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AUTHENTIC ADHIRASAM USING BROWN SUGAR | SOFT ATHIRASAM RECIPE WITH VIDEO!
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AUTHENTIC NATTU SAKKARAI ADHIRASAM VIDEO RECIPE
Prep Time
40 mins
Cook Time
20 mins
Total Time
1 hr
 

Learn to make traditional Adhirasam Athirasam Kongunadu Kachayam recipe from scratch!

Cuisine: Indian
Ingredients
  • Ponni Raw Rice/Pachai Arisi or Sona Masoori Rice – 2 Cups You can ask it as Maavu Arisi in stores in and around Salem/Coimbatore
  • Unrefined Natural Brown Sugar Nattu Sarkkarai OR Jaggery – 1.75 Cups
  • Water – 1/3 Cup + 2 Tbsp
  • Cardamom Powder -2tsp
  • Sesame seeds – 1 Tbsp Optional
  • Oil – 1.5 Cups or as needed to deep fry
Instructions
  1. Soak the rice for 2 hours, i have used Maavu Arisi (Pic 1).
  2. Drain the excess water, pat dry over cloth for 30 minutes (Pic 2).
  3. Grind the rice in batches, Picture 3 (for 2 cups 4 batches approx).
  4. Sieve the flour immediately after grinding it (Pic 4). So when you have coarse rice (leftovers) you can include it in the next batch of grinding.
  5. Once done with preparing rice flour press it tightly (Pic 5) till you prepare the jaggery/sugar syrup so that you can prevent flour from drying out.
  6. JAGGERY PREPARATION

    Measure the jaggery or Natural unrefined Sugar (Naatu sarkarai), Picture 6.

  7. Add 1/3 Cup + 2 Tbsp of water to the sugar (Pic 7).
  8. In medium flame boil, you can filter it once sugar gets dissolved(Pic 9) and bring it to boil in 5-8 minutes (approx) you will get foam from the syrup (Pic 10) and start testing for the consistency.
  9. For that take water in a small cup add few drops of jaggery syrup, if it is in right consistency the jaggery should stand separate from water and when you rub it with your finger you can see an impression there, Picture 11 (anyways the syrup wont dissolve with water).

  10. MIXING PART

    Take the above hot syrup and mix it with prepared rice flour (Pic 12).

  11. Beginners do preserve few tbsps of jaggery and rice flour too before mixing together. That way you can finally adjust the consistency.
  12. Add the cardamom powder, sesame seeds if using and mix all together.
  13. Do check the Video how i am mixing, if at any point you are not attaining this consistency and if the batter is tight add more preserved syrup on the same hand if the batter is gooey add more preserved rice flour, add a tsp at a time.
  14. Keep stirring for few minutes so that the heat evaporates quickly.
  15. Once cooled down completely cover the top and let rest in room temperature for over night to 3 days maximum (Pic 13).
  16. Once you are ready to fry make equal size balls from the dough(Pic 14).

  17. Frying Part

    Take a plate/ziploc sheet grease the top with oil, take a ball (Pic 14) and flat over it to round shape with medium thickness for soft athirasam (Pic 14).

  18. Once you start flatting each balls to round shape simultaneously heat the oil in a wok.
  19. Here the frying temperature is also one main important point to note.
  20. In medium flame you have to fry it. The oil should not be hot and also not less in temp. Too hot temperature makes the athirasam to turn golden brown quick and inside won’t cook properly. The too less temp makes the athirasam to turn hard and crisp.
  21. So maintain a right temp (while adding the raw athirasam the oil should be bit hot then reduce the temperature), add one at a time when one starts puffing up add the next one (Pic 1 below).
  22. The puffing athirasam (Pic 1) is the right sign for good athirasam.
  23. Once it reaches golden brown, take two spatulas drain the excess oil (Pic 2), also wipe it all over using kitchen paper towel to remove excess oil around and keep aside in a plate.
  24. Note I have added few sesame seeds on the top before frying as shown in Picture 15 above.
  25. The fried athirasams (Pic 15) once cooled down store in air tight container at room temp.
Recipe Notes
  1.  One thing you have to notice here is Oil. I have packed the same rice and sugar from India and then i made them recently. Only change is oil, there i used refined oil (i took part in frying athirsams there as well) but here in US you know the vegetable/canola oils has the tender to give little crispiness to athirasam that i am noticing for a long time. If possible try to fry them with sunflower oil otherwise use whatever you have, while frying it seems little crispy but later ie after two days they becomes soft.
  2.  Also for soft athirasam another important thing is flatten each round to medium thickness nor too thick nor thin as shown in picture below.
  3.  Adding sesame seeds is optinal they give nice flavor, if you forget to add in the dough you can top it(press well) while flattening the athirasam.
  4.  This recipe gives super sweet athirasam and if you want to reduce sweetness just reduce the sugar a bit and water remains the same.
  5. Use stainless steel vessels to store the athirasam batter for fermentation, that gives good result.
  6. You can store the Athirasam dough in an air tight container in refrigerator for more than a month. When you are about to deep fry take the dough as needed keep it out at room temperature for 1 hour at least. If the dough is too hard add few drops of milk, mix it and make balls, flat it round, then fry them in oil as mentioned above.