Hey there! Can you feel the aura of festivities around you? Since the Ugadi festival (Yugadi) is next week, the festival that is celebrated at the start of the Hindu New Year Calendar among Telugu and Kannada communities, I’ve already begun the preparations of sweets and savory dishes at home. I wanted to prepare something different than the basic Indian sweets such as Gulab jamun, Kheer, and Rasgulla. Now, since the festival is arriving soon and because any Indian festival without homemade sweets and savories is incomplete, and I feel there’s no fun if I don’t see myself busy in the kitchen preparing all these delicacies for my family for the festival.
Back in India, my mother often used to ask me if I wanted her to prepare any sweets for me, and I always politely declined as I didn’t want her stressing herself out with the tedious task of preparing sweets; however, I knew she felt disappointed everytime I refused to have her prepare sweets for me. As a mother, she only wanted me to cherish her food on the special occasion. Being a mother of three children, I now understand my mom’s feelings better than when I was a younger. A mother’s true happiness lies in seeing her kids enjoy the things she does for them, doesn’t it?
Now, being thousands of miles away from my mom, I value her food much more than I ever did in my childhood. I crave to eat her food every day. Her homemade chutneys and pickles are to die for. No store-bought chutney can compete with the taste of her delicious homemade chutneys. I wish I hadn’t denied her food when she’d offered; I now miss it so much!
Every time I make some new recipe or special dish my kids get very excited and share their happiness with me- that gives me more encouragement to try new dishes at home. This Kova kajjikaya is one of my favorite sweets from the Andhra region. I used to buy these from my favorite sweet shop called ‘Emerald’ in Hyderabad. Their sweets and savories are the best in town compare to many other popular sweet shops in Hyderabad. For the first time, I prepared this Kova kajjikaya at home, and it turned out super delicious.
This is an easy and quick recipe when compared to the traditional, tedious method of preparing Kova kajjikaya. It takes hardly 10 minutes of cooking time and 15 minutes of passive time to prepare this sweet. This is a shortcut to the regular making of kova. I used condensed milk and milk powder to make the kova in just 2 minutes. I used the desiccated coconut that is available in my pantry, which saved a lot of time in cooking compared to the regular fresh coconut. And I didn’t have to compromise the taste either. So, do give it a try in your home and make these for your family and friends. My kids loved the sweetness of the coconut combined with the richness of condensed milk, and I hope you do too. 😀
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Kova Kajjikaya Recipe:
Cut the jaggery into small pieces.
Combine the jaggery and coconut in a heavy bottomed pan. Since I am using desiccated coconut for my recipe, I first let the jaggery melt and then added the coconut. If you are using freshly grated coconut, then add it along with the jaggery. Let them cook on a medium heat.
Once the jaggery melts completely, add the desiccated coconut and stir it well. Keeping the stirring continued, cook it till it becomes a bit thick and sticky in texture. Don’t overcook the coconut-jaggery mix, otherwise, after it gets cooled the coconut mix becomes very hard.
Add a pinch of cardamom powder and a teaspoon ghee for some extra flavor and mix it well. Cook it for another 2 minutes.
Keep stirring continuously so that the coconut-jaggery mix doesn’t get burn. Turn the heat off.
Transfer the coconut mixture to a plate and wait till it becomes slightly cold to make the laddoo. I was too excited to make the laddoos and burnt my finger as I touched the coconut mixture while it was still hot. 🙁 So guys, please be careful!
Once the coconut mixture is cool enough to touch, grease your palms with ghee and proceed to make laddoos. Take a small amount of the coconut mix into your hands and form a round shape, like a laddoo.
These laddoos are called ‘Kobbari louju’ in my mother tongue Telugu. We can eat these coconut laddoos as it is like a dessert. This is one of my favorite sweets from my childhood. Keep these laddoos aside and prepare the outer coat.
Kova Preparation:
Combine the condensed milk and milk powder in a pan and cook it on a low heat. Keep stirring in order to avoid the milk mixture getting stuck to the pan.
Add a teaspoon of ghee and mix it well. Let this milk mixture cook, till it becomes like a dough and starts leaving the bottom of the pan. Turn the heat off. The Kova is ready to be stuffed with the coconut laddoos.
When the Kova is still warm and safe enough to touch, start making the laddoos. Grease your palms with ghee before making the laddoos. Take a small amount of the kova and form a round ball. Press it to make it flat, like shown in the picture below. Place the coconut laddoo in the center and gather the edges of the kova to seal the coconut filling.
Place this kova ball in between your palms and make it into a round shape. Repeat the same procedure with the rest of the dough and coconut laddoos, till you are done with them.
Since the Kova kajjikaya that is available in Hyderabad is cylindrical in its shape, I tried to make it that way. And I guess I did it pretty well! What do you think? 🙂
I am not a huge fan of sweets, but some traditional sweets like these always tempt me to eat more and more. My husband traveled abroad, so I packed some of these for him to eat during his trip. I hope he didn’t finish them all in the flight itself. ;D
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The smooth melt-in-mouth texture of the fresh kova, that is stuffed with the sweet cardamom flavored coconut sweet is a great combination itself. Try it yourself and let me know how you like it! 😀
| Prep Time | 10 minutes |
| Cook Time | 10 minutes |
| Passive Time | 10 minutes |
| Servings |
pcs
|
- 1 cup jaggery cut into pieces
- 1 cup desiccated coconut or freshly grated coconut
- a pinch of cardamom powder
- 1 teaspoon ghee
- 1/2 a can or 7oz condensed milk
- 1 cup milk powder
- 1 teaspoon ghee
Ingredients
For coconut laddoo
For Kova
|
|
- Cut the jaggery into small pieces.
- Combine the jaggery and coconut in a heavy bottomed pan.
- Keeping the stirring continued, cook it till it becomes a bit thick and sticky in texture.
- Add a pinch of cardamom powder and a teaspoon ghee for some extra flavor and mix it well. Cook it for another 2 minutes and turn the heat off.
- Transfer the coconut mixture to a plate and let it cool down.
- Once the coconut mixture is cool enough to touch, grease your palms with ghee and make coconut laddoos.
- Keep these laddoos aside and prepare the outer coat.
- Combine the condensed milk and milk powder in a pan and cook it on a low heat.
- Keep stirring in order to avoid the milk mixture getting stuck to the pan.
- Add a teaspoon of ghee and mix it well. Let this milk mixture cook, till it becomes like a dough and starts leaving the bottom of the pan. Turn the heat off.
- When the Kova is still warm and safe enough to touch, start making the laddoos.
- Grease your palms with ghee and take a small amount of the kova into your hand and form a round ball. Press it to make it flat and keep the coconut laddoo in the center. Gather all the edges of the kova to seal the coconut filling and make it into a round shape.
- Kova kajjikaya is ready!
