking.
  7. When you fry them, when the oil becomes medium hot, lower the flam, add a small in the oil, it should slowly rise to the top from bottom. If it rises instantly, then the oil is too hot to fry which is not good. One jamun should get fried for about 6 -8 mins, its that slow for a perfect jamun.
  8. If jamun cracks while frying, then add 1 or 2 tspof flour to the dough and form the balls again.
  9. Don’t crowd the pan when deep frying, it might make the oil totally zero hot.
  10. Fry the jamuns for 5-6 minutes, remove from heat. Drop the jamuns again after 10 minutes, and fry them for 3-4 minutes till they are dark brown colored jamuns.
  11. Use a wooden spatula to rotate the oil after adding the jamuns without touching them, so that they are evenly gold.

I have few other delicious sweet dessert recipes in my website. 

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5.0 from 1 reviews
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Kala Jamun/ Fried milk sweet dumplings
Author: 
Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: Indian
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 20
 
Ingredients
  • Khoya (milk solid) – 2 cups, homemade or store bought
  • Crumbled Paneer – 1 cup, homemade or store bought
  • All-purpose flour – 5 tbsp
  • Baking powder – a pinch
  • (or)
  • Ready made gulab jamun mix - 3 cups


    For Inner jamuns:
  • Cardamom powder – 1 tsp
  • Sugar – 2 ½ tbsp.
  • Color – green/red (optional)
  • Ghee – 1 tbsp (to knead)
  • Ghee/oil – for deep frying


    For sugar syrup:
  • Sugar – 5 cups
  • Water – 2.5 cups
  • Rose essence – 1 tsp
  • Saffron – a pinch
  • Cardamom powder – 1 tsp
Instructions
  1. To prepare the sugar syrup:
  2. Mix water, sugar, cardamom and saffron in a pan, heat it till you get a syrup consistency. There should not be any thread formation, as it might form crystals later. Usually it takes around 8 – 10 mins for that consistency in medium flame.
  3. Add the rose water and keep it aside.


    To prepare the jamuns:
  4. In a wide bowl, add the crumbled khoya, all-purpose flour, paneer and baking powder. Mix it gently. Or you can use ready-made gulab jamun mix.
  5. Add little bit of water and make it into a smooth dough and knead the dough well. Use 1 tbsp of ghee and knead.
  6. Take ¼th of the dough, add cardamom powder, sugar, color and mix well.( you can even add chopped nuts to it). Make small balls.
  7. Divide the colored and white dough into equal portions.
  8. Take the white dough spread, spread it and then stuff the coloured dough into it and close. Make a round shape or bullet shape ball. Keep aside and repeat the same process for entire dough.
  9. Once the jamuns are ready, Heat oil. In a low flame, fry the jamuns till they are golden brown for 5-6 minutes.
  10. Remove (with no oil totally) and keep aside for ten minutes.
  11. And fry the jamuns again after ten minutes in low flame for 3- 4minutes; they will get a black color outside. But do not keep in high heat and burn them.
  12. Add these jamuns to hot sugar syrup soak for atleast 3 hours and serve.
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Beetroot Halwa

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Beetroot halwa-name1Beetroot halwa – It is a scrumptious pudding made from grated beetroot simmered in milk, spiced with cardamom and finished with roasted nuts. It is one of the easiest recipes you can make for festivals. Navratri( dusshera) and diwali are nearing by, so I thought it would be a helpful to post it now. And I was celebrating the first month of blogging yesterday through a sweet recipe, beetroot halwa :). yippee! So just made a simple delectable sweet:).

Halwa is a very popular indian dessert. The name originates from an Arabic word “Halwa” which means “sweet”. There are many varieties of halwa like carrot halwa, bettroot halwa and bottle guard halwa. The most popular among them is “carrot halwa”.Beetroot halwa is prepared in the same manner as carrot/gajar halwa. Sweetened condensed milk is optional; I had it in refrigerator after I did the “coconut ladoo”. So, wanted to use it.

Beets are highly nutrious and healthy. It is a great dish for kids. Kids don’t love beetroot a lot, so it  is a good way to sneak it into their diet. Even beetroot tikki/ beetroot paratha are good ideas to make them have this veggie.

3.0 from 1 reviews
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BEETROOT HALWA/ BEETROOT SWEET
Author: 
Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: Indian
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 6
 
Ingredients
  • Beetroot – 3 or 2 ½, grated beetroot.
  • Whole Milk – 3 cups
  • Sugar – 5 - 6 tbsp – adjust as required
  • Sweetened condensed milk – 1 tbsp
  • Cardamon – 4 crushed and powdered (I grind it in mortar-pestle with a tsp of sugar)
  • Cashews – 8 broken
  • Badham – 5 sliced/flaked
  • Ghee – 1 ½ - 2 tbsp
Instructions
  1. Rinse, peel and grate the beetroots using hand grater.
  2. Heat a non-stick pan on a low to medium flame and drop the grated beetroots in the pan, sauté them for about ten minutes.
  3. Add the milk and sweetened condensed milk and keep boiling for ten minutes. Keep on stirring at regular intervals so that the mixture does not stick to the pan. The milk will boil and evaporate.
  4. When the milk is reduced to 80%, add the sugar, ghee to the halwa mixture. Stir well and continue to simmer. Keep on stirring them.
  5. Meanwhile, heat a small pan, add a spoon of ghee, and roast the cashews and badham and sauté till golden brown.
  6. Top the beetroot with the roasted nuts. Mix well and switch off when all the milk has evaporated.
Notes
1. You can add grated carrot, it adds extra sweetness and more delicious and healthy.
2. Sweetened condensed milk is optional; I had it in refrigerator after I did the “coconut ladoo”. So, wanted to use it.
3. Switch off only when all the milk has been evaporated.
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Serve the halwa hot/cold. You can serve it warm with vanilla ice cream.

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