Ganesha came and he went as well and I am here yet to post recipe of anything that I made for him!
No, I have not just been busy eating all the goodies. It’s just been a pesky life with things popping up here and there crying for my attention.
I decided to go with the recipe of Anarse in my Ganesha’s series simply because I have eaten them after may be 10 long years! Also, I love them very much :). In Karnataka, during Ganesha time people exchange sweets and savories (still home made in small towns), like it’s done during diwali. We would get Anarse from many family friends and relatives and I would eat them all, even if some were very greasy. That’s how much I liked them.
Ananrses are the semi sweet absolutely heavenly tasting delights. It’s made with rice flour in a quick way in Karnataka. My mom tells me that maharastrians have a labor intensive way of making them. Is there is difference in taste? Of course there is. I remember eating what my ajji (mom’s mom) had made when I was may be 7 years old, and it sure did taste better. I neither had the time nor the means (apparently rice is hand pounded to a powder in the other version) so had to quench my desire of anarses with what I could make. It did turn out great considering it was my fist attempt.
What you need
1 cup jaggery (chopped into small thin pieces)
1/2 cup firmly pressed fresh / frozen coconut (coarsely ground with very little water)
1 1/2 cup rice flour
2 tablespoon ghee
1 cup water
About 1/3 cup poppy seeds
How to make
Mix jaggery, coconut and ghee and bring it to boil on medium heat.
Don’t over boil. It should be in almost water consistency – thin syrup.
Now add rice flour to it.
Stir and mix well without lumps.
Cook the mixture for about 3-5 minutes stirring continuously till soft dough is formed.
The dough should just a little softer than chapatti dough consistency.
Take away from the heat and allow it to cool. Take the poppy seeds in a thin layer in a wide mouthed shallow bowl (katori).
Make about 1.5 inch diameter balls of the cooled dough.
Press the dough in the palm to make it a flat circle.
Put that onto the poppy seeds and press firmly so poppy seeds adhere to the dough.
Take a thick plastic cover / or flexible chopping board and put the dough poppy seed side down.
With moist hands press the dough to make it about a 3 – 3.5 inch size diameter circle.
Deep fry these to golden brown in either ghee or vegetable / sunflower oil with poppy seed side on top.
DO NOT turn the poppy seed side down in the frying pan – it will make the poppy seeds come out and oil will start burning soon.
DO NOT make the anarse too thin, this will make the anarse very hard.
DO NOT fry them till them till they turn dark brown, this will make the anarse very hard. I always feared that it’s a complicated recipe and I would mess it up. I was very wrong – it wasn’t that bad at all.
I edited the name to include Sajjappa even though its traditionally made with rava.
When I asked my mom in law for the widely used name for the recipe, she told me that it could be sajjappa.
Thanks to reminder from Roopa from My chow chow bhath, I am sending this entry to Latha’s Yum blog for the Ganesha Chaturthi event.
it looks very pretty. I had a disaster making this recipe:) it all broke apart inside the oil.
~roopa Sharmi, my mom warned that it could happen. I guess i was just lucky and Ganesha’s blessings that it didnt happen ..
this looks so beautiful…..reminds me of my grand ma.
Looks yummy. Thanx for sharing.
Adhirsam meets cookie. Love the crunch and the sesame seed finish!
wow thanks for this recipes quite simple i make it quite complex phew :). send this to lathas event for gnaesh chaturti!
~roops Thanks Roopa. I had totally forgotten about that event. Thnaks to Latha that the deadline was extended.
fantastic looking cookies “indian style” – :D. thanks for the entry.
Nice entry Roopa! Thanks for sending for our event!
~Roops thanks Latha, when i edited last the category problem may have come. 😦
Its been a long time since I had Anarse…my favorite Diwali faral ! 🙂 even i don’t know how to make the dough for it…so have to wait for someone to send me some, which does not happen very often 😦
But this is a great recipe and looks doable…will try this for Diwali this year. 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
I love this sweet. I was looking for the recipe on the internet. Thanks for the yummy recipe.
The picture of sajjappa looks wonderful!
[…] Anarse / Atrase /Sajjappa – A Deep Fried Cookie? […]
I think we call it as Arsi in telugu. Hi Roopa, Cameover from The yum blog Ganesh Chaturthi round up.. I can never dare to try them at home, but your recipe tempts me !
You have a great blog going on here!
cheers
Padma
~ roops – Thanks Padma. Dont worrry, venture out and I am sure it will come out fine.
The topic is quite trendy in the net at the moment. What do you pay the most attention to when choosing what to write about?
Hello
We call this dish as “Gharge” in marathi. We prepare it on Special occassions.
I love this dish a lot
Here I want to say something about “Anarsa”
this is typical marathi dish.
Generally prapared on Diwali for Laxmi Pujan.
Here we ferment Soaked n half dried rice flour with jaggery for 3-4 days.
then same way balls are made then they are flattened on poppy seed after that they are deep fried in ghee.
I love Anarsa waiting for Diwali to come..
This anarse recipe is so different than the one made in Maharashtra. There isn’t any coconut, plus it involves soaking rice for 3 days. A quick Google search for ‘Anarse recipe’ will land you to maharashtrian recipes, since its a pretty popular diwali item over here( although most people avoid it nowadays due to the time consuming process).