Be My Guest Julie : Mango Coconut Laddoos

Hello Friends, this time am late in posting this Guest Post. I was engaged in a lot of activities and grief because of sudden demise of my very dear friend. And though its fun to be back, am still coping up with a lot of pending work and feeling disappointed with the speed am working on it. God !! Why cant there be 30 hours in a day... Lots and lots of things to do :(... 

Sorry, not to dedicate this post to my laziness, lets come to Julie. Ohh !! what an experience it has been to go through her blog. All wonderful and amazing recipes, with a huge range and variety. Julie is basically a Keralite, currently residing in US. Apart from cooking, she loves to do beading work and owns a blog Beading Beads, which showcase her bead collection. Her food blog is called Erivum Puriyum, which means spice and sour in Malyalam.  While going through her blog, it felt so refreshing due to the colours and layout of her Blog Page. Visit her to feel the same :)


She generally gives 1-2 hours a day to the blog and her favorite cuisines are Indian and Chinese. When asked of her favourite recipes from the blog, she gave me a few links ( which obviously must have been difficult for her to select ) and I chose the following out of them :

Butter Cahsew Biscuits.. Can't believe she made a replica of Good Day biscuits :)

Eggless Strawberry Ice Cream.. Very innovative and inviting 

Eggless Marble Cake  .. Beautifully carved 

Fruit & Nut Bars .. Looks delicious !

Bread Pakora  ... This one is my favourite :D... 

In her own words "I would like to tell my readers that cooking is an art,please don't be afraid to enter the kitchen because you don't know to cook.When you start off with cooking,it probably takes time and years to actually relish the same taste and flavor of the same recipe as cooked by our mothers and grand mothers.And some are born with the talent,just spend some time and you can have a healthy restaurant style food at home with an added effort."... Wow Julie, thanks for the motivating words, I am sure our readers will cherish them as much as I do :)

Off to the recipe now :

Am happy and thrilled to be a guest at UK Rasoi.Thanx to Nupur for the wonderful opportunity and she is indeed a great blogger with many interesting recipes.Not only that adds credit to her hat;she is brought up a wonderful idea of 'No Fried' concept and that's indeed a healthy alternative,challenging motto in the today's life style.My great friend just requested one thing that I should chose a vegetarian recipe for her guest post.Though as always,I celebrate each moment in my life with something sweet.So do you,Isn't it?? Let's celebrate this post with the most prevalent fruits of summer and the King too,Mango.Hope you will enjoy making these at home and just a caution,these are highly addictive :-)

Ingredients

• mango 1 large or 3/4 cup of puree
• coconut sweetened flakes 2 1/2 cups (refer notes)
• condensed milk 1/4 cup(refer notes)
• cardamom powder 1/2 tsp
• raisins 1/4 cup
• cashews or almonds broken 2tbsp(I used cashews)
• coconut powder 2tbsp (to roll)
• saffron strands 2(optional,enhances color)

Method
-I have used fresh mango,so cut into slices and pureed it with saffron strands without adding water.(You can use store brought puree too)
-I have used sweetened coconut flakes so just put it in the blender and grind it to coarse powder without adding any water.(This helps to hold shape; skip this step if using fresh shredded coconut)
-Heat a non stick pan and add the coconut and mango puree.Keep stirring till water dries up.
-Then add the condensed milk and wait till the mix starts to leave the sides of pan.(takes about 15-20 minutes)
-Add the cardamom powder,broken cashews and raisins.Mix and put off flame.
-Wait till its warm to hold and shape in your palms,then roll each of them into balls.Roll in coconut powder.
-Serve as a sweet or dessert !!
 
Servings~ 10 laddus

 
NOTES
* You can use shredded coconut in place of sweetened coconut flakes.In that case,just dry roast it in the non stick pan before adding mango puree to remove water content.
* You can increase the quantity of condesed milk or decrease as per your sweet tooth.Also,If using shredded coconut,you should increase the quantity of condensed milk.