Poornam Boorelu / pesala Boorelu

Poornam Boorelu / Whole Moong Dal Boorelu 

This weekend is Varalakshmi Pooja. I am sure everyone must be busy preparing for the big day. Shopping, cleaning homes, decorating puja room and idols. Married women are totally busy with all these work. These are the work that is to be done before the Varalakshmi Puja day. 

On the Pooja day, we are totally busy with preparing Kalasam, decorating the Goddess Lakshmi Devi idol, preparing Naivedhyam for Goddess Lakshmi and other such activities. Everything will go well if plan our to-do list well in advance. Planning will help in doing things smoothly and without any fuss. Right from the sarees we want to wear, till the flowers we use for decoration, plan and keep everything ready to avoid the last minute hurry.

For this special occasion, I am sharing the recipe of Pesala Boorelu ( Whole Moong Dal Boorelu ). This is a popular Andhra recipe which is made during festive occasions specially during the festive season of Sankranthi ( Pongal ). These are also known as Poornam Boorelu.  Boorelu are traditional sweets that can be made with channa dal, moong dal, whole moong dal, coconut-rava or with chenna. They can be made with many other variations as well which I will be sharing soon. You can also check my other Naivedhyam recipes :

Tempered black chickpeas
Easy Coconut Ladoo Recipe

Banana Appalu
Paneer Payasam
Spongy rasgullas
Dates and Nuts Ladoos
Kalakand

I have heard many people think that Boorelu are very difficult to prepare. But it’s a false thought. They are very easy to prepare provided you follow the simple tricks and techniques that are mentioned here. This was the first sweet that I prepared after my marriage and I was on the Cloud Nine after that. Because my man loved them to the core.

Pesala Boorelu are very healthy and tasty too. I have used jaggery in this recipe. But if you wish you can replace it with sugar. For the outer skin, I have prepared and instant version of batter which does not require any soaking, grinding or fermentation. Firstly, we prepare the stuffing that should go inside the boorelu ( i.e. poornam ), then dip them in the batter and deep fry them. Its as simple as said. So, lets get into the preparation of these Pesala Poornam Boorelu.  

Preparation

Take the whole moong dal in a vessel. Check for any inpurities and wash them thoroughly. Add clean water in the vessel and put it on the stove.

On a medium flame, cook the whole moong dal. Keep stirring occasionally. Cook until the whole moong dal is soft and cooked. But it should be grainy.

To check if it is cooked till the correct stage, take a grain of whole moong dal between your thumb and index fingers and crush it. It should become mashy. 

Now switch off the flame and drain the water right away. Allow this to cool. 

Meanwhile, lets get the other ingredients ready. Grate the coconut and keep aside.

Grate the jaggery and keep aside. If you are using sugar, make a powder of the sugar and keep it aside. Take the cooled moong dal in a blender along with cardamom pods.

Make a coarse powder of this mixture. Do not add any water while making the powder. In case you are preparing in large quantities, then make the powder in batches. Transfer this to a big vessel. Add grated jaggery ( or powdered sugar ) and mix well.

Alternatively, you can grind both the jaggery ( or sugar ) along with the cooked moong dal together and transfer to a bowl. To this dal-jaggery mixture, add grated coconut and mix well.

If this mixture is too watery and you are unable to give shape, then put this mixture on the stove and cook until it dries up a liitle. Keep stirring continuously while cooking to avoid burning and sticking at the bottom of the pan. Cool this mixture and make small balls from this mixture. Keep them aside.

Now lets prepare the batter for the poornam boorelu. There are 2-3 variations for making this batter. The tradidtional way of preparing the batter is by soaking the urad dal and grinding it and then fermenting it for 5-6 hours. But here I am using an instant batter which does not require any soking, grinding or fermenting. I will mix maida ( all pupose flour ) and rice flour and make a batter. There is another variation for the instant batter with wheat flour. We mix maida and wheat flour and make a batter. But I personally feel that the second variation gives a hard outer skin where as the first variation will yield a soft and crunchy outer skin of the boorelu. So, here in this recipe, I am sticking to the first variation with rice flour. Take the maida and rice flour with a pinch of salt and mix well.

Add water little by little and mix thorouhgly so that there are no lumps in the batter. The batter should not be thin. So do not add more water. The batter should be of dropping consistency and not that of pouring consistency.

If you think that the batter is too thin then add little maida and make it a thick batter. Now that we are all set, heat oil in a pan.

To check if the oil is hot enough, put a small drop of batter, it should not come up immediately. It should come up gradually. At this point, dip the moong dal mixture into the batter with your fingers.

Coat the batter well all around the ball. And gently place the coated ball in the oil to deep fry.

Place 4-5 such balls in a batch.

Cook them on a low to medium flame until the balls turn light golden in colour. Remove from the oil on place on a paper napkin to remove the excess oil.

Repeat the process for the remaining balls and finish off. I could make around 25 boorelu with the measurements given below. These Poornam Boorelu ( whole moong dal boorelu ) stay good for upto 2-3 days. Enjoy with your family.

Ingredients

Whole Moong dal 1 cup

Jaggery 1 cup
Grated coconut 1/4 cup
Cardamom pods 5
Oil to deep fry             

For batter

Maida 1/2 cup

Rice Flour 1/2 cup
Salt a pinch

Method

1. Wash the whole moong dal and cook with water. Cook until it becomes soft but still has the grainy consistency. Press between your index and thumb fingers and you should be able to mash it.
2. Drain the excess water from the cooked moong dal and allow to cool.
3. In the mean time, grate the coconut and jaggery and keep aside.
4. Take the cooled moong dal in a blender along with cardamom pods and make a coarse powder.
5. Add grated jaggery, grated coconut and the powdered moong dal and mix well.
6. Make small balls out of this mixture. If the mixture is too watery, put it on the stove for a few minutes until it dries out. Keep stirring continuously while cooking to avoid sticking at the bottom of the pan.
7. Mix maida, rice flour and salt in a bowl and mix well.
8. Add water little by little and make a thick batter.
9. Mix vigorously such that there are no lumps in the batter.
10. The batter should be thick, and not too thin. If you feel the batter is thin add more maida and make it thick.
11. Heat oil in a pan for deep frying.
12. To check if the oil is hot enough, put a small drop of batter in the oil. It should not come up immediately. If it comes up immediately, the oil is very hot. Try to reduce the heat by adding more oil or reduce the flame for some time.
13. Now, dip the moong dal balls in the batter and coat the batter well all around the ball.
14. Place it gently in the oil. Cook atleast 4 balls in a batch.
15. Cook on low to medium flame until they turn to light golden colour.
16. Remove from oil and place them on a paper napkin to remove the excess oil.
17. Repeat the process with the other balls.
18. Serve them warm or at room temperature.
19. These boorelu stay good for upto 2-3 days at room temperature.

Notes

• Always use fresh oil ( preferable refined oil ) so that you do not have a oily smell or taste while enjoying the boorelu.
• These poornam boorelu can be prepared with other stuffings like channa dal, rava-coconut and many other variations which I will be discussing very soon.
• The moong dal mixture should not be watery. If by chance, it becomes watery and you are not able to give shape to it, then cook on a low flame until the water content evaporates and becomes thick.
• Do not add too much water while preparing the batter. The batter should be thick. When you dip the ball in the batter, it should coat the ball evenly.
• You can add more of grated coconut as per your preference as long as you are able to give shape to the moong dal dough. 

This post has been submitted to the Livogen Iron Chef Contest ..  http://www.livogen.in/iron-chef