Diwali Special Moong Dal Ladoos

I chanced upon this video yesterday, about a grandfather missing his family. I was completely engrossed in the emotions of the video, when I realized the Diwali surprise. Watch this till the end to know how something simple can touch your life

Watch video here 

The video immediately took me back to my early days in Bangalore. Even though I’m agnostic, I still love celebrating each festival with zest and enthusiasm. It surprises most people, but I have a good reasoning. For me, festivals have always been about food. The special aromas coming from the kitchen, the long discussions between my grandma, mum and aunts on what will be the menu for the festival feasts each year and then the familiar dishes that each festival will bring with them. The rich and creamy kheer on the rakhee, the khoya and dry fruit filled gujiya for holi, the til gajak and popcorn for lohri, the mathri that we would look forward to when karwachauth nears, the swang ke chawal and kuttu ki poori during the nine days of navrathre, the crisp jalebis for dushehara the melt in your mouth besan ladoos for Diwali. So each festival now, has a firm food memory linked to it and I crave for festivals because I crave for the food and memories attached to it.

Obviously, with Diwali around the corner all I have thought of is the food I grew up on, I have been thinking of how at the ages between 8 and 4, my sisters and I would sit with mum and make coconut ladoos, the very easy instant ladoos made with milkmaid and some desiccated coconut. Mum would do the detailed mithais and snacks and we would make this and then proudly tell every guest that came home “look what we made Uncle” “Auntie, taste our ladoos”. As we grew older we moved on from the coconut ladoos to make more complex things like the besan ladoos that my mum would make, every year would bring with it a fantastic new recipe and this one year granny decided to make moong dal ladoos for Diwali. Initially we were all apprehensive on how would a moong dal ladoo taste and being the kids that we were we went “no dal in Diwali sweets” but granny was insistent that we make it and she did and it was so finger licking yummy that I think I ate one too many and ended up with a tummy pain. Such were the days of childhood. Last month over a long distance phone call with a cousin in US we were remembering that moong dal ladoo and how much fun it will be if we can get together and re-create it from our combine memories. Then I came to know from someone that Lufthansa is also serving ladoos in the inflight menu on 11th and 12th Nov. How thoughtful is that, a touch of India in every Lufthansa flight for the most important Indian festival 

Recipe : Moong Dal Ladoos

Ingredients

• 1 cup yellow moong dal
• ¾ cup grated jiggery
• 3 tbsp ghee
• 1 tsp ealichi powder
• ¼ cup roasted and broken cashew nuts
• ¼ cup raisins

Method

• Wash dal in running water using a colander. Dry it on a cotton cloth or kitchen towel immediately till completely dry. I like to let it dry overnight as it is easier to roast when dry
• In a heavy bottom pan heat 2 tbsp of ghee and roast the dry at medium heat till it’s browned and crunchy. Keep aside to cool.
• After it is slightly cool, add the grated jaggery to it and mix well. Grind it to a fine powder when completely cool.
• In a small pan, take the rest of the 1 tbsp ghee and roast the cashews and raisins. Add to the above mixture and shape them as ladoos.
• Store at room temperature in air tight containers

Do check out the campaign by Lufthansa if you miss your loved ones on festivals, who knows you may be the lucky winner and get to fly away! Details here