Boondi Laddu

I thought I would celebrate my completing six months of food blogging by reposting the boondi laddu recipe. Boondi laddu is my all-time favourite sweet. This recipe was one of my earliest posts and the previous picture made no justice to this delectable sweet, which is why I'm reposting this recipe with new pictures.    

Dodol - Dhodal

Many of you must be wondering what is dodol? Dodol or dhodal is a rich, jelly-like sweetmeat of Malay origins that has not gained due recognition around the world. It is very popular in Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Goa and of course in South East Asia. The main ingredients used to make dodol are also very typical of the above mentioned areas such as fresh coconut milk, red/brown or black rice flour and jaggery or palm sugar. In South East Asia, where the dodol originates from, pandan leaves and glutinous rice, are traditionally also added in addition to the aforementioned ingredients. In the Goan dodol, millets (ragi) are sometimes used. In Sri Lankan dodol, red rice (naatu arisi) is used and in the commercially sold dodols nuts and dried fruits are also frequently added to please the masses. I have also eaten some homemade dodols with mung beans. In this post, I am going to demonstrate how my family makes dodol.

Back home, we make dhodal, as we call it, the good ol' way. My aunts only make dhodal with the best of coconuts available. They say for the ultimate taste you need sethal thengai meaning ripe, flawless coconuts and only the first and finest portion of the coconut milk is squeezed and added initially in the dhodal-making process. The red rice is sent to the mill to be grinded and then carefully sieved at home, rejecting any grains found. The rice flour is then mixed with the second portion of the coconut milk. Adding the rice flour directly into the boiling coconut milk might result in lumps, so therefore the rice flour is first mixed with the second portion of the coconut milk and made into a smooth, fine paste before adding to the thick, boiling coconut gravy. We use black jaggery that we call sakkarai, which is dark brown in colour, that together with the red rice flour gives the dhodal a rich, deep-brown look.

Making dhodal is a grand affair but also a time-consuming and back-breaking process, and quite unlike any other sweet I have seen being made. Everyone in our family takes turns stirring in the big iron pots over the scorching wooden fire, that leaves them exhausted with their arms aching. The dhodal must be stirred non-stop for hours on end with a wooden paddle. If the dhodal gets burnt on the bottom, the dhodal will taste and smell burnt, and this happens faster than anyone would think, if it is not stirred constantly and properly. The dhodal will shrink in volume and become thicker and glossier as the hours pass by. Pure, golden coconut oil will start to be released from the dhodal when it reaches the final stage. The more coconut oil is released and separated from the dhodal, the longer the dhodal will last in storage but most people who make dodol never make it to the final stage. The dodol is often taken away from the stove when it has thickened "reasonably" and even if you reach the final stage, separating too much oil will also result in a dry dodol so you have to take strike a balance here.

Having often watched my aunts make the glorious dodol, triggered the desire to make this on my own at home some day. I had been waiting to make this with mixed feelings. Despite the fact that making dodol here means I have to make it with store-bought coconut milk and not fresh coconut milk and even though my mother pooh-poohed the idea of making dodol with store-bought coconut cream, I still remained adamant on trying this for my parents 30th wedding anniversary. The rice flour I prepared at home. Since I used only 1 cup of rice flour, making the dodol took me only 2 hours. The amount of jaggery may sound a lot to you but please keep in mind that black jaggery is not as sweet as refined sugar. It was still sweet, but moderately so. I dare say, the dodol turned out exactly as how I remember the dodol my aunts made were, both in texture and taste, and that is what I had aspired to. I was very pleased with this experiment, so much so that I didn't mind my sore arm for the next couple of days.

Ingredients:
3 cups coconut cream (minimum 70 % coconut)
4 cups water
1 cup fine unroasted red rice flour
400 g black jaggery or palm sugar
1/2 tsp salt

Peanut brittles

3/4 cup of lightly roasted peanuts
1/4 cup of lightly roasted cashew nuts
1 cup sugar
1 tbs ghee (optional)

Greasing:
ghee/oil

Dry roast the peanuts lightly and peel off the skin, divide them into halves/chop the peanuts roughly. You can replace 1/4 cup of the peanuts with other nuts such as cashew and pistachio, if you like. Grease a plate and a kitchen roller with ghee/oil. Choose an oil that is odourless. In a steel bottomed wide pan, add sugar and let it caramelize at below medium heat. If the pan is too small, the sugar on the bottom may get a little burnt/bitter taste while the sugar on top has not yet melted, so it's better to melt the sugar in a wide pan. Do not stir the sugar at all, because it will trigger the crystalization process. The caramelization process will take some time, about 15 minutes, so please be patient. Also, don't let this process go to the extreme. If it caramelizes too much (turning really brown) it can taste bitter and outright burnt. You can add some ghee to sweeten the peanut brittles, when you see that the sugar starts to caramelize.

When all the sugar has melted/caramelized, take a small amount of the caramel and throw it in a cup with cold water. If the caramel turns out firm and not saucy/soft, the caramel is ready and you can add your peanuts. Add peanuts and mix fast. Pour the mixture on the greased plate. Roll over the mixture with the greased kitchen roller as even as you can. Wait one or two minutes and then cut. Try to take out the peanut brittles before cooling down completely. Good luck!

Beetroot halwa

Today I made beetroot halwa for the first time and thought I should share this recipe. Unfortunately, I did not have ghee and replaced it with 1 tbs of coconut oil. I was looking high and low for the ghee and couldn't find it in any of the stores here. But if you have ghee, I think you should definitely use it when making this.

2 cups of beetroot (2 medium-sized beetroots)
2 cups of milk
1/2 cup of sugar
1-2 tbs of ghee/or coconut oil
1/4 cardamom powder
1/4 cup of nuts

Grate the beetroots. Add them to a non-stick pan and cook them with the milk at medium heat. You don't have to stir much at first but towards the end when the fluid is evaporating you need to stir continuously. Add the sugar, while there is still 1/4 cup of milk/fluid, visible in the gravy. You can use more sugar if you want to. Stir continuously and well till it thickens and lower the heat towards the end. Add the ghee or coconut oil, nuts and cardamom and mix. I used roasted almonds in the halwa. If you or anyone in the family is allergic to nuts, you could exclude it or use raisins instead.