Chef Manish Mehrotra’s Almond Ladoo Is A Yummy Vrat Treat

The nine-day festival of Navratri is being celebrated with full swing across the nation. Navratri is one of the biggest Indian festivals, and every region has given the festival its own local spin, what remains standard though is people’s increased appetite for sweets. If ‘festive calories’ are a thing, then we have just the right recipe for you. 

This recipe of almond ladoo by renowned chef Manish Mehrotra is made not only made with vrat-friendly ingredients like ghee, almond, berries and sunflower oil, but it is also a source of good energy. Both almond and ghee are used freely in most vrat preparations as they are filled with protein and good fats, which are known to boost energy naturally. The laddos are first moulded using hands and then dipped in sugar syrup. 

Without further ado, here’s the recipe you have been waiting for.  

Ingredients:                 

For ladoo batter: 

  • 1 ½ cup besan                 
  • 1 cup water                     
  • ½ tsp Cardamom powder         
  • ¼ cup Roasted Almond slivers                                  
  • 3 tbsp Goji berry                 
  • ¾ tbsp ghee                     
  • Sunflower oil, for deep frying  

For the Sugar Syrup:

  • 1 ½ cup sugar                     
  • ¾ cup water                     
  • A pinch saffron strands                  

Method:

  • Take sugar, saffron strands and water in a pan, and put it over low flame. Cook the syrup till a single string consistency is achieved. Keep the sugar syrup hot. 
  • Heat oil in a heavy-bottomed pan. 
  • Mix besan, cardamom powder together and add water to it to form a batter.  
  • To check the consistency of the boondi batter drop a few droplets of the better in hot oil, if it becomes flat, the batter is thin and if it has peaks, the batter is thick. 
  • To make the batter thick add some more besan and to make the batter thin add some water. 
  • To make boondis, hold a perforated ladle over hot oil, using a spoon spread the boondi batter over the perforated spoon; make sure that the perforated spoon and the pandon’t have much height between them or else the boondis will not be round. 
  • Do not over-fry the boondis and do not crisp them. 
  • Remove them from oil once the oil stops to sizzle and put it in the sugar syrup. Strain the boondis from the syrup. 
  • Mix the boondis with almond slivers and goji berries and add around a tbsp of ghee for the binding. 
  • Make golf-sized roundels and shape them. Use ghee so the mixture does not stick on hands.  
  •  Let it cool, serve.