Leela's Kitchen

Ingredients

1. 2 cup raw rice
2. 1 1/2 cup jaggery
3. 1 cup water
4. 1 tsp Ghee
5. 1 tsp Ginger powder
6. 1 tsp Cardamom
7. 1 tsp Khus khus
8. Oil for frying

Method

1. Clean and soak the raw rice for 4hrs in water. Drain the water and spread the rice in a neat cloth for 1 or 2 hrs. Allow it to dry. Now grind this dried rice to fine powder and set aside.
2. Take jaggery and water in a kadai and bring it to boil. Strain the jaggery syrup and take it back into the kadai. Prepare the jaggery syrup till it reaches the soft ball stage. To know that, pour one spoon of syrup in a bowl of cold water, if the syrup gather to make a soft ball, the syrup is ready. Switch off the flame.
3. Immediately thereafter, add the powdered rice little by little in the jaggery syrup and keep mixing. Once the rice flour is mixed well add cardamom, ginger powder, khus khus and ghee. Again mix it properly. Keep it in a vessel and leave to ferment for 2 days. After 2 days again mix the dough well. If it is too thick you can add little boiled warm water and mix well to get the right consistency.
4. Make small balls from the dough. Take one ball and keep it in the palm and flatten it. Put your index finger in the middle of the flatten mix and make a hole in it. Then deep fry in hot oil. Make all the balls in the same way. Delicious athirasams are ready to savour. It can be stored in an air tight container for five to ten days.

Important to Note:

1. The consistency of the Jaggery syrup is very important. When the jaggery syrup reaches the 2 drop consistency, do the cold water test, as mentioned above, to ensure the correct consistency.
2. Rice flour should have moisture when you add it to the jaggery syrup. Ensure it doesn’t become too dry.
3. After fermentation if the rice mix seems very hard, then add little boiled warm water to it and mix well. The dough must be soft enough to make small balls out of it.

Enjoy the yummy athirasam.