Indian Athirasam

Athirasam is a sweet made in South India especially during festivals to mark the sweet happiness....

Ingredients:
Raw rice - 3 cups
Jaggery/Brown Sugar - 1 cup
White Sugar - 1/2 cup
Water - 1/2 cup
Cardamom powder - 1 teaspoon
dry ginger powder - 1/2 tsp
Ghee
Oil for deep frying

Method:
Soak the raw rice for atleast three hours in water. Allow it to dry in a colander. It should be partially wet. Grind it in a mixer-grinder and sieve it to get a fine powder. The powder should be slightly wet. Mix cardamom powder and dry ginger powder with the rice flour.

Prepare syrup by boiling jaggery with water. Filter the syrup to remove dust particles and small stones. Boil again and add the white sugar. Continue boiling and stirring in low flame.  Check the consistency of the syrup to get a two string consistency. (If dropped in a cup of water, then we should be able to roll it into soft balls.)
Take care not to burn the syrup. Because making the perfect syrup is the only secret behind good athirasam.

Then pour the hot syrup over the flour and mix well so that the flour gets cooked a bit in that heat. Add some ghee to the dough. Cover the pot with a cloth and keep it in warm place for few days. (3 days to 1 week).

Heat oil in a wok and keep the flame to medium. Take a lemon sized ball of the dough and flatten out thickly over a greased plastic sheet or foil or using your palms like the shape of vadai and make a hole in the center to facilitate perfect cooking. Slowly drop it to the hot oil.

Cook until golden brown on both sides. When cooked it will rise to the top. Keep doing the same for the balance dough.

The athirasam will become perfectly soft after 2- 3 hours.