Rawa Naral Ladu recipe- a delicate ladoo with Suji and Coconut for Diwali

Ladoos are the most sought after thing, specially in Diwali. Of all the ladoos, I’d say Besan ladoo was the easiest and making this Rawa Naral ladu, one makes one feel truly accomplished.

This is the ladoo that coastal Maharashtra, specially my Aji was famous for. Perfect round balls of seemingly dry semolina, these ladus are extremely delicate to handle and such a treat!

Do make sure you have a plate while you eat, or they will disintegrate back into powder.

Ingredients

• Fine Semolina- 2 cups
• Sugar, 1 1/2 cup
• Fresh grated coconut- 2 cups
• Ghee- 1 cup
• Cardamom powder- 3/4 tsp
• Water- 3/4 cup
• Melted ghee- 2-3 tsp for greasing

Method

1. Sift the semolina in a pan.

2. In a large wok, add ghee, melt it and then add the semolina.  and roast the semolina (suji) until it turns pinkish. This will take about 10-12 minutes.

First it will look like this, slightly clumpy, and then..

Like this.

3. Now the ghee is completely absorbed and you can see the pinkness of suji but the texture becomes very sandlike. Keep roasting until you get this texture. this makes sure that the semolina is properly roasted and there is no raw smell. Switch off the gas and add in the grated coconut and cardamom powder.

4. Meanwhile, in another large pan, melt the sugar with water to make a 1-string syrup. For this, you need to boil them together for a while, and then spoon the syrup onto a plate. When slightly cool enough to handle, touch it and try to pull it between thumb and finger, you should get a string. You could also do this with the back of a spoon. Remember , though that sugar, in syrup form is VERY HOT.

5. When the sugar syrup has reached this stage, switch it off and add in the rawa mixture.

6. Now this is what your mixture looks like. Mix well, cover and let cool for 3-4 hours, until safe to handle.

7. Whilst it cools, this is how your mixture will look. You need to come back once in a while, stir it and keep breaking it up.

You should now have a mixture that looks like this:

You see how you start from dust and end with dust?

8. Now that the semolina has cooled, grab a large chair, your large wok where its been cooling, some melted ghee and a a a couple of plates. Making these ladoos is quite a messy job, because, essentially, you are trying to really work on this powder and shape it into roundish ladoos. If you remember to slightly grease your palms before shaping each ladoo, the process will be really really simple.

Tada.. Yours to enjoy

Let me know how these go.

If you can get these, give yourself a big pat on the back. They are not the easiest.

For more ladu recipes, please look up:

Rawa Besan Ladu               Narkel Nadu- Coconnut ladoo                Besan Ladu