Gond (Dink) ladoo
What is Gond?
Gond is edible gum /sap obtained from the bark of a tree .Usually the one we use in India is from the tree Babhul or Acacia and it is called Gum Arabic. It has plenty medicinal properties, that might be reason it is found in many Ayurvedic medicines and is incorporated in Indian food since many generations.
What is so special about gond?
God or the edible gum is very sticky when its wet whereas when dried its rock solid .It makes the bones strong because of the calcium content of it. Thats why it very useful in arthritis. Its found to be useful in intestine ailments and very useful to relieve constipation.
Since many years its been used in India for lactating women to improve milk supply as well as providing the much needed calcium to new mum and indirectly to baby.
How about ladoos:
Well Gond /gum as we learnt is very nutritious but it doesnt tatse anything..its blind and not so palatable. Hence a combination of nuts, dry fruits and jaggery to the rescue as well as to add nutrition . Nuts like almonds, cashews add protein, magnesium, Manganese , iron, Vit B6, Vitamin E, and to top all the dry dates add extra fibre along with other nutrients. Dry coconut is rich in potassium and MCT which help absorb other vitamin from body faster than any other oil.
The baseline of all story telling of nutritional value is the gond ladoos are so good for you that if you have one for breakfast , many of daily nutritional needs are met as well as the sweet craving can be kept at bay as the desire to eat sweet is already full-filled in the morning itself. And mornings are better to have sweet when our bodies have been fasting for long and need that boost of energy in mornings.
The natural sweetener added here is ‘jaggery’ which is unrefined form of sugar so again there are far much less harms or rather there are many benefits to have jaggery. Apparently jaggery helps in digestion of food very well, no wonder as a child we used to get a piece of jaggery after meals.
First step is to dry roast almonds, cashews, walnuts, dry coconut, poppy seeds, dry dates separately and on low flame.
Steps to make ladoos:
Heat litttle ghee and frythe edible gum till it fluffs up like popcorn. Follow same till you fry all gum.
Make coarse powder of all roasted nuts , coconut etc and Mix all in a big bowl. Add in ginger powder, nutmeg and cardamom.
Melt jaggery on low flame with little ghee.
Once jaggery comes to boil, take it off the heat and it to mixture.
Mix well. Take 2-3 tbsp mixture in hand and shape it into a ball/ ladoo.
: Recipe Card :
| Prep Time | 15 minutes |
| Cook Time | 20 minutes |
| Servings |
pieces
|
- 1 cup almonds 200 gm
- 1 cup cashew 200gm
- 2 cup walnuts (optional) 200gm
- 4 cup dry dessicated coconut (khopra) 250gm
- 2 cup dry dates (kharik) 250 gm
- 1/2 cup gond (edible gum) 200gm
- 3 cup Jaggery 650gm
- 1 tsp cardamom powder
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg powdeer
- 1/2 tsp dry ginger powder (optional)
- 1/2 cup ghee(clarified butter)
- 1/4 cup khuskhus (poppy seeds)
Ingredients
|
|
- Dry roast almonds, cashews, walnuts, kharik, khopra , khuskhus separately ,on low flame. Coconut tends to burn quickly so keep stirring continuously till it reaches to medium brown colour and is fragrant.
- In a wide kadhai or wok, heat half of the ghee on medium flame.Add 1 tsp of gond at a time and fry it....Gond blooms and becomes light and big like popcorn...Take out in a plate ad follow same till you finish all gond. Crush the fried gond with hands or in blender coarsely.
- The roasted nuts and dates must have cooled off by now. Using 'pulse' option of blender, grind them coarse separately. Crush coconut with hands just little bit.Mix these all with cardamom ,nutmeg and dry ginger powder. Mix well.
- In the same wok, put jaggery + remaining half of ghee and melt on low flame while stirring continuously. As all the jaggery melts and starts bubbling, switch off the flame and add in the prepared mixture. Combine well. Take a small ball size mixture and shape into a ball. Make balls with rest of the mixture. Garnish with some chopped nuts or raisins. Store in airtight container.
- Fruits and nuts can be adjusted to ones own taste. I like to add walnuts for their nutritional qualities but you can omit if you dislike them.
- If you like, makhana (lotus seeds) , chironji , melon seeds can be added as well.
- My family doesn't like bite of gond so I grind it to fine powder ,traditionally coarse pieces are left in ladoo. (But actually I can add more gond if I'm making it into powder form. )
- Nutmeg ,ginger powder are optional as well.
- As the mixture cools off, it becomes difficult to shape ladoos. You can add 1-2 tsp of ghee, warm the mixture for a minute or two and can easily shape ladoos again.
- Ladoos stay fine without any smell or altered taste for upto one month.
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