Sunday, July 17, 2011

Pearl millet candy (Kambu urundai)

This candy might have been the power bar / cereal bar for the farmers of  India before this commercial era. Not only Indian farmers, each and every working community all over the world would have had their own recipe before industrialization. While growing up I never cared much for these village recipes as they were readily available to me on daily basis. But after tasting all kinds of store bought power bars and realizing the benefits of home-cooking, I wanted to try my own using the traditional recipe. In my native we used to make a lot of this kind of candies / cereal bars using various combinations. These candies have loads of fiber and nutrition , hence they can be served as after work-out food, evening snack, break fast with milk, dessert etc. We can adjust and make them within 150 K Cal (each).


I have heard people calling it as Kambu kozhukkattai, but I tell it as kambu urundai (candy) as it is prepared without steaming.
Kambu - pearl millet (bajira - Hindi), kolukkattai / kozhukkattai - steamed sweet dumbling, urundai - ball (here it means candy).



Ingredients:
Kambu (bajira) - 1 cup
sesame - 1/4 cup
groundnut - 1/2 cup
dry ginger powder - 1/2 tsp
cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp
jaggery - 1 cup
rice flour - 2 tbsp

Method:
Dry roast the kambu till it smells good and powder it.
(If we can't get whole kambu, then use the powdered version here after roasting).
Dry roast the sesame and groundnut separately.
Remove the skin of groundnut by scrubbing gently.
Coarsely grind the sesame and groundnut, so that groundnut remains as big pieces.
Melt the jaggery and remove any impurities. Bring it to rolling boil (2 string consistency).
Mix the powdered kambu, crushed sesame, crushed groundnut, dry ginger powder, cardamom powder and make small spherical balls (palm size). If needed add a tbsp rice flour to facilitate the rolling process.

Kambu urundai is ready!

Serving suggestions:
Serve just like protein bars
It can be had as healthy snack, after work-out meal, breakfast etc.

5 comments:

Hamaree Rasoi said...

Urundai looks very inviting and delicious. Excellent preparation.

Deepa
Hamaree Rasoi

Hari Chandana P said...

Very healthy recipe.. looks tempting :)

Tina said...

Candy sounds healthy and yummy...

divya said...

Healthy and tasty candy..Looks great!

Anonymous said...

Healthy and good snacks

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