Be My Guest – Ellunda with a Twist!!!

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Today is a special day for me. I will not be the one who would do the post, but a dear blogger friend I discovered through my time of surfing. I am pleased to introduce you to Meena, who blogs at Elephants and the Coconut Trees.  I barged onto her blog when she participated in the Kerala Kitchen cookout for the month of February and what I found was a beautiful blog, with mouthwatering recipes and not to say, the photographs which looks very professional. I frantically searched for a follower button, but I was disappointed not to find one. I left a comment on one of her recipes to put in the gadget so that I could follow her blog and in a weeks time,  I got an email thanking me for letting her know and that she had added the gadget. Now, going to see, I am her only follower!!!

Having seen some amazing work on her blog, I thought I should share her lovely blog with all of you. Knowing the support I get from all my friends out there, I decided to ask her for a guest post. She was kind of shocked, and surprised about the whole thing, but then, I should say that she did a fair job of coming back with a full post within 10 days!!! Isn’t she fast???

OK, without me blabbering any more, let’s go off to the recipe. The picture below is just mouthwatering, isn’t it? 🙂

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Yummm…..

Dear Rafeeda,

Thank you so much for inviting me to guest post in this beautiful space of yours. You are really gifted in winning over hearts of readers by writing everything going on in their mind. Hope you come up with many more interesting posts in the years to come .Wish you good luck in all your endeavors.

Now over to you ,dear readers,

I am Meena ,I run the blog named “elephants and the coconut trees” . A Keralite,currently living in California with my beautiful daughter and a very patient husband who encourages me to cook out of my comfort zone of  daily survival food. I started my blog a few months back to keep track of recipes and everything cooked in my kitchen in the hope that some day my daughter would catch up.I love trying different cuisines because I believe they are treasures one needs to explore and it is the only language that has no barriers.

Having said that I must add  that initial days of cooking were pretty annoying with flop series but with persistent effort and  patience I did see some light at the end of the tunnel 🙂

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Ellu unda is a traditional sweet snack enjoyed all over Kerala with evening tea. . A snack that roosted every bakery ‘s glass bottles before the junk foods invaded.Usually made just with jaggery and sesame seeds.which is slightly hard to bite.I have added some oats and little milk unlike the regular ones as my daughter was complaining of loose tooth and wanted something softer.As I write this post I can see the last one being gobbled not sure if it is the eye appeal of dried cranberries or the softness that worked like a charm !

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Ellunda – Sesame Bites
Yields around 15 small ellundas

Ingredients 

Ellu / Sesame seeds- 1 cup (white)

Oats – 3/4 cup- 1 cup (fast cook version)

Jaggery- 4-5 cubes

Cardamom -2 pods(Powdered)

Ghee- 3 tsp (I used unsalted butter)

Milk -2 tbsp

Optional :

Raisins- a few to make it look pretty :)) (I used some dried cranberry)

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Looks so cute, right… 🙂

Method

1.Before you begin:

Soak the jaggery in the 1/2 glass water .That way it melts faster and you don’t have to scrape or powder it.

Grease a plate with lil butter and keep it ready.

2.Dry roast the oats on low heat by stirring continuously for 10 -12 mts till a nice roasted aromas comes .Keep it aside .

3.In the same pan dry roast sesame seeds till it crackles and a roasted aroma of it comes.Stir well till done keep an eye it can get burnt fast.

4.In a heavy bottom pan put the jaggery to melt on low heat(without burning it) add a tbsp or two of water if you want. It will dissolve and start to boil and bubble let it thicken to a syrup .All the time you need to stir.Test the syrup when right put the flame immediately.

To test if the syrup has reached right consistency –
Put a few drops of syrup into small bowl full of water now discard water and  try to roll the jaggery drops into a ball if it shapes easily then the syrup is done .If it dissolves without shaping then u need to continue boiling till u get it right.

5.Add 2 tbsp milk ,Ghee/ butter,cardamom powder stir it well then add sesame seed and oats.Stir till everything is coated in the jaggery syrup and well combined.

6.Put the mixture on to the greased plate . Leave it to cool slightly I mean bearable heat then roll the mixture into required shape with your lovely butter greased palms .Round ,square u name it but keep it small.

Or put the mixture on a plate and level the top let it cool completely meanwhile run a butter greased knife to shape the squares.When completely cool break it.

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Note

• Hot jaggery should be handled very carefully as it can cause serious burns.
• If u find that after adding all the ingredients u are not able to shape (kind of soggy) Put it back to a oven proof dish and spread .Leave it at 250-300 ° F for a  7-8 mts for it to become dry.Try shaping it  before it dries out completely..
• Many variations can be made by adding coconut ,peanut etc instead of oats (dry roast it for taste and longer shelf life).

So how did you guys find the post? Lovely, right? Meena thought her pictures were shaky and cloudy, but for a lame person like me, who has very normal picture taking skills, this is amazing!!!

Thank you so much, Meena, for taking your time and doing this post for me. Hoping to see many many more of your lovely creations, in the future!!! 🙂

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