Recipe: Boondi Laddu

Happy Diwali to all!

I am writing a full post after a very long time; I just couldn't keep away from publishing a new post during Diwali season. Though I am still not able to prepare any fancy sweets this Diwali, I am posting the recipes of the goodies I prepared in the previous years and have not posted.

Boondi Laddu is a melt-in-the-mouth delicacy, prepared all over India in different ways (Unity in Diversity), the main difference being the size of the boondi or globules. The very first time I sent these laddus to my younger son in the US, he said it was a big hit with his American colleagues. They came again and again for these "sugary globules pressed into a ball" and went ga ga over it.

 In the northern part of the country it is popularly known as motichoor laddu as the boondis they prepare are the size of small pearls, hence the name motichoor, moti meaning pearl in hindi.

In the South the boondis are slightly bigger. Laddus are a must in South Indian weddings and all other major functions like Upanayanam, Choulam, and the first birthday of the baby.

Laddus would not be prepared at home until a few years back; we had them only during marriages or upanayanams when we had cooks to come and prepare them. I started preparing them only when we were on our own and did not get the homemade laddus. I remember the first time we prepared these at home was in 1977. My brother was visiting us and I wanted to surprise my parents by sending homemade laddus to them. I do not know their reaction as we did not have instant communication those days like we have today.

Preparing the boondis is the most difficult part of making laddus. Once this has been mastered, the rest is not very difficult. I wish I could post a video of boondi making, later perhaps. One has to use a special ladle, a boondi jarni (a flat spoon with holes), which has an upturned rim so that the batter will not spill from the outer rim.

To the recipe now,

Ingredients:

Bengal gram flour       : 1 cup
(Besan/Kadalamavu/
Kadalehittu)
Sugar                           : 3 cups
Oil                               : for deep frying
Food color (orange)     : a few drops

To garnish

Ghee                            : 4 tbsp
Cloves                          : a few
Pachakarpooram         : one pinch
Saffron (optional)         : a few strands
Cardamom  powder     : 2 tsps
Raisins                          : 2 tbsp
Cashew nuts (broken)  : 2tbsp
Nutmeg powder           : 1/2 tsp
Diamond shaped sugar candy: 2 tbsp
(kalkandu)


Method:

Boil the sugar with 2 cups of water. Remove the impurities by adding a little milk. Make a one string consistency sugar syrup and remove from stove. Add the saffron soaked in a little milk and a few drops of orange food color. Add the cardamom powder, nutmeg powder, pachakarpooram, kalkandu and crushed cloves.

Make a batter of pouring consistency by adding water to the besan.Whisk well so that there are no lumps. Heat oil in a wide mouthed pan (Some people use ghee to fry the boondis, but I prefer oil as the ghee solidifies to a sticky texture when it cools). When the oil is heated, hold the ladle (jarni) above the heated oil and pour one big spoonful of batter into the ladle. The batter will drop into the oil as little globules. Fry till they are cooked. They should not become crisp or they will not absorb the sugar. Remove and put in the sugar syrup. Repeat till all the batter is used up.

Heat the ghee in a small pan and fry the raisins and broken cashew nuts to a golden color. Pour over the boondis soaking in sugar syrup. Mix well. Make into balls of desired size.

Enjoy your Diwali with laddus!

The Grand Finale

The much awaited day dawned. Of course, we were all up much before the day dawned and we did not see any daylight until it was late afternoon. We had to leave for the venue very early, so we all woke up after a very short nap and got ready to leave, (we had to collect the fresh flowers from our garden for Y’s hair dress and pick up other things kept ready) so that we could reach in time to do the bridal make over for Y. We were planning to start the ceremonies at 6.30am.With the help of Veena and Y’s mother we got Y ready on schedule.

We had the bride and groom exchange the garlands with lots of merriment.We had planned to have an oonjal ceremony before the Arya samaj style wedding, as this is a function full of fun and everybody enjoys it. We had a lovely oonjal.

