This traditional Indian sweet is always popular around festival time. The juicy bubbles of chickpea flour are flavoured with delicate saffron and ground green cardamom. Serve it warm as it is or form into Laddoos.
Orange gel food colour(+ optional red, yellow and green)
6-7green cardamom pods, seeds crushed
1tbspflaked almonds(optional)
1.5Loil for deep frying(any unflavoured cooking oil, such as sunflower or rapeseed/canola oil)
Instructions
For the batter:
In a bowl, whisk together the chickpea flour, warm water and 2 tsp oil until smooth. Cover and allow to rest at room temperature overnight, at least 12 hours or up to 24 hours.
Once rested, whisk in the orange food colouring if making all orange Boondi. If you’d like to make some different colours, divide a few tablespoons of the batter out into separate bowls and whisk in red, green and yellow food colour into each portion. I kept the majority of the batter orange.
For the sugar syrup:
To make the sugar syrup, stir the sugar and water together in a large pan. Place a sugar thermometer in the pan, in the sugar-water mixture but not directly touching the base of the pan. Heat until it reaches 110°C/230°F on the thermometer and then switch the heat off. Do not take it beyond this temperature or the syrup will crystallise around the Boondi and it will become hard.
To fry the Boondi:
Heat the oil in a large kadai to 200°C/400°F.
Set up a colander so that it’s sitting on top of a plate. Place a Jaaro or large slotted metal spoon into the pan of sugar syrup ready for the first batch of Boondi. Keep another Jaaro or large metal slotted spoon handy to remove the first batch of Boondi from the oil. IMPORTANT: Do not use the same Jaaro used for dropping the Boondi into the oil to remove the cooked Boondi from the oil. This will cause batter to cake into the Jaaro and it’ll be hard to remove it.
Hold a large, deep metal Jaaro, directly over the surface of the hot oil, about 6cm away from the surface. Use a ladle to gently pour the batter into the Jaaro. It will quickly begin to drop through the holes into the oil, like raindrops. Only add one ladle of batter per batch and do not force it through by tapping or agitating it too much. This will cause the Boondis to form “tails” or become misshapen. It’s best to let the batter fall through the holes on its own. Do not overcrowd the oil with too many Boondis.
Once the majority of the batter has fallen through, set the Jaaro used for dropping the batter aside and pick up the clean Jaaro for removing the Boondi from the oil. Gently move it around and after 90 seconds, collect all of the Boondi into the Jaaro and let as much oil as possible drain away. The Boondi should not be brown in colour.
Add the Boondi to the sugar syrup and use the third Jaaro to swish it around gently until all the Boondi are coated. They should turn slightly translucent. After 30-40 seconds the Boondi is ready to be removed from the syrup. Collect them all up in the Jaaro and allow any excess syrup to drain away. Place the Boondi in a colander and spread it around the sides, so that there’s a hole in the middle. This will help any excess syrup drain away.
Wash and thoroughly dry the Jaaro used for dropping the Boondi batter into the oil before starting the next batch. Repeat the steps above until all the batter is used up.
Leave any bright colours to the end so that the food colour doesn’t alter the colour of the frying oil and syrup. I do the green batter last.
When all the Boondi is done and still warm, tip it into a large thali or plate and add the ground cardamom seeds, saffron and almonds. Use a large spoon to gently mix it in, being careful not to break any Boondi. Allow to sit at room temperature until cool.
Notes
If you’re not serving straight away, pack the Boondi into an airtight container and refrigerate. It can be kept for up to a week.
To reheat, place in a microwave-safe bowl and heat on high power for 10-20 seconds. Stir well and serve.