Karthigai Pori Urundai or Aval Pori Urundai is a traditional sweet made for the Karthigai Deepam festival. Aval pori and Nel pori are both used to make the pori urundai. Pori is nothing but puffed rice.
Regular puffed rice is made of rice, where it is heated under high pressure with steam. That is used in many street foods like this very famous Churmuri/Beach side Masala pori or in savory snacks like this Kara Pori.
Regular puffed rice is easy to find here in the US when compared to aval pori or Nel pori. Aval pori is made by dry frying the beaten rice flakes or Aval in high heat. In India, it is easily found in stores during the time of the Karthigai Deepam Festival.
It used to be so much fun going to the stores where we get to sample the different pori to see if they are fresh enough. They make it very fresh in the stores during the festival time.
Nel pori is made with paddy. The paddy with the husk is puffed and then sieved to remove the husks. Even after we buy the Nel pori from a store, we have to make sure to clean it well to remove the remaining husk as it is very unpleasant to eat them.
Last month when we were shopping at our local Indian store, we found a bag of aval pori and my immediate thought was to make some Karthigai Pori Urundai with it. This is the first time, I found aval pori, and was very excited.
The pori packet was not too fresh and I warmed it thoroughly in a dry pan to make it a little crisp before proceeding to make the recipe. If you have a pack of any kind of pori lying in your pantry, heat it up in a dry pan for a few minutes to bring back the crispness.
Use a good quality paagu vellam to make the Aval Pori Urundai. The regular vellam/jaggery does not yield the sticky consistency and forming the balls would be hard.
Bits of freshly chopped coconut are added to the Karthigai Pori Urundai. I did not have fresh coconut and hence skipped it.
My Other Posts in the A – Z Explore the Flavors Series
Preparation time - 5 minutes
Cooking time - 20 minutes
Difficulty level - Intermediate
Ingredients to make Aval Pori Urundai - (makes around 20 medium Balls)
- Aval Pori - 6 cups
- Jaggery / Vellam - 1 ½ cup
- Cardamom powder - ½ tsp
- Coconut - ¼ cup (finely cut pieces)
Procedure to make Karthigai Pori Urundai -
- In a pan, add the chopped coconut pieces and fry them on low heat until they are light brown. Remove and keep it aside to use later. I did not have coconut and hence skipped this.
- In a wide pan, add the measured jaggery and about ½ cup of water. Let the jaggery melt and come to a boil. Strain the mixture and return it to flame again. The jaggery we get in the US is usually free of any impurity and hence I skip the filtering part.
- Let the syrup boil well and come to a softball consistency. This means that when you drop a little bit of syrup in cold water, you should be able to gather it with your fingers and form a ball. The syrup should hold its shape intact and it will harden upon cooling. This is the right consistency of the syrup.
- At this stage add the coconut pieces and cardamom powder. Mix well.
- Add the measured Aval pori into the pan and mix well to combine. Turn off the heat and immediately start rolling them into balls.
- This has to be done when the mixture is still hot. When it cools down, it will become crumbly and will be hard to roll. Using some rice flour to dust the palms helps to bear the heat and roll.
- If making the syrup in large quantities for both aval pori and nel pori, then we can add the syrup to the pori as needed and mix.
- Let the rolled balls cool down completely and then store it in an airtight container.
Notes and Observation -
- It is important to use good quality Paagu vellam to make the pori urunadai.
- Crisp up the pori if it is slightly old to make it fresh tasting again.
- The consistency of the syrup is very important to form the balls. If it is under or overcooked, we won't be able to roll it. The taste would still be good and we can serve it as is, but to roll it into balls, the consistency has to be perfect. It comes by practice and could take a couple of times before we master it.
- Roll the balls when the mixture is hot. If let to cool down, it will crumble and we won't be able to roll.
More Festival Recipes
Recipe
Karthigai Pori Urundai | Aval Pori Urundai
Equipment
- Wide pan
- Stove
Ingredients
- 6 cups Aval Pori
- 1 ½ cups Jaggery / Vellam
- ½ teaspoon Cardamom powder
- ¼ teaspoon Coconut finely cut pieces
Instructions
- In a pan, add the chopped coconut pieces and fry them in low heat until they are light brown. Remove and keep it aside to use later. I did not have coconut and hence skipped this.
