POORNAM BOORELU/HOW TO MAKE POORNALU /RECI

“Poornam Boorelu, also known as Poornalu, are a popular delicacy from Andhra cuisine. They are made with channa dal, jaggery, cardamom, urad dal, and rice. Poornalu are commonly prepared during festivals, weddings, and other special occasions. Many Telugu people make them for Sravana Masam, Varalakshmi Vratham, and Durga Navaratri to offer as naivedyam to the Goddess. After the offering, they are shared with friends and family.”

“Poornalu are also made in other neighboring states and are known as Sukhiyan in Malayalam, and Suyam, Suzhiyan, or Sugunta in other regional languages.

To make Poornam Boorelu, chana dal and jaggery balls, known as poornam, are prepared first. Then, these balls are dipped in a rice and urad dal batter. Finally, they are deep-fried until crisp and golden.It is definitely an art to master making Boorelu. Achieving the right shape and a crust that isn’t too hard comes with practice.Traditionally, the outer covering batter was made with homemade pounded rice flour, which was later mixed with ground, fluffy urad dal batter.The rice and dal were soaked for a few hours. Then, the rice was drained completely. While still moist, it was pounded into a fine flour and sieved.These days, since it is a lot of work, more women prefer to just soak rice and urad dal separately. Then, they blend them into a batter. This is a shortcut method that avoids the need to dry the rice and pound it separately.Yes, the traditional ones taste much better, and the crust is light and delicate compared to what we get by following the shortcut method.

In this post, I have shared the latter method, which is much easier, even if you are a newbie.This recipe was passed on to me by a group of Telugu-speaking people in Canada, and we have all been faithfully following it for years.