Tag Archives: deepavali sweet

Pathirpeni is a very special sweet to me and to my brother! It was and is still a speciality signature sweet of Aachi my paternal grandmother. I do not remember having pathirpeni in any other house in the big clan that we belong to. The sole supplier to all near and dear ones was Aachi – helped meticulously by Amma – my mother.

I had my miniature ‘Puri kattai’ or the spherical puri maker in wood to specially make pathirpeni and also puris. This was handed over to my daughter who used to help me make rotis, but feels she is a grown up and uses my bigger puri kattai. She painted my dear little puri kattai though the newer roller is intact.

Pathirpeni is for those with that extra sweet tooth – which might be god sent genetically or amma fed affectionately… We siblings have both – hence not one but two extras to successfully acquire that ‘happier the healthier’ plump look!

These are deep-fried crisps dipped/rubbed immediately in powdered sugar to get the snowy white finish. It is a simple sweet with minimal ingredients but one should be ready for some interesting variety of work. The sugar that melts in the mouth first is followed by the crispy crunch of the deep-fried discs.

These also involve an efficient team work. Since the count was always in hundreds, amma or aachi would knead the dough; they would take turns in pressing the spheres and frying in oil – the last quintessential part of rubbing the powdered sugar would be ours – mine and my brother… I think I did the rubbing and he contributed more into something which can also be decently termed as tasting!

So I did the rolling and frying and my 6-year-old did the sugar-coating! She wanted to make her own pathirpeni and then I was a proud mother!!

she started off like this….

and then graduated with flying colours!! – special seven that the little hands made!

These can be stored in air tight containers after cooled for a week – that’s not a concern as its life ends too quickly! Yet the tastiest crisps are those which directly come out of the oil and are delicately transferred for one’s taste buds to relish, sprinkled/rubbed very quickly with powdered sugar.

One cup of flour (about 150 gms), would yield 20-25 crisps. After a no maida/all-purpose flour and no white sugar life for many years now, this one has been an exception. Might be I try next time with whole wheat flour and brown sugar – but have to sacrifice on the colour as wheat flour would result in brown crisps and then we might call it brownie crisps!

Now to the recipe –
Pathirpeni/Sugary Snow White Crisps

Ingredients (makes 30-35)

maida maavu/all-purpose flour – 1 1/4 cup (200 gms)
cheeni/sugar – 1 1/4 cup (200 gms)
thanneer/water – as needed
uppu/salt – a pinch
nei/clarified butter – 1 tsp
arisi maavu/rice powder – 1 tsp
yennai/oil – for deep frying

Method of Preparation
1. Sieve all-purpose flour, add a pinch of salt and mix enough water to make a tight dough

2. Finely powder the sugar and keep in a wide bowl or plate; the deep fried crisps would directly land inside this bowl to have a sugar bath
3. Heat oil in a pan, keep in sim position
4. In a small bowl, mix clarified butter and rice powder

5. Make three even balls of the dough

6. Spread into flat breads – chappatis/indian roti size – not too thin, not too thick

7. Do not place rotis one on top of the other before spreading the mixture as they would stick to each other and one would have to make the three flat breads again. Make one and place on a plate; spread the butter rice powder mixture, make the second one and place on top of the first; spread the mixture and make the third; now place the third on top of the second. It had become messy as I had placed before spreading – I had to do it all over again. So be cautious on this

8. Roll this triple layered roti . Now it is time to pull the rolled roti as long as possible without spoiling or breaking the texture

pulled long

9. Then cut into very small bits, size enough to make small circular crisps

these are little big, i had to make them smaller

10. Roll into thin crisps – while rolling, see the side which was cut by knife – make thin puris/crisps pressing the knife cut edge into a circle. This helps the butter mixture to stay intact. Otherwise it would ooze out from the puris.

