Adhirasam

Adhirasam is a fried sweet delicacy that is integral to Tamilian cuisine. Made of rice flour and jaggery dough, this sickly sweet doughnut is crunchy on the outside and has a melt-in-your-mouth texture on the inside.

It’s the one sweet that definitely features in the assortment of confectionaries gifted to relatives during Diwali, and is prepared in temple kitchens and served as prasadam. A confection for both divine and mortal beings, it’s evident why the dish’s name literally translates to "best flavour" in Tamil.

Adhirasam is also extremely popular in other Indian states, but the sweet assumes different names in different regions. So it is called Anarsa in Maharashtra, Kajjaya in Karnataka, Arisa Pitha in Odisha and Sirsa in Chattisgarh. Not just in the subcontinent, versions of Adhirasam are also made in Nepal, Sri Lankan and Malaysian households.

The invention of this Indian doughnut may have taken place in the early 16th century. Inscriptions dated to Vijaynagara emperor Krishnadevaraya’s reign reveal that Adhirasam was made with flour, jaggery, butter and a hint of ground pepper. It was said that Adhirasam could take up to a week to complete. This was because the batter was let to ferment for five days before the dough could be used.

Modern versions of Adhirasam are comparatively quick to make. However, the process still requires immense expertise and entails numerous steps, including making the rice flour and the jaggery syrup at home. It is crucial to make the rice flour from scratch because it needs to have a specific percentage of moisture in it to act as a binding agent together with the gluey, amber jaggery syrup.

The flour is made by first soaking the rice in water, then letting it partially dry before it is ground into a coarse crumble. The consistency of the jaggery syrup is controlled over several steps of melting jaggery in water. Once both the elements are ready, they are kneaded together to form a dough. A day later, the dough is cut into small spheres and flattened to resemble small Puris. Then it is fried in a greased pan till the outside starts to attain a dark, caramel-like colour.

Learning to make Adhirasam is a daunting prospect, but once a batch is made, it can be preserved for at least a month in an airtight container.