BALLS & DUMPLINGS - SWEET BALLS
Bengal Poush Sankranti
Rice Powder - 2-1/2 cups
Grated Coconut - 2-1/2 cups
Jaggery - 2-1/2 cups
Milk - 4-1/4 cups
Sugar - 2-1/2 cups
Warm Water - ½ cup
Make a smooth dough of rice powder and warm water. Heat a pan, add jaggery and after melting it add grated coconut. Mix them properly to get a dough-like mixture. Boil the milk to reduce volume about half, and add sugar to it. Make small balls with the rice dough and stuff a bit of the coconut mixture inside the balls, and cover it carefully. These are called “poush”, or “pulies”. Now add the all pulies in the boiled and hot milk and cover it to cook for 15 minutes. Offer hot or cold, as you prefer.
Coconut Diyas
4 cups dry coconut powder or fine flakes
1 can condensed milk
1 tsp. butter or ghee
1/2 tsp.cardamom powder
Empty condensed milk into nonstick or heavy pan. Add 3-1/2 cups coconut, mix well. Cook mixture on low heat, stirring continuously. Do not allow it to scald on the bottom. Cook till the mixture leaves side of pan, and forms a soft lump. Cool a little, till it can be shaped by hand. Grease palms with butter. Roll portions of mixture into 1 inch balls. Shape carefully into diyas (lamp shapes), with a depression and mouth for the wick. Coat with leftover dry coconut powder to help handling. Place a thin long sliver of almond or pista at the mouth for wick. Dot edge with jeera goli or cake balls. Chill to firm into shape, and offer.
Kaju Rolls
4 cups Kaju (cashews)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
2 tsp pista (almond)
1 tsp cordamom powder
Grind kaju and pista to a coarse powder, Take thick botom vessal and put sugar in it, Add water and boil it. When the sugar melts, add powdered Kaju. When it thickens and starts leaving the sides of the pan, remove it form fire. Allow it to cool. Then make equal size balls with the kaju mixture. Press the ball on your palm and make a small dent inside the ball and fill with pista. Cover it and re-roll into sealed balls, and offer.
Mandhi
Water ¾ cup
Sugar 1 cup
Suji 1½ cup
Maida 250 gm
Ghee 6 tsp
Heat the water and add sugar to it until you get a nice syrup. Sieve the maida and suji and mix well. Add 6 tsp of ghee and mix well to the breadcrumbs stage. Mix the sugar syrup in with this mixture slowly and knead it well. Then roll out the dough into small balls, about ½ inch. Deep-fry them in ghee at medium fire. The mandhi should be dark brown in color.
Nawabi Shahi Tukra
20 slices of fresh bread
1/3 cup Icing sugar
¼ cup Milk
1 tsp. Ghee
2 tsp. sliced Cashewnuts
2 tsp. sliced Almonds
1 tsp. sliced Pistachios
¾ cup crumbled mawa
Ghee for frying
For Garnish:
Mango puree
Pistachio slices
Fresh Cream
Cut the bread into small cubes, toast in a frying pan with ghee, and make crumbs in the mixer. Mix these crumbs with 1/8 cup icing sugar mixed with a little milk to form a smooth dough. Divide the mixture into small portions and roll into even sized, round shaped balls. Heat the ghee in a pan and lightly sauté the chopped dry fruits for 2-3 minutes on a medium heat. Add the mawa and the remaining icing sugar and cook till the mixture leaves the sides of the pan. Remove from heat and set aside to cool. Take the breadcrumb balls and stuff them with this mixture, then again roll it into a ball to cover the filling completely and chill. Lightly fry the balls in ghee till golden brown. When ready to offer, cut them through the middle so that the filling can be seen. Serve warm with chilled mango puree and garnish with pistachio slices and fresh cream.
