Laddu

"It did not take me long to settle into my role as Ballava the cook. After years in the forest, I was inspired by the spices and ingredients that were ample in a royal court. A few changes had to be made, of course. The first - the ceiling. It was far too low for a big man like me and I immediately set about the task of raising it by a good meter or so. And the pots! Never have I seen any so tiny. The so-called serving bowls were barely big enough to hold my breakfast!"

Bhima chuckled as he recalled the astonished faces of the other cooks. They had been galled by his total upheaval of their beautiful kitchen. But he was a big man with big dreams of food and had not wasted any time in making himself at home. They soon got used to the change and found longer ladles with which to stir the huge pots that he had had forged.

"One day, I was preparing a feast for the Shiva festival in the city when Yudhishthira came running into the kitchen."

Bhima raised his voice to a high pitch when speaking in Yudhishthira's voice and the children around him giggled.

"'Bhima! You must come at once! There is a wrestler - Jimuta - who has beaten every one of King Virata's warriors. You are the only one who could stand a chance to win.' Well, children, I could hardly pass up the opportunity to teach this wrestler a lesson, now could I? I knew I would have to be careful not to reveal my true identity, so I set about finding a mask, but there was one other thing that I would need before I could go out into the arena- LUNCH!"

Bhima bellowed the final word and rubbed his belly in a pantomime of hunger. Sarvaga mimicked the action. He was still a scrawny young boy, but Bhima knew that with enough training (and enough food), he would grow to be a mighty fighter.

"Now I'll tell you a secret boys- anytime I go into a fight, I always eat something to give me energy. The best food for this? Laddu. So, I set about gathering the ingredients. Cashews, almonds, dried fruits, wheat flour, jaggery, gond, and ghee are all you need to make a basic laddu, though if I had had more time there are many things that you can add to make lots of different versions. The first thing you need to do if toast and grind your nuts into a coarse flour. Then, toast the flour with ghee until it becomes a nice brown color. Roast the gond in ghee until the pieces puff up and crush those as well. Once all of the ground ingredients are mixed, add some chopped up dried fruit, grated jaggery, and enough ghee to make it all stick together. Normally, it would get divvied up into small pieces, but I needed all of the energy I could get to fight this 'Jimuta,' so I just formed the dough into one big ball and ate the whole thing!"

"What about spices, Papa? It sounds like cardamom and ginger would taste good in the mix!" Ghatotkatcha asked.

Bhima looked at him with a mildly astonished expression. He had never though of his oldest son as a cook, but perhaps he had misjudged Ghatotkatcha.

"Absolutely! That sounds delicious!" He would have to try that himself sometime. Perhaps he would take Ghatotkatcha to the kitchen tomorrow and they would try out the new spices in some laddu. His stomach rumbled at the thought.

"Well, boys, after that meal, the fight was over before it even began! I went out to the arena where Jimuta tried to run at me like a battering ram. But he had been fighting all day and I was full of energy. I twirled him overhead - I had been practicing this move on naan dough that I had been twirling about earlier that day - and then tossed him to the ground."

Three sets of wide eyes stared at him.

"Wow Papa! I'll have to try some laddu tomorrow! Maybe that way I can finally beat Sutasoma in wrestling!" said Sarvaga.

"What did you do after you beat Jimuta?" asked Ghatotkatcha, leaning forward in his seat.

"Well, there was still a feast to prepare! I said, 'It's time for me to get back to the kitchen! I have dishes on the fire that will burn if I am not back to tend to them!' I left them all there with mouths open as I jogged back to the kitchen."

Bhima sighed, recalling the feast they had all enjoyed later that night. Oh, that had been a good day.