Dry fruit burfi (sweet using figs, dates and nuts)

Diwali (festival of lights, victory of good over evil) is celebrated all over India. Lots of sweets are prepared and exchanged with friends during this festival. My niece Veni Sankar suggested that there must be some recipes for making sweets in the blog. So, I am trying to give one or two recipes to make sweets which are healthier, less time consuming.

Most of the Indian sweets are made using lots of sugar, khoa (similar to ricotta cheese) or white flour.
Looking for healthier ingredients, which are both nutritious and tasty, I decided to make Dry fruit burfi, where no additional sugar and very little ghee (clarified butter) are used. This sweet is good for growing children and for senior citizens as well!

Anjeer (figs) are a good source of potassium, which helps in blood pressure control and also contain a lot of dietary fibre. Fibrous foods have a lot of effect on weight management and also sugar control. So I wanted to include anjeer (figs) in the recipe. Khajur (dates) are known to be maintain sugar levels, aid digestion,  prevent anaemia, lower risk of heart disease etc. They are a  good source of vitamins, and other nutrients and known as a very good antioxidants.

Dates, figs, nuts, cardamom etc:

Nuts partially cracked, figs and dates processed together:

Poppy seeds, oats and cracked nuts being roasted:

Figs and date mixture added to the dry mixture:

Burfi (after refrigerating) being cut in to slices:

Ingredients:

•      1 cup anjeer (dried figs)
•      1 cup seedless khajur (dates)
•      3/4 cup walnuts
•      3/4 cup almonds
•      1/3 cup cashews
•      1/2 cup pistachios
•      2 tbsp. khus khus (white poppy seeds)
•      2 tbsp. oats
•      2 tbsp. ghee (clarified butter)
•      1 tsp. cardamom powder

Directions:

1.      Remove the stems and bottom portion of figs. Cut them into 4 pieces
2.      Remove any seeds or top portion of dates and cut into 3 or 4 pieces.
3.      Coarse grind walnuts, almonds, cashews and a few pistas in a food processor.
4.      Grind together dates and figs so that they are mixed well. Need not be completely mashed.
5.      Heat a thick bottomed pan, add ghee.
6.      When ghee melts, add oats and poppy seeds and stir well.
7.      When oats and poppy seeds are turning golden brown, add nuts mixture.
8.      Stir well for a few minutes.
9.      Add dates and fig mixture, and go on mixing everything together.
10.      Turn the heat off.  Add cardamom powder.
11.      Knead well using your hands.
12.      If necessary, you may grease your palms with ghee or oil.
13.      Place the mixture in a plate and knead some more.
14.      Make it into 2 or 3 portions, and knead each one and make a roll.
15.      Roll the cylindrical mixture on pista and almond slivers.
16.      Place each roll on aluminum foil and wrap it around and roll it on a board so that the inside stuff is fully packed.
17.      Leave the rolls in refrigerator for 1 or 2 hours.
18.      Open the foil cover, slice the roll according to your choice thickness.
19.      Dry fruit and nuts burfi is ready for eating!

 

Polipurnam burelu/poornalu

Burelu, also called poornalu is a traditional sweet and burelu is sure to be there at any festival or celebration dinner! Burelu are spherical to look at, with a ball of sweetened dal batter with a covering, deep fried in oil.  There are different ways of making this dish. Main ingredient which forms the ball is chana dal or moong dal. Covering is normally unfermented dosa batter.

I am giving the recipe using moong dal. Also, as there is so much awareness about reducing cholesterol and avoiding deep frying, I tried to make the burelu using paniyaram maker. (gunta pongaralu)


Deep fried burelu:

Fried in paniyaram maker:

Veg chopper:                             Idlis powdered and other ingredients:





Moong dall balls made ready for frying:

 

Covering batter:

Burelu being deep fried:

 

 

Burelu being made in paniyaram maker:

Ingredients:

•      1 cup moong dal (split and without cover)
•      1 1/2 cup sugar
•      1 tsp. cardamom powder
•      1/2 cup grated coconut (fresh or dried)

For covering:

•      1/2 cup urad dal (whole or split without cover)
•      1 cup rice
•      Salt to taste
•      1 tbsp. jaggery
•      Oil for deep frying

Directions:

1.      Soak urad dal and rice together for 4 to 5 hours.
2.      Soak moong dal for 2 to 3 hours.
3.      For covering batter, grind urad dal and rice to a fine batter (like dosa batter). Consistency must be slightly thicker than dosa batter (more like pongaralu batter).
4.      Add salt and jaggery and mix well. Set aside.
5.      Drain moong dal and grind without adding any water.
6.      Grease idli plates and place the ground moong dal batter in those.   
7.      Steam the batter in an idli maker.
8.      If you do not have an idli  maker, you can steam the batter in a steamer.
9.      Cook the idlis for about 10 minutes.
10.      When the idlis are cooked, remove the pot from the heat.
11.      Let it cool. Take the idlis and process them in a food chopper/processor till the idlis become powdery.
12.      If you do not have a processor, you may just grate the idlis.
13.      Add sugar and cardamom powder to the powdered moong dal idlis and mix well.
14.      When the ingredients are all mixed well, make them in to one inch diameter balls.

Deep frying method:

1.      Heat oil in a deep pan.
2.      Test whether the oil is hot enough, by dropping a small amount of urad batter in the oil. If the batter starts sizzling, the oil is hot.
3.      Pick up one ball at a time, dip it in the covering batter and drop it carefully in to the hot oil. Make sure you do not drop any extra batter along with the ball. Otherwise, you end up having spherical burelu with lot of extra ends!
4.      Keep stirring in hot oil and when the burelu are uniformly brown remove them from the oil and place them on paper tissue, so that extra oil is removed.

Alternate method:

1.      Heat paniyaram maker till it is very hot.
2.      Spray or spread a little bit of oil.
3.      Place the moong dal balls dipped in covering in each of the molds.
4.      Drop a drop of oil on each of the molds. Cover and cook for a minute or two.
5.      Check if you can lift each of the balls up. If so, flip the balls.
6.      Cover and cook for a few minutes more.
7.      Tasty and less oily burelu are ready to serve.
8.      You can happily eat burelu without feeling guilty!!

Serve with either melted or semi solid ghee (clarified butter).