Ariselu

Ariselu is the famous sweet of Andhra(Telugu) people. It is especially made for festivals like Sankranthi(Pongal) and in Kaartheeka Masam. This snack can be stored for atleast ten to fifteen days. This sweet should be made out of wet rice flour which we have to prepare at home by using soaked rice. Let's see how this should be made.

Ingredients:

1. Rice – 5 cups
2. Jaggery – 2 cups
3. Cardamom powder – 1 tsp
4. Ssame seeds– 1/2 cup
5. Ghee – 3 tbsp
6. Oil – for deep frying

Method of Preperation :

1. If you are planning to prepare ariselu, you have to soak rice 24 hrs before. Means rice have to soak for atleast one day for ariselu recipe to be taste good.
2. Wash and soak 5 cups of rice for 24 hrs in enough water. 1 hr before preparing ariselu you have to make the rice flour to be ready.
3. For this drain the water and spread the rice on a cloth. Leave it for about 30 minutes till the cloth absorb all the moisture. Grind this wet rice into fine powder in an indian blender. (be careful that there should not be water. otherwise it will become a paste).
4. If you think that the flour is not smooth, use a fine sieve, so that only the flour will go through the mesh & the ungrinded rice will be left in the sieve. Again grind that rice to a smooth flour. Cover this rice flour with wet cloth or tissue.
5. Heat a cup of water and boil . Add grated jaggery to it and boil till a thick syrup is formed. You have to check for the consistency of the syrup by dropping few drops of jaggery syrup in a bowl of cold water. If it forms a thread it means you have to boil it for some more time. If it forms a thick lump or ball in the water then consistency is correct. (In telugu this is called as unda pakam).
6. Now immediately switch off the flame. Otherwise the syrup will become much thicker which should not happen for this recipe.
7. Slowly add rice to it and keep stirring. Add ghee and cardamom powder, mix well and leave it to cool. For 2 cups of jaggery this recipe will consume about 4 cups of rice flour. Keep the remaining rice flour aside and you can dry up this flour for 1 day on a cloth, and can use as normal rice flour.
8. Heat oil in a wide pan. Make small balls of big lemon size and press into small puris on a plastic sheet . Apply oil on the sheet and for your palm to avoid sticking of the dough. Put these pressed puris into hot oil and fry till golden color on both sides on medium heat.
9. For Nuvvula ariselu, soak sesame seeds in 2 tsps of water for 5 min. Take small all from the dough, and roll in the sesame seeds so seeds will stick to the ball and press it on a sheet with little oil. Same as above, fry it till it gets the golden color on both sides.
10. Press each puri between two ladles to remove the excess oil. Otherwise, if you have steel colander, you can place the fried puti into it and press the puri with a steel bowl or a steel glass. So excess oil will be removed.
11. Keep it in a plate to cool. Store in airtight box. You can store it almost for fifteen days. But if the ariselu comes out tastier, I am sure that you will not let them to be there for 15 days.

Tips for the ariselu recipe:

1. While making the jaggery syrup, you have to be careful not to over boil once the syrup gets the consistency to form a lump. You have to immediately switch off the stove. If you over cook the syrup, ariselu will become hard. 
2. Don't add too much of rice flour in the jaggery syrup. You have to get the dough consistency to form a smooth ball. If you add too much rice flour, when you try to press the ball on the plastic sheet, it will be broken.
3. The dough will become harder after sometime. So try to cover the dough in a bowl with a plate on it, and take some portions to make balls. If the dough became herder to make the balls, just microwave it and warm for few seconds or a minute. So it will become softer and you can make balls easily.
4. Don't fry more than 2 ariselu for a single batch otherwise they don't fry properly.

Don't wait till next Sankranthi. Try this recipe as soon as you can and enjoy andhra ariselu. Don't forget to add comments.