There are many dishes that are prepared specially for lactating mothers. Many of these dishes have loads of ghee – it was a common belief that ghee which gives the necessary fats/calories and overcomes weakness and some other healthy ingredients. One very popular preparation is this dry fruits laddu – Dink Laadu or Dinkache Laadu(Marathi) or Antina Unde(Kannada). These laddus can be eaten by anyone, not just lactating mothers. They are very delicious.
Ingredients: 1 cup jaggery 1/2 cup dry coconut (kopra/kobbari) ( we used desiccated coconut ) 1/2 cup water 2 tea spns ghee 1/8 tea spn nutmeg powder 1/8 tea spn cardamom powder 1 date cut into tiny pieces 1 tbl spn raisins 1 tbl spn edible gum(dink/anTu) 2 tbl spn cashews chopped into small pieces 2 tbl spns walnuts chopped into small pieces 2 tbl spns almonds chopped into small pieces 2 tbl spns poppy seeds (khus khus)
Method: Dry roast coconut till it tuns slightly brownish. Take it out on a clean plate. Heat ghee and add edible gum. The gum puffs up like small balloons. With a spoon take out on a plate, leaving behind any remaining ghee in the pan. Add the cashews, almonds and walnuts, fry till they start to turn brown. Add poppy seeds and fry till they pop. Add raisins and dates and fry for few moments. Take out on same plate. Bring to boil 1/2 cup water, add jaggery and cook till it forms syrup. To know whether the syrup is done, take some water on a plate and put a drop of syrup on it. If it sits like a crystal, syrup is done. Add all the fried ingredients and mix well. Add nutmeg and cardamom powder. Mix well. Make laddus when the mixture is still warm. Apply some ghee to palms before trying to hold the warm mixture. If the mixture dries out, sprinkle some water and heat it for few seconds.
Makes about 12 laddus
PS: If you are calories conscious, reduce the quantity of ghee and use just enough to fry the ingredients.
Pictorial:
In the below picture, the crystals on the right are edible gum pieces.
Below picture shows puffed up edible gum.
Thanks to all who asked about my little boy, and also who sent us good wishes . We are overwhelmed by all the love shown by you. Thank you. He is doing good. We are getting adjusted to the busy schedule with baby. Having my parents here has been a great help. They have been managing everything in the house. I will be joining office back in another one month, so I thought of cooking something once in a while. I wanted to cook something very simple so that I don’t have to stand long hours in front of the stove. So that is how I came up with this pulav.
It is one of the simplest one pot chicken dishes. The pulav comes up absolutely delicious. Not much chopping and you can cook this using just with the standard things from the pantry.
Ingredients: 1 lb(0.45kgs approx) chicken 1 and 1/2 cups basmati rice 1 tbl spn ginger paste 1 tbl spn garlic paste 8-9 curry leaves 1 tea spn coriander-cumin powder 2 tea spns chilli powder 1 cup chopped onion 1 cup chopped tomato 2 tbl spn chopped coriander leaves A pinch turmeric Oil & Ghee Salt
Method: Heat oil and ghee, add onion, ginger paste, garlic paste, curry leaves and fry for couple of minutes. Add tomatoes, salt, coriander-cumin powder, chilli powder, turmeric powder, mix well and let it cook for few minutes. Add chicken, mix well and then add rice. Mix again. Add about 2 and 1/2 cups of water, cover and cook till done. Garnish with coriander leaves. Serve hot with a raita or on it’s own.
Serves : 4-5 Preparation time : 30mins
PS: I normally use chicken breasts for all my chicken dishes. They cook very fast. So if you are using any chicken that takes long time to cook, cook it for few minutes before adding rice to it.
Pictorial:
