Andi Unda , Kerala Special Cashew and Rice Balls

Today we are visiting God's Own Country, Kerala. I have visited kerala in my college days. Though i don't remember much of it of now, except for the malambuzha dam, where it was raining like cats and dogs and we all were bathing in the river and suddenly someone told us, thatthey are going to open the dam now, so better get out to save your lives. We jumped out immediately, but still sat and enjoyed the rain. Another incident is visiting the dam, photography is strictly prohibited in such places, though we took snaps inside our bus, the security saw us clicking, he came, argued and fought with us until we gave him the negatives. But after giving away the negatives, we shouted out 3 cheers for the security who took our negatives, hip, hip, hurray!!!! the whole bus resonated with that sound, our department teachers were looking red hot at us and we started to giggle after the 3 cheers!!! Final year of college, we were rebels, wonderful days, lovely memories, hope i had a cam that time, to freeze those moments!!! Coming to being a rebel, i m one, even today!!

Today i m bringing you a very simple, easy to make dessert/snack, that is both healthy and full of good fat.But there is more to cashews than their delicious taste; they are also powerhouses of nutrition, providing a wealth of important minerals and amino acids. While some may deplore their fat content, it is important to look at cashews within the scope of a healthy, varied diet. When you eat a variety of vegetables, fruits and leafy greens, cashews will not hinder your health and could in fact fill in the gaps and significantly raise your nutrient intake.

Source here

Ingredients
½ Cup Red Maata Rice
1 Cup Unsalted Cashew-nuts
1 Cup Powdered Jaggery/brown sugar
1 Cup Desiccated Coconut

Method

Roast the red matta rice in a pan without oil. The rice will become crispy and starts crackling. Once you start hearing the sound of crackle, take it off the stove, let it cool in a flat plate.
In the same pan, add the cashew-nuts and dry roast them until they turn brown. Take care not to burn or black them.Once roasted, spread them on a flat plate to cool.

Now, in a coffee grinder r small ja of your mixie, first grind the rice to fine powder. Next grind the cashew-nuts. Do not run the mixer continuously, it will result in cashew butter, we don't need cashew paste, we need powdered cashews, so just pulse it 4-5 times.
Mix together powdered cashews, powdered rice, powdered jaggery and coconut together. Take them a mixer jar and pulse them together 4-5 times to mix it well. This will help to bind them easily into balls. The fat in cashews and coconut, will mix well and make this process pretty easy.

Transfer the contents to a clean bowl, take fist pull of powder and start making balls by pressing it tightly in your palms, shaping them like laddus. Keep the balls in a clean flat plate.
Andi unda tastes best within 2-3 days. If you are planning to store for more days, then keep them in an air-tight container in the refrigerator. But then too, it is best to consume them within a week or 10 days.
These nutritional balls makes a wonderful gift during festive season.

Notes

Take care while roasting the ingredients, burning them will result in a bad taste of the end product.
Grind the rice and cashews separately. First time when i made this, i un-knowingly grounded both together and the rice was not ground well, it spoiled the texture of the dish, there were chunks of rice here and there which gave a nasty bite.
If you don't have jaggery, you can use brown sugar, i have tried both brown sugar and jaggery, brown sugar gave a even more deep color to the dessert.
If even after mixing everything together and pulsing in a grinder, you find it difficult to make them into balls, try adding little ghee. But it is totally unnecessary, if you pulse them together once.