Sweet Boondi

Time flies and now the kids are back to school and we're all back to our normal routine. I don't like it once the kids are not at home, there's no verbal fighting, laughing, chit chatting  :( But other activities are already gearing up, so I'm trying to adjust my timings and spend some more time on my blog. Excited about my website, which is under construction and hopefully will be ready soon to share some delicious recipes, ideas and videos how to make it and more.Stay tuned!!!!

Now the festive season has started and I'm preparing my pantry and menu already.  Lots to do so it is sometimes overwhelming and making too many sweets, creates lots more temptation and increases my weight. So, hopefully I will manage my sweet craving craziness and keep it away in a secret corner:)

Boondi! Boond means small droplets of water in Hindi. Shape of boondi is like small round droplet. I loved it but was wondering how did they make it so small and perfectly round? To make Boondi you need a special round sieve with handle and has mini holes through which batter can pass and make small boondi. Not very difficult and I have made it in the second try, so you can do it too. You can make boondi and give shape like round ball called Boondi ladoo.

So, ready to make sweet boondi?

Ingredients(serves 4):

1 cup Bengal gram flour

3/4 cup 2% milk or you can use full milk

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

1 tablespoon melted ghee (clarified butter)

1/2 teaspoon cardamom powder (made from green cardamoms)

10 strands saffron (optional but highly recommended)

1/4 cup finely chopped almonds, pistachios

1 tablespoon milk

Ghee for deep frying (you could use canola oil but ghee gives better and tastier results)

Special sieve for boondi    

Procedure:

1.      In Mixing bowl, mix gram flour, milk and ghee and whisk thoroughly until it becomes lump free. You can use hand blender to mix it. 

2.    In medium wide pot put 1 cup of water and sugar and boil. As it boils scum will rise to the top. Skim this off with a spatula. The sugar syrup must be boiled till it reaches a one-thread consistency. 

3.    Add few drops of lemon juice to avoid crystallization of sugar syrup. 

4.    Once the syrup has reached the one-thread consistency, remove from the fire immediately, add the cardamom powder, stir and keep the syrup warm at very low heat.

5.     Add saffron strand into syrup and mix it well.

6.    Add a little milk if batter is bit thick and make the batter very smooth.

7.     in 1 tablespoon milk add few strands of saffron and mix it until bright orangey yellow color developed. Strain milk and add in batter and mix well to get nice yellow color batter. 

8.    Now heat the ghee on a medium flame till hot. Reduce flame a little.

9.    Hold the sieve about 4 inches above the hot ghee and fill a ladle with the batter. Pour the batter into the sieve. Now use another spoon to gently press the batter through the sieve and into the ghee. It will fall like tiny drops/ beads - Boondi - into the oil! 

10.  Now fry the Boondi till they are a very pale golden colour. When done, drain, remove and put into a separate bowl. The fried Boondi should be cooked but not crispy.

11.  Repeat till all the batter is used up.

12.Once all your Boondi is ready, add the finely chopped dried fruits, pour the warm syrup over all the Boondi and keep aside for 10 minutes. The Boondi will soak up the sugar syrup and soften.

13. Serve hot with garnishing of dry fruits

14. To give more taste add warm melted ghee on top of boondi while serving.

Please share your views and comments!