In West Bengal, a state of eastern India, ‘Narkel Naru’ or ‘Coconut Laddoo’ is an inseparable part of Hindu religious offerings. There are at least three traditional Naru recipes with or without milk/condensed milk. The most common one uses jaggery instead of sugar- however, that’s quite traditional and kids don’t like that stuff much. So our recipe will have sugar, condensed milk and fresh milk.
White Narkel Naru: Ingredients:
- Big coconut, freshly grated- 1
- Milk- 1/2 Litre
- Condensed Milk- 250 ml
- Sugar to taste
- Freshly ground cardamom- 2 grams
- White camphor- 4-5 bids
White Narkel Naru: Cooking Procedure
Step 1
Put the freshly grated coconut in a wok or a large frying pan. Just heat enough on a low flame to desiccate the grated coconut
Step 2
Add milk and boil the grated coconut in milk for about five minutes.
Step 3
Add the condensed milk and mix well. Cook on a medium flame. Reduce the flame after a while. Keep stirring constantly till the mixture dries, gives off oil and no longer sticks to the wok or frying pan.
Step 4
Check for doneness (the extent of cooking) on the hand, if you roll the mixture the hand should get slightly oily.
Step 5
Add the cardamom powder and mix well. Take care to keep the naru mixture absolutely white.
Step 6
Add a few grains of Camphor. Switch off the gas. Mix thoroughly.
Step 7
Roll into small laddoos or Narus! You may use raisins for garnishing.
When dried, Narus become semisolid. However, the variety that doesn’t use milk or condensed milk, becomes hard and brittle. The state of the end product entirely depends on the sugar content and your craft.
You can enjoy Naru with Puri or Popped rice or ‘Muri’.
