Narkel Nadu/Sweet Coconut Balls

Although the Puja days are gone, hang over is still on me. Still reminiscing the days of Puja this year and previous years. The last day of Durga Puja is known to us as Bijaya Dashami. Ma Durga returns back to Kailash with her children after a short 5 days trip to Mother earth and we give her farewell offering sweet and sindur (vermillion). Although we feel deeply disheartened at the depart of Devi Durga, but the sadness is balanced with sweets and savories for Bijaya Dashami. We used to visit all relatives and friend's homes nearby and offered pronams(regards) to our elders and best wishes and love to our friends and younger ones and were blessed to get plates of nimki, narkel naru (sweet coconut balls), dai borha (lentil dumplings in yogurt syrup), sandesh (sweet made of cottage cheese), chandrapuli (coconut sweet made in a special mold) etc. Our Puja vacation fun used to get doubled with the fun visit to many homes in evening with our parents to their friends' homes for Bijaya trips. Although there was a custom that only males can do kolakuli (hugs in a special way), the kids used to follow them. And in each home we used to get varieties of snack plates consisting sweets and salty snacks. But each plate surely used to contain narkel naru (sweet coconut balls) made of either sugar or jaggery.

Far off from home, we now follow the Bijaya tradition by calling our relatives and friends over phone or drop an email or by another smart way - updating Facebook status for all but that does not stop us to crave for the traditional Bijaya snack plate. And yes if there is none to serve you the plate then self-help is the wisest way. I made the ideal Bijaya dashami snack plate with ghugni (spicy peas curry), nimki (or namak paray), and two types of narkel naru. Let me share with you the recipe of narkel naru here.

Narkel Naru with Jaggery

Narkel naru is an essential part of our festive savory. We make it very often it on or off purpose. Although I love narkel naru made with sugar, my hubby's favorite is narkel naru made with gur/jaggery.

Ingredients:

1. Shredded coconut : 1 packet (I have used frozen shredded coconut, you can use fresh shredded coconut, too)
2. Jaggery/Gur: 2.5 cup (almost double the coconut amount)
3. Cardamom  powder : 1 teaspoon
4. Water: 1/4 cup
5. Ghee for making balls (optional)

Steps:

1. First you need to thaw the frozen coconut. I have kept the frozen coconut packet outside for more than 6 hours to thaw. If you are using fresh coconut, you don't need this step at all.

2. I have used date's molasses or  nolen gurh as the jaggery. You can also use normal jaggery or sugar cane jaggery for this purpose. You need to dilute the jaggery with water. To melt solid jaggery you can microwave it with little water (1/4cup approx.) for 2-3 minutes. Or you can directly pour mentioned amount of water in the kadhai and then the jaggery. You  can break the jaggery with little pressure through your ladle. When the jaggery melts, you can proceed to the next step.

3. Now add the shredded coconut and mix it well with the melted jaggery. Don't cook it on high heat. Always cook on medium heat and don't leave cooking unattended at all for a minute to stop the risk of burning.

4. Add fresh cardamom powder.  Mix it well with the coconut mixture. If you are offering it to God/Goddess, you can also apply some camphor dust with this mixture to get a special smell. When you feel the mixture is enough sticky to make small balls, switch off the heat. For me it took 10 minutes to get the desired consistency. Longer time the mixture on the heat makes the naru harder.You can keep on heat depending on how hard naru/ball you want to make. 

5. Cool it off for 5-6 minutes. Apply some ghee on your palm and make balls from the mixture.

6. Serve it and Enjoy.

Narkel Naru with Sugar

Although my mom used to make mostly jaggery version of naru but I have always liked the white narkel naru made with sugar instead of jaggery. To make it more tastier you can add khoya kheer/mewa/milk powder.

Ingredients

1. Shredded coconut : 1 packet (I have used frozen shredded coconut, you can use fresh shredded coconut, too)
2. Sugar: 2.5 cup (almost double the coconut amount)
3. Cardamom  powder : 1 teaspoon
4. Khoya kheer/milk powder/mawa: 1cup
5. Ghee for making balls (optional)

Steps:

1. First you need to thaw the frozen coconut. I have kept the frozen coconut packet outside for more than 6 hours to thaw. If you are using fresh coconut, you don't need this step at all.

2. If you are using khoya kheer/mawa block, shred it for use. In case you don't have khoya, you can substitute it with milk powder. 

3. Take a heavy bottomed pan and put it on a medium to low heat.

4. Add shredded coconut and sugar.  The sugar will start melting and coconut will change the color. Stir it continuously to mix it. Don't let it stick it to the bottom of the pan.

5. Add Khoya kheer to the pan and mix it well with the sugar-coconut mixture. Stir it until khoya melts and makes good bond with the mixture.

6. When you see the mixture dries up and no longer sticks to the pan, your mixture is ready for making balls. Do not over dry it other wise you can not form the ball. When you feel it is almost done, you can take a spoon of mixture and try to make ball to test the accuracy.

7. Cool it off for 5-6 minutes. Don't cool it completely. When the mixture is warm, make balls out of the mixture.

8. Store it in air-tight container and refrigerate it.