Dessert

Date ,cashewnut and coconut balls(Khajur aur Kaju nariyel Laddoo)

These are rich sweets ,extremely healthy as they are made of dates which are rich in iron and minerals.They are cooked in little jaggery with coconut. I tried to minimize the use of sugar in these sweets due to health reasons and the dates have natural sugar content and they bind these balls too.Cashew nuts add crunch to these rich aromatic flavored balls.You can also coat them with molted dark chocolate and make endless varieties with these.
They can be a part of any festive occasion or parties.These sweets were a part of the Ganesh Chaturthi festival celebrated in Maharashtra during the month of September for 10 days.


Ganesh Chaturthi, is one of the most sacred Hindu festivals, which celebrates the birth of Lord Ganesha ,the God of prosperity. This annual occasion is observed through out India in different states by the whole of Hindu community with a lot of devotion and love.Lord Ganesha is fond of food and especially sweets so a lot of vegetarian sweet dishes are prepared to appease the Lord .
Lord Ganesha is an unique Hindu God who is very popular among the kids because of his look with the head of an elephant.There are various mythological stories behind his look.One of these is as follows.
One day the mother of Ganesha ,Goddess Parvati was taking bath when she made a small idol of a boy child with the help of turmeric which she had smeared in her body before bath .The child looked beautiful and Parvati decided to bring him to life as her own son and name him “Ganesha”.The moment he came to live he called Parvati with devotion “Mother”.
Goddess Parvati then ordered him to guard the door and  not allow anybody inside when she was taking bath.In the mean while Lord Shiva ,the husband of goddess Parvati came near the door with an intention to enter inside.But small yet powerful child Ganesha stopped him and had a battle with Lord Shiva.In anger Lord Shiva had cut off the head of Ganesha.
Hearing the loud noise Parvati came running outside shocked to see Ganesha’s head separated from his lifeless body.Parvati vowed to sacrifice her life if her son was not brought back to life again.Lord Shiva was worried and send his devotees to the earth to find a small boy whose head can be cut and joined to the body of Ganesha.The only condition being that the mother of that boy child would not be with him or sleeping with her back turned towards the child,so that they can cut off the head of the child without the mother knowing . 
The devotees of Lord Shiva  could not  find any human boy but found a baby elephant sleeping with his mother sleeping turning her face on the opposite direction  .So without wasting their time they cut off the head of baby elephant and brought in to heaven to the Lord Shiva. Shiva had no option but to join the head of the baby elephant to the body of Ganesha and bring him to life again.From then onwards ganesha was worshiped among the Hindus in this divine form.
Let us now know the ingredients of this dish.
Ingredients

1.3 cups of dates chopped seedless
2.Coconut (1 cup)
3. Jaggery (4 tbsp)
4.Cashewnuts (1 cup crushed)
5.Cashewnuts powder( 1 cup)
6.Clarified butter( 1/2 cup)
7.Dark chocolate molten(1 cup)[optional] 8.White chocolate grated (1 cup) [optional]

Preparation

1.Add clarified butter in the wok and fry the dates till soft
2.Add crushed cashewnuts and fry
3.When the cashewnuts get fried nicely light brown add coconut and jaggery   and stir till the mixture gets very dry and leaves the sides of the pan completely.
4.At this stage wet the palm of your hand and make small balls.
5.Roll them on cahewnut powder and freeze

Alternatively
1.Roll the balls in molten dark chocolate and then grated white chocolate.
2.Freeze and take out before serving

Aboutindrani

Indrani Sen is a teacher,lecturer in Information Technology/Computer Science for the past 12 years. She has authored 4 text books in Information Technology.
She is passionate about cooking and loves to blog about food and travel.This blog is like my baby as I have built it from scratch by myself with little help from colleagues ,friends and of course Google.

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