Sukhiyan

Sukhiyan, yet another well known tea time snack in Kerala, had been on my to-make list for quite some time now. Finally, I succeeded in checking it off from the list. These snacks are found in most tea shops in Kerala, strategically arranged in small glass cupboards, right next to Ethakka Boli, making people tempt to have it.

My mom used to make these at home, whenever we would be home for vacation. Home made snacks have its own advantages, because you know that these are fried in fresh set of oil unlike in tea shops. Moreover, you get to decide the way you would like to make it; the type of oil you want to use ; how sweet it should be etc... etc. All said, I had to make it at home, as we don't get it anywhere around here :P. Turns out, the only thing that you should be careful about while making it, is not to overcook the grams.

Ingredients

1. Moong dal - 1 1/2 cup
2. Grated coconut - 1 cup
3. Jaggery - 250 gms
4. Cardamom - 5
5. All purpose flour - 1 cup
6. 1/8 tsp of salt
7. Water

Method

• Clean the moong dal and cook it in a pressure cooker. Make sure you do not overcook it (refer tips).
• Meanwhile crush the cardamom. Take the jaggery in a microwave safe bowl and add 4-5 tsps of water and microwave it for 1-2 mins, to melt the jaggery.
• Drain out the excess water from the cooked moong dal.
• Heat a pan and pour the melted jaggery into it. Add grated coconut and crushed cardamom into it. 
• Once the mixture gets heated up, add the moong dal and mix it well. Let it cook for about 5-10 minutes or untill all the water vaporises and you get a dry mixture.
• Let the mix cool down. Make small balls of the mixture and keep it aside.
• In a bowl, mix the all purpose flour, salt and water to form a thick batter. 
• Dip each of the balls made in this batter and fry it.

Tips

1. The moong dal shouldn't get overcooked. For me, it took 2 whistles on high heat in a pressure cooker, to get the dal cooked. However, the same may not turn out to be helpful for you as the cooking duration would differ according to the variety of dal you use.
2. You could melt the jaggery on stove with about 1/4 cup water added to it. In that case, you may need to grate the jaggery to quicken the process.  

I hope you try out this recipe and enjoy it with your family over tea.