Athirasam : a Sweet Dish Made During Special Occasions

Athirasam is one of the traditional sweet dish of South India prepared during special occasions like marriage and offered as gift with other items. It is made of Raw Rice (Not Parboiled Rice) and sweetened with jaggery. Flour made from Raw rice is fermented overnight in Jaggery mix and then used to make this dish.

Please go through the instructable on how to make Athirasam at home

• 500 grams of raw rice
• 500 grams of jaggery
• A large piece of Dried Ginger
• Few cardamom pods

• Soak rice for about 5 hours and then drain out water
• Place it on a piece of cotton cloth to remove any moisture in it
• Grind the rice in a mixer-grinder and sieve through a fine mesh
• Repeat few times with remains on the sieve and collect the rice flour

• In a wide mouthed bowl boil 2 cups of water and add jaggery in it

• Crush the cardamom pods and dried ginger to fine powder and add to jaggery in the bowl

• Once the jaggery is fully mixed with water, filter the juice through a tea filter and keep aside

• Place a a larger vessel on stove and add the jaggery juice in it
• Heat till the jaggery juice becomes thick and forms a thread like pattern while pouring
• Now add the sieved rice flour and mix well

• Mix continuously over low flame till it is thick like dough made with wheat flour
• Remove from flame and allow to cool
• Cover with a cotton cloth and then with a lid
• Keep it covered overnight to ferment

Next day you can use the mix to make Athirasam

• Take a wide leaf and apply little oil to it
• Take lemon sized mix in hand and flatten it over the leaf
• Make a hole at center so that inside of Athirasam gets cooked evenly

• Heat enough oil for deep frying
• When the oil is heated, add the shaped pieces one by one
• Turn the pieces in oil for even frying
• Take out from oil and serve hot

You can store the Athirasam for a week in containers