Anarsa recipe (Festive special) - Recipes Plaza

Anarsa is an authentic Maharashtrian sweet dish specially made in the festive season like Diwali. It is a pastry-like snack made from soaked powdered Rice and Jaggery/Sugar, Anarsa is one of my favorite snacks for Diwali

I remember how we would eagerly wait every Diwali for my Grandmother to make them. The ingredients are quite simple. Rice and jaggery.

It is a pastry-like snack and is made from soaked powdered Rice, Jaggery/Sugar, Poppyseed, and Ghee. It is one of the sweet dishes which is made for any festival.

Ingredients for Anarsa

3 cups rice
1 tbsp milk
1 tbsp poppy seeds (khuskhus)
3 cups grated jaggery (gur)
Ghee (Clarified butter) for deep frying

Instructions for Anarsa

Wash and soak the rice over 3 days (changing the water each day)
Put rice in a grinder jar and grind to a smooth powder. Sift the powder into a bowl through a fine sieve.
Combine powdered rice, jaggery, and ghee and start kneading without using water. If required, use milk. Cover and rest the dough for 5-6 hours
Divide dough into 12-14 equal portions and make balls out of it.
On a dish, thoroughly mix the sugar and semolina together. Place a round ball there, make it into a 12 cm thick circular, and thoroughly coat it with the mixture. Anarsa is this. Create the remaining balls in a similar manner.
7. Meanwhile heat 3-4 tbsp ghee in a frying pan on a medium flame.
Ghee-fry the anarsa. Make sure the poppy seeds are facing up. With the use of a ladle, continue delicately spreading ghee on top of the anarsa without disturbing it.
Up till it turns golden brown, keep frying. After being cooked, the poppy seeds side of the anarsa will take on a somewhat netting-like structure.
Throughout the entire procedure, keep the ghee’s temperature under control. Only heat it over a medium flame; otherwise, the anarsa will break or crack.
Drain and keep aside to cool.
Store in an airtight container after completely cooled and crisp

Tips and variations

Do not dry out the rice too much. The rice should be damp when you grind the rice into a powder so that dough can be made with jaggery
In case if the dough ball holds its size but becomes too hard after frying, it means we have to add little castor sugar to the dough.
if the dough does not hold its shape and starts breaking or disintegrating in the ghee, add some rice flour to the dough, knead again, and then make the Anarsa.
Before frying the Anarsa, do a test to check whether the anarsa dough is perfect or not – for this put a small ball of the dough into the ghee.