Ragi laddu

Ragi laddu (ragi ladoo, ragi unde in Kannada) is a sweet that Karnataka and Tamil homes make from a grain they already cook with. It sits beside the more familiar besan and rava laddus at Deepavali and Sankranti and goes into tiffin boxes the rest of the year. The base is ragi flour, and the flour decides everything: it must be roasted slowly until the raw, chalky smell goes and it turns nutty, or the laddu tastes of raw grain.

This version uses jaggery powder rather than a boiled jaggery syrup, the quicker way many homes make it now. A syrup laddu is firmer and keeps longer, but the string stage is easy to miss; jaggery powder mixed into warm ghee and roasted flour binds without any of that and gives a softer, crumblier laddu that melts in the mouth. Roasted groundnuts and white sesame seeds are the Karnataka additions; swap them for chopped almonds and cashews, or add two tablespoons of roasted dry coconut, and the method does not change.

The finished laddu is dark brown, faintly grainy and not too sweet, with the earthy taste of ragi in front and cardamom behind. Use a little less jaggery if you want it closer to a plain ragi unde.