Karthigai Pori Recipe | Aval pori

Karthigai pori recipe or aval pori is prepared with puffed beaten rice (puffed aval/ poha). You need not worry about syrup consistency, perfect for beginners.

Traditionally it is one of the main offerings during Karthigai Deepam festival.

Unlike my other pori urundai recipe, I am sharing a recipe that you can spread on a plate instead of making balls. This Karthigai aval pori and my nel pori is offered at home, no shaping into balls mostly.

Jump to:

• Types of pori
• Ingredients
• Step by step
• Equipment
• Storage
• Top tip
• My notes
• Related posts
• Recipe card

Karthigai

When I posted my first ever pori urundai recipe in my blog back in 2008, never knew arisi pori urundai is prepared for snacking purpose at my home.

Those days in Singapore, it was only about an year’s knowledge about the source of ingredients we get here.

I hardly interact with people, monthly once visit to Mustafa center alone, our one stop source for everything.

We don’t even turn our heads this side or that side, get down from taxi, buy things there and come back by taxi.

Never explored Little India and hardly know any shops that sells these rare ingredients.

I was so happy and proud that I prepared something for the festival and celebrated on my own.

Later slowly only mom and MIL told me we make it for name sake and kids sake one that day. Yes they make three varieties, only arisi pori and at times nel pori takes ball shape, as it is meant for kids snacking.

As kids we rarely touched aval pori as it is slightly harder than the other two. We even get mouth ulcers since we go hard on them.

Where as nel pori and arisi pori gets over in no time. But they say to go easy on them as well because it may give digestion problems when we over do it.

Finally here I am making this traditional aval pori (Karthigai pori) that is main offering on the day of Karthigai deepam festival.

Types of pori

Puffed rice is puffed grain mostly prepared from rice. These are mainly consumed in India in different forms.

In south India, the different forms of puffed rice are also used during the Karthigai Deepam festival.

Firstly, let’s see the different types of pori.

• Nel pori – Nel pori is prepared from Rice paddy it self before it is goes through other process of shelling/ milling. Only after it is puffed, the husk is removed.
• Aval pori – Beaten rice (Poha/ aval) is puffed to get aval pori. This can be done at home with poha/ aval.
• Arisi pori – Rice is puffed (Husked/ milled) and this is widely used though out India, snacks like Kara pori, chaats as well as breakfast or lunch is also made using puffed rice.

Today, in this post, let’s see how to make Karthigai pori with aval pori.

Ingredients

Here are the ingredients for Karthigai aval pori:

• Aval pori – I used store bought ready made puffed aval (Puffed beaten rice) You can also prepare your own by roasting aval (thick variety/ getti aval) little by little (in batches) in ghee and use in the recipe. Measure after roasting!
• Jaggery – Grate or powder jaggery well before measuring. I used organic jaggery one from a tub. For Karthigai aval pori, jaggery must be more as it is denser than the other varieties. Mom says it should be on looser side (thalara irukkanum)
• Chopped coconut – Fresh coconut chopped and fried in ghee until golden to remove moisture. You can use copra (dried coconut) as well. It adds texture and flavor to this dish.
• Sesame seeds – Roasted and added white sesame seeds. You can use black sesame also.
• Cardamom – Green cardamom not only adds flavor, do you know it also aids digestion and deals with gastric issues?
• Dry ginger – Same as cardamom, this is mainly to deal with gastric issues caused due to jaggery or puffed rice/ beaten rice.
• Ghee – Homemade ghee for flavor, not to mention it is an Indian super food!

See recipe card for full list and quantities.

Singapore readers – I used both aval pori and Organic pure Jaggery tub from Sri Murugan, Simei (Disclaimer: I am not paid for writing this – just an useful information)

Step by step

1. Sieve aval pori using a large metal strainer and hand pick any impurities in it.

2. After that, take a pan (kadai) and roast the aval pori slightly just to warm it.

Hint: I used my light weight brass kadai (Amazon affiliate link)

3. Remove in a plate and keep aside.

4. After that, dry roast sesame seeds. Once it starts popping, turns golden here and there, remove in a plate.

5. Then, roast pottukadalai just to warm up.

Add ghee and chopped coconut to it. Roast until golden, keep aside.

6. In the same kadai, start heating jaggery and water.

7. Furthermore, mix well and completely dissolve jaggery.

8. Once jaggery dissolves, filter it to remove any impurities.

9. Wash the pan/ kadai and return the filtered syrup to pan, start heating again. Bring to boil.

10. Keep water in a bowl and add few drops to check the consistency.

11. It should not dissolve, you should be able to gather it. If you roll it forms a soft ball.

12. Switch off stove, add the aval pori.

13. Add roasted sesame seeds, ghee roasted coconut with the ghee, cardamom and dry ginger.

14. Mix well so that all aval gets coated with syrup.

15. Transfer to the plate. If the syrup is right stage, it will be easy to transfer and stays as such.

You can see small strings forming in between as you take and doesn’t stick to hands.

16. Alternately you can shape to balls. But we offer as such only.

Equipment

My mom in law have a dedicated brass vessel (coated with tin) for making sweets. She uses just for preparing sweets. It is quite heavy as well.

Seeing her, I too developed wish to own something like that. So I got this light weight brass one and another heavy bronze kadai.

Storage

Stays good for 2-3 days at room temperature. Cool down completely before storing, otherwise it would not hold shape if it sweats.

Handle with dry hands, wet hands will also make it moist and become moist as well.

Top tip

• Heating up the aval is needed for the recipe for best results.
• Use good quality jaggery, prepared without any chemicals if possible. Organic jaggery powder works well as well.
• Do not worry about shaping, just offer as such after mixing. It tastes the best irrespective of shape 🙂
• Depending on the syrup stage and amount of aval pori you add, the mixture will remain intact or bloom and become dry. But never do the syrup than this uruttu padham consistency. If you want dry, add more pori.

My notes

• Sieving removes excess dust in the aval pori, toss as you sieve as this will also eliminate the powdery part in aval pori.
• If you measure roughly crushed jaggery, the measurement may vary.
• While roasting coconut, it starts spluttering as it turns golden. You can switch off the flame and be in the hot ghee to get further golden to avoid spluttering after that stage.

Related posts

Check out my other traditional Karthigai Deepam recipes. Do check out my full collection post with useful information.

Recipe card