Monday, August 29, 2011

Easy Coconut And Pistachio Ladoos



  
Back all those years ago, we were still in school. We loved eating, more because the cooking was taken care of by mothers, aunts and grandmothers. All we had to do was eat, play and study well, sometimes complain about it –  the food and the studies. We also had neighbors who would send us special food and also sometimes invite us for a meal for no particular reason.  The next-door aunty who made jolada rotti - ennegayi, the friend's mother who made impossibly good upma. How we loved that! Instead of just that bite for 'sharing' in the school lunch box, we get to eat 'fully' and shamelessly! We did not have as many cook-books in the library; the few recipes were from Woman's Era, Femina or the Kannada magazines. No TV shows like we have now, only the odd show wherein ladies would demonstrate cooking, wearing their best silks and jewellery, garnish almost all kinds of food with fried cashew-nuts and raisin, Chinese included. At least till Jhatpat Khana and the kind came along. Whew!  A real food show at last! We would get to watch food commercials on TV, and keep thinking about that product till it hit the shelves in our small home-town. I would keep reminding my father that he would have  to buy it for me once it came into the market. My poor father was the uncomplaining recipient for all my experiments from the magazines, my sympathies now with him more than ever as I am now at the receiving end with my son's foray into the kitchen :)

Most ads would say write in for a free recipe book-let and I would religiously write in and collect so that I could look at the pictures and drool. Everest, the ones which came with the mixie, Milkmaid and a few others. The milkmaid recipes looked particularly mouth-watering to me, aaah my sweet tooth! The nut and saffron garnished kheer, the bright gajar ka halwa and the child’s play easy nariyal laddoo. The immaculately manicured hand oh-so-genlty rolling those laddoos in the dessicated coconut...


I recently made these laddos on the day of Krishna Janmashtami. After some deep-frying and cooking the rest of the meal, I had no patience to make anything which needed me to spend more than 10 minutes. And of course, I had the laddoos ready in 10 minutes, just as they show in that ad. And they are good, just as they show on TV ;-)


This is basically condensed milk and dessicated coconut cooked together, cooled and then rolled. You could use crushed cardamom, saffron or nuts for flavor. I have used some pistachio essence and chopped pistachios.
Ingredients: 
Yield : About 12 small laddoos.

Sweetened condensed milk - 1/2 tin (about 200 grams / 1/2 Cup)
Dessicated coconut - 1 3/4 cup
Chopped pistachios - 2-3 tablespoons, plus more for rolling
Pistachio essence - 1/4 teaspoon

Procedure: Take the condensed milk and the dessicated coconut in a heavy bottomed pan. Cook on low heat for a about 3-5 minutes or till the mixture comes together, away from the sides of the pan. Mix in the pistachios and the essence. Cool slightly. Roll into laddoos. Roll them in chopped pistachios and there you are! Seriously quick and simple right? 
Perfect for folks shy of stepping into the kitchen or at times when u want a traditional sweet dish in a real hurry, for entertaining or gifting as a home-made sweet dish with a personal touch... These little things are tasty, but not too sweet making it very easy to keep popping them in the mouth till they are all finished :))

 P.S: Forgive me again for the sloppy pics, will you? My excuse this time is less light on a cloudy day and even less patience!

21 comments:

Hari Chandana P said...

Woww.. lovely combination.. looks absolutely delicious dear.. simply inviting :)
Indian Cuisine

Lifewithspices said...

too good n yumm..

Priya Suresh said...

Pretty looking addictive ladoos,yumm..

Nithya said...

Delicious looking ladoos :)

M D said...

Decadent beauties :)

I have a collection of Milkmaid books I stole from my mom's library recently ;) So reminiscent of my childhood when mom would make these sweets and we would polish them off even before they can cool down ;)

Reva said...

Laddoos looks yum and it is so easy as well:) Yummy yummy sweet treat..
Reva

notyet100 said...

These ladoos remind me of my nani and summer vacation :) brought bck memories

Hamaree Rasoi said...

wish i was your neighbor :-( within 10 minutes you have made these yummy ladoos but I can finish them in minutes

Deepa
Hamaree Rasoi

Unknown said...

yummmmmmmmmmm Im gonna try this soon.......you have a lovely blog....

Archana said...

Beautiful laddoos...I remember writing to the Nestle guys too for those recipe books !! The only laddoos I have made are the besan ones, these look really really good !

Deepthi Shankar said...

Lol about garnishing Chinese food with cashews :) these laddoos are super easy to.make, n I love milkmaid based recipes

Rachana said...

These ladoos look so cute and delicious. Wow!

Zareena said...

mmmm... mouth watering laddoos. Amazing snaps. They are easy to make too. thanks for sharing.

aipi said...

Trust me I know a thing or two about picky eaters and the ordeal they are for their moms. I was one myself and so is my little one... lol. The laddoos are just fabulous and the use of condensed milk just makes them fabulous.
USMasala

Padmajha said...

Looks gorgeous and as u said very simple and east dessert..
Happy Ganesh Chathurti Suma :)

Divya Shankar said...

Could not help laughing when reading "complained about food and studies" .. my bro who is 11 years younger to me still does that though my mother has very progressively met the current generation demands of his taste buds. Nice write up and great recipe..will try it this weekend as I have all ingredients necessary and let you know how it came out.

Divya Shankar said...

I have generally seen you mentioning about essence .. I usually see only vanilla and rose flavors in most shops in Indiranagar (BUSH brand) .. can you tell me which brand of essence you buy and frm where in Bangalore you get a choice of many flavors ? It will be of immense help.

chandhana said...

Suma, are you on twitter? please let us know as we are planning a meet up..

Divya Kudua said...

Ah,Jhatpat khana,I remember it so well too.Laddoos look awesome,got to buck up for Diwali now!

Laura | A Healthy Jalapeno said...

I had the pleasure of playing around in your blog all month finding recipes and learning so much about Indian cuisine. I chose this recipe because it was a beginner challenge having never made Indian food and it was simple, easy and delicious.
Thank you so much for giving me the hard challenge of finding a recipe. The ingredients for your olive oil bread is already at home for my next kitchen dish.

Sowmya Karthy said...

Hi Suma,

I tried this simple and tasty recipe and it was very good.. Everybody in my house liked it!! Thanks for the easy recipe idea!!

I have posted it on my blog today - http://nivedhanams.blogspot.in/2012/07/easy-coconut-and-pistachio-laddu.html

Thanks

Sowmya