Athirasam / adhirasam: a sweet dish as a dessert or snack

A suitable sweet to enjoy eating especially during festivals like Deepavali.


Ingredients

• Raw Rice (colam rice) - ½ kg
• Jaggery - 1/4 kg
• Edible oil for deep frying – As required
• Cardamom powder – 1 tsp
• Dry ginger powder – 1 tsp
  
  

Method of preparation

• Soak rice in water for about 3 hours.
• Decant the water and partially dry the rice.
• Grind into powder using mixer-grinder, sieve and get fine powder.
• Prepare syrup (pagu) by boiling jaggery with required water.
• Filter the syrup and continue boiling and stirring to wire like consistency (kambi padham).
• Mix cardamom powder and dry ginger powder with the jaggery syrup.
• Let it cool very well and thoroughly mix it with the powdered rice so as to make dough. The dough will become thicker on further cooling preferably over night.
• Pat the dough into discs and deep fry in oil till brown.
• Serve hot or cold.

Kara chevu (Kara sev, a diwali / deepavali snack)

Ingredients

• Bengal gram flour (Kadalai maavu, Channa dal flour) - 2 cups
• Rice flour - 2tbsp
• Red chili powder – 1 tsp
• Garlic - 2 cloves
• Black pepper - 1tbsp
• Cumin seed (Jeera- Jeeragam) – 1 tsp
• Ajowan (Carom, Bishop’s Weed, Ajwan, Omam) – 1 tsp
• Asafetida (Perungayam, Hing) - as required
• Edible oil for deep frying - as required
• Salt- as required
  

Method of preparation

• Grind garlic, black pepper, cumin seed, ajowan and asafetida into a coarse paste.
• Mix Bengal gram flour, rice flour, red chili powder, salt and the ground paste.
• Make a thick dough using water.
• Heat oil in a pan for deep frying.
• Fill the dough in a murukku press.
• Press to slide the dough into the hot oil.
• Take out when become golden brown and drain the oil.
• Break into pieces of desired length.
  
  

A tasty, crispy, special snack especially prepared home during festivals like Deepavali.

Lemon rice (Elumichai sadam / Elumicham saadam)

• Cook1 cup of raw rice (colam rice), spread evenly and sprinkle ½ tsp of turmeric powder.
• Fry the seasonings consist of ½ tsp of mustard seeds, 1 tsp of black gram, 1 tsp of Bengal gram, 2 tsp of ground nut (peanut), Qty 2 red chilies (broken into pieces), one by one.
• Add with rice.
• Add required salt, lemon juice squeezed from 2 lemons, 1 tsp finely chopped ginger and 1 tsp asafetida and mix well.
• Garnish with curry leaves.
• Serve cold.
• Suitable to carry packed and have it while traveling, packed lunch, etc.
  
  Glossary
  
  English ----- Tamil --------- Hindi
  
  Raw rice -----Pacharisi -------------Kachcha chawal
  Turmeric ---- Manjal ------------------- Haldi
  Mustard ----- kadugu -------------------- Rai / Sarson
  Black gram -- Uluttham paruppu -------Urad dal
  Bengal gram -- Kadalai paruppu ---------- Channa dal
  Ground nut -- Nilakkadalai / Ver kadalai -- Moong phali
  Red chili -- Vara milakai / milakai vatral ---- Lal mirchi
  Lemon / Lime-- elumicham pazham --- Nimbu
  Ginger ------- Inji / Injiver -------------- Adharak
  Asafetida / -- Perungayam ----- Hing
  Curry leaves - Kary veppilai --------- Kary patha