Aval Puttu

If you are following my blog, am sure you would know my crazy love for sweets. Aval puttu is one such dish that I adore next to Thiruvathirai Kali. Just as kali, puttu also shows up only once a year during Navarathri. I still remember how much I used to love Navarathiri, especially for this scrumptious puttu. Navarathri Fridays (Yes! my mom makes puttu for Neivedhyam only on Fridays) - I am the happiest & luckiest gal on the Earth!!!!

This year I made this wonderful puttu for Krishna Jayanthi!

My mom always talks about how much she used to struggle to get the perfect texture every time during her early days of cooking. After so many trials, she came up with a perfect recipe (finally!!!) that works right every time. I am so very glad to have this recipe passed on to me and more so, to blog it.

Ingredients
Thick aval / poha - 1 cup
Jaggery - 3/4 cup
Toor dal - 1 tbsp
Turmeric powder - a pinch
Cardamom seeds - 1 pod (crushed)
Cashews - Few
Ghee - 1 tbsp

Method

Roast cashews in a tbsp of ghee until golden brown and keep it aside.

Dry roast aval/poha in a heavy bottomed pan until golden brown. Let it cool and then, break aval into coarse powder (like sooji/semolina) using a mixer.

Take a deep pan and bring 2 cups of water to a boil. To this, add turmeric powder & toor dal. Let the toor dal cook in boiling water until it is done but not mushy. As soon as it is ready, just pour the boiling water (with the toor dal) over the aval rava. 

Mix it well and cover it with a tight lid. Leave it like that for about 5-7 mins for aval to get cooked in hot water.

Melt jaggery in 1/2 cup of water. Pour into a heavy bottomed pan, and boil to get a thick syrup. To test the thickness of the syrup, drop syrup into a little cup of cold water and you should be able to roll it into a ball. When the jaggery syrup is ready, add cooked aval rava with toor dal, cardamom powder and mix them well.

Remove from heat and garnish with roasted cashews. 

Let it cool, and fluff it up with a fork for a flakier texture. I simply adore puttu when it is dry & fluffy.