The Besna is a sweet ceremony to celebrate a baby sitting up independently for the first time. Similarly, the Puglarva is a simple little custom to celebrate a baby’s first steps. Two large ‘Khaman na ladva’ shaped into feet – two had little charoli nuts for toe nails, are placed on a wooden board and the child is made to step on them.
My beautiful niece is now sitting up and we made small round larvas for her to sit on, and more larva were served to all the guests.

I’m using Katy Dalal’s recipe as a basis here. It isn’t easy, needs a lot of patience, but I have made these and they come out awesome.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
KHAMAN NO LADWA
Cornflour Coconut Balls Makes 20-25
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
INGREDIENTS
For the Stuffing
1 grated fresh coconut
8 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp almonds, blanched, skinned and sliced
1 tbsp pistas blanched, skinned and chopped
2 tbsp raisins
1/2 tsp cardamom – nutmeg powder
4 tbsp water
1 tbsp ghee
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

For the Outer Covering
Coconut milk from 1 freshly grated coconut
150 grams corn flour

PREPARATION
Place the grated coconut, sugar, ghee and water in a pan and allow it to cook over a slow flam until the coconut looses all its water but is still moist.

Add the raisins, nuts and spice powders and stir well for a couple of minutes.

Remove from heat, add the vanilla exxence, stir and set aside.

Put the cornflour in a skillet. Add the milk and coconut milk and stir well.

Add ghee, sugar and rose water.
Place on a low heat and stir constantly till the mixture thickens and solidifies.
Take out into a flat plate and knead till totally smooth.

Greace a metal colander and set aside.

Oil your hands. Make about 20-25 small balls from the mixture. Place them in your palm, flatten, spoon in a tablespoon of coconut mixture, close the cornflour mixture over it and smoothen the ball with a little liquified ghee. Continue till you’re done with all the mixture.

Place 5-6 balls in the greased colander (depending on its size). Place the colander over a pan with about 2 inches of water.

Heat the water with the colander over it, and the coconut balls covered with a damp muslin cloth.
The water mustn’t come anywhere near the bottom of the colander even when it boils. Choose a size of pan so that no steam will escape from the sides.

Steam for at least 30 minutes.
Cool and chill the ladwas before eating.

More Parsi food

No related posts.