Chocolate Laddu ~ Diwali Mithai with a Twist ~ Nutritious Ladoo for Kids

In a nutshell, this is what I did - Made a laddu from "Health mix powder" and coated it with melted chocolate. I added some more cashews and roasted gram/fried gram/ pottukadalai to the health mix powder which is predominantly Ragi! Nobody really loves Ragi/Millet so if you have to sell something with Ragi, it better have something inviting, and what's better than chocolate!!!

CHOCOLATE LADDU/LADOO

Kids would throng to it because of the outer choco covering and moms are happy because you know the secret ingredients - millet (ragi), corn, barley, wheat, cashews, roasted gram (pottu kadalai) and much more!


Let me get to the specifics quickly -

I Used -

Manna Health Mix powder

Ingredients of the Health mix powder

 

Manna Health Mix powder - 1 cup (You can also make your own kanji maavi/ sathu maavu or use any other commercially available brands)
Cashews - 1/2 cup
Roasted gram/ Fried gram / Pottukadalai/ Dalia - 1/2 cup

Sugar - 1 1/2 to 2 cups
Water - to cover the sugar
Cardamom powder - a generous pinch
Ghee - 1 tsp + 1 tsp

Semi sweet chocolate/Dark chocolate - 100 g

How To -

Roast the health mix powder (sathu maavu mix) with a tsp of ghee for about 3-5 minutes on a pan.

In the mixer, make a fine powder of the cashews + fried gram (pottukadalai). I used my Indian mixie.

Mix 1 and 2 powders.

Heat a pan and add water and sugar. Add cardamom powder as well. When it reaches a certain consistency and you can see bubbles rising up for 2-3 minutes, it’s ready.  Switch off the stove. It's ok if you want to wait a few minutes for the syrup to cool down.

Take a big bowl and add the sugar syrup slowly to the powders (roasted health mix powder + cashew nut + pottukadalai powder).

First it forms some lumps. Keep adding some more sugar syrup until it all comes together into a sticky mass and you can easily form laddus. Ensure that the sugar syrup is evenly incorporated into the powders. Use gloves to do this whole process of mixing.

Apply melted ghee (the other 1 tsp; use a little for every 5 laddus) on your palms and make small laddus/balls.

   Tip : You can taste at this stage (before making laddus) to check if the sweetness level is sufficient. If too sweet, just add a little more Health mix powder and mix. If not sweet enough, then add more sugar syrup.

Healthy Laddus before coating with chocolate

 Coat the balls with slightly melted chocolate OR grated chocolate (according to the looks n texture you prefer). I melted the chocolate in a microwave for 2 minutes.

 

 

Immediately After Coating with Melted Chocolate

Keep the chocolate laddus in the fridge for atleast an hour so it doesnt stick to your hands anymore.

Chocolate Laddu/ Laddoo ready to eat!

Your nutritious chocolate laddoos are ready to be devoured! :-)

Top 10 Diwali Recipes - Easy Deepavali Sweets and Savories

Here are some Easy Diwali recipes from what I've tried in my kitchen:

The sweets take under 20 minutes, I promise!

 

• Easy Chocolate Brownies (Eggless) - with Step-by-Step pictures (No oven or microwave needed)
   No cooking needed! How easier can it get? :-) Loved by kids and adults alike!

No bake brownies!

• Peda using Gulab Jamun Mix - Super Quick Sweet in 3 minutes!
  So, I had a packet of MTR Gulab Jamun Mix sitting in my pantry and about to expire in a month's time...

Easy Peda with Jamun mix!!

• Maa Laadu (Ladoo) / Maa Urundai - Diwali Sweet

               Only 3 major ingredients required! Beginner Recipe!

MaaLaddu - Beginners' sweet

• (Red) Banana Halwa - Chev vazhai pazha Halwa

                 Totally addictive Halwa from Palakkad, Kerala.

Vaazhaipazha Halwa

• Badam Ladoo/ Laddu - No sugar or ghee added! - 5 Minute Recipe!
   Make this Badam Laddu this Diwali without sugar (in fact no extra sweetener added) or ghee! But tastes nevertheless delicious!

Badam Laddu - no Ghee, no sugar!

• Quick Pal Khoa (Pal Kova) - Indian Sweet in 5 Minutes - Microwave method

                     Foolproof method - Authentic taste without all the sweating

Pal Kova in microwave in just 10 minutes!

• Oats & Dry Fruits 'n' Nuts Ladoo / Laddu - A Healthy Sweet - With No Added Sugar 

                     Rich taste from Dates and Figs yet very low in calories! A great way to make your family   consume some nuts and dry fruits

Little hearts made from rich dry-fruits and healthy oats

• Chocolate Laddu - an innovative sweet with healthy ingredients. Kids and adults alike will love anything that has chocolate, isn't it? 

Chocolate Ladoo! Yay!!

SNACKS / KAARAM:
 

• Thattai - Savory snack for Diwali - Step-by-Step Recipe
  Murukku and Thattai are the most important savory snacks (must-haves) that my mom makes for Deepavali...

Thattai

• Mullu Murukku or Thenguzhal
  Mullu Murukku is our favorite snack, just like every other fried crunchy stuff that we'd love to munch:) It's popularly known as  'murukku' in Singapore and Malaysia. Makes a perfect Diwali item!

Thenkuzhal

• Chivda Mixture - A Quick and Easy Snack
  This is an easier version of the traditional Mixture where you have to make a hundred different things like Kara boondi, Omapudi...

Chivda mixture

So, What are you making this Diwali?

