Maaladu (Laddoo made from Pottukadala)

The other day, when me and my son finished our lunch, we felt like having something sweet. But nah...all the dabbas were empty..Suddenly the roasted gram (pottukadala) sitting in the shelf called my name..I had bought it for making some pappupodi (an Andhra dish) but somehow it sat there for months..and no pappupodi was made. So I thought this is the last chance to use this gram, else I'll have to throw it to the dustbin. I remembered this laddoo recipe from the Gulf GoodFood magazine ages ago, and thought of giving it a try. I could make the whole thing in less than 20 minutes and it tasted heavenly..



Ingredients

Roasted Gram / Pottukadala - 1 cup
Raw sugar - 3/4 cup (you can use white sugar too, I was just trying to be li'l health conscious :))
Cardamom - 2
Broken cashew - 1 tsp
Raisins - 1/2 tsp
Ghee - about 5 tbsp



Method

1. Heat a non-stick pan and roast the gram. Be careful not to burn them. Allow it to cool.
2. In a mixer jar, place the cooled roasted gram, cardamom pods and sugar and grind to fine powder. Transfer the powder to a plate
3. Heat a pan, and add 3 tbsp of ghee. First fry the cashew and add them to the powder. Then add the raisins to the ghee and once they have fluffed up add them along with the ghee to the ground powder. Slowly mix with your finger tips (once the heat is bearable) like you do for puttu.
4. Keep adding hot ghee till all the powder comes together to a ball. Now take small balls out of it and roll them to laddoos.