migration musings: pesarapappu kobbari boorelu

This is my moms recipe. there are variety of fillings for boorelu. chanadal with jaggery is most popular in south India. we call it poornam boorelu. i am not crazy about desserts but one thing i used to savor is coconut burfi (kobbari lauju). i am an island girl not like Elton john's though :) so, coconut is our most beloved ingredient in cooking and always accessible in our backyard, don't forget the front yard and also both sides of the house and as far as your naked eye could see in any direction, may be that is the reason our region started making boorelu with coconut filling. chanadal plus jaggery and moongdal plus sugar these combination's goes really well and on top of that you add coconut to it, so no wonder the taste is so distinctive. For festivals, early morning ritual for youngsters as a household help is breaking coconut, grate it, sipping coconut water while doing it ;) is a vivid memory of mine.

pesarapappu kobbari boorelu

Ingredients:

pesarapappu: 3cups (split moong dal - skinless)

coconut: 2cups (grated)

Sugar:31/2 cups (if you are freakish about desserts add 1/2 cup more:))

elaichi: 1Tbsp (cardamom)

minapa pappu: 2 cups (whole urad dal-skinless)

rice: 2/4 cup

oil: to deep fry

about 4 hours before you are planning to cook this recipe soak pesarapappu in one bowl, minapa pappu and rice together in other bowl.

Make moong dal paste and steam cook it. i used idli molds but you can use anything. what you have to accomplish here is steam cook the moong dal batter.

while it is steaming slightly brown shredded coconut.

["My mom shared a story with me when she visited me last time, that she used to hate this process of shredding those steamed pesara pappu idlies with her fingers, (they are kinda hard, you'll see) at the end of the process her fingers get sore and eventually she started hating these boorelu all together. the mornings are full of activity in the village kitchen and every body is waiting not only the kids and men in the household but a lot of other responsibilities lie there in the morning, she probably wished for a tool that works faster. when i took the food processor out that day she is soooo emotionally happy. no wonder we are so emotionally attached to our kitchen gadgets." after that story i started appreciating my gadgets more.]

Full of gratitude, use your wonder food processor and shred the pesarapappu idlies to tiny pieces.

add sugar and water in the pan and let it boil until it reaches the one string consistency, that means press a drop of syrup between your index finger and thumb and release the index finger slowly syrup should form a string.

add sugar syrup,slightly browned coconut, elaichi, and mix well. sugar syrup absorbs in to shredded idlies in 10 minutes. while it is in that process, grind the minappa pappu and rice in to dosa batter consistency.

make lemon size balls with pesarapappu, sugar syrup, coconut mixer.

you could eat them just like this too :)

dunk these in mina papappu batter and deep fry in very hot oil. boorelu should be under the oil when they are cooking so the batter clasp the filling. so, be generous with oil.