Indian cuisine · Desserts & Sweets

Anarsa

Maharashtra Diwali pastry of soaked rice flour and palm sugar, rolled in poppy seeds and fried in ghee.

Ingredients · for 6 servings

• 300 g rice flour
• 250 g palm sugar
• 3 tbsp yogurt
• 2 tbsp ghee
• 60 g poppy seeds (ground)
• 4 cardamom pods
• 1 pinch salt
• 500 ml oil for deep-frying

Instructions

1. Mix the rice flour with 4 tbsp water and the yogurt into moist crumbs and let stand covered in the fridge for at least 12 hrs., ideally three days — the gentle fermentation gives anarsa its flavor.
2. Finely grate the palm sugar and knead it into the rice flour crumbs together with the mortar-crushed cardamom seeds, salt and ghee until a soft, slightly sticky dough forms.
3. Let the dough rest covered for 2 hrs.; the melting palm sugar makes it noticeably more pliable.
4. Shape the dough into walnut-sized balls, press one side of each firmly into the ground poppy seeds and flatten on greased parchment paper into a 7 cm disc.
5. Heat the oil to only 150 °C and slide in the discs one at a time, poppy-seed side up; do not flip, but ladle hot oil over them for 3–4 min. until the underside is golden brown.
6. Only at the end flip briefly, fry for another 30 sec., press between two spoons, and let cool completely — anarsa turns crisp-chewy as it cools.