Peanut Balls
Fried Peanut - 3 cups broken pieces
Powdered Jaggery - 1 cup
Heat 1/4 cup water in a heavy bottomed vessel and dissolve the jaggery in it completely. As it starts to thicken, remove from the heat and add the peanuts. Mix uniformly and while still warm, form into firm, lemon-sized balls. If the mixture becomes too cool and you are unable to form balls out of it, heat it up for a couple of minutes over a low flame and stir to mix well. Then try again forming the balls.
Pori Urundai (Puffed Rice Balls)
Puffed Rice - 3 cups
Powdered Jaggery - 1 cup
Heat up 1/4 cup water in a heavy bottomed vessel and dissolve the jaggery in it completely. As it starts to thicken, remove from the heat fire and add the puffed rice. Mix uniformly and while still warm, form firm lemon sized balls. If the mixture becomes cool and you are unable to form balls out of it, heat it up for a couple of minutes over a low flame and stir to mix well. Then try forming the balls.
Ranga Aloor Pantua - (Sweet Potato Balls in Syrup)
1-1/2 cups Sweet red potato
3 Tablespoon Flour
2 Cups of Sugar
1 cup Water
Ghee for deep Frying
Boil the sweet potatos, peel and mash. Mix the flour in and make a smooth paste. Make small, 1 inch balls from this paste. Boil the sugar with water and make a syrup of medium consistency. Heat ghee in a deep frying pan, and fry the balls on low to medium heat. Take out a sweet potato ball and check whether it is done by piercing with a toothpick, which should come out clean. The outer surface should be medium brown. Transfer the fried sweet potato balls to the syrup carefully and let the syrup soak in. Refrigerate and offer with whipped cream or ice cream, or serve warm. Note: To get the sweet potato balls cooked through, without too much browning of the outer surface, keep the heat low and stir occasionally. The flour helps to bind the potato, so if the balls break into pieces after you put them in the ghee, add some more flour to the remaining dough.
Rice Flake Balls
Puffed Rice flakes or puffed paddy flakes - ½ pound
jaggery - 2 cups
peanuts - ¼ cup
cardomoms - 6
dry ginger powder (sukku podi) - a pinch
finely cut coconut pieces - 1 cup
Don’t use ordinary aval for this recipe. Look for the puffed rice or paddy flakes. In a separate vessel, make syrup out of jaggery, adding water until it just gets immersed and heating it. The syrup should become thick enough, so that when you add a drop of it in a vessel of water, it should solidify immediately. When the syrup reaches this stage remove from the stove. Clean the puffed flakes and put them in a large bowl. Roast the coconut and peanuts separately without ghee and add to the flakes. Add the cardamom powder and dry ginger powder. Add the jaggery syrup and mix for about 2 minutes until the temperature cools down to a state where you can handle the mixture. Do not cool it too much, or then the balls will not come out properly. Grease the hand with either rice flour or ghee. Make the mix into medium sized balls, and offer.
Sukiyan (Suyyan)
For the Filling:
Channa Dhal - 1 cup
Powdered Jaggery - 1 cup
Cashews - 6
Ghee - 3 tbs
Grated Coconut - 3/4 cup
Cardamom - 2
For the Covering:
Maida - 1 cup
Rice Flour - 1 tbsp
Salt - a pinch
Turmeric Powder - a pinch
Ghee - to deep fry
Cook the Channa Dhal in water, but don’t over-cook. Let it cook until you are able to press it with a spoon and it breaks apart. Decant the excess water and mix the dhal with the jaggery, coconut and cardamom. Heat up a heavy bottomed pan and add this mixture to it and stir over a medium flame for about 5 minutes. Let it cool and then grind this into a fine paste adding very little water. To this paste add small pieces of cashews fried in ghee and set this filling aside. Mix the maida, rice flour, salt and turmeric powder and add a little water and beat into a smooth thick batter (like bajji maavu). Divide the filling into small gooseberry sized balls. Dip each ball in the batter until it is completely covered by the batter and deep fry in hot oil over a medium flame until golden brown in color.
