Festive special: ‘Pori urundai is tasty and low in calories’
Karthigai Deepam is a festival of lights celebrated in the Tamil month of karthigai. All the houses are decked up with rows and rows of lamps, creating a divine ambience. This year the festival falls on the December 12.
By : migrator
Update: 2016-12-11 06:52 GMT
Chennai
Karthigai Deepam is the most significant festival that is celebrated with much pomp and gaiety at Arunachaleswarar temple. In this temple, Karthigai Deepam is celebrated as a ten-day festival and it is widely known as Karthika Deepam festival. It begins with the hoisting of the flag signifying the commencement, of the festival, also known as dwajaroghanam.
There are various dishes made as prasadam for this festival, but the most common and popular one is pori urundai. The other popular dishes that are made during the festival are nai appam, aval payasam, groundnut laddu, thinai adai and aval kesari. Pori urundai is not only low in calories, but since it contains jaggery not sugar, it is very healthy and even a diabetic patient can indulge in one.
PORI URUNDAI (PUFFED RICE BALLS)
Ingredients:
Puffed rice/pori - 4 and 1/2 cups heaped
Jaggery water/paagu vellam - 1 cup
Water - 1/2 cup
Cardamom powder - a generous pinch (optional), Ghee - 1 tsp
Method:
- Heat 1/2 cup of water, add jaggery to it and after it melts, filter it to remove any impurities.
- In a heavy bottomed pan, add the filtered jaggery water, cardamom powder, a spoon of ghee and boil the jaggery water, until it reaches a ‘hard ball’ consistency (when you pour a spoon of jaggery syrup into a cup of water, it should not dissolve, you should be able to make a hard ball out of it. This is the right consistency. It is called paagu padham in Tamil).
- At this stage, switch off the flame, add the puffed rice to it and mix. Now grease your hands with ghee and make tight, smooth balls out of the mix. Let it cool. The pori urundai is ready.
Note: If the jaggery syrup dissolves in water, then you must boil the jaggery syrup for some more time until you get the right consistency. If the mixture hardens while making balls, then you can warm it slightly and make it again.
Tip for the day: While cooking jaggery with water to melt it, add a spoon of ghee and cardamom powder for the flavour and texture.
The writer is a chef and author of Festive Offerings to the Gods
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