Sweet Beginnings for Diwali

Wishing you all a very Happy Diwali...

After making a horde of goodies for Diwali the first year after marriage, I have become not-so-enthusiastic in making them after that. You can say that I got busy with the rigmarole that you call life. Now I want to start the traditions(atleast the food part), so that my sons have memories to recount later, like I do.
We being the foodie family, have fond memories of all Hindu festivals mainly by the goodies accompanying them. I keep talking to friends and family about making stuff for the various festivals. Like I was chatting with friend Rohini last weekend, about how we discussed about what all to make for last Diwali, and both of us ended up with making maybe 1-2 sweets each.
Mom makes the yummiest rava laddu. My Kalpana mami is an excellent cook too. I think I tasted my first Maharashtrian rava laddu made by her at Pune (or atleast that is the way I remember it). I really liked the twist that coconut brings to the taste.
Mumbai-masala.com is a web-site I discovered probably 5-6 years back, and the recipes yield fool-proof authentic-tasting Maharashtrian food. Among the various recipes that I've tried from here, is one for Rava Laddu. The taste was very close to what I remember.
My Sita chitti had brought a few of these for my sister Vidya when she visited her in Albany, NY. Vidya really liked them, and I've been wanting to make a batch of these for myself ever since. Diwali provided the perfect excuse for this.
So after telling my mom that I am going to make something for diwali this year, I tried the recipe again, with excellent results. I made minor changes to the proportions, based on the quantities I had, and the tastes I preferred, and the health choices I wanted.
I also remembered Shilpa of Aayi's recipes and Bee of Jugalbandi blogging about similar rava laddu recipes, and checked out their posts. Their recipes are quite similar to this.

Ingredients:
Fine rava/sooji - 4 cups
(I had the coarse kind... I just pulsed it in the food processor for a few minutes)
Coconut, freshly grated - 3 cups
Sugar - 3-1/2 cups
Water - 1-3/4 cups
Ghee - 1/2 cup
Cardamom - 10 (powdered fine)
Cashews, broken into pieces - a handful
Raisins - a handful

Method:
Heat the sugar and water, and let the syrup boil until you get a one-thread consistency.
Meanwhile roast the rava with the ghee until it attains a nice pink color. Add the coconut at this point, and roast until the cocounut is slightly toasted.
Powder the cardamom powder, fry the raisins and cashew is 1-2 tsp of ghee, and add the cardamom powder, raisins and cashews to the rava-coconut mixture. Turn off the heat, and add the sugar syrup and mix well.
The mixture may not seem firm at this point, but just leave it for a couple of hours, stirring once every half hour. The rava/coconut mixture will soak up the liquid, and you should be able to roll it into laddus with ghee applied to your hands.

Now that I've got one sweet made, I am aiming for more. But I have school this weekend, and have lots to work on before the classes. On the list are:
- Gulab jamun ( I have 3 packets of gulab jamun mix)
- Sweet and salty shankarpali
(Update: This post was in the draft stage for the past 2 days, and I haven't been able to make any of the things listed above. Will see if I can do something this weekend.)
(Update2: Mom made this rava laddu at Albany too. She also made sweet shankarpali)
(Update3: Pictures and hyperlink edits coming later. I wanted to get this post out today. Have to figure out how to get these things done:))

Have to go to school today and tomorrow. We are planning on attending the Diwali program at Chinmaya Maruti, Andover tomorrow. They have sparklers for children at the end of the pooja and arati, and Adarsh really likes that. We've been going there for the last two years, and it does feel like Diwali, when you get the smell of sparklers burning in the cool, crisp air. It is Nikhil's first diwali too:)

Wish you all a very Happy Diwali!!!