Vijhay made these laddoos for the Shalikuta group when we met first in Pondicherry, in early 2020–just before the world shut down thanks to the pandemic. He made them from Gandakashala rice, which is very fittingly a lightly fragrant, very tasty shali rice from Wayanad and the group polished off the whole jar with ease. Shali rices are, of course, light on the stomach and easy to digest.
Sheetal made them later again with Gandakashala as you see in the image to the left below, and Deepa with karuppu kavuni–hence the purple tints. You can choose to make these with any aromatic rice of your choice and count on never going wrong.
These laddoos are a minimalist’s wonder, because they take really only 3 main ingredients: rice and jaggery, and just enough ghee to hold the laddoos in shape. Plus 2 behind-the-scenes players: a little flavoring from cardamom or nutmeg as you please, salt to bring the sweetness out front.
They would make a perfect mid-day snack or lunchbox treat.
Fragrant rice flour laddoos
Ingredients
- 2 cups raw aromatic rice: Gobindo bhog, Ambamor, Vasanai Jeeraga samba or other aromatic rice
- 1-1½ cups finely powdered jaggery
- ¾ cup of ghee
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg
Instructions
- Rinse the rice, drain, and spread it on a clean cotton towel to dry.
- Once the rice has almost but not completely dried, grind it in a spice grinder. You may need to sieve out coarser rice bits and re-grind those until the whole batch is uniformly fine-textured.
- Now roast the flour over a slow flame until the aroma is pleasant, and transfer to a plate to cool slightly.
- Now add the jaggery (if the jaggery you are using is not very finely powdered, process it until there are no lumps or large bits left otherwise it will produce lumpy results).
- Add the salt and nutmeg; mix well.
- Add the ghee in a steady stream, mixing as you do. You want a “dough” that can be pressed into balls which hold their shape well, but which also crumble with relative ease and are not greasy to the touch.
- Now "catch" the laddoos in small lime-sized balls while the mixture is still warm.
- Store in a jar for up to a week.
