Laddoos, for every season and reason

In this festive season, when sweet shops are lined with platters of laddoos, I am reminded of my village in western Uttar Pradesh. Laddoos were essential to every wedding feast and were served in pairs, or joda, before a meal began. And the heroes of rural life were those who ate the most number of jodas. Years after they had gobbled up a heaped plateful, people would mention them with quiet pride — there he goes, he ate 40 jodas of laddoos once.

I was an eager participant, too — and ate so many laddoos (not 40 jodas, though) that I have gone off those boondi laddoos. But, as a lover of sweets, I don’t let that trouble me — for, there are various kinds of laddoos to be had. These ball-shaped sweets can be made from semolina, coconut, sesame seeds, nuts, rice and so on.

Yet, laddoos occupy the lower rung of the Indian sweet hierarchy. Say laddoos, and you think of a long-suffering mother in a Hindi film welcoming her son with a plate of golden-yellow balls — to celebrate something as mundane as the hero (who looked like he was in his 30s) having cleared his exams, or something as momentous as getting a job.

Laddoos are sweets for all seasons but are especially in demand now. Dasehra and Diwali herald in winter, and since laddoos are rich and heavy, they are just right for the weather. One of the winter specials is the gond laddoo, prepared with edible gum. Gond is a natural sap made from the hardened sap of acacia trees. It is used in different parts of the country. Karnataka, for instance, is proud of its antina unde, which is prepared with gond and dried coconut.

Among my favourites are coconut laddoos. Bengal’s coconut naarus have various avatars too — soft, hard, with jaggery, or sesame seeds. It has other kinds too. Joynogorey moya is a laddoo of puffed rice and date palm jaggery. Darbesh is another delicious laddoo, in which the boondi is red and yellow. Time has come to put the laddoo on a pedestal, for it is indeed versatile. It’s also pan-Indian — for almost every region has a laddoo it is proud of. North has motichur and besan laddoos, Assam has its spice-laden rice ball laddoos called poka mithoi, Odisha has raasi laddoo, prepared with sesame seeds, jaggery, coconut and peanuts. Rajasthan is known for its churma laddoo, and Maharashtra for its mewa laddoo. Then, there is ravey undey — prepared with semolina, dried coconut and flavoured with nutmeg. Kerala has quite a few varieties, too — the usual laddoos are prepared with big boondis, the ariyunda is a rice laddoo, and ellunda, a black sesame laddoo. The Tirupati laddoos are delicious, but let’s not get into that now.

Sadly, some laddoos are going out of our lives. I remember eating malai ke laddoo years ago. This is a delicate laddoo (and difficult to store, which is why you won’t find it in the usual sweet shops), prepared with home-made fresh paneer, mixed with sugar, milk and malai. Another rare laddoo is kesar laddoo, prepared with kesar syrup. Interestingly, laddoos have also evolved with time. I remember eating some exotic sweets such as amchoor laddoo — a sweet and sour preparation — and besan laddoo tart — besan laddoo deconstructed, and served in a shell.

And did I hear someone say a laddoo is a laddoo is a laddoo?

GOND LADDOO

Ingredients

Atta 1 cup

Gond ¼ cup

Jaggery (grated) 1 cup

Cashew nuts ¼ cup

Raisins ¼ cup

Almonds ¼ cup

Coconut (desiccated) ¼ cup

Cardamom powder ½ tsp

Ghee ½ cup

Method

In a heavy-bottomed pan, roast the coconut. Take it out, and keep it aside. Add ghee to the pan, fry the nuts and raisins, and take them out. In the same ghee, fry the gond, and take it out when these puff up. Roast the atta in the same pan on low heat, ensuring it doesn’t burn. When you get the aroma of roasted atta, take it off the heat and put it in a bowl. Add jaggery to the atta, and mix it well, using your hands. Add the coconut, and mix. In a mixie, grind the nuts and raisins. Then, grind the gond, and mix all this together with the atta and jaggery. Add cardamom powder. Make small balls of this mix. Serve.

— The writer is a Delhi-based food critic