11. When the oil is ready, roll one by one and fry till crisp. We do not want a fluffy soft puri – make really thin and flat ones that come out crisp
12. Immediately drop it inside the sugar bed and apply well; the powdered sugar must have coated evenly

13. Tap the crisps slightly to reduce the excess sugar
14. Taste one to enjoy the true taste of pathirpeni – this is the most important step in my opinion; having identified the flaws (making thinner or thicker; right shape; less sugar coating; more sugar coating and so on), proceed with the next
15. Make all the crisps and let them cool
16. Store in an air tight container and enjoy.
17. Do not hesitate to help yourself with more – you won’t get those hot crisps after they are cooled – cannot be microwaved or reheated by any means!
Note:

This is a simple one – yet, some caution on important steps would make it easier
Try one and feel the crispness of it and accordingly try to make corrections on the thinness and crispness of the pathirpeni
Each time, tap a little to take away the sugar if one doesn’t prefer so much sugar
Adding cardamom powder to the powdered sugar might add some aroma and flavor though it is not added normally.

The Tricky Athirasam!

2 Replies

***Updated on 03rd November 2016

Deepavali as we know is marked by the sweets and savouries made for the occasion. The day of Deepavali starts with the early morning oil bath, new dresses, poojai with the – ever tricky athirasams. Athirasams are fried delicacies made of rice flour and jaggery. The texture of athirasams depend on the jaggery syrup and quality of rice flour. Generally, raw rice is soaked and dried at home and powdered, then used with jaggery syrup to make this exotic sweet. But rice flour from the store (fine quality) can also be substituted. The result might not be the best. I have used rice flour from shop – the shop did not have raw rice but had rice flour – hence I opted to settle with that.

Athirasam as the name suggests means very tasty or might be ‘x’ factor in taste! It certainly has it. All other sweets and savouries are prepared the day before Deepavali and Athirasams are a morning poojai affair. At my parent’s home on the Deepavali morning, as children we would be busy trying the new outfit/outfits and enjoying sparklers and crackers. So, I did not really have the experience in helping or making athirasams – it was restricted to tasting alone.

After marriage, specially at my husband’s granny’s (paatti) home, I could be part of the athirasam making team of youngsters! The chief cook is always the octogenarian or nonagenarian granny – she doesn’t know her age – but calculating through her first son’s age, she could be in her nineties, but by her active cooking abilities – this is difficult to admit. She makes flat athirasams on banana leaf, and guides her helpful daughter-in-laws to fry them to perfection, and other grand-children would be pressing excess oil out of the hot athirasams… This was thoroughly a watcher’s delight! First time, I joined the children’s gang to press out oil (atleast a hundred athirasams would be fried); Next deepavali, I graduated or got a double promotion sitting near paatti (grandma) to make flat athirasams on banana leaf. She wouldn’t allow me in front of the oil stove to fry!

Making athirasam was so easy this way…but to make it alone for the first time is quite a difficult one. Making the dough for athirasam is a very delicate work which has to be done with caution. If the consistency of the jaggery syrup is not right, the athirasams might break inside oil or turn out strong enough to break your enemys’ teeth! Being a high level optimist, I felt I was quite lucky this time – (oh, I don’t mean breaking anyone’s teeth but talking about athirasams) though not perfect as amma’s or picture perfect as paati’s athirasams – they tasted good enough though didn’t look the most perfect!

They were not hard but surely lacked the oily glow, one of the special features of athirasams. I didn’t know whether I should be happy about the less oil texture or worry about the missing originality… Then, I decided I would worry about the latter. The reason behind the not-so-good outcome might be the quality of rice flour or the more likely culprit – consistency of jaggery. I am going to try and rectify these known mistakes. Suggestions regarding this are always welcome. But since this is the proven right recipe by amma and paatti for making athirasams…might be you get it better than mine! Next time, I am going to try with raw rice from scratch…ofcourse when it is available in the Indian grocery shop (better athirasams in the near future).

