Poornam Boorelu

Poornam Boorelu is one of the most famous Andhra's festive sweet.
It is mostly made during Sankranthi or Varalakshmi Vratham etc. These are the sweet balls made of bengal gram and jaggery coated with the batter made of urad dal and rice.


Ingredients:

• Black Gram Dal ( Urad dal )- 1/2 cup
• Rice - 1 cup
• Bengal Gram ( Chana dal ) - 1 cup
• Grated Jaggery or Sugar - 1 cup or to taste
• Cardamom Powder - 1/2 tsp
• Salt - to taste
• Oil - for deep frying

Directions :

• Soak Urad dal and rice for around 5 hours.
• Drain them and grind to a thick paste ( to the consistency of thick dosa batter ).
• Add 1/4 tsp of salt , mix well and keep aside. This is the batter in which we have to dip the filling before deep frying.

• Cook chana dal in a pan with just enough water to cover the dal. Cook till done. Drain any leftover water after the dal is cooked.
• You can also cook chana dal in pressure cooker, without the weight.(We want the dal to be dry and not runny.) You can even spread it on a kitchen towel after it is cooked to soak any extra water. 

• Either mash the dal with a masher or put it in a dry grinder and grind it coarsely without any water. It should be more like powder than a paste.

• Add grated jaggery or sugar to the chana dal powder and mix well and cook it on medium in a heavy bottom pan.

• Keep stirring and cook till it is like a thick paste . The mixture should be such that you should be able to make balls out of it.
• Turn off the heat, add cardamom powder and mix well.
• Make small lime sized balls and keep aside.
• Heat oil for deep frying.
• Dip each ball into the batter , coat evenly and put it in the hot oil for deep frying.

• You can fry around 4-5 balls at a time depending upon how big the pot is.
• Fry till golden brown.
• Remove on a paper towel.

Enjoy the poornam boorelu when they are warm. They taste equally good at room temperature.

You can also make a small hole on top of the boorelu and fill it with a couple of drops of ghee ( Clarified Butter ) and eat.