Sneha is the Sanskrit word for oils extracted from plants & animals, and it also means “friendly” in Tamil, Hindi, and other Indian languages. Apparently oil is viewed as a friendly substance and according to Ayurveda oil purifies, calms, and nourishes our mind & body. Since oil signifies purification, peace & prosperity, it is no wonder that we follow the tradition of taking oil bath (ennai kuliyal) & heating up an oil pot (ennai chatti kaya vaipathu) on the day of Deepavali. Generally we use sesame oil for oil bath, peanut oil for frying savory stuffs and ghee for making sweets. My mother usually makes deep-fried mundhri kothu or suseeyam (sweet dumplings), vadai or bajji (savory dumplings) and ukkarai fried in ghee for every Deepavali.
the victory of Lord Krishna over Narakasura (the demon),
and hence it is customary to use oil on Deepavali for peace & purification.
As ghee is regarded as the sacred oil, we also make ukkarai (sweet lentil crumble) shallow fried in ghee on the day of Deepavali. Ukkarai is generally prepared by grinding soaked lentils into a coarse paste and then stir frying it in copious amounts of ghee until cooked well.
Since this procedure is time consuming and requires constant stirring, I prefer to steam the lentil paste and saute in little ghee until the steamed paste turns sandy. The star ingredient in here is the edible camphor (pachai karpooram) as it lends a sweet aroma along with cardamom powder. Now the recipe for ukkarai, a traditional Deepavali sweet popular in Tirunelveli & also in Chettinad:
Ukkarai Recipe
Yields: 1 and 1/2 cup
Ingredients:
| Bengal gram (chickpeas/ kadalai paruppu) | 1 cup (approx. 200 g) |
| Jaggery (powdered) | 1 cup (approx. 200 g) |
| Ghee | 1-2 tbsp |
| Ghee-roasted cashew nuts | as desired |
| Cardamom (powdered) | 3 |
| A grain of edible camphor |
Mise en place:
- Wash & soak Bengal gram for 2-3 hours.
- Drain the water completely.
- Blitz the lentils for few seconds into a coarse paste.
- Steam the lentil paste for about 10 minutes (or until the toothpick inserted comes out clean).
- Refrigerate the steamed lentil in an airtight container when it reaches the room temperature. (This ensures the beautiful crumbling of lentils.)
Ukkarai making:
- Add the cold lentil paste into a mixer jar, and run the mixer in pulse mode until nicely crumbled.
- Heat a non-stick pan with powdered jaggery in medium flame.
- Add 2 or 3 tbsp of water and stir until jaggery is dissolved and the syrup started bubbling up.
- Then add the crumbled lentil and mix well.
- Add ghee-roasted cashew nuts and a tbsp of ghee.
- Now reduce the flame to low.
- Stir in until the mixture loses almost 80% of the moisture in it.
- Add powdered cardamom & crushed edible camphor and mix well.
- Remove from flame.
- Serve ukkarai warm or at room temperature.
Oh, this made me drool!
Thank you. 🙂
I like that this has so many healthy ingredients!
Thank you!
Wow such a beautiful dish, Megala. Tasty and healthy. You are awesome ? ?? ? with your recipes.
Thank you.
Welcome.
Welcome ?? ?
Another great looking dish!
Thank you.
Looks so yummy! It is very interesting to see the various traditions of Diwali foods around the country. Thanks for sharing. I am drooling over your photos!
Yes, I do wonder how the traditions, food & culture vary from one region to other. 🙂
Thanks so much for reading & commenting.
Fantastic dish , thanks for sharing
You are most welcome, friend! 🙂
Chana daal with ghee and jaggery…cook little bit more as I might be an uninvited guest that day ????
Ahh! I would love to have you as my guest anytime. 🙂 Thanks Deeksha!
Awesome!
Thank you.
Sounds delicious, Megala…Thank you for the tip for the lentils I struggle to cook nice lentils so any tips are good for me 🙂
Glad you find it useful. Thanks so much for reading & commenting.
Thank you, Megala 🙂
Sounds flavorful and delicious! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Most welcome! 🙂