Karthigai Pori is made either with aval pori or nel pori.I have already posted Karthigai Pori Urundai using nel pori so wanted to try this.This Karthigai Pori Recipe was suggested to me by my cousin, this is actually the traditional dish made for Thirukarthigai / Karthigai Deepam which falls on Dec 12th 2016.This is an easy recipe for beginners too as you need not form into balls as for our usual pori urundai…just mix and keep it for neiveidhyam.Mittu selected this agal vilakku and I loved it too…:)

This Karthigai Pori is made with Nel Pori which is not the usual pori(puffed rice), it is not crispy and has a crinkled texture with a thicker skin.I made this today and so loved it that I finished almost half of it myself 😉

Karthigai Pori Recipe Ingredients:

Preparation Time : 15 mins | Cooking Time : 15 mins | Serves : 2
Recipe Category: Snack | Recipe Cuisine: South Indian

Nel Pori / Puffed rice – 3 cups
Jaggery – 1/2 cup
Water – 1/4 cup or little less than that (It should be just for the level of jaggery to immerse)
Cardamom powder – a pinch
Dry Ginger powder – a generous pinch
Fried Gram Dal – 1/4 cup
Coconut – 3 tbsp chopped bits
Ghee – 1 tsp to grease hands

Method:

Remove the nel skin(the husk) from the pori and make it ready.
Fry coconut bits in ghee till golden,add this and fried gram dal to nel pori.Mix well and Set aside.
Measure jaggery and add it in a pan, add water and dissolve it well.
Heat it up for 2mins just for the jaggery to get dissolved.Strain to remove impurities.
Heat it up again and keep cooking,add elachi powder.Consistency check : Keep a separate plate ready filled with little water.Take a drop of jaggery syrup and put it in water, it should stand firm and not dissolve as shown below.This is enough no need to check rolling and all.
When this consistency is reached, add cardamom powder,dry ginger powder,pori and switch off.Mix well so that the syrup coats the pori evenly.Let the mixture cool down then spread in a plate.

Store in airtight container and enjoy!

My Notes:

Do not add more water , if you add more water then it will take time to reach the desired consistency.
It may look sticky aftersometime it tends to seperate.
If you want to shape them into balls then check for the consistency as shown here then add pori.
The color of the Karthigai Pori Recipe totally depends on the jaggery variety. I used paagu vellam here, you can use the yellow variety too.
Use a wide bottomed pan so that mixing is easy.