Cuisine: Andhra Pradesh state of India
Karakajjam is a traditional sweet from Andhra Pradesh. It is usually made a few days before the Sankranti Festival and savored for the entire month.
Ingredients:
Chickpea flour - 750g
Rice flour - 250g
Jaggery (Joni Bella) - 1.25 kg
Water - 1/2 cup + for making the batter
Oil - for deep frying
Cardamom powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Chopped Cashew nuts - 3 cups
Method:
In a large mixing bowl, add chickpea flour and rice flour. Add water and mix without lumps. The consistency must be a little thick, but flowy. Heat oil in a kadai/pan. Add a drop of batter to the hot oil. If it floats, then the oil has sufficiently heated. Bring a boondi making ladle or Jhara over the oil pan. Pour a small cup of batter into the ladle and gently move the ladle up and down. The batter will fall into the hot oil, like drops, from the holes in the ladle. Once the boondi turns golden brown, remove them from the oil. Put the boondi in a vessel with holes or a strainer, so the excess oil will drain out. Repeat the same process with the rest of the batter. Take a heavy-bottomed vessel for making the jaggery syrup. Add jaggery and 1/2 cup of water into it. Cook on medium flame until the syrup reaches the right consistency. In a small bowl of water, add a few drops of jaggery syrup. Form the syrup into a ball with your fingers. The ball must be hard. If you throw the ball on a steel surface, you should hear the sound of it hitting the steel. At this stage, turn off the stove and add the prepared boondi, chopped cashew nuts, and cardamom powder into the syrup. Mix everything together. Put the boondi mixture on a greased surface and spread it evenly with the ladle. Press it with the flat back of a small steel place to make the chikki tightly packed. The thickness of the chikki must be around 2 centimeters. Set it aside for 10 minutes. Grease a knife with oil and cut the chikki into pieces. You have to cut them into pieces while it is still hot. Once it cools down, it will not be easy to cut, as it will become crispy. Let the pieces cool down completely before storing them in an airtight container. Karakajjam can be stored for up to 1 1/2 months.
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