Meri Rasoi: Rava laddoo

Happy Janmashtami to all!!.. This year surprisingly Janmashtami is being celebrated on two different dates. I don't know the reason. I blindly follow what my mum says :) To me,she is my personal calender :) She promptly reminds me about the festival dates along with many other things:)
So this year , I thought I would make Rava laddoo. I made this for the first time today and it came out great:). During my visit to India,my mum had shown me the recipe ( proper step by step practical lesson;)) I have tasted Rava laddoo in different places but for me the way my mum makes it is the benchmark.

So finally tried the recipe today (my mum was giving me remote support through the phone:)) I was very happy with the result.This recipe makes about 15-16 laddoos .

INGREDIENTS:

Rava or Sooji : 1 cup
Sugar : 1 cup
Ghee : 1/4 cup
Cashews: 2 tbsp (broken in to pieces)
Raisins : 2 tbsp
Cardamom (Elaichi) : 5 (powdered)
A pinch of saffron

METHOD:

Heat ghee in a thick bottomed pan (i used the pressure cooker pan).
Firstly fry cashews and raisins separately and set it aside.

In the same ghee, roast the rava until all the raw smell of the rava goes away and you get a beautiful aroma from the roasted rava.

Once the rava is roasted, turn off the heat and add the fried cashews and raisins to it.Set it aside to cool.

In a pot mix 1/2 cup of water,sugar , powdered cardamom and saffron and heat the mixture.

Bring it to a boil and continue to heat until you get a one thread consistency from the sugar syrup. Once you arrive at a one thread consistency, turn off the heat. Let the syrup cool down and then add it to the roasted rava and mix well. Initially the mixture will seem liquidy. Set it aside for a bit. In time the mixture will start to solidify. (Note: After adding the syrup to the rava , you donot heat the mixture. )

(After adding the syrup to the roasted rava, initially the mixture will be liquidy. Wait for sometime till you arrive at the consistency shown in the pic above.)