Recipe and photo: Priya Mani
Ingredients:
1 cup raw rice
3/4 cup jaggery,* shredded & packed
1/ 2 cup water
1 tsp cardamom powder
1/4 tsp black pepper powder
1/4 tsp dry ginger powder
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 cups frying oil
* Cane sugar may be substituted if jaggery is unavailable, although the taste will be very different
Method:
- Soak the rice in cold water for about 1 hour.
- Drain the rice and spread it evenly on a fine muslin cloth. Let it sit for about 15 min. You want the rice grains to look dry, but hold some moisture in them.
- Dry grind into a fine rice flour. (You can also use a spice blender or coffee grinder for this)
- In a pan, bring jaggery and water to a boil on medium to high heat. As it cooks, the syrup will thicken to soft ball stage, 234-240°F. (If you don’t have a candy thermometer, you can check for consistency by pouring a drop of the syrup into a bowl of cold water. It should congeal into a soft ball when you knead it.)
- Once the sugar reaches the soft ball stage, immediately add the rice flour, cardamom, pepper and ginger powders off the heat and mix thoroughly. It will resemble a thick cake batter.
- Scoop the batter into a bowl, pour over the sesame oil, cover with a lid and let rest overnight, or up to 2 days.
- Next day the batter will have set into a dough. Knead lightly to mix evenly and roll out small lime-sized balls.
- Heat the oil in a saucepan to 350-360° F, or a medium frying temperature. This is important to achieve the right colour while the adirasam slowly cooks through.
- To make adirasam, flatten the dough ball into a small circlet on a greased plate with your fingers. Gently immerse in the oil and fry until well browned. Press the adirasam between two slotted spoons to drain any extra oil.
- Adirasam, when fried well, can be kept for many days.