Besan Ladoo

Besan Ladoo are delicious sweet balls made across India during festivals such as Diwali and special occasions. Chickpea flour is known as besan in India. Besan Ladoo is made from roasted chickpea flour.

Do not worry if your results aren't great the first time. Keep practising and you will get better at it! Getting the ratio right is very important when preparing these, or the recipe won't work!

I find it the easiest to remember the ratio by using the same bowl to measure all the ingredients. Traditionally these sweets are prepared using ghee, but I have experimented using butter instead, and it works just as good. These will keep fresh without refrigeration for as long as 1 month. But, once these are made, they are so moreish that they may not last for that long!

Roasting the flour until you get a pleasant aroma is crucial or the final product will taste raw. I like to add powders of nuts such as cashew nuts and almonds, I feel it improves the texture and the taste of the dish. Here is the recipe:




Besan Ladoo ©The Spice Angel

 

INGREDIENTS

1 cup chickpea flour (also know as besan)
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3/4th cup icing sugar (Can be used more or less according to your taste)
2 tablespoon roughly chopped de-skinned almonds
1 tsp cardamom powder
Cashewnuts to garnish

METHOD

1. Heat the butter in a heavy based pan. Add the chickpeas flour and keep roasting on a medium heat until golden brown and nice aroma emanates from the mixture.

2. Switch off the gas and add the cardamom powder, chopped almonds and icing sugar. Mix well with a spatula. Wait for 20 minutes or so for the mixture to be cool enough to handle. If you start to form the ladoos when the mixture is still hot, the ladoo will turn out flatter and not round. If this happens, then do not worry, just give them some more time to cool down and try forming ladoos again.

3. You may prepare these sweets as small or as big as you like. As seen in the picture above, that is the sort of shape, colour and size you should ideally aim for. Take a small amount of mixture in your palms and start to press gently to form a round ball.

4. Decorate the rounds with Cashewnuts and serve.

Paneer Tikka

This is a delicious and summery dish with fresh white cheese, the yogurt in the marinade breaks down the paneer and vegetables, allowing them to absorb more flavour. You can even marinate the paneer overnight for extra flavour. Soak the wooden skewers in water for some time, so that they will not burn. Paneer can be easily prepared at home; alternatively, you may use good quality shop bought paneer.

  

Serves 2-3

 INGREDIENTS

1 block of paneer (250 g)

1 pepper (any)

1 red onion

Lime wedges to serve

FOR THE MARINADE

1 tbsp ginger & garlic paste

1 handful of fresh coriander, finely chopped

1 tsp chaat masala

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp garam masala

1 tsp Kashmiri red chilli powder

1 tbsp Greek yogurt

 Wooden skewers x 4

METHOD

 Cut paneer into bite size pieces, along with the onion and pepper.

Tip into a large bowl, add the other marinade ingredients and mix well.

Heat an oiled griddle pan Thread each of the skewers with 2 pieces of paneer, 1 piece of onion and 1 piece of pepper and cook till golden brown on both sides. Baste with oil if it looks dry.

Serve with the quartered lime wedges to squeeze over the skewers.

NOTES

Soak the wooden skewers in water for about 10 minutes, this way, they skewers won’t burn while cooking.

Keep the paneer cubes a little big, or they will break when putting on the skewers.