Bonde aar Muri - breakfast on Mahalaya

Processed white sugar is something which we have completely eliminated from our diet but there are few occasions in a year when we indulge a little and break this rule. This is one such occasion.

Besan /Chickpea Flour - 2 cups, heaped
Water - 2 cups

Sugar - 2 cups
Water - 2 cups
Saffron - a pinch
Cardamom Powder - 1/4 tsp

Ghee - 1 tbsp
Peanut Oil for deep frying
Ladle with small holes

Sift the besan with a sifter. Add water slowly and make a batter by mixing simultaneously using a wire whisk. The batter should not be too watery and should be of dosa batter consistency.

Mix oil and ghee in a kadai and heat over medium heat. The oil should be sufficiently hot before dropping the batter. This can be tested by putting a drop of batter in the oil. The drop should immediately bubble up.

Now hold the ladle over the kadai and pour some batter on it. The drops of batter will fall on the oil and immediately bubble up. Remove the boondis after 10 seconds. The boondis should not get dark in color and should not be crisp. If a boondi is pressed between 2 fingers, it should get squeezed in and not crumble. Leave the boondis on a paper towel to soak excess oil.

Before frying the next batch of boondis, wipe the ladle completely clean. If the ladle has some batter clinging to it, the next batch of boondis will not be round and they will have an elongated shape. Continue frying like this for the entire batter.

Make a sugar syrup of 2 cups sugar and 2 cups water. Boil till the syrup for a couple of minutes. Add saffron and some cardamom powder. Add all the fried boondis and mix well. Now put the syrup along with the boondis back on heat for a few minutes till all the syrup is soaked. Leave the mixture to cool down for  a few minutes before serving. We had ours with some crisp brown rice muri.