Okkarai (Diwali Okkarai)
Diwali Okkarai | Ukkarai is a traditional sweet made specially on diwali festival. This is a popular sweet from Tirunelveli district. This special sweet is made with Chana Dal (Kadala Paruppu) and jaggery as the main ingredients.
Okkarai is a famous traditional South Indian sweet dish that is made on the auspicious day of Diwali. I still remember my older days where in my mom prepares only Okkarai and Vadai for Diwali. Probably we weren’t afford to make other sweets and snacks during those days. Even today, in many brahmin families Okkarai is one of the mandatory sweet which is prepared on the auspicious day of Diwali. This simple dish Okkarai needs only less expensive ingredients and readily available materials in any house.
For Diwali, we make lots of Sweets and Snacks and most of the sweets are made of sugar. This okkarai is mainly made with Kadala Paruppu (Split Bengal Gram) and jaggery. We all have elders at home who might have diabetics and other medical conditions that prevent them from having sugary sweets. This Okkarai is one special sweet that suits everyone in our family.
How to get perfect Diwali Okkarai | Ukkarai
- Soaking or Pressure Cooking Dal : We can dry roast the dal and soak in hot water for about 2 hours and then grind it to paste and follow the rest of the crumbling procedure.
- Pressure cook for just 3 whistles with less water: We need to add water just till 1″ more than the roasted dal. Also allow only for 2-3 whistles. We don’t need mushy dal for this okkarai.
- Jaggery Consistency: We don’t need any particular consistency for jaggery. We need to melt, strain and bring it to boil till the syrup is sticky. My grandmother used to grind jaggery along with the dal and crumble the whole dal+jaggery mixture in a pan. But nowadays most of the jaggery has lots of dirt and hence to strain those dirt we are not grinding with dal.
- Do not over cook: Once the Okkarai starts to crumble, switch off the flame. Do not over cook or it will turn chewy. The mixture gets even more crumbled upon cooling.
You can also try other traditional Sweets:
Recipe Card:
Diwali Okkarai | Ukkarai | Diwali Sweets
Equipments Needed
- Pressure Cooker
- Heavy Bottomed Pan
- Mixer Grinder
Servings: 250 gms
Calories: 300kcal
Diwali Okkarai | Ukkarai is a traditional sweet made specially on diwali festival. This is a popular sweet from Tirunelveli district. This special sweet is made with Chana Dal (Kadala Paruppu) and jaggery as the main ingredients.
Print Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 Cup Split Bengal Gram (Channa Dal / Kadalaparuppu) 1 Cup - 250ml
- 1 Cup Grated Jaggery
- 2 tbsp Grated Coconut
- ¼ tsp Cardamom Powder
- 1 tbsp Cashews
- 2 tbsp Ghee
Instructions
Cooking Split Bengal Gram (Channa Dal / Kadalaparuppu)
- Dry fry the Channa Dal (Kadalai Paruppu) in a pan till it turns into golden brown color. Take the dry roasted Dal into the vessel and add water and pressure cook it allowing 2-3 whistles.
- Once the dal is cooked, drain the excess water using a striner and spread the cooked and strained channa dal in a clean white towel for 5 minutes just to ensure the dampness is absorbed by the towel
Grinding Dal
- Take the dried, cooked channa dal to the mixer and grind it to a nice powder. Take the ground channadal powder along with the grated coconut and keep it ready. Lets start with our jaggery suryp now.
Preparing Jaggery Juice
- Take the grated jaggery in a vessel and add 1/4 cup of water and keep it in flame. Let the jaggery gets dissolved in water completely. Remove the vessel from flame and strain the jaggery juice to a pan to get rid of all sand or dust particles in jaggery
Crumble Okkarai
- Keep the pan in flame and bring the jaggery suryp to boil. When the syrup starts to thicken, if you take a drop of syrup and rub between your fingers, it should stick. This consistency is enough. We don’t need string or stone consistency for okkarai.
- To the syrup, add the grated coconut and mix well. Then add the ground channa dal powder and give a good stir. Slowly the channadal mixture starts to cumble and becomes soft like puttu.
- Add 1 tablespoon of ghee and keep the flame very low and occasionally mix the okkarai. Heat another pan, add a teaspoon of ghee and roast the broken cashews till they turn golden brown color.
- Add the roasted cashews and cardamom and mix well.The okkarai breaks down into smaller pieces and it should be soft. When we take the small pieces in hand and make into ball then this is the right stage to remove the okkarai out off the flame.
