YELE APPA

Happy Deepavali, folks!! Yele appa is a sweet dish of rice and coconut with jaggery. By the ingredients itself, you can guess that it’s from the coastal belt. In Tulu, it is called Ireappa. Its also called as Athrasa in Kannada. It is given as prasadam at Srinivasa temple in Manjuguni, Sirsi, Karnataka.

This dish is specially prepared on the first day of Deepavali where we do pooja of water. In Kannada we call it, “Neer Tumbo Habba” (filling water for next day's bath festival). The nutritional benefits is same as that of eradde (you can refer it in my earlier posts), with a little more oil, as this sweet is a deep fried one.

Ingredients:

Rice – 2 cups

Grated coconut – 1 full coconut

Jaggery – 1 ½ cup

Fenugreek seeds – 1 tsp

Elaichi (optional) for flavouring

Oil for deep-frying

Salt to taste

Method:

1. Soak the rice with fenugreek seeds in water for 2 hours.

2. In a blender jar, add the soaked rice, grated coconut and jaggery. Blend it till smooth.

3. Adjust the consistency of the batter by adding very little water.

4. Add salt to the smooth, thick batter.

5. Keep oil for heat in a hollow kadai.

6. After the oil is fully heated, take a big spoon of the batter and slowly pour it in the center of the kadai.

7. Let it cook and turn it when its goldish-dark brown.

8. When the both sides have the same colour, take it out and press it to remove the excess oil.

9. Enjaaayyyy the delicacy.