Okkarai recipe with Video – Updated
Okkarai | Ukkarai is a traditional sweet made in most of the tamil brahmin houses for diwali. I still remember my mom makes this in a very bulk quantity and except me everybody loves this okkarai very much. When i was talking to my mom yesterday, suddenly i remembered of this and asked her for the recipe. In my in –laws place we don’t make this ,and i made this for my hubby who is very fond of sweets. Here comes the recipe of okkarai. Check out my complete collection of Diwali recipes.
Preparation Time : 10 mins + 3 hrs soaking | Cooking Time : 40 Mins |Serves: 3-4
Channa dal 1/2 cup
Moong dal 2 tblsp
Jaggery 1/2 cup + 2tblsp *
Cashew nuts few
Ghee 2 tblsp
*Add 2 tblsp extra only if you are adding moong dal
Video of okkarai recipe
Method:
- Dry roast the channa dal and moong dal in a pan for 2 mins(be careful not to burn this)
- Soak it in water for 3 hours.
- Drain the water and grind this into a smooth paste .Just add 1 tblsp of water while grinding.
- Grease idli plates with ghee and transfer the ground dal to this and steam this for 12 mins.
- After steaming, break it into pieces and once it is cool, pulse it in a mixer to get a make it into fine pieces.
- In a pan put the jaggery and add 2 tblsp of water to this.
- Dissolve the jaggery.
- Filter the impurities if any. Keep the flame low.
- Let the jaggery melt and comes to 1 string consistency.
- You can check this by taking the jaggery syrup between the thumb and the index finger.
- When it reaches this stage , add the ground dal to this and mix it nicely.
- Add few tsp of ghee in the middle also while cooking.
- Cook in a medium flame,till it becomes soft and reaches a puttu or usili consistency.
- The consistency should be like a beach sand. At the same time it should be soft.
- It took 15 mins for me to reach this stage.
- Fry cashews in ghee and garnish the okkarai with cashews.
- Mix well.
- Enjoy this as it is.
- Though this may sound weird my mom and grandma will eat this as an accompaniment for CURD RICE.
Note:
- Some may skip the procedure of steaming the ground dal.
- But this will take more time to get cooked .
- Adding moong dal is optional. My mom’s recipe is without the addition of moong dal.
- Recently in Instagram, when i saw Shanti aunty posted using moong dal, i just tried and it turned out well.
Totally new to me and classy pictures jeyashri. Loved it
Beautifully done jeyashri… Nice to learn traditional sweet recipes 🙂 you could link to our festival event this month…
Krithi's Kitchen
Event: Serve It – Festival Potluck
wow awesome recipe…and beautiful presentation too!
If you want you can link this recipe to my Diwali Event.
CHECK OUT My DIWALI Event and Recipes
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hv heard abt this dish but did not hv any idea abt it.. too good. Thanks for sharing such an worth dish..
I'm so tempted by seeing all these seasonal sweet recipes. Now just wish someone will parcel it to me.. hint, hint..! lol
yummy delight
I have heard about this..thanks for the stepwise pictures! Looks yummm!:P
this looks super delicious !!
Ongoing Event – CC-What's For Friday Dinner??
A new and delicious traditional sweet!!!
Prathima Rao
Prats Corner
Lovely recipe n yummy sweet ..delicious!!
new recipe to me will try this soon
this is new to me, looks absolutely delicious and yum, wonderful presentation..
New sweet adds to the stock. Looks really tempting jeyashri.
New and yummy looking sweet….delicious..
Very classic picture. I have read abt this in book and not seen and tasted this. Looks superb.
Cheers,
Uma
My Kitchen Experiments
this recipe is new to me…sounds gud!!nice presentation n click!
very pretty pictures, and i;ve never made it.. hopefully this diwali.
Richa @ Hobby And More Food Blog
love the recipe… will try it out
looks yummy..
This looks so yum…
This is my fav too….amma makes it during diwali…lovely clicks Jey!
We do almost same thing and make stuff puri …looks yum
Looks delicious and yummy. Nice clicks.
Delicious recipe jeyashri,lovely n cute clicks…
Great presentation and looks yummy!
Well done Jeyashri,its been ages i have them..
very traditional sweet…looks yumm
Such a traditional recipe. Thanks for sharing Jeyashri. You just took me to my Diwali celebrations of my childhood.
discovered you from gawker and loved the step by step method.lovely presentation and clicks of an authentic recipe..following you for more goodies..
very traditional recipe…Awesome post J 😉
looks healthy and delicious dear 🙂
this looks super delicious !!
Yum Yum Ukkarai Recipe Dear.Bookmarked it.Wonderful.Thanks for sharing it.
nice presentation Jeyashri!!!
This Ukkarai will go with Mixture and a cup of filter coffee during rainy days…
Nice presentation Jeyashri!!!
In our house this Okkarai goes with mixture and a cup of filter coffee during rainy days…
While searching for proportions to prepare this sweet, I came across your blog. Thanks for posting this!
Also, after frying the channa dal, I generally boil it immediately (with 2 whistles only so that it doesn't get mashed up), dry the boiled dal (put it in a big plate or paper and leave it in open air for couple of hours) and then powder it. I find it easy this way.
madam, just love ur blog.It is a one stop shop to learn recipes..could u pls tell if jaggery can be substituted by palm jaggery.
will there be any variation in taste?
Thank you so much. Never tried with palm jaggery, taste will differ for sure, even not sure about the consistency.
I made this way just now. But sweet is not enough. Also it doesn’t have the authentic taste of Ukkarai which is our favourite sweet for Deepavali.
Wish you check well before posting.
This is the authentic recipe followed by my grandmother and mom at home. Of course the ukkarai turns out super soft. Sweetness depends on the jaggery we use. I do try the authentic recipe few times at home before i post it over here. This post is updated again with video.