Nel pori Urundai

Karthigai deepam special Nel pori Urundai is a yummy Urundais made of Nel poris. For Karthigai, Nel pori or Aval pori Urudais are made as neivedhyam.

When I was talking to my mom about Nel pori Urundai, she gave me some interesting points about this pori. Nel pori is made directly from Nel (paddy) and so it is healthier comparing to Aval pori or Arisi pori. Important point is, this pori can be made only from Newly harvested Paddy (Nel) not from Old ones :) ....Coming to our recipe

Ingredients:

• 3 Cups Nel pori
• 1/2 Cup Powdered Jaggery 
• 2 tbsp Roasted peanuts
• 1 tbsp Grated Dried Coconut (Copparai)
• 1/2 tsp Cardamom powder
• For Greasing Ghee

Method:

1) Carefully remove all the Husk (Nel part) from the pori, measure it and keep it ready.

2) Add Roasted Peanuts to Pori and mix well. You can use store bought unsalted peanuts or prepare at home by dry roasting the raw peanuts and rubbing the skin away.

3) Add few drops of Ghee and add the grated copparai (dry coconut) and fry till nice aroma arises.

4) Transfer the pori and Peanuts mixture to a greased plate. Now add this roasted dry coconut and mix well.

5) Take the measured Jaggery powder in a kadai and add water just to immerse them. Leave this mixture to boil till jaggery melts. (Here I have used Dark colour Jaggery )

6) Strain it to remove any impurities. Wash the kadai and add the syrub again and leave it to boil in medium flame.

7) Mean time keep a small bowl of water ready to check the consistency.

8) After Jaggery turns to a syrub cocnsisteny, drop few syrup in a cup of  water. Jaggery should not get dissolved and it should form a soft ball when you try to roll it. This is the correct consistency so switch off the flame now, add Cardamom powder and mix well. In the below pic, I have shown a stage ahead  where syrub dissolves in water.

9)  Pour this syrup on top of pori in circular way and mix well. You can use wooden spatula or backside of a ladle to mix it. Allow it to cool for few minutes so that the mixture is not hot, but warm enough to make balls.

10) Grease your palm with ghee and start making balls.  First make a rough ball then press it firmly to make tight ball so that it will not break.

Tips:

1) This paagu stage is thakkali pazha paagu that means you will be able to form soft ball when dropped in water and when you take it out of water you should be able to press this ball. 

If it becomes hard like stone then your paagu has gone to next stage so add few more water and boil it to get correct consistency. 

If your paagu gets dissolved in water and if you add pori in at this step (ie one step ahead of paagu stage)then you will not be able to make balls with this paagu as Jaggery will not stick together to form a firm ball.

2) It is always better to add the syrub on pori instead of adding it directly to kadai with paagu. As the kadai hot will not allow you to make balls properly also if you have some left over paagu you can save it for some pottu kadalai urundai too :)

3) If you don't want to add peanuts, you can skip them.

4) Instead or dried coconut, you can also add fresh ones. If you are adding fresh ones, chop them as small bits and them fry in ghee.  

5) I have added the dried coconut and peanuts to pori, some might prefer to add it to Jaggery syrub for even mixing, you can choose the one that suits you.

6) Colour of Nel pori Urundais will differ according to the Jaggery that you use. I always prefer using dark coloured jaggery as it is healthier comparing to light ones. You can also use organic jaggery in same measure.