Akkara adisil is the quintessential Iyengar dessert, and there are no two opinions about how it should be made - it's basically rice and moong dal cooked in lots of milk and ghee, and a healthy dose of jaggery or unrefined sugar.
The key to this dish is to cook the rice and dal in a mix of water and milk, preferably whole milk.
Story behind the dish:
Legend goes that Andal (Gotha Devi, the lone female among the 12 Aazhvars) longed to become one with Krishna. She obsereved a nonbu (penance, fast) during the month of Margazhi and offered him neivedhyam every day. On the 27th day, she made this dish, cooked rice and dal in milk, sweetened with jaggery, and dripping with ghee, and offered as neivedhyam. She was granted her wish on this day, which is known as Koodaravalli. Yestreday, our local temple performed Andal Kalyanam, and I had taken this as prasadam.
| Prep Time | 1 hours |
| Cook Time | 30 mins |
| Servings |
servings
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Ingredients
- 1 cup raw rice
- 1/4-1/2 cup yellow split moong dal
- 4-5 cups milk, or a mix of milk + water
- 1 cup ghee
- 2-3 cups jaggery less if you like it slightly less sweet
- pinch of edible camphor
- couple of scrapes nutmeg
- pinch of mace (javitri)
- few strands of saffron
- 1/2 cup cashews (unsalted), and raisins
Ingredients
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Instructions
- Roast the rice and dal till slightly fragrant.
- No need to roast until color changes.
- Pressure cook/IP for roughly 10-12 minutes, in milk+water, reserving about a quarter cup of the liquid
- While it's cooking, fry the cashews and raisins in a couple of teaspoons of ghee and set aside. This will be added at the end as tempering.
- Dissolve the jaggery in a quarter cup of water, on heat. Turn the heat off when the jaggery dissolves and starts to boil. This step is optional, and you can directly add the jaggery to the dish, but I like to do this because the fragrance of the jaggery when heated is amazing. There's no need to cook it to any string consistency, just heat it enough to dissolve
- Get the spices ready
- Once the rice and dal are cooked and pressure released, heat the reserved milk in a heavy bottomed pot, and add the cooked rice + dal and mix well
- Add the spices - couple of scrapes of nutmeg, saffron, pinch of edible camphor, and a tiny quantity of mace
- Add the jaggery
- Add the ghee
- Mix everything on low heat, breaking up any lumps
- Turn the heat off, and add the fried cashew+raisins
- Fragrant, rich, delicious akkara adisil is ready!
Recipe Notes
Tips:
Cook in whole milk with no water for a richer dish.
I haven't tried this, but replace milk with almond milk, and ghee with vegan butter for a vegan version.
This dish is one of the richest desserts. A fantastic combination will be urad dal vadai (medu vadai), for a balanced (protein) rich almost-meal, meal.
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