A Father's Day Remembrance

June 21 is Father’s Day. Journalist Anupama Bijur recalls a sweet memory associated with her late father. 

 My father was very fond of besan laddoos. Since he was diabetic, sugary treats were rare. Two days before Diwali last year, my sister sent me a mail saying we should let Papa enjoy some sweets during the festive season. So that year, I made a small batch of besan laddoos for my father. He loved to have something sweet after a meal and that week, he would eat a laddoo after lunch and dinner. Like my mother, he preferred home-made sweets to the store-bought ones. And he would proudly say to his friends that one daughter had given him permission to eat it and the other one had made it for him. That was the last year he enjoyed the laddoos. He died exactly a year later.

This is not my recipe but one that I have adapted from an Iyengar cuisine book. 

RECIPE

Besan laddoo

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 5 minutes

Binding: 10 minutes.

Ingredients:

Gram flour 1 cup

Powdered sugar ½ cup

Cashewnuts – 10 nos

Cardamom – 2 pods, powdered

Ghee – 3 tbsps

Method 

Place a thick bottomed kadai on the stove and when mildly hot, add ghee. Turn the heat low and add gram flour, stirring constantly. When you can smell the aroma of mildly roasted gram flour, turn off the heat. Add cardamom powder, cashewnuts and powdered sugar. Grease your palms with ghee and take a little bit of the gram flour and bind it into laddoos of desired size. (Hint: Bind the laddoos when the gram flour is hot. )