Anarsa Recipe - Learn How To Make Anarsa

Anarsa is a pastry like delicious sweet dish prepared specially on Diwali. It can be served both as dessert and as a snack itme. It is among the traditional sweet dishes of Maharashtra and Bihar. Learn how to make this delicious snack with step by step photos and detailed recipe given below:

Preparation Time: 10 minutes + 8 hours to soak the rice overnight and air dry it prior preparation

Cooking Time: 40 minutes

Recipe Yield: 12 pieces

Ingredients:

• Home Made Rice Flour (chawal ka ata) - 200 gms (1 bowl)
• Sugar - 100 gms (1/2 bowl)
• Khoya - 100 gms
• All purpose flour (maida) - 100 gms (1/2 bowl)
• Sesame seeds (til) - 100 gms (1/2 bowl)
• Curd (dahi) - 1 table spoon (if required)
• Refined oil - 2 table spoon for dough preparation
• Refined Oil for frying

Preparation:

Traditionally the preparation of rice flour (chawal ka ata) takes 3 days, which involves soaking the rice in water for 24 hours on day 1, then changing the water and soaking again for another 24 hours and changing the water. This process is again repeated on the third day after which the rice is washed under water nicely and air dried under the fan. When the moisture evaporates the rice in grinded to form the rice flour. Besides this, the dough prepared fom this rice flour has to be kept to rest for 10 hours before making anarsa.

But today when there is time crunch, this recipe will help you make anarsa in just 40 minutes by soaking rice overnight for 8 hours and then grinding the soaked and dried rice to form rice flour in the morning.

1. Soak the rice overnight or for 8 hours and then rinse it well with water in the morning. Strain off the excess water and spread the rice in a big flat plate or thali for drying under the fan. When the moisture has completely dried up, transfer the rice into a mixer jar and grind it to form rice flour and transfer it to a big plate or thali.
2. Now in the same mixer jar put the sugar and grind it to form powder too.
3. Add the powdered sugar to the rice and mix well with hands.
4. Now add 2 table spoon refined oil and khoya to the rice flour and mix all ingredients well with hands. Start forming a hard dough of the mixture. If the mixture appears moist then add 100 gms for all purpose flour (maida) and prepare a hard dough. If the dough appears dry then add curd to it and moisten it. (Remember not to add water for preparation.) Now keep the dough aside to rest for 10 minutes. (Traditionally khoya is not used and the dough prepared is kept to rest for 10 hours. But while using khoya keep the dough to rest only for 10 minutes, because the khoya is itself soft and will begin to rot if kept to rest for a long time.) Now prepare small balls of the dough.
5. Take a plate and spread some sesame seeds (til), and heat some refined oil in a kadhai. Lower the flame when the oil is heated properly.
6. After 1 minute, roll and press the dough balls on the sesame seeds to form a peda like shape. Flip and press the other side on the sesame seeds (til) too. Dust off the extra sesame seeds (til). Prepare the anarsa dumplings of the reaining dough in the similar manner and keep them in a plate.
7. Start frying 2-3 anarsa dumplings at a time on low flame. Fry till the lower base turns red and the flip to fry the other side.
8. Transfer the fried anarsa to a plate covered with tissue paper.
9. The hot anarsa are ready to be served. You can also cool them to room temperature to store them in airtight container to be used over a week's time.