Undraalu - A Traditional Delight

             Undraalu/Unraalu ,a traditional evening time sweet snack especially  prepared in my native area.This is said to me similar to paal kozhukatai.The palm jaggery adds a great taste when munched along with small small dumplings of rice balls.And again this is going to be one more recipe whose aroma will fill not only your kitchen ,but also your entire home.This procedure takes a bit longer but tastes fab.Lets look out the recipe in detail.

Ingredients

Serves 4-5

Idli Rice -1 1/3 Cup
Palm Jaggery(grated)-250g
Water - as required
Elaichi - 1/2 tsp
Dry ginger powder -1/2 tsp
Coconut (grated) - 2 Tbsp
salt - a pinch

Method

• Soak the idli rice for 2hrs with sufficient amount of water.After 2hrs retain the water from the rice and grind it for about 10-15mins.Do not add all the water which we used for soaking it.while grinding just add the rice alone,and then sprinkle little amount of water at a time.Do not make the batter too watery.Grind well and collect the batter in a bowl,mix a pinch of salt,and keep aside.

• In a non-stick pan add some oil (keep the flame low)and pour the batter, saute until you get a firm dough.time to time keep scrapping down the dough sticking to the sides of the ladle.In the second picture you can find the dough has come out well without stick to the pan ,but not yet firm.so cook for few minutes until we obtain a firm consistent dough.My final dough weighed 500g.

 

• Cover the dough with a wet cloth.Make small dumplings of the dough ,if you can handle the temperature of the dough,which allows the dough to get cooled down fast.Cover the dough with the wet cloth and leave for a while.Now we need to prepare the palm sugar syrup.Take the grated palm sugar.Add water until the palm jaggery is immersed under water.and simmer it for 5 mins.

• Pass the the simmered palm syrup,in a heavy bottomed vessel, through a sieve to clear out the dust,and keep aside.Now open out the dough and resize the dough to a ball.Pinch a small dough from it and make small balls out of it.similar to small gooseberry.spread the balls in a wide plate /tambulam,so that they don't stick with each other.

• Now take out the clear palm jaggery syrup add 2cup of water,add elaichi and bring it to boil(medium-high flame).Let them bubble up,at this stage add the rice balls spreading evenly through the vessel.Do not disturb the boiling mixture at this stage,by mixing with a laddle.Leave it in for 7-10 mins.After adding the balls ,reduce the flame to medium-low.After sometime the balls will bubble up back to the top.You can see it in the third pic

 

•  Now gently mix it with a back side of a ladle.Take care not to break the balls.Let it reduce to quarter the volume.It may take around 15-20 minutes.(Depending upon the size and the total weight of the dough,as i said earlier,mine weighed 500g). Then add the dry ginger powder and grated coconut.By now the watery palm syrup would have turned to a soup like consistency.It's the indication that our job is done.

•  Now it's done.serve warmed.

Tip

•  It tastes even more better when consumed the next day.Taste the freshly made one  and  keep the remaining in your refrigerator,warm it the next day and taste.You can feel the difference 
• For an easier version of this recipe you can also use the instant rice flour( plain rice flour/Idiyappam Flour). For 1cup of rice flour add 1.5cups of water to form a batter and let it for 10 mins and follow from step 2 till the end.

Sending to Nivedhanam Sowmya's Authentic Indian Sweets Giveaway Event And Also to Valli's  Kids Delight- Sweet Treat Conducted by Nivedhanam Sowmya.

Valli's Kid's Delight