Paan Coconut Ladoo

It is that time of the year when we prepare many varieties of sweets and savor a lot of sweet dishes. Yes, it is the festival season of the year, and when we talk about festivals, the main festivals that come to our mind is Dussehra and Diwali. With the end of 'Pitri Paksha' today marks the beginning of 'Devi Paksha' which is known as 'Mahalaya' when Maa Durga lands on Earth to finish all the evil. It is also said that she leaves Lord Shiva and goes to her father's house for the following nine days with her four children. Well, Hindu Mythology is vast, and I sometimes don't recall everything until I read them again and again. Since Mahalaya is the beginning of the biggest festival of Bengalis, sweets are of course a remarkable compulsion. Thus mom prepared some easy peasy Coconut Ladoos, that is one of the sweets easily made for a special treat during the festivals. And I thought of sharing a recipe of ' Coconut Ladoo with Betel leaves' which I prepared on Ganesh Chaturthi.

And the fact to my preparation of Coconut Ladoo with Betel leaves goes like this, it was one fine day when I was surfing on my Pinterest account, I came across a very innovative, tempting treat to the eyes 'Coconut Ladoo made with Paan' which is named as 'Paan Coconut Ladoo' by CookWithManali. Paan is a mouth freshener that is chewed mostly by an aged group of the Indians, it is a Hindi name for the Betel Leaves.

Well, I happened to have made our very own traditional 'Coconut Ladoos' during Durga Puja or Lakshmi Puja with my mom, however never thought of coming up with any sort of fusion in it, also as my family sometimes being fussy as per my experimentation with the traditional recipes, I keep a little distance from trying out new things such as 'Coconut Ladoos with Paan'.

But then again it was a matter of my luck trying out this new recipe all by myself and that was on the onset of 'Ganesh Chaturthi', my mom left the kitchen for me to cook for the entire day as it was a holiday. I hadn't checked CookWithManali 's 'Paan Coconut Ladoo' recipe until today because I wanted to get her recipe link for my friends.

Therefore I being very curious to prepare something new with the leftover coconuts in the fridge. And then I saw the betel leaves in the racks of the fridge which my father chew daily after his meals for his mouth freshener and digestion purpose. Without any second thought, I gathered all the ingredients and step by step discovered my own new recipe for 'Paan Coconut Ladoo'.

I thank CookWithManali for the inspiration and my mom to leave the kitchen all for me that day, and later not getting fussy for the sweets, instead, she liked it and the others too liked the dessert, especially my father who couldn't even make out if that was homemade or store bought. It turned out the very delicious desert sweet dish with Paan out of the ordinary Coconut Ladoos. And that I had prepared these sweets during Ganesha festival, I hadn't posted the recipe until once again I found Manali di's gorgeous pics on my Pinterest account yesterday. These Ladoos are absolutely easy, utterly delicious and a delightful treat to all the paan lover, like my father. I haven't used any artificial edible colours or added any preservatives, just the basic few ingredients which made the recipe outstanding!!

Check for the full recipe below for the 'Coconut Ladoo with Betel leaves'

Paan Coconut Ladoo

[Veg]

Author: Paromita.P

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cooking Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes (approx)

Recipe Type: Sweets

Course: Sweet dish

Cuisine: Indian/Fusion

Serves: 4

Yields: 10 ladoos

Measuring Items: 1 cup=150 ml; Teaspoon (tsp)

Tips: The amount and measurement of the ingredients may vary depending upon the size and content of the coconut, however you can adjust the thick stickiness of the batter by stirring the mixture in a medium flame for some more time, say about 5-8 minutes or it can even be a lesser time in cooking.

Ingredients:

1. Coconut- 1 whole (normal or the smaller size)
2. Betel leaves (Paan)- 2 leaf
3. Almonds and Cashews- 1 cup
4. Ghee (Clarified Butter)- 4 Tsp
5. Gur (Jaggery)- half a cup
6. Sugar- 1 cup (as required to adjust the sweet taste)

Method:

How to prepare ‘Paan Coconut Ladoo’ with step by step pictures and instructions-

1. Finely chop the required ingredients.
   
2. Add chopped paan leaves and coconut in a mixer grinder/food processor. Grind into a fine paste. (do not add water)
   
3. Roast a little amount of coconut for 2 minutes in a hot pan and chop them into very fine pieces.
   
4. Heat ghee in a frying pan with medium heat. Add the ground coconut and paan. Mix them well.
   
5. Now add jaggery and stir till they are combined well.
   
6. Add chopped almonds, cashews and roasted coconut, stir to combine and stir for 5 minutes on low to medium heat.
   
7. Adjust the sweetness by adding a generous amount of sugar as and how much required.
   
8. Cook for another 2 minutes on low heat, the mixture will change the colour and get thicken.
   
9. Remove from heat and let the mixture cool down a bit.
   
10. Grease hands with a little amount of ghee, take small ball size from the mixture, roll to form a ladoo.
    
11. Finally roll the prepared ladoos in desiccated coconut.
    
12. Repeat the same process with the remaining ladoos.
    

There you go, Paan Coconut Ladoos are ready within 20 minutes, these are extraordinarily delectable and flavorful sweets for the festivals, an absolutely easy and simple out of the usual prep of Coconut Ladoos. You can store these Paan Coconut Ladoos in the refrigerator even for a week or so, and enjoy the dessert anytime you crave to have something refreshing but filled with sweetness. You may also few more sweet dishes for this festival Suji ka Halwa  Doodh Lau  Sukha Malpua. Prepare these Paan Coconut Ladoos for this festival and tell me how you liked it. Till then Happy Festivals and enjoy cooking, serving and eating!!

Paromita Pramanick ©2018. All Rights Reserved.