Poornam Boorelu (Sweet gram dumplings)

Termed to be a heavenly delicacy of Andhra,these sweet dumplings my mom used to cook for us on sankranti, a festival celebrated in andhra during the beginning of harvest season. I loved eating them with melted ghee poured over it. No doubt that I run back to my childhood moments whenever I cook them, while I dream of going home, cooking this dish all by myself and surprise mom. Coming back to the recipe...

We need... ( Makes 10 burelu)

for the sweet balls

Chana Dal - 1/2 measuring cup
Sugar - 1/2 cup sugar
Elaichi(cardamom) powder - 2 tsps


for the batter

Rice -1/4 cup
Urad dal (Minapappu) - 1/2 cup
sugar - 1 tbsp

How to .....

1. Wash and soak rice and urad dal in water for about 2 hrs.

2. Soak chana dal for about half an hour. Pressure cook dal in 1 cup of water till 4-5 whistles. Set Aside.

3. Grind rice and urad dal to smooth paste adding sufficient water. It should be ground to thick dosa batter consistency. Set aside for 4-5 hours.

4. Heat a kadhai, add cooked dal, sugar, elaichi powder and on medium heat keep stirring till the dal turns thick enough to make a ball. Stirring continuously helps dal not to stick to the pan.

5. Allow the paste to cool. Grease your hands with oil or ghee and roll the paste to lemon size balls as shown below. Set aside.

6. Add sugar to the fermented batter. I prefer adding sugar over salt to the batter. Adding sugar gives a mild sweet taste when compared to adding salt.

Note: Left over batter can be used to make dosas. I generally take required qty of batter, mix sugar accordingly so that the whole batter does'nt get wasted just because the whole batter is sweet.

7. Heat oil in a deep pan. A tiny drop of batter put in the oil should pop up immediately on the top. Reduce the heat to medium.

8. Dip each ball into the batter, so that it evenly gets coated. Drop them gently into oil and fry them till golden brown. Fry the balls in batches depending on the size of the pan.

9. Remove from oil, drain on a kitchen paper to remove any excess oil and serve. Pulihora (Tamarind rice) with burelu makes an excellent combo.