Ingredients :
- 1 cup chana dal (split chickpeas)
- 1 cup jaggery
- 5-6 cardamom pods
- 1/2 cup freshly grated or desiccated coconut
- 1 Tbsp gingelly oil, coconut oil, or ghee
- 1 Tbsp ghee for frying cashews
- 10-12 cashews, halved
- 2-3 Tbsp raisins
Method :
- 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.
- Coconut: Dry roast the coconut flakes till golden and aromatic. This will take around 5 minutes on low flame. Keep aside.
- 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.
- Cashews and raisins: Heat 1-2 tbsp ghee and fry them till cashews are golden. Keep aside.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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