Rava Laddoo

Here's something I tried for the first time this navratri, my mom's recipe for rava laddoo!

Ingredients:

Rava (sooji) - 1 cup
Sugar - 1-1.25 cups
Cardamom - 6
Roasted cashews - 10 (I used the jumbo size) chopped into small pieces
Roasted raisins - 1/4 cup
Warm ghee - 1 cup

Dry roast the rava till it turns golden brown (you can't miss the nice hot/roasted smell!). Add the cardamom and powder it in the blender. When it's almost done, add the sugar and run the blender a couple times. Take it out in a plate, mix in cashews and raisins. Now pour over the ghee, 2 tbsp at a time and make the even-sized balls.

Notes:

• You don't have to use up the entire cup of ghee. I used only 1/2 a cup. So, stop when you think you have enough to make the balls (laddoos). You don't want to make the mixture gooey!
• You could use powdered sugar if you want to avoid running the sugar in the blender. But if you decide to use granulated sugar, do not grind it too much, over grinding burns the sugar! Pulsing is a better option.
• I made the mistake of grinding the rava and sugar together. You want to avoid this. The rava will not grind well with sugar so grind the rava first and then add the sugar for a quick "pulse".