Coconut Burfi ~ A Delicious Indian Sweet!

Coconut Burfi a succulent, chewy Indian sweet is something that finds itself on our table when we have excess fresh coconut on hand! We often find ourselves with excess coconuts and the only remedy is Coconut Barfi. You ask why so many coconuts? Well with so many festivals round the clock and lot of poojas at home, lot of coconuts tend to be offered.

Breakfast at Parent's place was never without a Coconut Chutney on the side be it Idli or Dosa, as it was my brother's favorite chutney. While I find it most difficult to use up my share of coconuts, as Hubby dear doesn't like coconut chutney. Most times, we let it go dry, to use it as Copra. Copra is normally dried with the water inside, the reasons for the copra being very oily and having that distinct taste. But fresh coconut, that's not tender, is also a good candidate for becoming a copra. But hey, you got to use that copra too right! If you just sneak behind my refrigerator's inner cabin, you will lot of copras happily slumbering away. We don't store cooked food in fridge but somehow, something or the other gets forgotten, only to give each other a cold company!

Now when I decided to meet my fellow bloggers, I had swirling thoughts in mind, wondering what to take for them. The dish had to be something that could be made before hand, yet tasty! Well well, I had lots of coconut on hand, and Amma makes the yummiest Coconut burfi I have ever tasted. That's the best choice I thought I had. So had all the coconut all grated and ready. I even took down the recipe from Amma, saying I am going to make it myself. Only time and the little sweet terrors at home wouldn't let me. When I finally got around making it, it was past mid night! But I was determined on making it. It was worth all the pains, for aroma that sniffed past me, while I was shoving over the pan, trying hard not to let it get struck at the bottom.

Imagine that was the first time I was making it all alone. The whole world was asleep and I had no heart to disturb Amma with silly questions. Its either going to come out as a barfi or as mixture, either way my friends would be happy to taste it, I was sure. I always had Amma next to me, when I attempt such dishes. So getting it out perfectly on my first attempt singly made me very happy! And my dear blogger friends said they liked it too. I didn't get to taste it at all, and came back hoping there will be a piece left for me. But there were no remains too. The kids loved it so much that everything was kahtam in no time!

Since then, I have been trying to make it again, but could never get around it. When we again had loads of fresh coconut, Athamma asked Amma to make, as the kids were fond of it. Its really amazing to know what the kids love, you know. This time too, it got over before I even could say Click! So made it again with the modifications that Amma has done to her original recipe and this time it was no tension, no hassle job!

Grate the coconut. If you are making in large quantity, you can run it in a mixer too. Chop the coconut into small bits and run them for 1 or 2 rounds in a mixer. It should be coarse.

Normally we used to roast the grated coconut. But we always had this fear if it will get set or not. But this time we did not roast the coconut and it was so simple to get it set!

Meanwhile roast the cashew nuts in ghee and keep it aside.

Add water enough to just cover the sugar and melt the sugar. Once you remove the scum, if any, bring the syrup to a boil. The syrup be of one thread consistency.

Add the grated coconut, cardamom powder, cashew nuts to the sugar syrup. Stir well so that it gets mixed fully! Keep stirring or else it might get burnt. You will know its done when the coconut starts coming off the pan. Adding rava help in binding the coconut and sugar.

For more taste, you can powder some cashew nuts and add.

Grease a plate on which you are going to set this. Then once the barfi is done, pour on to the greased plate. Just tap the plate down, it will get set automatically. Using a greased spatula, spread on the top for a even spread.

With a knife, make horizontal lines and then do a cross line across to get diamond shaped Barfi. I have always see only diamond shaped ones.

We made using 4 cups of grated coconut. It yielded appx 40 big pieces and it took just 20 min. So for 1 cup of coconut, it should hardly take any time.

Enjoy this time old traditional Indian sweet anytime of the day!