Besan| kadalai maavu 1 cup Urad dal 1/4 cup Sugar 2 cups Cardamom powder 2 pinches Orange food colour a pinch (optional) Turmeric powder a pinch Baking soda a pinch Oil for deepfrying Sugar candy | kalkandu 1 tblsp (optional) Cashew nuts few Ghee 1 tsp Lemon juice few drops
Soak urad dal in water for an hour. Drain the water completely.
Grind this into a fine paste.
In a wide bowl sift the besan and baking soda. Add the turmeric powder to this. Do not add more than a pinch, else it will spoil the taste. Alternatively you can add yellow food colour too.
Add little water to the besan mixture and make a smooth paste out of it. Add the urad dal paste to this and mix well by adding water little by little.
Bring it to a dosa batter consistency. Check out my boondi ladoo post for detailed check on the consistency of the batter.
In a pan add sugar and add 1/2 cup water. Boil this and allow the sugar to dissolve. After few minutes check for the consistency of the sugar syrup. Boil till it reaches one string consistency. Check out my detailed post on sugar syrup consistency for sweets.
When you touch the sugar syrup with your forefingers and thumb and pull apart it should form one string. Alternatively you can mix the sugar syrup with a ladle and slide the ladle and the last drop forms one string as shown in the picture.
Switch off the flame and add few drop of lemon juice to this. This is to avoid the crystalisation of the syrup. You can add the orange food colour to the syrup now. I forgot to add and later added which i couldn’t cover in the picture. This addition of colour is optional, i added since i want them to look bright on pictures. Feel free to omit the food colour. Use either the big boondi ladle |jhara or the normal perforated ladle to make boondis.
I used my big boondi ladle. Heat oil for deep frying. When the oil is hot start making boondis. Meanwhile check for the consistency of the batter. Mix it well. Hold the boondi ladle on the top of the oil and pour one ladle full of batter to it and start swirling with a spoon or ladle. The tiny pearls of boondis will fall off into the oil.
Cook till the oil sound subsides and ensure they should not get it burnt. Immediately transfer them into the sugar syrup and mix well.
Let this soak in the syrup till the next batch gets done. Take out the soaked boondis and transfer that in a wide plate or bowl. Though the boondis look wet it will get slightly fluffed up and dried too in few minutes.
Heat up the syrup slightly in the last 2 batches if they turn thick. Once everything is done mix well and the cardamom powder and sugar candy. For this portion of batter all the sugar syrup will be completely used up and you will not be left with any syrup. Wipe the back of the ladle after every batch of making boondis.
Roast the cashew nuts in ghee and add to the boondis.
Mix well with clean hands or dry spoon. Add the kalkandu or sugar candy to this. The boondis will be perfectly separated once they become cool.
You can add a pinch of edible camphor to this boondis and mix it well. Cardamom powder can be added in the sugar syrup itself. Sweet boondis are ready. These sweet boondis stay good for a week, if kept in a dry air tight container.
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