Ukkarai | Okkarai - Diwali Special Sweet

 Ukkarai is a traditional sweet prepared for Diwali without fail in certain parts of Tamil Nadu and Kerala . It is a customary tradition for Tambrahms of Tirunelveli, Madurai side to make this Ukkarai for Deepavali . The  Chettinaad style Ukkarai is different from this version as that recipe uses only moong dhall in the preparation .

I was introduced to this sweet only after my marriage and till then I had neither tasted nor even heard of Ukkarai as it was never made in my mom's house . 

Ukkarai is actually a vegan recipe as freshly pressed gingelly (til) oil was used to make this in olden times ,but now a days as many do not relish the flavor of sesame /til oil in sweets, hence ghee is used which doesn't make it vegan friendly. If you are vegan,you can use coconut oil or sesame oil and make Okkarai.

The name really intrigued me and I thought it must be a very complicated sweet to make and was waiting to see how it is prepared .When MIL shared the recipe, I was surprised that it was very easy to make and really doesn't require any special skill of making jaggery syrup or cooking nuances. 

Each family has a slightly different proportion of dal used for making Ukkarai . Some use 50/50 proportion of moong dhall and channa dhall while some use just moong dhall and some just channa dhall .I did experiment with all these combinations but at the end we were all happy with just the Channa dhall Ukkarai in terms of taste as well as texture .

Some families make this Ukkarai even for Avani Avittam and I found this to be very close to Hayagreeva Maddi except that Ukkarai is a little dry and coarse . 

Donot forget to make Diwali Lehiyam along with Ukkarai . Recipe for Diwali Legiyam/ Marundhu here. 

Soaking Time - 3 hrs 
Preparation Time - 15 mins
Cooking Time - 45 mins
Complexity - Medium 

Ingredients 

1 cup channa dhall / kadalai paruppu
1 cup grated/powdered jaggery 
1 tsp elaichi powder 
2 tbsp ghee /gingelly (til) oil/coconut oil
Few cashews 

Vegan friendly- Replace ghee in the recipe with coconut/sesame(gingell)oil.

Method 

• Wash and soak the channa dhall in sufficient water for 3 hrs .
• Drain the water and grind to a fine paste without adding water.  Incase there is difficulty in grinding, you can sprinkle some water and grind. 
• Grease a plate with some ghee and spread this ground batter on it and steam it for 15 mins . Use a knife or tooth pick to check if it is steamed well . When you prick it through the steamed dough,the knife/tooth pick should come out clean. Let it cool .
• Break the steamed dough roughly with your hands and pulse it in a blender until it turns into a coarse crumbly mixture.  Keep aside. 
• Melt the jaggery with half cup water and filter it incase you find any impurities else let it boil further on medium heat until it reaches the soft ball consistency (meaning- when you drop a few drops of jaggery syrup in water, it should hold shape and not spread)  {{ 2nd row 1st picture above }}
• At this stage add the crumbled dal mixture with cardamom powder and quickly mix it in with the syrup .keep on stirring and breaking the lumps simultaneously.  
• Add some ghee and continue to stir it for another 5 to 10 mins . The mixture may look lumpy and soft initially, but as you keep stirring it will begin to appear grainy and course . Give it some setting and cooling time before serving. 
• Roast some cashews in ghee and mix it well with the ukkarai.

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