Suzhiyam

This is my 25^th post! I want to use this post to thank all my well-wishers and blog visitors, who made sure to like, comment and share all my posts, in the blog, facebook and insta. Special mention to those who tried my recipes and shared the pictures with me. Not to forget the co bloggers, who gave me a warm welcome into this field, where I am a newbie. I want to celebrate this small milestone with a traditional sweet, Suzhiyam.

Suzhiyam or suzhiyan is my most favourite sweet. Also known as thoppam, this is a staple traditional sweet during Diwali in many houses. This is a family recipe which I learnt from my co sister Viji. Though I have been making this sweet ever since I got married, I make it a point to call up Viji akka on Diwali eve to ask for the measurements. It has become something of a ritual now. Hopefully, I will be able to refer to this post hereafter. Our Diwali remains incomplete without this delicacy. Anything deep fried is already yummy, but this sweet filling makes it addictive.

This Diwali special is crispy on the outside and soft and sweet on the inside. Though we don’t prefer deep frying, once in a while indulgence is not a sin. So stop worrying and start eating!

Soaking time: 2hrs for rice and urad dal, 1 hr for channa dal
Preparation time: 15minutes| Cooking time: 15minutes

Ingrdients:

For filling:

Channa dal-1 cup

Grated jaggery- ½ cup

Powdered sugar- ½ cup (add a piece of elaichi while powdering sugar)

Grated coconut- ¼ cup(slightly fry in ¼ tsp ghee)

Outer cover:

Raw rice- 1 cup

Urad dal- ¼ cup+ 1 tsp

Salt- as needed

Oil- for frying

Method:

1. Clean and soak raw rice and urad dal together in water for 2 hours. Then grind it in grinder or mixer into a smooth batter. It should be of idly batter consistency. Add appropriate salt and keep ready. No need to ferment it.

2. Meanwhile clean and soak channa dal in water for 1 hour. Then add it to kadai along with water and cook it. Once it is cooked, drain the water and spread it on a plate or cloth to absorb the moisture.

3. After the dal is fully dry, pulse it in mixer jar. It should be a coarse powder.

4. To this coarse dal powder, add grated jaggery, powdered sugar and coconut.

5. Mix everything together and make small balls.

6. Dip the balls in the rice batter and deep fry in hot oil.

Notes:

· This is a traditional sweet made only with jaggery. But sometimes the filling becomes a little loose because of too much of jaggery and it becomes difficult to make the balls and deep fry it. So we add some amount of sugar to make the process easy. If you prefer only jaggery, you can add one cup of grated jaggery and avoid powdered sugar.

· If the filling becomes a little loose because of too much of jaggery, you can add a little ghee to a kadai and fry the filling for two or three minutes. Then make the balls.

· Instead of rice and dal batter for outer cover, you can use maida batter. But rice batter is a better option because you get crispy suzhiyam. The ones made with maida become hard, after they cool.