Kadalai urundai/Peanut Balls

Kadalai urundai/Peanut Chikki is a tasty and healthy snack, and is a Karthigai special recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup Raw Peanuts/Verkadalai
• 1/2 Cup Jaggery
• 1/4 tsp Cardamom powder
• 1/2 Pinch Pachai karpooram/Edible Camphor
• 1/4 Cup water
• As needed Ghee (For greasing)

Method:

1) Dry roast the VerKadalai/Peanuts/Ground nuts in a kadai till nice aroma arises and they crackles. The peanuts need to be crispy. Leave them to cool down for few minutes.

2) Rub the peanuts to remove the skin completely.  Phew off the skin and keep aside.

3) Heat a kadai/Pan with Jaggery and water in low flame. After Jaggery gets dissolved, strain it to remove impurities.

4) Heat this Jaggery syrup in medium flame till it will start bubbling up and reaches correct consistency. To check the consistency, 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.  

5) Switch off the flame and add Cardamom powder and Pachai Karpooram to this syrup and give a quick stir.

6) Pour this syrup over roasted peanuts 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.

7) Grease your palm with ghee and start making balls.

8) First make a rough ball then press it firmly to make tight ball so that it will not break.

Tasty Peanut balls/Kadalai urundai are ready..

Tips:

1) When making balls, the Peanut jaggery mixture needs to be warm and if it cools down it is tough to make balls. You can trasfer this mixture to same Kadai and reheat for few minutes.

2) Some might prefer more jaggery so you can alter the quantity of jaggery from 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup. Alternatively you can also reduce to 1/3 cup if you prefer less jaggery in your peanut balls.

3) You can also grease your palm with Rice flour.