Monday, August 1, 2011

Rava (Semonila, Suji) Laddu

      Rava ladoo is a wonderful delectable dessert most commonly made in South India on occasions. Preparing these delicious treats is very simple but every ingredient should be cooked on a very low flame with lot's of patience to get the right rava ladoo.

Ingredients

Rava (Semonila, Suji) – 1 Cup
Powdered sugar – 1 Cup 
Grated fresh coconut - 1 Cup
Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp
Edible camphor (Pachha Karpuram) OPTIONAL – Small Piece ( found in Indian grocery stores)
Raisins – 10
Cashew nuts / Almonds - 7
Ghee melted – 1/4 cup
Warm milk as needed
Salt - 1 pinch

Recipe

1) In a pan heat 2 tsp of ghee fry the cashew nuts and raisins individually and keep them aside (Take care the cashew nuts do not change color and remove the raisins from the pan as soon as they balloon).
2) Heat a pan and fry the Rava in very low flame by stirring occasionally. It took me 7-8 minutes. When you taste it should not be raw. Keep aside.
3) In the same pan fry the grated coconut for a minute by occasionally stirring. Take care they should not turn brown in color. Keep aside.
4) In a bowl add the rava, grated coconut, cardamon powder, powdered edible camphor, salt and powdered sugar and mix nicely with your hand or a spatula.
5) Heat the ghee in micro-oven for 30-40 seconds and add them to the rava mixture and mix nicely with a spatula.
6) Once they are not very hot and easy to handle with your hands try to take a lemon size portion adding very little milk and make round shapes out of it.Add very little amount of milk and mix. Add milk in small quantities only as and when required. If you add the milk all at one go, the mixture would become soggy and you can’t make ladoos.
7) Allow the ladoos to set for at least 2 hours. Once done store in air tight containers and enjoy.


Tips

1) Do not add to much milk or skimp on the ghee as the ladoos will become too hard.
2) These rava ladoos are good for a week, if you want to keep them for long do not add the coconuts and use water instead of milk. ( Adding water makes the ladoos a little harder).