***Updated on 03rd November 2016
***The next time of good Athirasams arrived recently, from Athai/Aunt, who gave me a perfectly done dough to be stored for months. This has been a loving way of making Athirasam available all the time, when you are out of your home town. The prepared dough has been stored in the refrigerator. I follow these simple steps for the true joy of Athirasam.

a. I take the required dough out

b. place it in a warm place to bring it to normal temperature

c. Mix very little warm milk to make a smoother dough

d. Fry in hot oil

e. Squeeze the oil out

f. Serve and enjoy tasting every bit of it.

I have certainly graduated with my paagu – syrup in making perfect groundnut or sesame or dry fruit brittles. Athirasam shouldn’t be very far off. But, when I had the opportunity of relishing Athirasam through the caring hands of Athai, didn’t miss the chance.

Nanri Athai.***

Athirasam

Ingredients (makes approximately 10 athirasams)

arisi maavu/rice flour – 1 cup
thuruviya vellam/grated jaggery – 1 cup
Elakkai podi/cardamom powder – 1 tsp
chukku podi/dry ginger powder – 1/2 tsp
yennai/oil – for frying

Method of Preparation

Heat jaggery with 1/4 cup water in a vessel to dissolve
Filter when jaggery is dissolved and make a syrup
The syrup should be single string consistency – When the jaggery is boiling well in the vessel – keep a bowl of water and add a few drops of the syrup. The drop should settle in water and one should be able to make a soft ball out of it – it should not be too sticky. This is the right consistency of syrup.
Turn off the stove.

Making dough

Add rice flour to jaggery syrup and mix with a ladle. There should be no lumps
Do not wait for the dough to become stiff. One can stop adding rice flour if the dough becomes pasty
Jaggery stiffens the dough after a while and hence the dough should be a little sticky
Keep the dough closed overnight.

Frying Athirasams

Next morning, heat oil in an iruppu chatti/kadai
Apply little oil on an aluminium foil, take a small ball and press it even into flat discs with greased fingers

Deep fry one by one till golden brown
Depending upon the colour of jaggery, athirasams can also be dark brown – mine was done from the darker variety of jaggery
Soon after athirasam is removed from oil, place it on a dabara/kattori and press it with another dabara/kattori to squeeze out excess oil. This helps in flattening the athirasams

Store in containers. Athirasams become softer after a while.

Tip:

If the dough thickens or is stiff after 12 hours – add 1 or 2 tsp of curds/yoghurt and knead well to bring it a soft dough consistency.
Some might also add milk instead of curds.
If one finds the sweetness of athirasams less or more, texture of athirasams soft or hard, can be altered in the next attempt! There is always another chance!!

I wish everyone a very HAPPY DEEPAVALI!

Sweet and Special Somasi!

2 Replies

Somasi is certainly a special traditional sweet – Why special? Because it is also international in the making process. These may very easily be mistaken for puff pastries – deep-fried but just a little different in shape. Whenever I try baking ‘dutch apple flappen’ with pastry sheets – I am reminded of somasis. The filling, (of course with different ingredients) – which goes into all-purpose flour rotis instead of the pastry sheet, sealed – then deep-fried for somasis and baked for apple flappen!

Somasi is usually cut with a special somasi cutter. At present, I do not possess one… It is a spoon with a wheel like cutter at the other end – somewhat like a pizza cutter with a spoon at the handle position – (another proof of its international appeal!) I used a knife to cut the extra dough and my daughter helped in making the edges intact with a fork. By the time I made nearly 20 somasis, I felt quite tired.. Might be because this was the first time I made it all by myself! I know the next time it is going to be easier.. After completion, it seemed to resemble another all time favourite ‘f’rench pastry – the croissant’ (especially in the photo down below)!

I once again remembered and missed the joy of making sweets and savouries together with two generation of experienced hands as a kid. One to roll the dough and keep the filling, we the kids to cut it to proper shape and the other elder member to deep fry in oil – with filter coffee by our sides to keep the energy intact… But thambi (brother) would only need those somasis or already made murkkus to keep up his energy!

