OKKARAI --DIWALI TRADITIONAL SWEET

Okkarai is a famous traditional South Indian sweet dish that is made on the auspicious day of Diwali. Even today, in many brahmin families Okkarai is one of the mandatory sweet which is prepared on the auspicious day of Diwali. This simple dish Okkarai needs only less expensive ingredients and readily available materials in any house. For Diwali, we make lots of Sweets and Snacks and most of the sweets are made of sugar. This okkarai is mainly made with Kadala Paruppu (Split Bengal Gram) and jaggery. We all have elders at home who might have diabetics and other medical conditions that prevent them from having sugary sweets. This Okkarai is one special sweet that suits everyone in our family. How to get perfect Diwali Okkarai | Ukkarai • Soaking or Pressure Cooking Dal : We can dry roast the dal and soak in hot water for about 2 hours and then grind it to paste and follow the rest of the crumbling procedure. • Pressure cook for just 3 whistles with less water: We need to add water just till 1″ more than the roasted dal. Also allow only for 2-3 whistles. We don’t need mushy dal for this okkarai. • Do not over cook: Once the Okkarai starts to crumble, switch off the flame. Do not over cook or it will turn chewy. The mixture gets even more crumbled upon cooling. • INGRIDIENTS • Kadalai paruppu / channa dal – ½ cup • Payatham paruppu / Moong dal – ½ cup • Vellam / Jaggery – 1 cup • Nei / ghee – 4 tbsp

• Cashews – a handful • Coconut – ¼ cup (grated) • Cardamom powder – ¼ tsp Instructions 1. Dry roast both the dals until slightly golden brown. Make sure that you keep stirring the pan as the dals can get burnt very easily. 2. Wash the roasted dals and soak them for at least an hour. 3. Drain the soaked dals and grind them into coarse paste adding very little water. Make sure you add very less water when grinding as we want a semi solid paste that we can steam. 4. Make small mounds of the ground batter and place it on a steamer plate or idli mould and steam for about 12 to 15 minutes. The mixture will appear stiff and hard when done. 5. Let this cool down a bit and then break the dough into small pieces and place it in a blender jar. Pulse it a couple of times to make it into a fine powder. 6. In the meantime, heat a pan and add about a tablespoon of ghee. Fry the cashews until they are golden brown. Remove it in a plate. In the same pan, heat 1 more tablespoon of ghee and fry the grated coconut until light brown. Keep it aside as well. 7. In the same pan add the jaggery and just enough water to immerse the jaggery. Bring it to a boil and let the jaggery dissolve completely. Strain the syrup at this stage if needed and then return it to the flame. 8. Let the syrup come to a one string consistency. This is when you touch the syrup in between two fingers and pull it apart; it will form a single thread.. 9. Now add the ground dal powder to the jaggery and mix well. Cook it on low heat until it appears dry. 10. Now add the fried cashews, coconut and cardamom powder and mix well. Also add the remaining ghee at this stage and keep cooking in low flame until it becomes dry and powdery. 11. Remove it from heat and serve warm or at room temperature.