Athirasam/Kajjaya

Method: For Rice Flour: Wash and soak the rice for 2 hours. Drain water after 2 hours and spread them under fan on a white cotton cloth for 35 to 40 minutes. After 30 minutes, touch rice and see it it sticks to your hands. You should feel the damp but shouldn't be wet. At this stage, grind the rice in a mixer to fine Powder. Few people prefer coarse so it's your preference. I did it finely. Sieve the flour and transfer it a bowl and press them and cover with cloth and keep it while we prepare the jaggery syrup. Make sure the rice flour is damp throughout the making process. The flour shouldn't get dried. If it gets dried, just sprinkle water to get the dampness. I melted and strained the jaggery using 1/4 cup water while the rice was getting dried itself. Take a heavy bottom saucepan, pour the melted jaggery and boil the syrup in the lowest flame.

Take a bowl with water. Once you get the foam formation, take a little syrup and pour them into the water. If the syrup mixes with the water, then it's not ready and you need to boil more. Try again by pouring the syrup into water and it should stay still and make a ball out of it. This is the correct stage. Switch of the stove, mix rice flour and cardamon powder to the syrup and mix them well. If you tilt the pan a little, the athirasam dough should flow downward slowly. This is the right stage to stop mixing. I transferred the dough to a bowl and covered with a white cloth or even you can cover with a paper but not with plate as it will leave moisture and fall on dough and it will get spoiled. Let it rest for a day or two. I used butter paper to make athirasam, take a lemon sized dough and apply oil and spread them using hands and make a small hole in the center so it gets cooked well.

Heat Oil in a Kadai, in the lowest flame slide the athirasam into Oil and do not turn unless the athirasam floats on top. Now turn and cook well. After repeating this for the rest of the dough, transfer to a container and store well. Tips for Storing: Keep a lid inside the container and arrange the athirasam on top of it. As the athirasam will leave oil and it will start to smell of oil soon. Dough Tips: You can prepare the dough beforehand and store with a cloth covered for 2 days and then with lid for next 10 days outside at room temperature and it will not get spoiled. Make sure the rice flour is damp throughout the process. Sweetness was correct for us but if you want you can add another 1/4 cup too but this was sufficient.