Adhirasam \ Ariselu

Adhirasam or Ariselu, a traditional South Indian Sweet is one of the mandatory sweet included in the "Seer Bhakshanams" during marriages. "Seer Bhakshanams" are the sweets and savouries made by the bride's side and sent to the groom's side along with the bride after marriage. Also, its also made during some festivals too.. I made this Adhirasam \ Ariselu on the day of "Kartika Pournami" for prasadam. Though its my first try, it did not disappoint me at all and to my surprise, the Adhirasams did not drink that much oil too....Though i know the actual traditional method of making Adhirasam \ Ariselu, I wanted to make the process simpler this time. So I tried using Swad Rice Flour instead of  following the traditional way. This was a huge success to me as all the Adhirasams got over the next day itself, and my kids loved the Adhirasam and grabbed few on their own. After making these yummy Adhirasams, I realised that its a "No Big Deal" sweet surely and we can make and enjoy them at any time.

Ingredients

Rice Flour - 2 Cups

Jaggery - 1 Cup

Cardamom Powder - 2 tsp

Sukku Powder \ Dry Ginger Powder -  1 tsp

Oil - To fry the Adhirasams

Method

• Fry the rice flour for few minutes and keep it aside.
• Add the jaggery pieces or powdered Jaggery which comes to 1 Cup into a vessel and add a cup of water. Make the Jaggery Syrup carefully. The consistency of the jaggery Syrup decides the final outcome, so this process needs more attention.
• While making the Syrup, check to see whether the string consistency has arrived. Take a small amount and drop it on water in a container. It should float and you would be able to make a small ball out of it.
• Take out the syrup from the stove. Add the cardamom powder and Ginger powder to the syrup and mix it well.
• Slowly add the rice flour into the Jaggery Syrup without making any lumps. Mix the rice flour thoroughly with the Jaggery Syrup and keep it aside.
• After 3-4 hours, heat oil in the frying pan. When the oil gets heated, take a small ball of the Adhirasam dough, make a small round using your hand itself or on a plastic paper and slowly drop this into the heated oil.
• Allow the Adhirasam to get fried on both side equally. Then, drain the excess oil if any and keep the Adhirasam on a tissue paper.
• Continue the same process for the rest of the Adhirasam Dough. At a time, I dropped 4-5 Adhirasams into the oil and drained them. It depends on your kadai size and speed. You can drop more too if you have a bigger frying pan.
• Finally, arrange all the fried Adhirasams\Ariselu on a plate for Neivedhyam.

Tips \ Variations

Instead of rice flour, you can follow the traditional method of making the rice flour by soaking raw rice in water, drying them on a cloth and then grinding the semi wet rice into rice flour. By following this method, the Adhirasams would be much softer and tastier.  Next time, I am planning to adopt this method and try them out.

If you make the Jaggery Syrup as I mentioned above and take it out of the stove at the right time, these Adhirasams also would be a definite hit.

Pesarapappu Boorelu - Traditional Andhra Festive Sweet

Boorelu , a delicious sweet is a sign of Joy, Happiness which is made in every household of Andhra during the festive days.  This golden sweet ball has a yummy pooranam inside which is covered by a dough, fried in oil. Generally, the Pooranam is made out of Channa Dal or Moong Dal with Jaggery Syrup or Sugar Syrup. Boorelu made with the Channa Dal ( Senaga pappu ) poornam is called as "Senaga Pappu Boorelu" and its called as "Pesara Pappu Boorelu" if its made with Moong Dal ( Pesara Pappu) poornam. For Kartika Pournami, this time I made the Pesara Pappu Boorelu for Prasadam. Process time for making this mouth watering sweet is little longer due to the preparation of Dough and Poornam separately. But this will get compensated completely after seeing the delightful golden sweet balls on your plate.

Ingredients

For the Dough

Raw Rice -- 1 Cup

Idly Rice --  1\2 Cup

Urad Dal \ Minna pappu -- 3\4 of a cup

Water -  Little to Grind

Salt --- To Taste

For the Poornam

Moong Dal \ Pesara pappu -- 2 Cups

Cardamoms -- 7 or 8

Powdered Sugar -- 1 Cup

Shredded fresh coconut -- 1 Cup

Ghee -- 2 tsp

Oil -- For Frying the Boorelu

Method

• Soak the rice and Urad Dal together in a bowl of water for 3-4 hours and grind it in a wet grinder like a Dosa Dough. Add required amount of Salt to the Dough and mix it. Keep the Dough ready for making the Boorelu.

• Soak the Moong Dal in a bowl of water for an hour. Grind the Moong Dal with very little water and make a paste.  Using the Idly Maker, steam the Moong Dal paste and cook them completely. Take out the Poornam Idlies from the Moulds and grate them using a normal grater or using a food processor or regular mixer grinder. 



• Add shredded coconut, powdered sugar, cardamom powder, ghee to the vessel on top of the grated Moong Dal and mix them together.  Make small balls of the Poornam and keep them ready.

• Heat oil in a frying pan.. Take one poornam ball and dip it inside the Dough and drop the Boorelu into the heated oil carefully. Make sure that the dough covers the poornam completely. Likewise, drop 4 or 5 Boorelu into the oil and fry them till golden brown and drain them.
• Finish the process with the remaining dough in the same way and arrange the Boorelu on a plate for Prasadam. If any excess dough is left, add some seasonings to the dough and fry them separately like mini vadas. Excess Poornams can be eaten as it is like a laddu.