Okkarai
Okkarai

Hello everybody, it’s Drew, welcome to our recipe site. Today, we’re going to make a special dish, okkarai. One of my favorites. For mine, I am going to make it a bit unique. This will be really delicious.

Okkarai is one of the most favored of current trending meals on earth. It’s simple, it is fast, it tastes yummy. It’s enjoyed by millions daily. Okkarai is something that I’ve loved my entire life. They are nice and they look fantastic.

Ukkarai is a traditional sweet made specially on diwali festival. This is a popular sweet from Tirunelveli district. This special sweet is made with Chana Dal (Kadala Paruppu) and jaggery as.

To get started with this recipe, we must first prepare a few ingredients. You can have okkarai using 8 ingredients and 9 steps. Here is how you can achieve it.

The ingredients needed to make Okkarai:
  1. Get 1 cup chana dal (split chickpeas)
  2. Make ready 1 cup jaggery
  3. Make ready 5-6 cardamom pods
  4. Get 1/2 cup freshly grated or desiccated coconut
  5. Get 1 Tbsp gingelly oil, coconut oil, or ghee
  6. Get 1 Tbsp ghee for frying cashews
  7. Make ready 10-12 cashews, halved
  8. Prepare 2-3 Tbsp raisins

I still remember my mom makes this in a very bulk quantity and except me. Ukkarai is a Chettinad special sweet made for Diwali. This ukkarai / okkarai is made even during Navratri and Karthigai Deepam in different parts of the city. Home recipes > Indian > holiday > Okkarai.

Instructions to make Okkarai:
  1. Chana Dal: Dry roast the chana dal till golden brown and aromatic. This will take 7-8 minutes on medium heat. Soak this roasted dal in lots of water for 3 hours or so.
  2. Coconut: Dry roast the coconut flakes till golden and aromatic. This will take around 5 minutes on low flame. Keep aside.
  3. Cardamom: Remove the skin, grind the seeds along with a tsp of coarsely granulated sugar in mortar-pestle till you get a fairly fine powder. Keep aside.
  4. Cashews and raisins: Heat 1-2 tbsp ghee and fry them till cashews are golden. Keep aside.
  5. Preparing the Chana Dal: Grind the soaked chana dal to a fine paste, adding as little water as possible.Make loose dumplings of the ground dal and place in a deep, big vessel that fits in the cooker, steam for 20-25 minutes.Open the cooker after a few minutes and let these steamed dumplings cool. Now, you can either grate these cooled dumplings or crumble them with your fingers. The former gives a more uniform look to the sweet.
  6. In a large wok, heat 1 tbsp of gingelly oil (Nalla yennai) or ghee and fry the crumbled / grated dal mix on a low flame for 5-7 minutes. Keep aside.
  7. Place 1/2 cup water in a heavy bottom pan. Add 1 cup of crushed jaggery to this and let it melt on a high flame, with constant stirring. Once melted, lower flame and keep stirring.In 7-8 minutes the mixture will get a deep colour and start thickening.Keep a small plate handy, and pour a drop or so of this onto it, every 2-3 minutes. Try rolling this drop between your thumb and index finger. If it turns into a ball and makes a sound when you drop it on the plate, your jaggery-caramel is ready for the okkarai.
  8. As soon as your caramel reaches this stage, turn off the flame. Remove the wok from the stove and start adding the ready dal crumble in batches, giving it a good mix to coat evenly. Once the crumble is all evenly mixed with the jaggery caramel- it will be soft, sweet and not sticky, but like perfectly cooked basmati rice - fluffy, dry and separate.
  9. To this, add the roasted coconut, cardamom powder and fried cashews and raisins and mix gently. Your Okkarai is ready for Diwali. If you like a richer taste, you can use more ghee to fry the cashews, but 1 tbsp is more than enough.

Okkarai is a famous traditional South Indian sweet dish that is made on the auspicious day of Diwali. I still remember my older days where in my mom prepares only Okkarai and Vadai for Diwali. Moon Dal Okkarai பயத தம பர ப ப ஒக க ர. Okkarai is an accommodation in Chhattisgarh. Okkarai is situated northwest of Bhalera.

So that’s going to wrap this up for this special food okkarai recipe. Thanks so much for your time. I’m sure you will make this at home. There is gonna be more interesting food in home recipes coming up. Remember to save this page in your browser, and share it to your family, colleague and friends. Thanks again for reading. Go on get cooking!