NARKEL NARU || COCONUT LADDU

These Gurer Narkel Naru or Jaggery  Coconut Bliss Balls are a must during any Bengali festive celebration. All you need is some coconut & jaggery. Both are abundantly available in a Bengali household and when combined together yields enough to cater to everyone in the family, from young to old because everyone is a big fan of this traditional Bengali sweet called Narkel Naru. These Naru's are from Lokkhi Pujo this year.

Ingredients:

1. Coconut - halved and then the flesh scraped using a scrapper.
2. Jaggery - as per taste

Process

1. Scrape the coconut and grind it further to get a fine texture

2. Take a heavy bottom pan and place it on low heat. Add the ground coconut and the jaggery in it and mix.

3. Cook it on low heat till you see the jaggery melt down completely. Keep stirring it continuously.

4. Now, continue cooking till the mix becomes sticky and starts to come together as a dough. It should take somewhere around 5-7 minutes to get that.

5. Turn off the heat and take the mix out in a mixing bowl. Allow it to cool down to room temperature.

6. Divide this mix into smaller portions and then roll them into smooth balls. Keep them in an air-tight container for a week. No need to refrigerate if the weather allows. Otherwise, keep it in refrigerator.

CARROT COCONUT LADDU

These scrumptious carrot coconut laddu needs only few ingredients and takes only 30 minutes. A perfect dish to make at the last minute and also everyone will love it. Or if you’re planning for a big heavy dinner, this is perfect to make as a simple dessert, that just melts in the mouth. I have made this recipe just using the recipe of coconut laddu and gajar ka halwa. But I was very sure that it is going to taste great. I know any experiment made with carrot, coconut and condensed milk taste great. It is a great way to feed the kids with veggies. It looks gorgeous too, isn't it?

Ingredients:

1. Carrots - 1 and half cup (grated)
2. Condensed milk - 1 cup
3. Ghee - 1 tsp
4. Cardamom powder - 1 tsp
5. Almonds / cashew nuts - chopped - 1 tsp
6. Desiccated coconut - 1/2 cup for rolling

Process

1. Wash, peel and grate carrots. In a pan add ghee and add the grated carrots. Saute on medium heat for 5-8 minutes until carrots are little soft and it will ooze out some water and get dried.

2. Add   coconut and toast for a minute. Then add condensed milk and mix well. cook on low flame until the mixture gets thick and starts to roll like a ball. It will take around 8-10 minutes.

3. Add chopped nuts and remove from the flame. Cool the mixture but dont make it too cold. Cool it little so that you can make the laddus by hand.

4. Apply ghee on your palm and make round balls out of the mixture. Then roll these balls in the desiccated coconut. 

Note - You can also store them in airtight container for 4-5 days in the refrigerator. 

PINK COCONUT LADDU

October is breast cancer awareness month, which is an annual campaign to raise awareness of this disease. This year, some food bloggers has initiated this campaign which is known as pinktober4breastcaner, by cooking something with the color Pink. Any drinks or healthy pink dish or any dessert. however I have picked up the third one, that is pink dessert and made these cute Pink Coconut Laddus. 

Narkel Naru or Coconut Laddu is a very famous dessert or misti for Bengalis. We made this laddu specially during Lakshmi puja, which is celebrated just after Durga puja. This time I have made this before Lakshmi puja, and of course with a twist. You can made this naru with sugar or jaggery (whichever you like). I have made this for the campaign, but cant use any food colors so I have used little bit of beetroot juice to give this beautiful baby pink colors in the laddus. Do try this, the recipe is extremely easy and same as we use for making simple coconut laddus.

Ingredients: 

1. Grated coconut - 2 cups 
2. Sugar - 1/2 cup
3. Condensed milk - 1/2 cup
4. Elaichi powder - 1 pinch
5. Beetroot juice - Less than 1/2 tea spoon

Process:

1. In a large kadhai, put the grated coconut and add condensed milk and sugar, cook on a medium flame. Reduce the flame after a while and keep stirring constantly on a low flame till the mixture dries.

2. Check the doneness on the hand, if you roll it, the hand should get slightly oily.

3. Grate a small piece of beetroot and take out the juice from it.

4. When the coconut mixture is ready, remove from flame and add cardamom powder and beetroot juice drop by drop till you get the perfect color. Take care not to use much juice, that will change the color of the laddus darker. Mix thoroughly and roll into small laddus.