A delicately sweet dessert, sarkkara pidi can be an interesting addition to your Onam menu if you are bored with the regular sweet treats. Rich with healthy molasses, coconut milk, cardamom and rice flour, it's a twist on the regular 'pidi' dish that's usually eaten with non-vegetarian curries. Do you think you can stop with one pidi ball? Give yourself a challenge!
Ingredients
1 cup fine rice flour
100 gms of molasses (sarkkara)
3 cups grated coconut
1 cup water
1 pinch salt
1 dsp oil
A little milk
2 pinches of cardamom powder
2 dsp very fine rice flour
Preparation
Extract 1 cup of thick milk and 2 cups of thin milk from grated coconut
Boil water, add salt and oil
Into the boiling water, toss in the flour a little at a time
Lower the flame, keep stirring so that no lumps form
Remove from fire
Knead the flour paste till it becomes soft
Add a little milk and cardamom powder, knead till soft
Shape them into small balls
Make a syrup with molasses
Boil the thin coconut milk
When it boils, add the flour balls, one by one so that they don't break
Let the balls cook in coconut milk
Once the balls are cooked and the coconut milk reduces, add the syrup
Instead of stirring with a handle, turn the vessel round in between, as it prevents balls from breaking
Mix fine rice flour with thick coconut milk
Add ½ tsp of cardamom powder
Pour this into pidi
As soon as it boils once, remove it from the fire
Serve when cold
Note: The softer the balls, the better the pidi
