Rice flour laddu is a quick, gluten free Indian sweet prepared with roast rice, sugar and ghee. It is one of the must preparations for Bathukamma festival, in Telnagana, India.

In this A-Z Challenge, Journey Through Telangana Cuisine, my ‘N’ was finalized long ago when I made the initial list, months ago. The recipe was easy, pictures were clicked, edited and this was one of the easiest letters to work with until I landed on this video.

In the video these muddalu are called nemchenu muddalu and I call these neichen muddalu. Then began my hardship to figure out the right name for the muddalu. After talking to my mother and cousins, I was even more confused and confused them as well, on the original name of these muddalu.

Couple of days ago, after calling a handful of people I concluded it is nethichamili muddalu. Nethi is neyyi/ghee, chamili according to one of my aunts is pindi/flour and muddalu are balls. Isn’t it strange how over a period time, nethichamili muddalu became neichen muddalu and the name makes no sense when translated.

Nethichamili (Neichen) Muddalu

Nethichamili muddalu are laddu prepared with freshly ground roasted rice and powdered sugar using neyyi (ghee) as a binder. This is one of the prasadams for saddula bathukamma.

Bathukamma Festival

Bathukamma is a festival celebrate by women in Telangana for 9 days before Dasara. You could say this is our version of Navratri. It starts on amavasya (no moon day) and ends on the 9th day which is saddula bathukamma. Depending on the Telugu calendar, saddula bathukamma is celebrated a day or 2 before Dasara.

This is one festival where women really enjoy the festival without spending hours in the kitchen preparing tons of food for the family and entertaining them all day. Variety of vegetarian food; pulihora, daddojanam and few more items are prepared in the morning and is offered to Goddess Gauri.

Bathukkamma is arranged on a wide plate in a conical shape with multiple layers of flowers. In the evening women and girls get together at one place and celebrate bathukamma singing and dancing/playing around it.

Later, bathukamma is immersed in a near by pond, lake or a river. Then women exchange prasadam. Prasadam for the festival varies from region to region and in Karimnagar district it is five varieties of powders or muddalu prepared with lentils and grain.

One of them is nethichamili muddalu and the other two are pesaru pappu (moong dal) muddalu and senaga ppapu laddu, which is prepared similar to today's muddalu where rice is replace with moong dal and chana dal respectively.

You can read more about Bathukamma and different saddulu/prasadam for the festival in saddula bathukamma post. Here are some pictures of bathukamma on Google images and can read more about it on wiki & here.

Can of Biyyam pindi laddu. — Bathukamma Prasadam

Food starting with letter N

Here are a few produce, spices and dishes with ‘N’.
Fruit:
Nimmakaya - Lime
Seeds:
Nuvvulu - Sesame Seeds
Dairy:
Neyyi - Ghee ~ Clarified Butter
Dishes:
Nimmakaya pappu chaaru, nimmakaya pachadi, nimmakaya pulihora, nimmakaya karam, noogaya pachadi/thokku also called soogi pachadi/thokku (sesame mango pickle), nuvvula annam

Nuvvulu - Sesame seeds are used extensively in our kitchens. It is used in almost all the noorina pachadlu (chutneys), in pickles, vegetable masala & stuffed curries, added in snacks as in chegodi and in many more traditional snacks that have a long shelf life.

Rice Flour Laddu Recipe

📖 Recipe

Nethichamili Muddalu, Nethicheni Muddalu, Neicheni Muddalu, Neyyichethi Muddalu, Rice Flour Laddu, Chawal ki Laddu, Bathukamma Prasadam, Sunnivundalu, Telangana Food, Telangana Cuisine, Telugu Food, Indian Food, South Indian Food, Blogging Marathon, Journey Through the Cuisines, A-Z Challenge, A-Z Telangana Cuisine

Biyyam Pindi Laddu ~ Rice Flour Laddu

Biyyam pindi laddu is an easy sweet prepared with flour of roasted rice, sugar and ghee. A delicious festive sweet.

4 from 1 vote

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Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Telangana Cuisine, Telugu Cuisine

Prep Time: 20

Cook Time: 15

Servings: pieces

Calories:

Author: Usha Rao

Equipment

Frying Pan
Grinder/Mixie
Mixing Bowl

Ingredients

2 cups Rice, roasted and ground to flour (yields about 2 ¼ cup flour)
1 ¾ cup Sugar, powdered (powder was about 2 ½ cups)
½ – ¾ teaspoon Cardamom Seeds, powdered powdered
¾ - 1 cup Ghee I used less than 1 cup

Instructions

Dry roast rice until lightly toasted and light brown. Let the rice cool.
Grind the rice in a spice grinder to make a coarse-fine powder.
Grind sugar and cardamom to powder.
Mix all the powders in a bowl. Taste the powder and add more sugar if necessary.
Add melted ghee and mix.
Take some powder mixture in hand and shape into small ball. Make rest of the laddus in a similar way. If unable to shape the laddu, add more ghee. Ghee is the binding agent to shape the laddu.
Store in an airtight container.

Notes

First 4 steps can be prepared ahead of time. This rice+sugar+cardamom mixture can be store in the fridge for at least 6 months. When ready to prepare laddu, melt ghee, mix it with laddu mixture and shape into laddu.
Yields 22 – 24, depending on the size of the laddu.

Tried this recipe?Share a photo! Mention @usha_myspicykitchen or tag #Usha_MySpicyKitchen!

So far in this A-Z Journey Through Telangana Cuisine,
A for Attu Tunukala Koora
B for Biyyapattlu
C for Chegodi
D for Dondakaya Barada
E for Ellipaya Karam
F for Fenugreek (Menthi) Aaku Pesaru Pappu Koora
G for Garela Pulusu
H for Hyacinth Beans (Anapakaya) Annam
I for Iguru, Goru Chikkudukaya Iguru
J for Jonna Rotte
K for Kudumulu
L for Laddu
M for Makka Gudaalu