
Yesterday was the Bengali New Year… “Poila Baishak”, that is, first day of the month “Boishak”. Of course India being a multi cultural, multilingual land we could not suffice with just a financial year and a calendar year, we had to have a separate Bengali calendar year (and there are separate regional calendars !!) which begins in mid april, Baishakh being the first month. There are separate names for all the months. The first day of the new year, like every other occasion, is celebrated with good food, new clothes, cultural events and paying respect to elders and sharing greetings by calling up friends and families. This day is also celebrated in other parts of India with different names and associated history. For further info on this you might have to refer to Wiki.



- Ladoo Besan/Coarse chickpea flour – 3 cups. You can also use the regular besan or chickpea flour as well. The only difference will be in the texture.
- Ghee – 1 1/4 cup approx. Adjust accordingly.
- Cardamom powder – 1/4 tsp
- Sugar (fine or powdered) – 1 cup to 1.25 cups or to taste
- Chopped nuts of your preference – optional, you can add them into the ladoo mixture before forming the balls or you may garnish the ladoos on top with chopped nuts. I did not use any.
Method:
- Take a microwave safe bowl and add ghee to it. No need to cover it.
- Microwave it on high for 1 min.
- Add the sifted ladoo besan and mix it well with a spatula or a big spoon so that there are no lumps.
- Microwave it on high (uncovered) as follows:
- 2 mins, then take out and mix everything well.
- 1 min, again take out and mix well
- 1 min, take out add 1 tsp of water to it and mix everything well. This step is supposed to add on to the grainy texture of the ladoos.
- 1 min, take out and mix well.
- 1 min, take out and mix well.
- 30 sec, take out and mix well. Besan should have a light brownish (or deep golden) color due to the roasting. If making in large quantities and feel the besan has not been roasted well enough, you might have to add another minute of half.
- Keep aside to let it cool a little bit.
- Once the roasted besan has cooled off a little bit, add sugar, cardamom powder. Add sugar gradually, do a taste test in case you need to adjust the quantity according to your preference. Mix everything well and keep aside for it to cool even further.
- Once cool to touch, grease your hands with a little bit of ghee, scoop out a small portion of the mixture and try to form a ball out of it. If it is crumbles and cannot hold the structure then add some more ghee and try making ladoos again.
- Once done store them in airtight containers and they will store well for quite some time.