Narkel Naru is a traditional sweet ladoo made with jaggery and coconut from the Bengali cuisine. These rustic ladoo can be sweetened with date palm jaggery or regular sugarcane jaggery or sugar.

Recipe Snapshot

  • Prep time: 5 minutes
  • Cook time: 10 minutes
  • Total time: 15 minutes
  • Yield: 10 · 10 Narkel Naru
  • Category: Sweets
  • Cuisine: Bengali, Indian

Ingredients

  • 2 cups fresh grated coconut
  • 1 cup organic jaggery powder (or organic chopped or grated jaggery)
  • ½ teaspoon green cardamom powder (- optional)
  • 1 to 2 teaspoons ghee (for greasing palms, you can also use coconut oil)

Method

  1. First heat a heavy kadai. Reduce the flame to a low and add fresh grated coconut.
  2. Stirring often roast the coconut for 4 to 5 minutes on low to medium-low heat. Make sure not to brown the coconut. The roasting helps to get rid of some moisture from the fresh coconut.
  3. Then add the jaggery powder or grated jaggery.
  4. Mix it thoroughly with the coconut.
  5. Stirring non-stop cook the coconut and jaggery mixture for about 6 to 7 minutes on low to medium-low heat.
  6. You will see that the jaggery will melt and mixture will slightly thicken. Do not cook too much or for long as the ladoo can become chewy or hard. To test the doneness, take a small portion of the mixture and let it cool down a bit. Then try to form a tiny ladoo with it. If the mixture can be shaped easily into a tiny ball, the ladoo mixture is ready.
  7. Switch off the the heat and keep the pan on the kitchen countertop.
  8. Add green cardamom powder.
  9. Mix very well and let this mixture cool completely at room temperature.
  10. Spread a bit of ghee or coconut oil in your palms and taking small to medium sized portions. Shape into neat round balls.
  11. Offer Narkel Naru to the deities or serve as a sweet to your family.
  12. Store the leftovers in an air-tight container and refrigerate. Depending on the color of jaggery, the color of Narkel Naru will vary from light brown to dark brown.

Kiyaan Singh’s Kitchen Note

Keep this recipe as a working base: cook once as written, then adjust spice, texture, and serving style for your own table.