Gond Laddu
by Sheela Rani Chunkath
It is winter in Chennai. Nights and early mornings are cool. In Ayurveda there is the Dina charya, the rules governing daily living and Ritu charya, the rules governing our lives with the changing seasons.
Winter is the time for feasting, for exercise, and for travel. So if you want to start that intense swimming training or to learn a new game, try your hand at badminton, now is the time to start. In summer when the air is hot and you are feeling the heat, the time is not right to undertake an intense exercise programme. Many healthy individuals have dropped dead on the court when playing an intense game of tennis in the summer heat. WhenVayu increases heart attacks can happen.
So do change your activities depending on the season. And of course this goes for food also. In an earlier article I had written about the six tastes into which Ayurveda classifies food. They are called the Six Rasas i.e. Sweet (madhuram), salt (lavanam), pungent (Katu), astringent (kashyam), bitter (tikta) and sour (amla). Foods, substances and drugs are also classified as usna-virya (heating) and sita-virya (cooling). In general you eat sita-virya substances during summer and usna-virya substances during winter.
I had gone shopping sometime last May when I happened to come across a packet of Bombay-gond which is used to make gond-laddu. This gond is the resinous exudation of certain acacia trees and is used in Rajasthani and Gujarati cooking to make an exotic tasting laddu. I am told that the dish originated in the Mewar region and then got taken to other parts of the Country.
Tamilians and Keralites and perhaps South Indians in general are not very familiar with this ladoo. Perhaps because we do not really have very cold winters. Anyway I bought this packet of Bombay gond in May when the mercury was in the high 90’s in Chennai. I had identified an interesting recipe and was planning to get the exact details from a relative of mine who makes these delicious ladoos when I decided to look up the benefits of the gond. Of course the book said the gond was of heating viryam or usna viryam so I had to shelve my project. I chucked the packet of gond in to the freezer and forgot all about it till my relative recently visited Chennai. I dug the gond out and decided to make the laddu and even include a picture of the laddu with this article. Unfortunately Chennai is not geared to making gond laddus and the burra sugar needed to make the laddus was not readily available. You can make it with regular sugar but that makes the laddu sticky or you can make the burra sugar at home which I felt was too much work. So I decided to wait a couple of days for the burra sugar to be available in the shops. The recipe sounds quite simple. You fry the gond a little at a time in ghee. Apparently the gond swells up quite a bit. You lightly press it with a rolling pin to crush it into small pieces. You fry some atta in the ghee to a nice brown colour. You add some melon seeds, cashews, raisins, pistas, almonds and other dry fruits to the atta and sugar mix and form into small laddus. The laddus are delicious and just the thing for the winter cold.
Ingredients required are :
Gond 100 gms
Wheat Flour 1 cup
Ghee 3/4 cup
Burra Sugar 1 cup
Musk Melon Seeds 2 Tablespoons
Cashew Nuts 12 numbers
(or other dry fruits)
Elaichi powder 1/4 teaspoon
I am sure you will enjoy making it and introducing a new sweet variety to the South Indian palate.
--- The writer is retired Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Tamil Nadu. She can be reached at Sheelarani.arogyamantra@gmail. com. Earlier articles can be accessed at http://arogyamantra.blogspot.com/