Soft Ellunda or Sesame seed laddu

On a very very hot afternoon, after a very long time, its time to update something on my blog . I have been pretty much ignoring my blog since its first anniversary. Life has been a lot busy with planning the vacation to India, the actual vacation, ongoing inlaws visit and the list goes on and on. If I think back, may be it was possible for me to post more frequently. May be I should have focused more. May be the motivation wasnt enough. And I think thats exactly what was missing. Motivation. I did cook tons, experimented tons and learnt lots. Somehow the motivation to take pictures, then sit down and draft a post was missing. Coming to think about it, I do miss planning a blog post. Cooking something and then rushing to take pictures. Taking hundreds of pictures and making a mess of things. Finally the selection process, the editing and then the actual composition of the blog post. Yup, I do miss them!! Till now, I have just rushed through things and let everything pass by. But now I feel like pausing and being more aware and taking control of situation. Hoping that I stick to it and not lose interest and let things go back to the same as it was previously. 

You know, there may be many things that you wish to achieve in life. And at some point in life, nothing may be working out, lots of things may be stagnant. But I have realized that things are going to be stagnant, unless you take the first action and accept change. Always knew it in mind, but kept on losing track of it somewhere deep inside the mind. Keep on visualising what you want in your life, keep on telling it loud, keep on praying as you do always, work in small steps towards whatever you want and most importantly be patient. 

Whew, I guess I have preached enough. I needed to write whatever I was feeling at the moment. Moving on to today's post. Its a simple Ellunda as we call it in Malayalam. Sesame Seed Laddu. Ellunda was one of my favorites from childhood. But my dad used to complain always that its too hard for elders with tooth troubles to eat them, yummy and healthy as it is. And I tried the actual hard version. Turned out fine. but I didnt like the process of making them. Burned my hand. I was searching for some easier ways and I googled various blogs and adapted to suit my needs. Here goes the recipe. 

Soft Ellunda - Soft Sesame Seed Balls

Time required: 10 - 15 min

Ingredients:

1 cup White Sesame Seeds

1 cup grated Jaggery

3 - 4 Cardamoms

1 Tsp Boiled Milk or water

Prepping:

Step 1: In a pan, roast the white sesame seeds for 2 - 3 min. Keep aside. 

Step 2: Grate the Jaggery.

Step 3: Grind the cardamoms to powder form in a mixer. Keep aside the powder.  

Method of Preparing:

Step 1: 

Grind the sesame seeds in the same mixer used for making cardamom powder.

Step 2: 

Then add the grated jaggery and cardamom powder and grind 15 - 30 sec. 

Step 3: 

Once mixed well, transfer the ingredients in the mixer to a plate. Then try to form balls using your hand. 

Usually when the jaggery is ground, it becomes thick and it may be easy to form balls. But if the mixture is too dry to form laddus, add 1 Tsp of boiled milk or water. Mix well and form as many balls as you can from the mixture. 

The number of laddus obtained depends on the size of each laddu. I got around 8 laddus using this proportion. 

Sesame seed balls or ellundas thus prepared are very soft and you cannot eat just one for sure. I shared the recipe with my mom and she prepared them with black sesame seeds. My dad loved the recipe so much that it seems he ate more than three laddus. This from a person who doesnt eat much sweets is a compliment. I am glad that my parents liked them so much. Remember sesame seeds are full of calcium and  have a lot of health benefits. 

Notes: 

• Its better not to use jaggery that contains too much impurities for making this laddu. 
• I feel the taste is better with white sesame seeds rather than black sesame seeds. But my mom likes the black variety better. Its a matter of taste. 
• Increase/Decrease the amount of grated jaggery, if you feel the sweetness is less/more. Adjust as per your liking.