This recipe is a traditional Andhra recipe, taught by my mother-in-law to me.It is made using urad(blackgram dal),ghee,sugar and green cardamoms.It is also made by using jaggery as a substitute for sugar.I tweak it a bit by adding powdered cashew nuts for added flacour and crunchiness.
Take 250 gms of Black gram dal (minapa pappu)dehusked.
Heat a banali or Handi and dry roast the dal/pappu on slow to medium heat until dal turns reddish brown.
Turn it out on a plate and allow to cool to room temperature.
This is the only step where any cooking is involved.
Take 5oo gms of sugar and run it in mixer/grinder until powdery.You can use less sugsr too.
Keep it aside in a bowl.
Run the Urad dal/minapa pappu in the mixer/grinder until powdery.
We can add 5 to 6 green cardamoms too at this stage,or powder them separately and add later
We can grind the dal to be either powdery or grainy depending on the status of our teeth or preference.
Now run 150 grams of cashew nuts in mixer/grinder to a coarse consistency.
We can grind cardamom at this stage too instead of in step 3.
Now mix sugar,urad dal (black gram) /minapa pappu powder,cardamom and cashew nut powder together in a bowl.
Melt 100 to 150 ml of ghee and add to the powdered ingradients and mix it well.
Take a hand full of the powder mix and press and roll it hard between palm and fingers to make a laddoo or unda as we call it.
Keep turning the mixture with hand upside down as the ghee tends to settle at the bottom of the powder pile.
Keep adding ghee if the powder mix is too dry.
Leave the laddos/undalu on a plate to dry before storing in an airtight container.
These undalu/laddoos are high in nutrition and taste too.
They last about a week to ten days, though they are never left uneaten in my family to save for more than two days.
usually made at homes.so no particular source.definitely not my original recipe.
By DK on Sep 18, 2012