Moong Dal Narkel Burfi for JFI

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The New Year was here, the JFI for January was close and I was so hard pressed for time that I hadn’t come up with anything yet. Coconut is not something I use in my daily cooking as opposed to something my blogger friends from the Southern part of India do. I use Coconut & Coconut milk in some of my dishes but they are few and I was frazzled as I wanted to make something quick and simple and with coconut and knew not. I would have loved to post Prawn Malaikari as an entry as it is my favorite but that would have defied the true essence of JFI, a recipe that has not been blogged yet.

So I dialed Coconut 911 and my Ma came to the rescue as Mothers always due. This sweet is her baby and she was actually half way through her prep last night for this, when it suddenly struck my dull brain that THIS HAS COCONUT. Hey so this does have coconut, why didn’t I think of this when she said she is going to make it. The year 2006 has taken it’s toll on me it seems, my mind goes blink…blink…boink….
So from my Ma…

Moong Dal Coconut Burfi

What You Need

Split Yellow Moong Dal ~ 1 cup
Shredded Coconut ~ 2 cup . I used a frozen pack but a freshly shredded one is definitely better
Condensed Milk ~ ¾ of a can
Sugar ~ ¼ of a cup of fine sugar
Ghee ~ 2/3 tbsp
Elaichi or Cardamom ~ 5/6 pods. Take the seeds out of the pods and then ground them. Alternatively use cardamom powder

Raisins ~ one for each
Cashew ~ broken cashew one for each

How My Ma Did It

Boil the Moong Dal in a pressure cooker with almost 2 cup of water (enough water to cook the dal but not make it watery)
Take the boiled dal out and drain any excess water if any
Whisk the dal to a fine paste. The paste should not be watery.
Heat 3tbsp of Oil and 1tbsp of ghee in a Kadai/Frying Pan. You can forego the Canola Oil and use Ghee also, we try to reduce our ghee intake and so substitute in many cases.
Add the ground cardamom
Add the moong dal paste and stir.

Keep on stirring at medium heat till the moisture evaporates and the moong dal paste takes on a light brown colour.

Add 2 cups of shredded coconut and continue stirring.
Add 1 tbsp of ghee and fold in the coconut into the moong dal paste

Add ¾ can of condensed milk slowly, stirring the mixture
Add ¼ cup of fine sugar. Depending on your sweet level you may need to add more sugar. If your sugar is a little coarse then you may need to powder it.
Keep on stirring the mixture at low/medium heat. Take care that it does not burn. Add a little ghee if needed

Continue doing this till the mixture looses it’s stickiness. To check take a little of this paste and make a small round, if it sticks to your palm the mixture is not yet done.

Grease a plate and pour the mixture on it.
With a knife make incisions to create diamond shapes. Cool and then take each piece out and decorate with raisins and cashews.

Alternately you can also make round laddoos. You can decorate with icing as I did for the ones in the first pic

Thanks to Ashwini of Food For Thought for hosting Jihva for January and Thanks to Indira of Mahanadi for starting this event

Trivia: Antiseptic fatty acids in coconut oil help to prevent fungal and bacterial infections in the skin when it is consumed and to some extent, when it is applied directly to the skin.

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