ARISELU WITH JAGGERY

Ariselu is a festive sweet prepared during Makar Sankranti, Dusshera and Diwali. This indian sweet is from Andhra Pradesh, Telangana. Similar preparation is made in Karnataka called as kajjaya and in Tamil nadu it is called as adhirasam. The maharashtrian sweet dish, Anarsa has similar taste, but the procedure varies.

Whenever I go to my parents, I take ariselu from Hyderabad for them. Maa loves ariselu which is not available in Pune. This time I have decided to make them at home and take it for her.

Ariselu is made with rice flour and sugar or jaggery. In this recipe we are going to use jaggery. The rice is soaked overnight, drained and then grinded into flour. The flour has to be sieved to get a fine texture. We will be using 600 grams of sieved flour. I soak a little more rice than required for the recipe. The rest is reserved in case we require it later and the rice granules in the sieve can be reused in other dishes.

Recipe for Ariselu

Ingredients for Ariselu

• 750 gms rice
• 350 gms jaggery (crushed or grated)
• 2 tbsp ghee
• 2 tbsp sesame (lightly roasted)
• ½ tsp crushed cardamom
• Oil for deep frying
• ¼ cup water

How to make

Rinse and soak rice for 8 hours or overnight.

Drain the water. Let the wet rice sit in the sieve for 10 minutes to get rid of the excess water.

While the rice is still wet, grind the rice in batches and sieve simultaneously. 

Approximately 50 to 100 gms of rice will remain back in the sieve which can be used to make kheer or dal khichdi. The flour will weigh approximately 600 grams.

Now melt the crushed jaggery with water in a pan.

Bring the syrup to boil. When the syrup begins to bubble,take some syrup and put it in a bowl of water. If the syrup doesn’t spread and forms into a soft ball, the syrup is ready.

Add ghee and sesame to the syrup. Mix well.

Now add in the flour to combine well.

Take a portion and try shaping it into a ball. If it doesn’t lose its shape it is ready to be fried. In case the dough starts spreading and losing its shape add more flour to it.

Take a two folded butter paper or a thick plastic sheet. As the dough has ghee there is no need to grease the sheet. Dip you fingers in ghee and spread it on your palm. Now take a small portion of dough, roll it into a ball, keep it on the butter paper and lightly press with fingers to shape into a circle of 3 to 4 inches of diameter.

Deep fry on low heat. Approximately it takes 4 minutes to fry one ariselu. 

Press it between two slotted spoons to get rid of the excess oil.