Recipe for Nei Urundai – Ghee Laddu. Traditionally made in Tamilnadu for Christmas. Recipe with step by step pictures.
Nei Urundai is something that I remember fondly from my childhood during Christmas time. Nei Urundai, sweet biscuits and savories like mixture and murukku would come from my neighbour Paulson’s home. Not everyone baked Plum Cake then. Nei Urundai is predominantly made with rice flour. Many people use the term Nei Urundai and Pasi Paruppu Urundai (green gram laddus) interchangeably. Nei Urundai is closely connected to Christmas in Tamilnadu. When Stella posted the recipe for Nei urundai, I was immediately hooked and I am so glad I tried this recipe. It brings back a lot of memories filled with Christmas carol at Paulson’s home with endless supply of Mango Rasna (The tang of our days). Do try this melt in your mouth Nei Urundai.
You will need a weighing scale for this recipe. Dear readers, I do not have cup measurements for this recipe. Weighing is more precise and accurate when making desserts. Here is what I recommend.
We will be making our own rice flour for this recipe. In case if you do not have time, you can use readymade idiyappam flour for this recipe instead of home made flour.
Soak raw rice in water for half an hour. Drain the rice and allow it to dry on a cloth for a couple of hours.
Grind the rice to a fine powder in a heavy duty mixie. It is important that the rice is ground fine. Fine rice powder will give a melt in your mouth texture to the final urundai.
Sieve the rice using a fine mesh sieve. Grind the coarse rice that did not pass through the sieve again till you get a fine powder.
A heavy duty Indian mixie does the job well and here is what I use and recommend.
Dry roast the split moong dal on a low flame till the lentils are nutty and aromatic. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
Grind the lentil to a fine powder.
Sieve the powder. Grind the coarse lentil that did not pass through the sieve again till you get a fine powder. Set aside.
Grind the sugar along with cardamom to a fine powder. Set aside.
Heat a heavy sauce pan on low heat and dry roast the rice flour and lentil powder on a very low flame. Dry roast until the flour and the lentil powder starts smelling nutty and very hot to touch. Add in the powdered sugar mixture. Make sure the flame is set to low.
Make a well in the center of the pan and add in the ghee.
Mix well for a couple of minutes.
Remove from heat and let the mixture slightly cool a bit. When the mixture is still hot enough to handle, make small bite size balls.
Once the balls are cool, store the balls in an air tight container for up to two weeks.
- 250 grams Rice Flour (Homemade flour or Idiyappam flour)
- 50 grams Split Moong Dal
- 150 grams Sugar
- 6 Cardamom
- 100 grams ghee
- Dry roast the split moong dal on a low flame till the lentils are nutty and aromatic. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
- Grind the lentil to a fine powder. Sieve the powder. Grind the coarse lentil that did not pass through the sieve again till you get a fine powder. Set aside.
- Grind the sugar along with cardamom to a fine powder. Set aside.
- Heat a heavy sauce pan on low heat and dry roast the rice flour and lentil powder on a very low flame. Dry roast until the flour and the lentil powder starts smelling nutty.
- Add in the powdered sugar mixture. Make sure the flame is set to low.
- Make a well in the center of the pan and add in the ghee.
- Mix well for a couple of minutes.
- Remove from heat and let the mixture slightly cool a bit. When the mixture is still hot enough to handle, make small bite size balls.
- Once the balls are cool, store the balls in an air tight container for up to two weeks.
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