Narkel Naru/Gurer Narkel Naru(Coconut sweet ball with jaggery):

Naru is a nostalgia to me, it commemorates my childhood, especially the time of the Durga Puja. I still remember Grandma and mom were very busy making homemade sweets and salty snacks for the Durga Puja, the big festival of Bengalis. In the Bengali household first item in sweet which we made is Naru. Two types of Naru we usually made one are made with coconut, white sugar, and milk(Chinir Naru) and the other is with coconut and jaggery(Gurer Naru). 

Grandma was very particular about making Naru. I observed all the procedure from scratch. Coconut which she used to make Naru must be well riped (jhuno)but soft, the sound of water inside must be heard. The medium age man who plucked Coconut from the coconut tree know my grandma's mind and segregate the best ones for her. Then he peels the hard outside of coconut, washes it, breaks it in half, and makes it ready for grating.

My mom and other women of the house grate the coconut with a coconut grater and pile them in a big vessel. Then grandma starts making Naru. She adds all the ingredients in a big vessel and starts boiling by stirring occasionally. The flame must be not very high it needs to be in a slow flame so that the coconut gets soft and mixed well with other ingredients and results in a soft texture Naru, dry from outside but moist and soft from inside. The last part is very tough when the coconut mixture gets dry and came together, grandmom was expertise about the time when to remove it from the flame, then she let it cool a bit and all ladies start making Naru. 

They took a handful of a quantity of the mixture and roll it in both hands lightly pressing between the palms. After cooling them properly for hours Naru will be stored in airtight containers in batches for the friends and family to distributed in the time of Puja. Hence, for me making Naru means"Pujo asche"(Durga Pujo is coming).

I tried to follow every bit of my grandmom's Naru-making procedure and it is not like my grandmom's but it is nicely made, soft and moisture from inside but dry from outside.

Some other Sweet recipes:

Baked Rosogolla
Mango Malai Cham Cham
Roshogolla
Sandesh

Course- Dessert( Gurer Naru)

Dish - Bengali

Author - Usashi Mandal

Preparation time - 30 minutes

Cooking time - 1 hour+

Ingredients:

1 medium-size coconut grated

2 cups of jaggery

Cardamom powder

Water

Instruction:

1. In a big vessel or pot add all the ingredients to boil.

2 Cook in low flame until it came together and start forming like a dough-like consistency.

3. Add cardamom powder and take out from the flame and let it cool.

4. Take a handful quantity of the mixture and roll it in both hands lightly pressing between the palms and giving a shape like a small ball.

5. Let it dry for hours, then store them in airtight containers.