Rava Kesari Boorelu / Halwa Boorelu

As Diwali get closer and closer.....so many dishes to be made.....yummy ones for sure....But I am not totally motivated this year...but since I don't want to break the tradition...I started making a few sweets.....some regular ones....
As it is the festival of lights, I don't want to bring darkness by not making any :(.....so I will do make some.....OK
I don't know...will think....gosh what am I writing??....well whatever...

Here is a twist on the regular poornam boorelu we make.....here it is to make it easier....well it is little tough to get the poornam made to the right texture..I myself have had a few misses where the filling gets to hard to so soft, then I had to think again to get the right texture.

By using halwa as a filling, it surely will make it easy as rava kesari is not very difficult to make. You can make it as sweet as you want and with the out coating of rice flour and urad dal batter..it will be done very quickly...

I won't say this is much better than poornam boorelu...cos I do favor that over this, but this surely is a quick alternative. Its also great for parties and get togethers.
We do make Boorelu for 2-3 festivals at least....so just instead of making same one over and over again...here you can try this....

Ingredients:

For dipping Batter:

1 cup Urad dal, Minapa pappu, soaked overnight and ground to a thick batter
1/2 cup rice flour (optional, add crispiness to the outside)
some water
pinch of salt

For Rava Kesari

1 cup Ravva (dry roasted on a dry pan on low heat)
1 cup Sugar (or less to suit your taste)
3-4 tbsp Ghee (or less for the health conscious)
1 tbsp Cashew halves
1 tbsp golden raisins
1 1/2 cup water
a pinch of Elaichi powder/ Green Cardamom powder
a pinch of yellow or kesar food color


Oil for deep frying

Method:

For Batter:

Soak Urad dal overnight and grind in thick batter. Mix in the rice flour along with pinch of salt...don't make it too salty.

For Rava Kesari:

Dry roast the ravva on low heat without any oil or ghee.
Once it starts to turn color, remove from heat and transfer to a clean, dry plate.

Roast the cashews and raisins in ghee till they turn brown. Keep aside.

Add sugar and water and bring it to a boil.

Add the elaichi powder and a pinch of food color

Slowly add the roasted ravva stirring it continuously into the sugar and water mix otherwise it will form lumps which then become very hard to dissolve.

Add in the roasted cashews and raisins along with the ghee in which they were sauteed in.

The rava will absorb all the liquid slowly and become thicker.

Cover it and let it cook on low heat until completly cooked.


For Boorelu:

Heat oil in a kadai till hot....when a drop of batter is dropped, it should come back up quickly.

After the Halwa or rava kesari is cooled, make small balls ahead of time.

Dip the balls into the batter and drop into hot oil carefully.

Turn when browned and remove onto paper napkin when completely browned.

Serve as Naivedhyam...Serve hot or warm.

Enjoy!!!