Vellam Adhirasam
Adhirasam is a traditional Deepavali snack made in Tamil Nadu. They are so delicious and so easy to make as long as you get the jaggery syrup right. Soft ball consistency... the key word!!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 Cups Raw rice
- 1 cup Jaggery
- 1 tbsp Sesame seeds
- 1/2 tsp Dry ginger powder
- 1/2 tsp Cardamom powder
- 1 tbsp Ghee
- Oil as needed for deep frying
Instructions
- Wash and soak rice for 3 hours. Drain, spread in a white cotton cloth for 10 mins. Don't over dry the rice. It should still be wet to touch.
- Mill it to fine powder in a mixer or a food processor. Scrape down the sides to ensure even grinding. Sieve it and keep it ready.
- Powder the jaggery and heat it with just enough water to cover the jaggery.
- Once its completely dissolved, filter it to remove impurities. Again start heating the jaggery syrup.
- Boil in medium flame always and stir once in a while until the soft ball consistency is reached,
- Immediately pour it to the flour little by little. Add sesame seeds, cardamom powder and dry ginger powder to the flour.
- You may not need all the syrup at once. Add carefully. The dough should be on sticky side. After some hours, it will harden. Keep it overnight to get maximum flavor.
- At the time of making, divide the dough into lemon sized balls and flatten using a greased paper, or in a roti press like I do.
- Heat oil in kadai and once it is hot, reduce the flame to low. Carefully drop the flattened dough.
- Once it rises up, immediately flip it and cook. Once it turns golden brown, drain from oil.
- Press between two ladles to drain the oil.
- Store in an airtight box after the adhirasam are cooled.
Notes
- Use good quality rice.
- Rice flour should still be a little wet when you are ready to make the adhirasam.
- I used Parrys Amrit Jaggery. No filtering of the syrup is needed when you use good quality jaggery.
- Keep the dough before frying for 2-3 days at room temperature and fry when needed.