Samak Rice Ladoos/ Vrat ke LadoosWishing you all a very Happy and Shubh Navratri
It is that time of the year again when Ma Durga blesses us with her presence on earth, eradicating our sorrows, troubles, obstacles and granting us a chance to start afresh.
In most of the places in India, people observe fasts on all the nine days of the festival. They do not eat foods with onions or garlic. During these nine days devotees abstain themselves from eating the usual food of grains and pulses or non veg.
Some people fast for all nine days.
Apart from that they cannot use normal salt in the food or use normal wheat flour to prepare the fasting recipes. But the best part is there is an alternative for all of these banned items. You can use rock salt in place of normal salt, buckwheat flour to make chapatis and a special kind of rice known as the Samak chawal can also be eaten while you are fasting.
During these fasts generally special meals are prepared with sabudana, samak or swang,potatoes etc.
The most popular recipes to be consumed during these days are sabudana khichdi, sabudana vada, sabudana kheer,samak rice pulao to name few. Barnyard Millet and sabudana, kuttu atta, singhora atta,rajgiri atta are mainly used as a fasting food.They are specialy consumed during Navratri,shivratri,ekadashi and on other fasting days. During these fasts generally special meals are prepared with sabudana, samak or swang,potatoes etc. and you can't even have the usual salt but you have to have rock salt or sendha namak.
Coming up with a dish that is savoury, yet observes the rules of Navratri, can be quite a task. Today, I am going to share a very simple,quick and easy to make Ladoos which are apt for people who are fasting.
I have also tried these ladoos for the first time but they came out real scrumptious.
Sama/Samu/Varai/Samak/ Mordhan/Barnyarn millet- This variety of Millet is known by many names.
Millets are a group of highly variable small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops/ grains. Millet is tiny in size and round in shape and can be white, gray, yellow or red. Millets are very high in their nutrition content. Each millet is three to five times nutritionally superior to rice and wheat in terms of proteins, minerals and vitamins. Millets are rich in B vitamins, calcium, iron, potassium, magnesium, zinc, also gluten-free and has low-GI (Glycemic index) thus millets are suitable for people having allergies/intolerance to wheat. Also for diabetics, weight loss millets are excellent.
I think I should stop talking now and jump to the recipe part by listing the Ingredients.
INGREDIENTS:
Samak Rice- 1 cup
Ghee- 1/2 cup
Powdered Sugar- 1 cup
Desiccated Coconut(dry)- 1/4th cup
Sesame seeds- 1/4th cup
Mixed Nuts (Almonds, Cashews and Pistas)- 2 tablespoon each (slivered)
Green Cardamom(only seeds)- 5-6 (coarsely crushed)
DIRECTIONS:
We will start making the ladoos by cleaning the samak rice. For that you can either spread the rice on a clean and dry cotton cloth. Wipe the rice with the cloth and clean them or you can rinse the rice thoroughly with water and allow them to air dry completely.
Next, heat a pan and put the rice in it. Dry roast the samak rice on medium flame.
Keep stirring continuously for about 14-15 minutes until the rice grains turn golden brown in colour and you can smell the nutty aroma.
When the rice is roasted then turn off the flame and allow it to cool down completely.
Once the rice cools down completely, transfer it in a mixer jar and churn it into a fine powder.
Meanwhile, put the sesame seeds and desiccated coconut in the same hot pan and dry roast them as well. Roast them for 2-3 minutes until they both turn to golden brown in color. Turn off the flame.
Add the roasted sesame seeds, roasted coconut into the rice flour along with slivered nut, powdered sugar, crushed cardamoms.
Warm the ghee a little bit. Make sure it is warm and not hot. Now add half the quantity of ghee to the rice mix.
Mix everything really well together. Further add rest of the ghee to it. Mix everything really well.
Mixture should be of binding consistency. If you feel mixture is dry add little bit of warm ghee.
To make ladoo, take small lemon sized portion of the mixture and roll it out with hands. Press the mixture with both the hands and bind it into a firm ladoo.
Similarly, prepare all the ladoos with the mixture.
Samak rice Ladoos are now ready to be devoured. It's an ideal accompaniment with a glass of milk or a cup of tea to satiate your hunger during your fasts.
Fasting or not fasting these Samak Ladoos are a delight for your taste buds!!
Store these ladoos in an air-tight container and enjoy eating them for about 2 months.
Enjoy!!
Happy Fasting!!!
Recipe Card
Samak Rice Ladoos/ Vrat ke Ladoos
A very simple, quick and easy to make scrumptious Ladoos which are apt for people who are fasting.
Prepartion time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Total time: 40 minutes
Makes: 13-14 Ladoos
INGREDIENTS:
Samak Rice- 1 cup
Ghee- 1/2 cup
Powdered Sugar- 1 cup
Desiccated Coconut(dry)- 1/4th cup
Sesame seeds- 1/4th cup
Mixed Nuts (Almonds, Cashews and Pistas)- 2 tablespoon each (slivered)
Green Cardamom(only seeds)- 5-6 (coarsely crushed)
DIRECTIONS:We will start making the ladoos by cleaning the samak rice. For that you can either spread the rice on a clean and dry cotton cloth. Wipe the rice with the cloth and clean them or you can rinse the rice thoroughly with water and allow them to air dry completely.
Next, heat a pan and put the rice in it. Dry roast the samak rice on medium flame.
Keep stirring continuously for about 14-15 minutes until the rice grains turn golden brown in colour and you can smell the nutty aroma.
When the rice is roasted then turn off the flame and allow it to cool down completely.
Once the rice cools down completely, transfer it in a mixer jar and churn it into a fine powder.
Meanwhile, put the sesame seeds and desiccated coconut in the same hot pan and dry roast them as well. Roast them for 2-3 minutes until they both turn to golden brown in color. Turn off the flame.
Add the roasted sesame seeds, roasted coconut into the rice flour along with slivered nut, powdered sugar, crushed cardamoms.
Warm the ghee a little bit. Make sure it is warm and not hot. Now add half the quantity of ghee to the rice mix.
Mix everything really well together. Further add rest of the ghee to it. Mix everything really well.
Mixture should be of binding consistency. If you feel mixture is dry add little bit of warm ghee.
To make ladoo, take small lemon sized portion of the mixture and roll it out with hands. Press the mixture with both the hands and bind it into a firm ladoo.
Similarly, prepare all the ladoos with the mixture.
Samak rice Ladoos are now ready to be devoured. It's an ideal accompaniment with a glass of milk or a cup of tea to satiate your hunger during your fasts.
Fasting or not fasting these Samak Ladoos are a delight for your taste buds!!
Store these ladoos in an air-tight container and enjoy eating them for about 2 months.
Enjoy!!
Happy Fasting!!!