Come winter and we
get busy cooking winter food like undiyo, gajar halwa or burfi’s etc etc… But I
thought this time why not try something different.
So this time I thought
of making Dink laddus or edible gum laddus which is especially eaten in winter
and given to mothers who have just delivered.
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Dink (before frying) |
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Dink (after frying) |
Dink or Gaund or
edible gum is eaten especially in winters as they are known to generate heat
and strengthen bones. Aliv or Halim or watercress seeds are added to relieve
pain and are rich in Iron and folic acid. This with dates, badam and walnut
create a healthy and wholesome snack for all age groups.
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Aliv or Halim seeds |
Though typical dink
laddus use dried dates or karik as it is called. I thought “who is going to
spend so much time and energy in deseeding dried dates and then pounding them
to make a fine powder?”…
So instead I
substituted it with seedless, black dates, due to which I didn’t need to add
additional jaggery or sugar to make laddus sweet, since dates are naturally
sweet. So in this way it’s safe for diabetics to have it once in a while.
One laddu and a glass
of milk in morning gives you enough energy and stamina till your next meal…
especially during fasting or when you are in hurry and have no time to sit down
and eat at leisure.
The original dink
laddus contains more of dink, less of dry fruits, little bit of roasted coconut
and they add jaggery for sweetening. I have made a slight variation.
Ingredients (For approx 50 laddus)
100 gms dink/ gound/ edible gum
500 gms seedless black dates
1 cup almonds/badam
1 cup walnuts/ akrot
½ cup pista/ pistachios
½ cup aliv/halim/ water cress seeds
2-3 teaspoon dry ginger powder
2 teaspoon khus khus / poppy seeds
Ghee for frying
Method
1. In a thick bottom
kadai heat the ghee for frying.
2. Once ghee has melted
and has come to medium heat, start frying dink/gound in small batches.
3. While frying remember
to keep stirring as gum tend to stick to one another and form lumps.
4. After the entire dink
is fried drain the excess oil from dink on tissue paper.
5. After it cools down
crush the fried dink using back side of a spoon or any glass and keep it aside.
No need to make fine powder. Just crush lightly so that it gets easy for
binding laddus.
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Dry fruit powder |
6. Next lightly roast
all the nuts separately and keep them aside to cool.
7. Once cooled
completely grind it into fine powder or cut into small pieces.
8. Once all these are
ready, in a non stick pan, add 2 teaspoon ghee and start with roasting of
dates.
9. Once the dates start
to soften add crushed dink, nuts, aliv, dry ginger powder and khus khus. Keep
them stirring till the form a nice mixture.
10. If you are adding
coconut add with you add nuts.
11. Allow this mixture to
cool.
12. Once mixture comes to
room temperature, mix nicely using hands and make laddus.
13. Allow them to cool
fully before storing.
14. These laddus can be
stored in air tight container for near 1 month (if you add coconut). If you
didn’t add coconut it can stay for nearly 2-3 months.
Note :
1. You can add finely
grated and then dry roasted coconut if you like.
2. You can add whatever
dry fruits you want. Like cashew, currants, dried figs etc.
3. I prefer non stick
pan as it requires less ghee and it doesn’t get stuck to bottom easily.
4. You can increase or
decrease quantities of nuts as per your taste.
Enjoy winter .