Welcome aboard!

Indian cuisine is a riot of colours, flavours, and spices. Every state has its own unique culture- ingrained taste bud. And, to many of us staying within familiar tastes is a sacrosanct act. Of course an occasional trip to a speciality restaurant that serves another fare is ok. But, as a matter of routine ...at home...NO!

One of the benefits of being born to parents who dared an interstate marriage (am talking about India of the 70's) was being able to widen a regional taste bud to accept, experiment and, relish eclectic cuisines :-)

I love food! Be it traditional or fusion, cooking is all about turning out fare that is tasty and healthy.I welcome all lovers of good food to come on aboard and share your kitchen adventures.

If you like what you see, do leave a comment. If you don't, please leave a suggestion to help me make this better.

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Happy cooking!

Dershana

Monday, November 8, 2010

Pori-badam urundai (puffed rice and almond laddus)

Deepavali treats need not necessarily make you guilty of high calorie/fat laden indulgence. With a little bit effort and imagination you can make goodies
that are absolutely delicious and yet healthy. If you do not believe me, try these yummy laddus made all out of healthy ingredients. A lot of you might be familiar with puffed rice laddus (pori urundai), I've just given this a little variation plus thrown in a couple of extra ingredients.




Puffed rice (pori/murmure) - 2 cups
Raw almonds - 3/4 cup (ground to meal)
Jaggery (sharkkara) syrup - 1 cup
Cardamom - 4-5 Nos
White sesame seeds - 1/4 cup
Saffron strands - 3 or 4 (optional)
Medicinal (raw) camphor (pachai karpooram) - two pinches (optional)

Powder the almonds in a coffee grinder/chutney jar of your mixie/food processor). Pour the jaggery syrup into a thick bottomed skillet and add the rest of the ingredients one by one. Keep stirring. You will find that the puffed rice absorbs the syrup and will reduce in size. Stir on low flame till everything is well incorporated and reaches a coarse halwa/jam like consistency. Allow to cool for about 10 minutes.
Pull out small sections and shape into small lemon sized balls. Grease your palms with a little odourless cooking oil like rice bran/canola/sunflower or use ghee (clarified butter) instead.

Refridgerate and these keep well for a week.

PS:

To make Jaggery syrup - In a seperate vessel boil about 150 ml water and dissolve an equal quantity of jaggery. Filter to remove scum. Pour this into a thick bottomed skillet and simmer till it reaches a thick,syrupy texture.



Sending these to the Diwali Sweets & Snacks event at Home Cook's Recipes.

8 comments:

Priya Suresh said...

Thats a very tempting balls..adding badam sounds truly very interesting..

Rachana said...

My lil brother is a big fan of these laddus... they have come out really well, Dershana.

Madhu said...

Hi Darshana, thanks for visiting my blog. You have a wonderful space and some great recipes.

Lavanya Raj said...

Adding Badam to pori urundai is Great!

Hope you had Great Diwali! Waiting for your mail with entry details!

Sayali said...

hi there..
about your comment for the chakli post ...white flour means 'maida' :)

Swathi said...

Badam pori Urundai looks delicious.

Thanks for visiting my blog.
You have a nice space, will be following you.

Lisha Ajish said...

Looks delicious and awesome.....
First time to ur blog u have lovely space....Darshana
If u get time do visit my blog.........http://malabarikitchen.blogspot.com/

Uma said...

thanks for sharing! adding almonds is a nutritious twist :)

 
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