BELLADA AVALAKKI

Yields: 2 cups

Ingredients

Gatti avalakki/thick poha/aval: 1 cup
Grated Jaggery/bella/vellam: 3/4 cup
Cardamom powder: 1/2 tsp
Cashewnut: 1 tbsp
Ghee: 4 tsp
Water: 2tsp
Fresh coconut: 1 tbsp(grated)

Preparation

1. Coarse grind avalakki into powder.
2. Wash the powdered avalakki and remove excess water (by putting in muslin cloth and squeezing the water out). Keep aside.
3. Dissolve jaggery by adding water and  heating. Remove impurities.
4. Take a pan, add the jaggery water and make paaka/syrup. When bubbles start appearing switch off the stove.
5. Now add the soaked avalakki powder and mix it properly. Switching off the stove in the previous step makes it easier to mix the avalakki without lumps. However with experience you can mix the avalakki powder in the jaggery syrup even without switching off the flame.
6. Switch on the stove, keep stirring till it gets cooked and gets separated from each other.
7. Add 2 tsp of ghee and mix it.
8. Take another pan, add 2 tsp of ghee and fry the cashewnuts.
9. Add cardamom powder, fresh coconut to avalakki, mix and garnish with the fried cashewnuts.

Notes:

1. One can use any thin porous cloth as an alternative to muslin cloth for squeezing out the excess water out of the avalakki.
2. Most jaggery will contain impurities in the form of mud. So any recipe which requires making jaggery syrup will need to involve a process of removing the impurities before making the syrup. You can use a fine sieve/strainer to remove the impurities. What I do however, is to transfer the jaggery water from one vessel to another slowly, leaving the muddy particles below. Repeat this process for 4-5 times till you see no muddy residue in the water. This ensures even the finest of muddy residue is eliminated, which might not be the case if you use a sieve.