The Oonjal ceremony was enjoyed by all especially by the bride and her parents. My cousins Rama and Geetha sang the oonjal songs.

Immediately after we started with wedding ceremonies.

The ceremony had most of our rituals, like Kanyadhan, homams, Panigrahan, saptapadi, shilarohan, parikarma, lajahoma, mangalyadharan, sindhoor, Aashirvad, etc., though there were some differences in the rituals from the regular tambram rituals. For instance, in the Shilarohan ceremony (ammi mithikkal), it is the groom who leads the bride by taking 7 steps towards the granite slab and places her foot on to the slab, saying whatever difficulties arise in our life you must be firm like this granite stone. In Arya samaji style, it is the bride’s mother, who places the bride’s foot onto a piece of granite and tell her to be firm as a granite under any circumstance.

Then there was another ritual in which the groom’s mother is asked to sprinkle some water onto the bride’s head and tell her, “as a family there could be occasions when we may have to use harsh words, but you are advised to keep your cool and take everything as contributing towards the welfare and happiness of the family.”

We are 5 now with the addition of beautiful Y into our family

The wedding ceremony was followed by a reception with Y dressed in a beautiful Kimono. The reception makeover was completely done by Y’s super talented mom.

So the much awaited, much planned and much discussed about event took place to the satisfaction of one and all.

As usual every one praised about the planning and execution of various events. And yet there were events which won the appreciation of one and all. Some of these were:

The flower decoration was something which was very very special.

The food. The food was exotic to say the least. The banquet executive had taken special care to provide all the items in the menu, onion and garlic free to selected guests. (We had asked for one or two items onion and garlic free as there were some elderly people in our family who wouldn’t eat onion and garlic. He assured us that he could provide a special spread of all items in the menu onion and garlic free for our special guests).

The reception. Every one appreciated the gesture of the bride and groom moving among the guests and meeting each and everyone of them. The usual practice we find these days is the bride and groom and their parents standing in the mantap and the guests queuing up just to go up and wish them and getting photographed and hurrying up to have their meal and leave.

A special appreciation for timing of the reception for the noon. Many of our guests, especially the senior citizens and ladies were very happy that it was a lunch reception as it becomes very difficult for people to commute for a dinner reception in the late evenings, in the present day traffic chaos of Bangalore.

And finally, we had arranged for the bride and groom to come home after the reception. We also had Y’s parents accompany them to follow the tradition of leaving the daughter at the in-laws’ home. After the usual aarati at the front door, we gave the bride and groom paalum pazhavum(milk and banana). As my Vasantha chithi says, having paalum pazhavum symbolises the couple complementing each other like banana in milk, at the same retaining their identities.

I beseech all my readers to join me in wishing the couple a happy and long wedded life. May Heaven’s choicest Blessings be showered on them.

Counting Down

The frequency with which I am writing gives me jitters that I might not finish the wedding episode by the time my children celebrate their anniversary.Ever since our son got married we have been taking vacations like never before. The recent one at the peak of the summer to Kerala was both enjoyable , because we visited many places that we had been planning for years and very tiring because of the heat and humidity. Bangalore itself saw one of the worst summers in the recent times with temperatures hitting a 30 years high and the months of April and May this year were just unbearable. We followed it with a really humid summer in Kerala. Thankfully, we had the satisfaction of visiting all our destinations without any problems.

To continue with the wedding, as I said earlier, I was like a robot once the children arrived. I had to accompany them on their shopping and check with the tailor on the new dresses to be made, visit the hotel for the last minute briefings and arrangements about the decoration, food, etc., and be at home for meeting with various event managers and do up the house. Y was a great help in decorating the house. She and our elder son did all the decoration at home. I was also cooking all the meals at home especially because we did not want Y to get any problems eating out as this was her first visit to India. I am proud to say that Y ate all her meals at home (the regular tambram food) and never complained. We all appreciated her for that gesture.

