Okkarai - Diwali Sweet

Okkarai is a sweet that my mom used to make for Diwali. Was asking my MIL if she makes it. She was saying how it used to be made before and now it does not figure in her list. Well, one can't complain. She already has 6-7 items in the list which includes mixture and an awesome ladooo..

Anyways, when I was telling my husband that I feel like making Okkarai this year, he asked me what it is. Now it was easy for me to describe. I told him it is channa dal sweet puttu. Correct?? Anyways after he looked at it, he does remember what it is.

I used the recipe from this site. Do refer for some authentic tamil dishes.



Ingredients

Channa Dal 1 cup
Jaggery 1 cup
Cardamom 1/4 tsp
Cashews few
Ghee 2-3 tbsp

Method of Preparation

1. Dry Roast channa dal till it starts to brown a little.

2. Transfer to a vessel and add boiling water to it. Make sure that the vessel is deep. As soon as I added the water, it frothed up.

3. Leave it for 3 hours.

4. Drain the dal. Add the dal and jaggery to a mixie and grind into a smooth paste. I did it in 2 batches.

5. In a pan add a little ghee. Add broken cashews and roast.

6. Add the cashews to the channa jaggery paste. Mix well.

7. Add the rest of the ghee as well to the pan. Add the channa mix. Stir.

8. Keep stirring in a low flame till it starts to break into a wet powdery consistency.


Linking this to Lets Cook - Potluck - Event by Radhika

Linking this to South Indian Cooking - Event by Anu, Hosted by Sangee