Today’s Navarathri recipe is Boondi, a fried chickpea flour sweet that is quite popular in Sri Lanka and available in Indian sweet shops. As I like it and I do not like the too sugary consistency of shop-bought boondi, my mother occasionally makes it at home. This is my mother’s recipe for boondi.

Boondi

Time taken: 25 mins

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• Chickpea flour – 2 tbsp
• Wheat flour – 2 tbsp
• Salt, to taste
• Vanilla essence – few drops
• Kesari powder – pinch
• Sugar – 4 tbsp
• Cardamom – 2 or 3, crushed
• Rose essence – few drops
• Cashewnuts – 2 or 3, chopped
• Raisins – 1 tsp
• Chickpea – 1 tsp, fried and split
• Low fat vegetable oil, for deep frying

Method

1. Mix the chickpea flour, wheat flour, salt, few drops of vanilla essence, pinch of kesari powder with a little water in bowl to make a batter. The consistency of the batter should not be watery nor too thick but fluid enough to be scooped easily with a spoon.
2. Heat the oil in a pan.
3. When the oil is heated and ready for frying, scoop the batter with a spoon and push it through a slotted spoon over the pan so that the batter falls through in little pieces into the oil.
4. Ensure that the boondi pieces are golden brown all over before transferring them out of a pan onto a plate lined with grease absorbing paper. Repeat until all the batter is transformed to fried boondi.
5. Make the syrup for the boondi by stirring the sugar with ¼ cup of water in a saucepan on medium heat. Add the crushed cardamom, kesari powder.
6. When the syrup starts thickening slightly, add a few drops of rose essence and remove from heat.
7. Add the chopped cashewnuts, fried and split chickpeas and raisins to the syrup.
8. Transfer the fried boondi to the syrup. Let it soak for some time before serving.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.