As the D day was approaching we were almost ready with all the preparations and plans and moves and what should be done whens and who should be doing whats and where would one be at any given times, and…. ….. And yet there were things that could be done only on the given day and we made sure everything was well planned

And it was 1st February. Y’s parents arrived and were comfortably put up in the same hotel as the wedding was to take place. We had planned a meeting at home and wanted to serve home made food. As Y had been with us for few days now, I had planned a menu in consultation with her so that her family would be comfortable with the food served. They all enjoyed the Kali, Kari, Bajji, Mysorepak and especially the black tea that they preferred. Indian tea is very tasty, they said. On the 2nd, Y with her brother and parents went around Bangalore. Since it is a custom with us to give lunch to the bride’s people after the wedding, we decided to take them out for lunch on the following day (there was not enough time after the wedding).

On the evening of the 3rd was the Mehendi ceremony. As we were not sure about the contents of the commercially available mehendi cones, we were planning to use the mehendi powder we had made at home from hand picked mehendi leaves . We were not very successful in getting the powder to a consistency that could be squeezed through a cone. We tested the commercial cone and were satisfied that Y had no sesitivity to the product. Y was very excited about getting the mehendi applied. My friend’s daughter applied mehendi for Y.




Our guests from outside Bangalore started arriving on the morning of the 4th. Lunch was arranged at home. The decorators did up the house and the house was reverberating with the usual “Kalyana veedu” conversations.

We had arranged for a get together with all the family members and Y's family in the evening. Y’s parents were very surprised that all the guests present at the function were immediate family members. We told them that there were many more who could not make it for the function. We also had a sort of Nischayathartham in the evening and presented Y with the saree and the jewellery she was to wear the next day. Our son was also presented with the clothes he would be wearing the next day. As is the custom, my mother and brothers gave gifts to us and our son. We wrapped up the evening with dinner at home. The guests went back to their rooms for a good night’s rest.

We were busy till late into the night keeping everything ready for the next day and double checking. We had to leave home by 5.30am so that we would have enough time to get Y ready. We had not hired a professional for bridal make up, as again we were not sure if Y would be comfortable with the cosmetics used by the local beauticians. My friend Veena had taken up the responsibility of helping Y to get dressed up for the function. And so, we also went to bed for a short rest in the wee hours.

Preparations get frenzied

My husband and I reached Bangalore by middle November and we were glad that we had only recently had the house painted and refurbished just before we left for Hyderabad. We did not have to do anything towards preparing the house for the occasion except for the routine cleaning.

And yet, by the end of the first week at Bangalore, we were nowhere near our target. The first and foremost requirement was to fix the venue for the wedding without which we could not submit the affidavit at Arya Samaj (we had to mention the date and time and venue of the wedding) nor could we print the invitations. Though we had asked our friends at Bangalore to shortlist a few venues not much progress had been made on that account. By end of the first week, we decided to visit some of the hotels we had shortlisted and make enquiries. My nephew who is a student of hospitality management suggested The Chancery Pavilion and we visited the hotel and were very happy with the ambience. It was also centrally located in the city for the convenience of all the guests. Moreover, we could book our international guests in the same hotel. We did have some initial difficulties with the rates but with the help of a good friend we could get the services at an affordable price. It was 5^th December and the date of wedding was fixed for 5^th February 2010. We had exactly 2 months to go and the list of things to do was growing like Hanuman’s tail. We prepared a list prioritising the things to do and marked the date by which each activity should have been done. This list was getting updated every day.

Having decided on the venue the first thing to do was to submit the affidavit at Arya Samaj. Next was getting invitations printed. Getting the card blanks was not a difficult issue as we knew exactly where to go for them and our son had already indicated the type of card he would like to have. A good friend of my brother who owns a printing press promised to get the cards printed in 2 days. By 15^th December, the cards were also ready. We decided to post the card for outstation guests in the first stage so that they would receive them well in advance. Then started the process of inviting the local guests personally. While doing the rounds inviting people, we made it a point to visit the famous shops in those areas and get a good picture of the things available at each place so that we could decide on the shop and purchase the items on a convenient day. This made our final shopping very easy.

