Regular puffed rice is made of rice, where it is heated under high pressure with steam. That is used in many street foods like this very famous Churmuri/Beach side Masala pori or in savory snacks like this Kara Pori. Regular puffed rice is easy to find here in the US when compared to aval pori or Nel pori. Aval pori is made by dry frying the beaten rice flakes or Aval in high heat. In India, it is easily found in stores during the time of the Karthigai Deepam Festival. It used to be so much fun going to the stores where we get to sample the different pori to see if they are fresh enough. They make it very fresh in the stores during the festival time. Nel pori is made with paddy. The paddy with the husk is puffed and then sieved to remove the husks. Even after we buy the Nel pori from a store, we have to make sure to clean it well to remove the remaining husk as it is very unpleasant to eat them. Last month when we were shopping at our local Indian store, we found a bag of aval pori and my immediate thought was to make some Karthigai Pori Urundai with it. This is the first time, I found aval pori, and was very excited. The pori packet was not too fresh and I warmed it thoroughly in a dry pan to make it a little crisp before proceeding to make the recipe. If you have a pack of any kind of pori lying in your pantry, heat it up in a dry pan for a few minutes to bring back the crispness. Use a good quality paagu vellam to make the Aval Pori Urundai. The regular vellam/jaggery does not yield the sticky consistency and forming the balls would be hard. Bits of freshly chopped coconut are added to the Karthigai Pori Urundai. I did not have fresh coconut and hence skipped it.
My Other Posts in the A – Z Explore the Flavors Series
Preparation time - 5 minutesCooking time - 20 minutesDifficulty level - Intermediate B for Baghrir with Orange Butter Sauce C for Chickpeas Shawarma D for Double Ka Meetha E for Esquites F for Farro Salad G for Gur Papdi H for Hayagreeva Maddi I for Idli J for Jau Ki Papdi
Ingredients to make Aval Pori Urundai - (makes around 20 medium Balls)
Aval Pori - 6 cups Jaggery / Vellam - 1 ½ cup Cardamom powder - ½ tsp Coconut - ¼ cup (finely cut pieces)
Procedure to make Karthigai Pori Urundai -
In a pan, add the chopped coconut pieces and fry them on low heat until they are light brown. Remove and keep it aside to use later. I did not have coconut and hence skipped this.
In a wide pan, add the measured jaggery and about ½ cup of water. Let the jaggery melt and come to a boil. Strain the mixture and return it to flame again. The jaggery we get in the US is usually free of any impurity and hence I skip the filtering part.
Let the syrup boil well and come to a softball consistency. This means that when you drop a little bit of syrup in cold water, you should be able to gather it with your fingers and form a ball. The syrup should hold its shape intact and it will harden upon cooling. This is the right consistency of the syrup.
At this stage add the coconut pieces and cardamom powder. Mix well.
Add the measured Aval pori into the pan and mix well to combine. Turn off the heat and immediately start rolling them into balls.
This has to be done when the mixture is still hot. When it cools down, it will become crumbly and will be hard to roll. Using some rice flour to dust the palms helps to bear the heat and roll.
If making the syrup in large quantities for both aval pori and nel pori, then we can add the syrup to the pori as needed and mix.
Let the rolled balls cool down completely and then store it in an airtight container.
Notes and Observation -
It is important to use good quality Paagu vellam to make the pori urunadai.
Crisp up the pori if it is slightly old to make it fresh tasting again.
The consistency of the syrup is very important to form the balls. If it is under or overcooked, we won’t be able to roll it. The taste would still be good and we can serve it as is, but to roll it into balls, the consistency has to be perfect. It comes by practice and could take a couple of times before we master it.
Roll the balls when the mixture is hot. If let to cool down, it will crumble and we won’t be able to roll.
More Festival Recipes
Recipe
