Adhirasam | அதிரசம்

Adhirasam is a traditional South Indian sweet prepared on festive occasions. Its my all time favorite sweet since  childhood. This can be prepared using Jaggery or white sugar. I am gonna share the jaggery version today. This is my mom's recipe, she prepared this when she visited us last year. I clicked pictures then and got a chance to post only now.

Enjoy this delicious Adhirasam and celebrate the festival of lights !! Wishing you all a very happy Diwali ! Here goes the recipe .. 

Ingredients :-
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Raw rice	1 cup
Jaggery	1 cup
Cardamom powder	¼ tsp
Oil	for deep frying

Method :-
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1). Wash and soak rice for at least 2 hours. Drain and spread it on a white cotton cloth to to get it dried. After 10-15 minutes, grind the soaked rice to fine flour. The flour should not be too fine or too coarse. Sieve the flour and keep aside.   

2) In a sauce pan, add just enough water to immerse the jaggery. Bring it to boil in a medium flame and switch off ! Once the jaggery completely dissolves, filter it to remove impurities. 

3). In a medium flame, boil the filtered jaggery syrup, stirring occasionally, till it becomes frothy and thick. The syrup gets thicker, so keep checking the consistency of the syrup. When you pour the syrup in water, it should not get dissolved. You should be able to form a ball. This is called soft ball consistency (உருட்டு பதம்). When the syrup reaches this stage, switch off the flame.

4). In a wide mixing bowl, mix rice flour and cardamom powder. Slowly add the hot jaggery syrup little by little and combine together with the help of a ladle. Make sure there are no lumps. The consistency of the dough should be gooey and sticky. As time goes it gets absorbed and becomes stiff.

5). In an airtight container, pour 2tbsp oil and put the dough. Pour 2tbsp oil on top of the dough and keep it covered overnight at room temperature. You can keep it as such for 2-3 days or keep it refrigerated for more shelf life. Bring the dough to room temperature before making adhirasam. Knead the dough and divide into equal sized balls.  

6). Heat oil in a pan for deep frying, once the oil is heated, reduce the flame to medium. Grease a banana leaf or a plastic cover with ghee and flatten the ball with your hands. It should neither be thick nor too thin. Gently slide the flattened dough in to the oil. It will sink initially and will then rise to the top.

7). When the adirasam gets cooked on the bottom side, it will automatically rises up in the oil. Once it rises, flip and fry both sides till it turns nice brown color.

8). Adhirsam has the tendency to absorb lot of oil. G

ently press the center of the fried adhirasam tightly between two slotted ladles to squeeze the excess oil. Do not press too much otherwise the adhirasam will break. Drain it on paper towel.

Repeat the process ! When it is hot, place them one next to the other to avoid them sticking together. Store it in an airtight container, once its completely cool.  

Notes :-
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# For best results, let the dough the rest for a day before preparing adhirasam.  
# Ready made rice flour will not suit for this recipe as it will be very fine. 
# Do not let the rice become very dry. You should feel damp in your fingers.
# Prepare the jaggery syrup in the right consistency. If you miss the string consistency, the adhirasam will break while frying. 
# Adding oil in the storage container prevents dough from becoming hard. If the dough is too tight, then adhirasam will be very hard. So add little more jaggery syrup or little milk to the dough and knead.
# Make sure to keep the heat in medium. If the heat is high, it will turn brown immediately but will remain uncooked inside. 
# Fry one adhirasam at a time to avoid breaking. 
# The quantity of jaggery syrup needed to form a dough depends upon the quality of the rice. Adjust accordingly.  

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Related Posts :-
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 Click here for more :- Sweets Recipes
 Click here for more :- Festival Recipes 
 
     Cheers,