Meanwhile we were also busy with getting the saree blouses stitched for Y which was one of the most difficult tasks. As Y did not have a saree blouse for sample, I had asked her to send me the necessary measurements to get a blouse tailored, but none of the tailors we approached were ready to stitch a blouse with only body measurements. They all needed a sample blouse. Different people take measurements differently, they said. I would have stitched the blouses for Y myself, but I was already running short of time doing the various other things and decided it was not a wise idea . Finally I remembered one of my teachers from whom I had learnt embroidery, who was also a very good tailor and approached her. I knew she was too old to take any orders but she ever so kindly recommended my problem to her niece who is a very good tailor. My idea was to get 2 sample blouses done and send one to Y so that she could try it on and tell me of any corrections to be made. That was a big relief and the tailor promptly delivered the blouses so I could send one to Y in time for her to try and comment.

2010 arrived on time. We were progressing as scheduled. Invitations had been sent and acknowledged. We had a fair idea of the number of outstation guests who would be attending the wedding and accordingly accommodation had been booked for them. All shopping for the bridal couple as well as gifts for the other family members and guests had been done, except the jewellery for the bride. We were waiting for Y to arrive and choose her jewellery. The dates of arrival of the bride and family were known and accommodation booked. I felt that we were in a comfortable situation. Yet I would spend sleepless nights occasionally counting on the long list of small errands yet to be run. All the other members of the family assured me that everything was going as planned and there was no need to panic.

Finally, our handsome, charming and now soon to be wedded son arrived. I had taken an assurance from him that he would be present wholly at home with no phone, no office work, to be with me to help organise my thoughts and plans and do the last minute finalisation of the photographer, florist, etc.

A week later our elder son arrived and so did Y. We got busy again shopping for the jewellery for Y and also the wedding dresses for our sons and some Indian dresses for Y. The wedding was less than 2 weeks away and I was getting busier and busier as I had to take care of the preparations at home as well as accompany the children for the shopping. I was working like a robot.

Picking the rituals

Having decided on an Indian wedding, we now had to decide on what wedding rituals would be most convenient and comfortable considering the bride and family were totally new to Indian rituals. As I had written earlier, a truly south Indian wedding is an elaborate affair extending for more than 2 days and long hours of sitting in front of the havan(homam). We were not sure Y and family would be very comfortable doing that. At the same time, since our son wanted an Indian wedding we wanted to include as many South Indian rituals as possible. After long deliberations and Internet searching we decided that an Arya Samaj Wedding would be more appropriate since the wedding rituals included most of the South Indian rituals in a concise manner. It included a havan for a short duration and also a laaja homa. We were in Hyderabad at this time and we wanted to have the wedding in January – February. We got in touch with the Arya samaj at Bangalore. The following are the procedures for conducting a wedding in Arya Samaj style.

1. First one registers with the local Arya Samaj and pays a registration fee.
2. An application form to be filled by both the bride and groom and their parents and witnessed by one representative from each side has to be submitted to the Arya Samaj, giving the date and place of the wedding. A sum of Rs. 3000 to be paid as marriage donation.
3. A notarised affidavit stating that the couple are getting married on their own accord to be submitted.
4. We may conduct the wedding at any venue.
5. The Arya Samaj also gives a wedding certificate that may be used to register the wedding in India.
   
6. The Arya Samaj wedding rituals last about 90 minutes. If one wants to conduct extra rituals they may be conducted either before or after the arya samaj rituals.

Having decided on the Arya Samaj wedding, we set out getting the forms signed by our son and the bride. We were still in Hyderabad and were planning to reach Bangalore by end November. After having informed all the family members by phone, we set out making plans and schedules and setting time limits. We spent atleast 2-3 hours a day improving on our plans and schedules.

