In a thick bottomed pan, heat 1 teaspoon of ghee and fry cashews & raisins until golden brown. Set aside.
In the same pan, dry roast rava/semolina until it is nicely fragrant. It should take about 4-5 mins. Remove it onto a plate. In the same pan, dry roast fresh coconut for 3-4 mins until it is devoid of any moisture. Add crushed green cardamom. Add the roasted rava/semolina along with the sugar and mix everything on low flame for a couple of mins. Remove onto a large plate.
Sprinkle few tbsp. of warm milk and mix it with the rava mixture. As the mixture is warm enough to handle, make equal sized round balls. Stick on cashew and raisin per laddu and press the laddu tighly, rolling it together.
Add milk in small quantities into small batch of the rava mixture. If the milk is poured all over the mixture, it might turn watery. Adjust the milk to dry ingredients ratio depending on how heard/easy it is to roll the laddus. Repeat the same with the rest of the mixture.
Let the laddus cool down completely and once they are set, store them in an air tight container. Stays good outside for 2 days and for longer shelf life, refrigerate.
Notes
There is no need for rava/semolina to change color while roasting. As soon as there is a nutty aroma, it can be removed from heat.
It is necessary to remove any moisture in coconut for longer shelf life. Roast on low flame, continuously stirring.
Adjust quantity of sugar as needed. You can go upto 1 cup or go down to a little more than ½ cup.
Adding everything together into the pan for couple of minutes is to bring the mixture to temperature. No need to roast/fry for long before making laddus.
Instead of setting one cashew/raisin per laddu, roasted cashews/raisins can be added to the mixture and made into laddus. There is an element of surprise in doing this :D
Don’t pour all milk at once. Work in batches by adding milk in small quantities so that even if it turns watery, dry mixture can be mixed together to adjust the consistency.
Roll the laddus tight to ensure the shape stays intact.