Avalose unda ( Ari Unda)/ Rice Balls

Avalose unda (update pic)

Ari unda/Avalose unda meaning rice balls is a traditional sweet of Kerala. It is made with very little ingredients but has a wonderful aroma of roasted rice, coconut and cardamon.The sweetener used for this recipe is jaggery. Avalose podi is a snack by itself, you can mix add chopped banana and have it for tea. For Avalose unda you mix it with jaggery and make it into balls/ladoos.It is usually made by dry roasting matta or chemba rice till brown and then making a fine powder of it. I have instead used a shortcut which my mom uses as it was difficult for me to pound the rice.It came out well and my family was able to enjoy the traditional taste of ari unda.

For me this sweet invokes lots of childhood memories. As children we used to sit around joyfully watching grandmother and aunts busy roasting, pounding and mixing rice and jaggery to make these laddos. It is made in large quantities on festive occasions like Onam and Vishu. This has a long shelf life. Uncles and cousins who visit grandmother during Onam returned home with freshly made  pickles, chips and ariunda. Now kids enjoy several tempting treats in bakeries and I am not sure whether humble avalose unda will catch their attention. But this snack makes me nostalgic. Try this traditional snack, it is definitely worth a try.

Ingredients
Rice flour- 2 cups
Jaggery- 1 cup
Coconut- 1 cup
Coconut milk- 1/2 cup

Cardamon powder- 1 tsp
Roasted black sesame seeds- 2 tbs
Ghee-3 tsp
Dry ginger powder- 1/2 tsp
Cashews crushed- 3 tsp
Cumin- a pinch
Roasted Rice flour ( extra) 3 tbs

Updated pic

Take rice flour in a bowl and sprinkle coconut milk little by little and mix the flour with your hands. Do not pour in but just sprinkle and  mix well.You need to wet the flour and make sure that there are no lumps.Also add cumin and roast this flour really fine on medium heat till there is a nice aroma and it becomes crispy. Add coconut and roast for another 5 minutes or till the mixture changes color.Let this cool off a bit.

Boil jaggery along with 1/2 cup of water strain and remove impurities. Put it back to heat and allow it to attain a two thread consistency. To check consistency pour a few drops of the syrup into a bowl of cold water. If you can form a ball then the syrup is ready.Add finely chopped cashew nuts, roasted sesame seeds,cumin powder, dry ginger powder and cardamon powder. Quickly mix in rice flour and ghee and mix well. Let it cool off a bit. Make small balls when it is still warm and roll in roasted rice flour. You can preserve this in a closed container for up to a month.

If you like this you may also like:

Ari Unda/Rice Ladoo
Ellu Unda/Sesame Seeds Ladoo
Pori Unda/Sweet Puffed Rice Balls

Try this..

Hope you will all enjoy.