- The delicious Okkarai is ready to serve
Video
Notes
- Do not overcook after the chana dal crumbles then the okkarai will taste chewy instead of soft crumble
Nutritional Info
Nutrition Facts
Diwali Okkarai | Ukkarai | Diwali Sweets
Amount Per Serving (100 g)
Calories 300
Calories from Fat 45
% Daily Value*
Fat 5g8%
Carbohydrates 23g8%
Protein 4g8%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
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| Okkarai Ingredients |
Method with Step by Step Pictures:
- Dry fry the Channa Dal (Kadalai Paruppu) in a pan till it turns into golden brown color. Take the dry roasted Dal into the vessel and add water and pressure cook it allowing 2-3 whistles.
- Once the dal is cooked, drain the excess water using a striner and spread the cooked and strained channa dal in a clean white towel for 5 minutes just to ensure the dampness is absorbed by the towel
- Take the dried, cooked channa dal to the mixer and grind it to a nice powder. Take the ground channadal powder along with the grated coconut and keep it ready. Lets start with our jaggery suryp now.
- Take the grated jaggery in a vessel and add 1/4 cup of water and keep it in flame. Let the jaggery gets dissolved in water completely. Remove the vessel from flame and strain the jaggery juice to a pan to get rid of all sand or dust particles in jaggery
- Keep the pan in flame and bring the jaggery suryp to boil. When the syrup starts to thicken, if you take a drop of syrup and rub between your fingers, it should stick. This consistency is enough. We don’t need string or stone consistency for okkarai. To the syrup, add the grated coconut and mix well. Then add the ground channa dal powder and give a good stir. Slowly the channadal mixture starts to cumble and becomes soft like puttu.
- Add 1 tablespoon of ghee and keep the flame very low and occasionally mix the okkarai. Heat another pan, add a teaspoon of ghee and roast the broken cashews till they turn golden brown color. Add the roasted cashews and cardamom and mix well.The okkarai breaks down into smaller pieces and it should be soft. When we take the small pieces in hand and make into ball then this is the right stage to remove the okkarai out off the flame.
- The delicious Diwali Okkarai is now ready. Get set ready to Welcome Diwali!
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| Okkarai (Diwali Okkarai) |
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I tried the recipe today for the first time. Came out well.thanks to your step by step recipe. It reminded me of my Paati's okkarai.
This dish brings up fond memories. Long live deepavali, Okkarai
i was searching for okkarai recipe.finaly i find here.thanks mam.
sara
Hi mami,
i tried many other recepies came out well.but this one not come properly to me.i did as per your method.it is sticked on my vessels.i add more ghee also.what mistkae i did i dont know.first time i m doing this.jaggry burnt smell is coming.pls clear me.
Hi, Sorry to hear that Okkarai did not come well for you. I would like to mention that after grinding, put the mixture in a non stick pan and keep the flame low and stir occasionally. Please try once more and let me know your comments.
How much of grated coconut is needed? I had few of ur earlier recipes. Hv come out really well. Thank u mam!
Hi, sorry, I forgot to mention grated coconut in the ingredients section. We have to add 2 tablespoon of coconut. I have corrected the ingredients section. Thanks for letting me know.
Wow… this recipe has taken me to my childhood days….We used to enjoy this delicious OKKARAI prepared by our granny…..My wife is preparing for Diwali. I am sure my kids will relish the taste.
Hi…instead of cooking the dal in the cooker, can i just soak them in water for a couple of hours and then dry it and powder it? (pressure cooking dal is not allowed in our family) Will I get the same result?
hi mami this diwali i tried ur way of ukkarai and it came out very well like puttu.sweetness was perfect.thanks for the recipe.
Tried out this method today for the first time. Happy that it Came out very well. Thanks!
lovely, thanks my in laws are from tirunelvelli and I usually learn from this site be it karadai nombu ookarai, i have tried and they come just perfect if instructions are followed. i almost thought that ookarai will turn out to be a disaster after mixing with jaggary syrup and after a long time it was still holding on without crumbling. But i was persistent and and came out at the end thank you very much. Please also have a section on Tirunelveli special for all occasion so search is easier.
Thank you very very much
Very Glad to hear Ranjani. Thanks for trying and sharing your comments
cwhere i can get this okkarai to taste in chennai? pl reply.
You can try Grand Sweets