Bellam Gaarelu !!
Heres for all of you a popular Deepavali dish from South India, mainly from Andhra Pradesh state. Its called Bellam Gaarelu - literally meaning jaggery vadas. They are made by soaking and grinding urdh daal, making vadas from them and soaking them in jaggery syrup to get mouth-watering bellam gaarelu.The recipe is from a close friend of mine who hails from Andhra Pradesh, and traditionally for Deepavali, his mom makes these mouth-watering gaarelu every year.
So, without further ado, heres the recipe for you.
Preparation Time (15 min + 4 hrs / more soaking time)
Cooking Time - 1 hr approx
Ingredients
Urdh Daal - 1 kg
Jaggery - 1 kg
Water
Salt - 1 tsp
Oil for deep fry
Thick plastic sheet - should not be flimsy
Ingredients
Urdh Daal - 1 kg
Jaggery - 1 kg
Water
Salt - 1 tsp
Oil for deep fry
Thick plastic sheet - should not be flimsy
Method
Soak the urdh daal for atleast 4 hrs. Overnight soaking will give better results. Grind the soaked urdh daal with a tsp of salt and very little water (only if absolutely necessary). The consistency of the batter should be such that when the batter is taken in a spoon and dropped, it should fall like a big blob and NOT flow like dosa / pancake batter.
Start a deep pan with oil on a medium flame. Wait until the oil turns hot. Meanwhile, you can start the jaggery syrup on another stove.
For the jaggery syrup
Start a pan on medium heat. Add the 1 kg of jaggery and add water to the vessel until it soaks the jaggery. When the jaggery melts down and starts to boil, check the consistency of the sugar syrup thus.
"Take a couple of drops of sugar syrup in a spoon and wait for it to cool down. Dip your finger in the cold syrup and feel it between your index and thumb finger. It should pull out into a sticky strand. Turn the heat on low and leave it running on a very low flame.
For the vadas
Meanwhile, take the plastic sheet. For each vada, drop a large lemon-sized portion of batter on the plastic sheet using a spoon. Its better to do one vada at a time, unless you are an expert at making vadas, which I am not :) Wet your fingers with a little bit of water and flatten out the batter into a round shape. Then use your finger to make a hole the size of your finger in the batter, so it looks like a doughnut. Then pick the doughnut-shaped batter gently onto your fingers and put it into the oil when it turns hot. Its kind of difficult to do so in the first try, they tend to break down or go out of shape when they are dropped into the oil. But you will get it right after a few tries. Nevertheless, shape doesn't matter, they just taste yummy eitherways !!
You can add 5-6 similar vadas into the oil. After about 2-3 mins, turn them over and cook them until they are brown on either side. Take them out and put them into the jaggery syrup. Let them soak a while in it until they turn translucent in color all over and then take them out. Make more vadas similarly from the rest of the batter. Heres a pic of how it looks - forgot to take pics when making it. Will update when I get more pics.
Enjoy them hot or cold - your call !!
- So
Start a deep pan with oil on a medium flame. Wait until the oil turns hot. Meanwhile, you can start the jaggery syrup on another stove.
For the jaggery syrup
Start a pan on medium heat. Add the 1 kg of jaggery and add water to the vessel until it soaks the jaggery. When the jaggery melts down and starts to boil, check the consistency of the sugar syrup thus.
"Take a couple of drops of sugar syrup in a spoon and wait for it to cool down. Dip your finger in the cold syrup and feel it between your index and thumb finger. It should pull out into a sticky strand. Turn the heat on low and leave it running on a very low flame.
For the vadas
Meanwhile, take the plastic sheet. For each vada, drop a large lemon-sized portion of batter on the plastic sheet using a spoon. Its better to do one vada at a time, unless you are an expert at making vadas, which I am not :) Wet your fingers with a little bit of water and flatten out the batter into a round shape. Then use your finger to make a hole the size of your finger in the batter, so it looks like a doughnut. Then pick the doughnut-shaped batter gently onto your fingers and put it into the oil when it turns hot. Its kind of difficult to do so in the first try, they tend to break down or go out of shape when they are dropped into the oil. But you will get it right after a few tries. Nevertheless, shape doesn't matter, they just taste yummy eitherways !!
You can add 5-6 similar vadas into the oil. After about 2-3 mins, turn them over and cook them until they are brown on either side. Take them out and put them into the jaggery syrup. Let them soak a while in it until they turn translucent in color all over and then take them out. Make more vadas similarly from the rest of the batter. Heres a pic of how it looks - forgot to take pics when making it. Will update when I get more pics.
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| Bellam Gaarelu - ready to eat !! :D |
- So
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