‘Kadle unde’ or the ‘Peanut Balls’ happens to be my favourite since my childhood days. This sweet, then, was especially prepared during ‘Shri Krishna Janmashtami’, which happens to be one of the most important festivals for us. For ‘Kadle unde’ and several other reasons, we used to long for this festival each year. Once this festival ended, it took no time for these sweet balls to be emptied.
Sankranthi falls in the ‘Makara’ month of the solar calendar, thereby getting its name “Makara Sankranthi”. It is a festival celebrated across India, mostly in the rural belt, marking the beginning of the harvest season. It is celebrated as ‘Suggi / Sankranthi’ in Karnataka, ‘Pongal’ in Tamil Nadu , ‘Lohri‘ in Punjab, ‘Bihu’ in Bihar and ‘Sankranthi’ in other parts.
Back in Karnataka, especially in Bangalore and its surrounding areas, sugarcane is the major crop and therefore on this day, sugar and jaggery based sweets are prepared and distributed / exchanged with neighbours, friends and relatives. Early in the morning, the ladies draw beautiful Rangoli in front of their houses and exchange sesame – jaggery savouries with neighbours and friends. The plates distributed / exchanged , typically includes sesame seeds, small coconut pieces, jaggery, and a sugar candy (of various shapes and colours) called ‘Sakkare-Acchu’. Along with this, a small piece of sugarcane would be included too. The onus of handing out these items would be on small girls wearing ‘Pattu’ / ‘Udda Langa’ and exchanged or distributed among families and friends in the neighbourhood.
Traditionally, on this day, a jaggery based sweet is prepared to mark the occasion. Let’s look into one of the simplest, yet tasty dish – Kadle Unde / Peanut Balls.
Other easy and very relevant jaggery based savory for this occassion is the “Ellu Unde” /”Sesame Balls”
Other jaggery based sweets :
Total Time: 30
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 10 minutes
Servings:24
Main Ingredients:
Raw peanuts / groundnuts: 2 cups
Jaggery / Antu Bella : 1/2 cup
Method:
- Heat a deep bottomed pan in low flame. Once it is hot enough, roast the groundnuts so that the raw smell of the ground nut goes off and it is easy to peel of the skin
- Remove from flame . Remove the outer covering – using palm, or by putting the groundnuts in a zip pouch and rubbing it thoroughly, or by wrapping the groundnuts in a cloth and beating them hard – a convenient method can be adapted
- Coarsely grind the de-husked groundnuts. It is totally up to you as to how granular you want the peanut balls to be. Transfer it to a wide mouth container
- In a deep bottomed pan, add jaggery and little water and heat until the jaggery syrup reaches the desired consistency (at this stage, a small drop of the jaggery syrup when dropped in water turns into a small ball)
- Quickly pour the jaggery syrup over the ground peanuts and mix well
- Grease your palm with ghee, carefully tighten the mixture to form small balls / Unde
- Repeat the above step till the entire mixture is converted into small balls / Unde
- Kadle Unde / Peanut balls are ready to relish !!!
Kadle Unde Stories :
This is one unde, which comes with a bang, but goes without a trace, whenever made in the kitchen!!! I always prefer to cook for others, but when it comes to this particular dish, it is me who cooks and me who finishes!!! Before marriage, I had a tough time competing with my sister for this, as we had our own secret hiding places for all the savouries that mom prepared!!! At times, we used to get caught easily, by the ever disciplined families of ants, which strictly adhered to a single lane policy, all the way to their destination, helping mom (and the rest of the opponents) trace our secret spots!!! Well, those are sweet memories now. The game is still on, but with different players – the youngest being my little daughter!!!
With the least ingredients nice laddoo.. Sooper write up of sankranti
Thank you 🙂