Y was excited about all these elaborate wedding rituals and said she was willing to wear a Mangala Sutra and insisted that she wanted to wear a saree during the ceremony. So I requested my mother who was then staying in Kerala to get a pair of traditional Thirumangalyam done. Having given the order for the most important and auspicious piece of jewellery, we set out planning for other details.

The next was picking the venue. Though there are very spacious and luxurious and sophisticated wedding halls which may cost upto Rs. 2 lakhs per day, one thing we have noticed in most of them was the chaos in the dining and washing areas and the restrooms. Hence we decided that we would conduct the marriage in a hotel, where all the basic amenities would be taken care of. Picking the venue would have to wait until we got back to Bangalore anyway.

We had our friend K pick an auspicious day and time for the marriage.

The guest list was prepared.

The gifts list for the guests was prepared. This took a long time as there were different types of gifts for different sets of people. Starting from the innermost circle of the bride and groom to the outermost circle of all the guests who participated in the wedding it was a large set of concentric circles. Care had to taken not to miss out anyone.

Accommodation for the out-station guests was also an important item. We decided to postpone that until we reached Bangalore.

Regarding the rituals and functions, we wanted to have as many functions as possible but at the same time wanted to restrict them to the ones that Y and her parents would be comfortable with. We did not want to inconvenience them with rituals they were not comfortable with. After all a wedding is an occasion for celebration and not for punishment. For example, Y said her parents may not be comfortable with washing the son-in-law's feet, which is a ritual in our Kanyadhan. Similarly it would have been difficult for them to sit through long hours of havans in the typical Iyer style of wedding. The Arya Samaj style accommodated these requirements.

So we decided that we would have some functions to entertain the guests like a Mehendi for the bride and groom, a get together the previous day at home with lunch and dinner, a small function to gift the bride and groom with the wedding dress and other things in place of Janavasam and Nischayathartham.

And we decided to reach Bangalore well in advance to do the actual preparations for the wedding.

Back from a break

Hello everyone! It feels nice to be able to greet all my readers after a long time. As many of you had correctly guessed, we were busy with the wedding of our handsome, charming and younger son. It is rightly said in the Tamil proverb, “Kalyanam Panni Par, Veettai Katti par” (Conduct a marriage, construct a house), by the time one gets done with the job, one gets so exhausted one needs plenty of energy boosters to get going once again.

So, it was with lot of excitement and joy that we celebrated the wedding of our handsome and charming son on the 5th February, 2010. To put it in my husband’s own words, it was a truly international event. Owing to its international nature, each ceremony had to be planned carefully, taking into account that the most important guests were new to all this. A lot of thinking and discussions and suggestions went into planning each little event so that all the guests would be most comfortable. As such, a wedding in India is an elaborate and time consuming affair with both the bride’s and the groom’s family planning separate events and ultimately merging on the mega day to make it a grand affair. In our case, since all the arrangements had to be done by us it was even more exhausting.

To begin at the beginning, as all of you know we had been planning to get our son married for sometime now, when he was in India to expand his company’s business. We were not successful in getting a suitable bride for him and in the first quarter of 2009, he returned to the U.S. We were all the more concerned at the turn of events as now we had to look for somebody who would be willing to relocate to the U.S. After a few months of being there, our son called us up one day to say that he had found the right girl for him to get married, if we had no objection in his marrying an American. Our only concern was that the girl should be open to Indian culture considering that our son himself is very strongly rooted in Indian values and culture. He never misses an Indian festival even in America, living alone. He would want to observe all the Indian festivals. Apart from that, if he felt that they are compatible we had no objection. So it went back and forth and the girl had to get her parents’ views about marrying an Indian and in short, it was decided our son would marry Yoshimi, an American citizen of Japanese origin. We would like to have an Indian wedding, said our son. Having read my earlier posts on South Indian wedding, Yoshimi was also very excited in getting married in India. This started the planning for the great event our family held to everyone’s satisfaction.