- In a wide pan, add the measured jaggery and about ½ cup of water. Let the jaggery melt and come to a boil. Strain the mixture and return it to flame again. The jaggery we get in US is usually free of any impurity and hence I skip the filtering part.
- Let the syrup boil well and come to a soft ball consistency. This means that when you drop a little bit of syrup in cold water, we should be able to gather it with our fingers and form a ball. The syrup should hold its shape intact and it will harden upon cooling. This is the right consistency of the syrup.
- At this stage add the coconut pieces and cardamom powder. Mix well.
- Add the measure Aval pori into the pan and mix well to combine. Turn off the heat and immediately start rolling them into balls.
- This has to be done when the mixture is still hot. When it cools sown, it will become crumbly and will be hard to roll. Using some rice flour to dust the palms helps to bear the heat and roll.
- If making the syrup in large quantity for both aval pori and nel pori, then we can add the syrup to the pori as needed and mix.
- Let the rolled balls cool down completely and then store it in an airtight container.
Suba says
I made these pori urundais for first time today and they came out okay and delicious. Thank u so much for making this Deepam special.
Sandhya Ramakrishnan says
Thanks a lot Suba for trying the recipe and so happy it worked. Hope you had a good celebrations.
Sujana says
Love the detailed recipe. Could you please share which brand jaggery yields good paagu here in the US?
Sandhya Ramakrishnan says
Thanks a lot Sujana! I buy the swad jaggery bucket these days and it is one of the best ones I have used. The best part is the jaggery remains in semi solid state and it is so easy to scoop and measure. It is a red bucket with a yellow lid.
preeti garg says
Love the crunch and taste of this laddu.. so perfect for festive season.
Pavani says
Crunchy and delicious looking poha laddoo Sandhya. You made it sound so easy to make -- I will have to try these easy to make laddoo some time.
Padmajha PJ says
Each year I plan to make this around karthigai time but never got around to actually prepare it! Yours have turned out so well Sandhya.
sapna says
We also make it on Diwali festival, normally we get ready made in India but here have to make it at home. I love your perfectly shaped ladoos.
Priya Srinivasan says
i still remember the innumerable trials and tests i made, to get this perfect after my marriage!!! For the first karthigai, my hands were so pink, trying to make balls out of the hot mixture, but didn't get to make the balls, so we enjoyed it as such!
So beautifully done sandhya! Yes, once we master that paagu consistency, this is one easy to make dish!! Looks perfect!!
Mayuri Patel says
A very nice traditional recipe. It was informative to read about different kinds of puffed rice. The ladoos must have been so crunchy and delicious.
Srivalli says
Such a fantastic dish Sandhya, we wait for the karthigai deepam only for this..hehehe..amma always makes it with both aval pori and nel pori, sad we don't get it too during other times..
Vaishali Sabnani says
Wow..anytime ladoo time .These ladoos are light , crunchy and delicious to the core..my hubby just does'nt let me eat as they make a mess..ha ha ..but jokes apart these are the best and you have made them perfect.
Kalyani says
Very festive and perfectly made pori urundai. I remember my paati making this every year .. lovely memories came
Alive with this post 🙂
Sharmila Kingsly says
Beautiful and tempting clicks.. Who would say no for this pori urundai.. Yummy share..
Srividhya Gopalakrishnan says
Initially finding nel pori was bit difficult but now in Bay Area no complaints. Love those perfect balls and the very detailed explanation.
harini says
A lovely traditional recipe. Though we don't make this for a specific festival, whenever my grandma used to make we were first in line to finish these off 🙂 My grandma used to make tiny ones for us !
Gayathri Kumar says
This is one dish I love during Karthigai festivals. We get this type of pori only during the month and so it is kind of special. The pori urundai has turned out perfect Sandhya..
Sandhiya ThirumalaiKumar says
Love this karthigai poori, but so far i haven't seen them in our grocery store. Pori urundai looks so delicious and you have shaped them well. Would love to grab few from the plate !!!!
Priya Suresh says
Love to munch this incredible pori urundais, but have not tried yet with aval pori, this puffed rice flakes sounds like a nice and healthy twist to the usual puffed rice. Wish i get some rite now.