Go Back
–+ servings
Diwali Okkarai | Ukkarai
Print Recipe
4.50 from 6 votes

Diwali Okkarai | Ukkarai | Diwali Sweets

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.
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time40 minutes
Total Time50 minutes
Course: Dessert, Sweet
Cuisine: Indian, South Indian, Tamil Nadu, Tamilnadu
Servings: 250 gms
Calories: 300kcal
Author: Sowmya Venkatachalam

Equipment

  • Pressure Cooker
  • Heavy Bottomed Pan
  • Mixer Grinder

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

  1. Do  not overcook after the chana dal crumbles then the okkarai will taste chewy instead of soft crumble

Nutrition

Serving: 100g | Calories: 300kcal | Carbohydrates: 23g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 5g