Ukkali ~ Traditional Festive sweet

Ukkali is a traditional sweet recipe with rice. It is famous among the region of Salem. They have the custom of serving Ukkali for every wedding functions. Even if any special guests arriving home for the first time, they give them this delicious sweet. It is sweetened rice taken as such or with ghee and banana. There are few more ukkali varieties like paruppu ukkali and rice&paruppu ukkali.

You can either soak the rice and grind them coarsely or use the rice flour. In this recipe, rice flour is used. Dissolve the sugar in warm water. add this little by little to the rice flour and mix them like we make for puttupodi. Do not add too much water. It has to be in crumbled texture. Mix cardamom powder and sesame seeds to this and mix well. Now heat oil/ghee, fry the crumble mixture for a minute or two until raw smell of rice powder is gone. Check out other sweet recipes here

To this, instead of sugar, you can add jaggery also. Adding sesame seeds is optional. It can be stored for a week provided you have the resistance to keep away from eating it 🙂 The style of mixing up ghee and ripe banana with ukkali and mashing up well and making small balls of it and having it right away before the meal. Yummmy it is!! try it! its easy, quick and delicious sweet recipe!

Dal ukkali:

The one with dal is similar to this recipe, just soak the dal (channa dal/kadala paruppu) and grind them coarsely and mix the sweeteners of your choice.

Variations:

To add up little richness to the recipe, we can go ahead adding dry fruits to it, In that case, fry the dry fruits in ghee and add to the ukkali. Cashew/almond can be used, Chop them finely and add it when you roast the rice powder in oil.

LATEST Recipe updated in 2024:

Video recipe: 

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups raw rice
• Water for soaking
• 2 tsp ghee
• Cashews and dry grapes (as desired)
• 2-3 tbsp sesame oil
• 2/3 cup jaggery

Instructions:

1. Prepare the Rice Batter:
   • Soak 1.5 cups of raw rice in water for 3 hours.
   • Grind the soaked rice with just enough water to form a thick paste.
2. Fry Cashews and Dry Grapes:
   • Heat 2 tsp ghee in a pan.
   • Fry cashews and dry grapes until cashews are roasted and dry grapes are plump.
   • Take them out and set them aside in a bowl.
3. Mix the Batter:
   • Add the rice batter to the same pan.
   • Begin mixing and gradually add 2-3 tbsp sesame oil as needed.
   • Keep stirring until the mixture is soft and free of lumps.
4. Add Jaggery:
   • Incorporate 2/3 cup of jaggery and mix well.
   • The jaggery will start melting and then gradually thicken.
5. Achieve Puttu Consistency:
   • Keep stirring to avoid lumps, allowing the sweet mixture to reach the puttu consistency.
   • The texture should be soft and cohesive.
6. Add Fried Nuts:
   • Finally, add the fried cashews and dry grapes.
   • Mix once to evenly distribute the nuts throughout the sweet puttu.