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  • Side Dish For Chapati

Okkarai Sweet Recipe-Diwali Okkarai

October 30, 2012 by PadhuSankar 19 Comments

Many of you may not have heard of this sweet but this is a very popular Traditional South Indian (Tirunelveli side) Diwali sweet made in most Tamil Brahmin homes.The main ingredient of this dish is dal and jaggery. Since jaggery is used to prepare this dish, it is very healthy also. Today we will learn how to make Okkarai , a very simple yet tasty sweet (Diwali special) following this easy recipe.

Okkarai sweet

Ingredients needed

Channa dal / Bengal gram/ Kadalai paruppu -1/2 cup
Moong dal/pasi paruppu (split yellow variety) – 1/2 cup
Jaggery – 1 cup
Ghee – 1/4 + 1 1/2 tbsp
Coconut – 1/3 cup grated
Cashew nuts -10-12
Cardamom powder- 1/4 tsp

Preparation

Melt jaggery in just enough water and filter it to remove any impurities.

Method

Dry roast both the dal separately till you get a nice aroma. Do not brown it too much.

Soak both the dal together in hot water for 1 hour.

okkarai-1

Drain the water completely and grind it without adding water.( it should neither be very fine nor very coarse, it should be in between both)

Then steam the ground dal in idli plate. Allow it to cool completely and then crumble it nicely. To make it easier, use the mixie.(Use the whipper button and the blade given for dry grinding) It will crumble evenly.

okkarai-2

Heat 2 tsp of ghee and fry cashew nuts. Remove and in the same pan, fry the grated coconut until it turns golden brown.

Heat another 2 tsp of ghee and fry the crumbled dal for a few minutes.(see pic below)

okkarai-3

In another kadai, heat jaggery, when it starts boiling, add cardamom powder, crumbled dal mixture, remaining ghee and cook in medium flame till it leaves the sides of the pan.

okkarai-4

Then add fried coconut, cashew nuts and mix well. Okkarai sweet is ready.

okkarai-5

Decorate it with cashew nuts and serve. I am sure you will all love this very simple and tasty sweet.

Are you searching for Easy Diwali sweets and snacks recipes, search no more!! You have come to the right place. Find a long list of Diwali Recipes 

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Filed Under: Diwali Sweets, Festival Recipes, Uncategorized Tagged With: Health Dish, Indian sweets, South Indian recipes, Tamil Brahmin recipes, Uncategorized




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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Prathima Rao

    October 30, 2012 at 4:32 pm

    New to me..Looks interesting!!
    Prathima Rao
    Prats Corner

    Reply
  2. Mina Joshi

    October 30, 2012 at 6:09 pm

    Love this easy to follow recipe. Not had this sweet before. I like the addition of jaggery to it as well.

    Reply
  3. ramya anand

    October 30, 2012 at 11:03 pm

    I make this..its a must for diwali in my family..looks yumm

    Reply
  4. divya

    October 31, 2012 at 12:11 am

    Awesome ! Looks yum

    Reply
  5. Reshmi Mahesh

    October 31, 2012 at 5:06 am

    New to me…Looks delicious..

    Reply
  6. gomathi

    October 31, 2012 at 9:12 am

    Thank you very much for this great recipe.I am preparing this regularly for many years during Deepavali.Now a days children are not aware of our traditional dishes which is tasty ,
    nutritious,easy and healthy,We are also waiting for kara appam and deepavali marundhu recipe

    Reply
  7. Lee

    October 31, 2012 at 12:38 pm

    Never thought of making sweets with steamed dal. looks yummy , gonna try for this deepawali

    Reply
  8. Suman Arthy

    October 31, 2012 at 1:43 pm

    Wow I have never tasted this…

    Reply
  9. Priya

    October 31, 2012 at 1:59 pm

    Delicious okkarais,love to get a bowl rite now.

    Reply
  10. Anonymous

    October 31, 2012 at 5:12 pm

    Wow, its a cross between paruppu usli and paruppu payasam!

    Reply
  11. kala

    November 1, 2012 at 6:20 pm

    yummmyyyyyyyy

    Reply
  12. Usha Viswanathan

    November 9, 2012 at 7:59 am

    We r from Tirunelvelly , we make it a little differently
    Cook the kadalaiparippu , then grind it along with jaggery
    Place the ground mixture in a heavy bottomed kadai , add gingerly oil and keep stirring.
    Usha Viswanathan
    Malaysia

    Reply
  13. Lotus Eyes

    October 19, 2014 at 10:44 pm

    My native place is Tirunelveli and my mother regularly prepares this dish for Diwali. Thanks for sharing. Your site has become one of my go-to sites for recipes :-).

    Reply
  14. Sarayu

    October 20, 2014 at 5:03 pm

    Diwali started in a grand way with d help of ur okkarai recipe. It came out really well :):)Prepared it for d first tym being a tirunelvelli dil.

    Reply
  15. D. Viswanathan Iyer

    November 8, 2015 at 4:05 pm

    Dear Padhus,
    You must be knowing me, as I am one of those privileged fans of you to subscribed to your posts.
    This Okkari is actually originated from, Palakadu ( Tamil ) Brahmin, as I am one of them and my grandma taught this to my mom. And she is 81 and any of her d-in -laws yet to learn. Eating my mother s preparation is special. I would like to invite you to my house to eat and learn other Palakattu brahmin recipe. I read your recipe hear its grt too.

    Reply
  16. Raghavan Narayanasamy

    October 18, 2017 at 8:14 am

    Hello padhu my mother from tihirunelveli and my father Madurai. My paternal grandmother exactly makes as you do. I used to try different combination every year. This year I tried yours. Nice came out well jeyashree raghavan

    Reply
  17. Bhooma Sampath

    August 22, 2018 at 3:02 am

    Tried it today for my son's birthday. Came out splendidly. Thanks for the recipe.

    Reply
  18. Unknown

    September 10, 2018 at 6:02 pm

    Thanks for your wonderful recipes… In my 3 years married life I never cooked well… But now I've tried most of your recipes and got appreciation from my husb.. Thanks again…

    Reply
  19. Raji Srini

    November 4, 2018 at 11:10 am

    My mother-in-law uses rice & Chenna Dal. Do you have that revioe?

    Reply

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