Somasis

Ingredients (makes approximately 15-18 somasis)

freshly grated coconut/desiccated coconut – 1/2 cup
ghee – 2 tsp to roast coconut
pottukadalai/roasted split chick peas – 1/2 cup
white sesame seeds – 3 tsp
sugar – 1/2 cup
cardamom powder – 1/2 tsp
all-purpose flour – 2 cups
salt – a pinch
water – just enough to make a dough
oil – for deep-frying

Method of Preparation

The filling

Roast grated coconut with 2 tsp ghee. I used the desiccated coconut from the super market – the dryness in it helped roasting easier and quicker
Dry roast sesame seeds till golden brown
Powder pottukadalai and sugar separately
Mix roasted coconut, powdered pottukadalai, roasted sesame seeds cardamom powder and sugar and keep aside

The dough

Mix all-purpose flour and a pinch of salt with enough water to make a smooth dough to be rolled into rotis

Making somasis

1. Make small balls out of the dough and roll them to round medium shaped rotis or puris

2. Keep 1 tbsp of the filling on the rolled rotis

3. Fold the roti into a semi-circle

4. Cut the folded semi-circle clean in the edges, with a knife or a pizza cutter or with a somasi cutter if one has it

5. Mix the removed excess dough with the basic dough

6. If cut with a knife or pizza cutter, seal the edges with a fork

7. If done with a somasi cutter, the cutter would take care of the edge design

8. Heat oil in a chatti/kadai

9. Gently drop the raw somasis into oil

10. Fry till golden brown and take them out in a kitchen tissue to absorb excess oil

11. Let them cool and store in an air-tight container.

Note:

Sugar can be increased if needed
If there is left-over filling, it can be stored and used within a week to make somasis again or any other sweet.

Susiyam – Deep fried lentil-jaggery sweet balls!

2 Replies

Susiyam – (nothing to do with yummy sushi) is a festival sweet – especially made for deepavali. It is popular by the name susiyam in Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi. In Chennai and nearby areas it is called sooyan. In Kerala, it is known as sugiyan with slightly different combination of dal or the outer batter. These are bengal gram and jaggery balls, dipped in all-purpose flour and deep-fried. One can also store them for a couple of days.

Susiyam

Ingredients (makes approximately 30 susiyams)

kadalai paruppu/channa dal/bengal gram – 1 cup
jaggery – 3/4 cup
cardamom powder – 1/2 tsp
dry ginger powder – 1/2 tsp
all-purpose flour – 1 cup
salt – a pinch
vegetable oil – for deep-frying

flour, lentil and jaggery syrup

cook lentil and jaggery into a thick paste

make small balls

Method of Preparation

Cook kadalai paruppu till just done with little water. It should not be overcooked
Mash well with a ladle
Boil jaggery with very little water in a vessel. Let jaggery dissolve well (to strain mud in the jaggery)
In a hard bottomed vessel, take mashed paruppu and strain the jaggery into it
Add cardamom powder and dry ginger powder
Cook well till it becomes a thick paste
Make small balls and keep them aside
Mix all-purpose flour with salt and water to make a thick batter
Heat oil in an iruppu chatti/kadai
Dip each ball in the flour batter and fry them till golden brown
Take them out in a tissue to absorb excess oil.

the fabulous five!

Note:

1 tsp rice flour can be added to all-purpose flour to make susiyams crisper.
The balls should be coated well with the batter, or else the paruppu mixture might spread in the oil. Hence, batter should be a little thicker.
When the oil is hot, the susiyams would turn golden brown very soon. Be careful to take them out of the oil in right time.

Dosaikal

…..Peeping into grandma's kitchen and more…

Tag Archives: deepavali sweet

‘Manoharam’ – Gram Flour Fritters (Churros) dipped in jaggery syrup

Pottukkadalai-Nilakkadalai Urundai/Roasted Channa-Groundnut Laddu

Thengai Burfi/Coconut Burfi

Pathirpeni/Sugary Snow White Crisps

The Tricky Athirasam!

Sweet and Special Somasi!

Susiyam – Deep fried lentil-jaggery sweet balls!

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