Adhirasam

Today am here with diwali recipe "Adhirasam" which is very important recipe in south Indian traditional cooking. My mom is expert in making it, am not that good. But this year my dream of preparing it without her help had succeded some what. I know it has to be more thin, but it tasted very good .Finally my dream of making adhirasam individually has come true.

It was really a challenging task, but I have to learn it at some point because, it's one of the main item in all of our tamil nadu pooja's and weddings.

Adhirasam is my all time favourite. In my childhood, I used to like adhirasam made with sugar instead of jaggery. My mom never forgot to make a special batch of adhirasam with sugar specially for me. I tried it 2-3 times, but when frying it broke. This time am really happy 😊 by making it successfully. My preparation for diwali have started with adhirasam.

Please try it with home made rice powder(recipe is available in this page). Store bought ones will not work out I have tried it.

Ingredients:

Raw rice - 1 cup
Jaggery - 3/4 cup
Dry ginger powder - 1/4tsp
Elachi powder -1/4 tsp
Ghee - 1 tblsp
Oil - as needed for deep frying

Method:

Wash and soak rice for 2 hours. Drain, spread in a white cotton cloth for 10 -15 mins. Do not let it dry for long time some moisture should be there.

Grind it in 2 batches in a mixer to a flour. Grind to fine flour. Sieve it and add dry ginger and elachi powder to it.

Meanwhile, powder the jaggery(I used organic powdered jaggery) and heat it with water just to immerse the jaggery.

Once its completely dissolved, filter it to remove impurities. Again start heating the jaggery syrup.

Boil in medium flame always and stir occasionally. Keep checking the syrup consistency by pouring in water kept in a small bowl. At beginning stage, the syrup dissolves as you pour in water, then at next stage, it will lay a fine thread in the water, but gets dissolved when you touch. After this, at one stage, the syrup gets thicker and when you pour in water, then it wont get dissolved and you will be able to gather it with your fingers and form a loose ball. This is called soft ball consistency and this is the stage, you have to put off the fire. Immediately pour it to the flour little by little.

You may need not add all the sugar syrup for sure. So be careful after you add 3/4th of the syrup and keep mixing with a ladle or spatula. The dough will be on sticky side and it will be very very loose. Don't worry. After some hours, it will get absorbed and get stiff. It is a must for the dough to be loose as after some time it gets thick.

Keep it overnight (2 days if possible, for better result) at room temperature in an airtight container. But let it be out overnight atleast for a day. At the time of making, divide into equal sized balls. You can use ghee when you roll as the dough will be slightly sticky.

Heat oil in kadai and once it is hot, reduce the flame to low. Grease ur fingers with ghee and flatten the dough in a plastic sheet or plantain leaf . Carefully drop in oil. One buy one, I got 8pieces but don't have patience till all done so clicked with whatever done.

Once it rises up, immediately flip it and cook. Once it turns golden brown, drain from oil.

You must use another laddle and press it to sqeeze out the excess oil as shown, as it may retain some oil in it. Repeat the process for the rest of the dough. Oil should always be in low or medium if needed.

Notes:

The dough should be loose when you make adhirsam. If it is stiff, then your adhirsam will become hard and chewy. So you have to add a tblsp of milk and knead the dough well again and try making. This will ensure the adhirsam to be soft.

The rice while grinding should be moist, retain water, also the sieved flour also should not get dry. Otherwise the adhirsam will get crisp and hard.

Even the syrup consistency is very important. If syrup passes the soft ball consistency, it will get hard or get dissolved in oil.

Sieving is not necessary, but make sure it is powdered fine.

If you flatten so thin, the adhirasam will turn very crisp. So make it thick.

Cook in low flame to make sure it gets cooked evenly and also make sure not to over cook. It makes the adhirasam harder.

Flip immediately once the it rises up after you add the adhirasam in oil.

Use ghee when flattening each adhirasam . It will be sticky.

You can store the dough for months if keep refrigerated and use it whenever needed. But keep the dough at least overnight at room temperature.

Even fried adhirasam can be in shelf for a week.