Lord Ganpati has finally arrived and we are all set in the mood to welcome him with pomp and gaiety, echoing chants of “Ganpati Bappa Morya!!!“. There is nothing better than welcoming him with his favourite laddooos, sweets, modaks, puran poli, khichdi, halwa, payasam and what not, and laddoos should invariably be a part of his platter. This is why people offer him with innumerable types of delicious laddoos of different sizes and colours, made up of all possible types of ingredients.This year my aunt prepared these yummy laddoos made up of popped rice ( khoi in Bengali and akhoi in Assamese) and thickened milk ( or khoya) on the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi.

RECIPE

Ingredients:

Popped rice (khoi/akhoi) : 100 gm                                          

Khoya (thickened solidified milk ) : 100 gm

Date palm jaggery (nolen gur) : 25-50 gm 

Sugar : 1 tsp

Chhena (cottage cheese) : ½ cup

Raisins ( for garnishing )

Ground dry fruits (optional)

Preparation:

Take the chhena in a pan and put on a flame. Add little sugar and ground dry fruits to it and mix well. Cook the mixture for sometime in a low flame till the sugar blends completely with the chhena. Switch off the flame and make tiny roundels of the mixture with your hands and keep it aside.

Melt the Khoya in a pan with little water on a low flame to make a dense suspension. Add date palm jaggery to it, stir and mix well till it melts and mixes with the suspension completely. Cook it for sometime by stirring continuously till the mixture turns somewhat sticky and leaves the pan. Switch off the flame and take it down. Now, add popped rice to it and mix so that its grains spread uniformly in the khoya mixture. Then, take small portions of the mixture, make it rounded into balls and then press each ball gently on top with your fingers to make some space. Inside the space, fill a tiny roundel of chhena and wrap it up completely with the khoya-khoi mixture to make into round balls or laddoos. Garnish each laddoo with a raisin gently pressed on top and your laddoos are ready to be offered to our darling “Ganpati Bappa“.