Ariselu

Prep Time: 15min
Cook Time: 25min
Total Time: 40min
Yield: 8 Ariselu

Ingredients

1 Cup Rice Flour
1 Cup Sugar
1/4 Tspn Green Cardamom Powder (Ellachi)
1 Tblspn Ghee or Clarified Butter
2 Tspn Sesame Seeds (Nuvvulu), optional
1/2 Cup Water
Oil for Deep Fry

Directions

• Boil water, sugar in a sauce pan on medium flame & simmer the sugar syrup for 10 minutes or until it attains soft ball consistency when dissolved in water.

• Take a small bowl with some water, add 2-3 drops of sugar syrup & you must be able to make a soft ball with your fingers (it should not dissolve) as shown in the picture below. Turn off the flame.

• Add sesame seeds, ghee, cardamom powder, rice flour by stirring continuously so that lumps are not formed (consistency of the dough should be thick & flowing) & allow it to cool at room temperature.

• Meanwhile; heat oil in a sauce pan/kadai for deep fry on medium flame.  
• Place a plate on a countertop facing backside & cover with a plastic wrap.
• Grease some ghee on the plastic wrap & aslo apply it to your hands. Divide dough into 8 small equal sized balls & take one dough ball. Flatten it using your palm & use your fingertips to flatten each dough into 3-4-inch diameter circle (do not flatten the dough too thin as it becomes crispy, it should be little thick).

• Carefully remove it from plastic wrap & gently drop into hot oil. When it puffs & comes up add another flattened dough. Cook until both sides reach light golden brown colour by flipping it carefully (do not over cook).

• With a slotted spoon carefully remove the ariselu one by one & squeeze the oil by pressing in between two ladles to remove excess oil.
• Transfer them to a plate lined with paper towel to remove excess oil & repeat the process with the reamining dough. Allow them to cool at room temperature.
• Store them in an airtight container & serve.

Note: 

• Stays fresh for 4-5 days at room temperature.
• You will get a perfect taste if made with a fresh rice flour for that you need to soak white rice (old sona masuri rice) overnight in enough water & drain water completely. Spread soaked white rice on a clean white cloth for 4-5 minutes (not more than 5 minutes as it becomes too dry) to remove excess water. Add soaked rice to a mixer jar & grind into a fine powder.
• You can follow same steps to prepare ariselu using jaggery. Make sure to filter the syrup once the jaggery melts to remove any dust & simmer on a medium-low flame until you reach one string consistency. Ariselu prepared using jaggery stays fresh for 15 days.
• If the dough becomes too runny just add some more rice flour to attain right consistency.