Oats Ladoo

It is Navarathri. Everybody is making all types of prasadams for the goddess during these nine days. Huge celebrations all around. I decided to do my little bit and resolved to make one item a day. Either a sundal variety, or some kind of sweet.

On the other hand, the thought of making ladoos with oats has been pinging me from one corner of my brain for quite some time. So, decided to try a ladoo with oats. The goddess is also not spared from our cooking experiments. :) The recipe that is followed is very similar to pori urundai that is generally made at home for karthigai deepam. This recipe makes 12 medium sized ladoos.

Ingredients:
Oats - (Quaker quick cooking) - 2 cups
Jaggery - 1/2 cup
Water - 1/4 cup
Cardamom (powdered) - 4 Nos
Peanuts - 4 tbsp
Sesame seeds - 2 tbsp
Cashews - 6 Nos (optional)
Raisins - 1 tbsp
Roasted channa dhall (pottukadalai) - 2 tbsp
Rice flour - 1 - 2 tbsp

Method of Preparation:
- Take a heavy bottomed kadai. Keep it on a slow flame.
- Dry roast the peanuts, cashews and sesame seeds separately.
- Remove the skin from the peanuts. Keep aside.
- Now dry roast the oats till they turn golden brown. This happens rather soon. So keep stirring constantly so that they do not burn.
- In the same kadai, add jaggery and water.
- Let the jaggery dissolve completely. Strain to remove any impurities.
- Now keep the syrup in low flame and add the cardamom powder.
- Keep stirring till the syrup reaches the soft rolling ball consistency. This can be checked by pouring a drop of the syrup in a small bowl of water.
- Turn off the flame and add the roasted oats, peanuts, cashews, raisins, channa dhall, sesame seeds.
- Mix vigorously.
- Dust your hands with rice flour and quickly make ladoos out of it.

Naivedyam - first for the goddess and then for us is ready :)
Just a thought, using the same method, one can make breakfast bars also. Adding a few more ingredients, some vanilla essence and a few nuts, this mixture can be poured on a greased plate and cut into rectangles. Need to give it a try sometime!!