Basil Pesto - Simply Italian - Made in 5 minutes

I instantly fell in love with Pesto when I tasted it for the first time - in Rome! Yes, the most authentic Pesto one could ever get! Earlier, I knew that pesto is analogous to Indian "thogayal" and that, it is very simple to make. But when I tried it myself, I was really amazed at the wonderful flavor that comes when we put together fresh basil leaves, olive oil, pine nuts and some parmesan!  It is one easy recipe that even a beginner could get right easily! :-)

Ingredients -

 1/2 cup basil leaves
 3 tbsp pine nuts
 3 tbsp pure olive oil
 1 garlic clove
 1 tsp lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
 3 tbsp Parmesan cheese
 a pinch each of sugar, salt and pepper

Method -

Blend basil leaves, pinenuts and garlic in a food processor.

Add olive oil, lemon juice, salt, sugar and pepper and blend again. You can freeze this paste at this stage if you're not planning to eat pesto today.

When required, bring close to room temperature and blend with parmesan cheese! Voila! All you now need is to cook some pasta. Saute the prepared pesto with a little bit (~ 2 tsp) of olive oil and let pesto coat the pasta well! Bon Appetit! :-)

Elbow pasta with Pesto

Reference : http://www.pickyourown.org/pesto.php

Mango Shrikhand - Creamy Sweet Mango Yogurt with crunchy nuts :-)

The Mango season is about to be over and now I rush to the Indian store to grab a few and make some Mango specialties :-)  I have been thinking of making Shrikhand at home ever since I shortlisted it as a fat-free recipe (basically if u make yogurt with fat-free milk, that is :P)  Finally, got around to make this delicacy for my hubby who said it's equivalent to Meiji/Marigold Mango yogurt :-) That's a compliment, I suppose! :-)

Mango Shrikhand

Yield - 4 ramekins (as in the picture)

What You Need-

Ripe Mango - 1 (medium size)
Fresh Yogurt/ Curd - 1 litre
Sugar - 3 to 4 tbsp (adjust according to the sweetness you prefer)
Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp
Nuts of your choice - I used Almonds and Cashews

Mango Shrikhand

Procedure -

1. Make Greek Yogurt following the procedure here. This takes 6-8 hours in the fridge. But you don't have to do much actively!
2. Blend mango in a mixer and get the puree.
3. Powder sugar.
4. Mix in powdered sugar, cardamom powder and the mango puree into Greek Yogurt and whisk them all together until you get a smooth texture. This is reallly important.
5. Chop some nuts and mix them too. Almonds would need to be blanched. Pistachios would be awesome, but I didn't have any yesterday. Reserve some nuts to garnish on top later.
6. Pour into ramekins or ice-cream cups and decorate with nuts. Refrigerate for another 3 hours to let it set well.
7. Serve chilled.

Simply awesome! Don't go by my words, try for yourself :-)

Umm...Slurp!

Make Greek Yogurt and Sour Cream at home! Very Easy :-)

Did you know that Greek Yogurt is basically strained yogurt that's made from full-cream milk? So, all you have to do is place a strainer on top of a container that fits in exactly, pour the yogurt over, cover it and let it sit overnight in the fridge. The next morning, you'll have THICK, CREAMY yogurt on top of the strainer and all the water drained into the container. Now, this is your Greek Yogurt. Go ahead and use it in all dishes that uses Greek Yogurt - like Shrikhand, Tzatziki, etc.

To get Sour Cream, all you need is to squeeze some lemon juice into the thick Greek yogurt and whisk it well together. Voila! Your Sour cream is now ready to use in burritos, chalupas and more!

Some pictures now :-)

Thick n Creamy Greek Yogurt!

The water that's strained

See you soon with the recipe for Mango Shrikhand :-)

Aval Kesari / Poha Halwa

Hello friends! I've been away from blogging after little K arrived and life has been really busy yet sweet :-) Nevertheless, with a little help around, I hope I can manage to keep my passion for cooking alive and continue to dish out new stuff that everyone enjoys!

Yesterday, I made a really quick Kesari with Aval (Rice flakes) and it turned out awesome!! Rawa Kesari aka Sooji Halwa is quite a popular sweet and this variation uses Aval in place of Rawa/ Sooji and reduces the cooking time drastically as well as makes the sweet practically foolproof. With the traditional Kesari, one has to take care to ensure there are no lumps while the rawa gets cooked and once there ARE lumps(which is usually the case), it's a tiring job to mash them and create a uniform texture.

Aval Kesari / Poha Halwa

Yield - 2 to 3 persons

Time - 15 minutes end-to-end

Ingredient List -

Aval / Poha/ Rice flakes- 1 and 1/4 cups
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Boiling Water - Start with 1/2 cup and add as you go
Ghee - 3 to 4 tbsp
Cashewnuts - 10 nos.
Food color (orange) - a pinch or two
Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp

Recipe -

• Roast the cashewnuts with a tbsp of hot ghee on a pan. Set the roasted nuts aside but let the remaining ghee stay on the pan.
• Transfer the measured Aval into the pan with ghee (add some ghee if there's nil left after roasting cashews) and fry them for a short while.
• When all the aval flakes are covered with ghee (and not dry), pour boiling water (just microwave water for a minute) into the pan.
• The Rice flakes/ Aval starts cooking. When all the water is absorbed and the aval doesn't seem fully cooked yet, add some more water (boiling). Reduce flame to low.
• When its 3/4th done, add the measured sugar. As the sugar melts, there is more liquid in the pan. Add a pinch of food color and cardamom powder. 
• Let the Kesari get cooked well and come together. You may add the remaining ghee at this stage if the sweet starts sticking to the bottom of the pan. I used a non-stick pan and I didn't have to add anymore ghee.
• Finally, mix in the ghee-roasted cashewnuts! 

Enjoy :-) If you're a fan of Aval, do check out Aval Payasam / Kheer made with Poha(Rice flakes).