Kopra Vada / Ariselu / Adhirasalm – a detailed photo and video recipe. Gluten-free and vegan dessert. A traditional deep fried south Indian sweet recipe made with blended rice, fresh coconut and jaggery. It is a popular dessert recipe made generally during festival celebrations like Diwali and Navrathri or for any auspicious occasion.

It is a tricky recipe, at least I thought it was. But when I tried for the 1st time, it came out really good and not so hard at all. This is my first try under the guidance of my mother. You can also master this recipe with a few tips and suggestions.

Relatively this sweet absorbs a little more oil than the sweet made by wheat flour and jaggery, that is Garelu. But not soaks up in oil like the recipes you find on the internet. We don’t need to press them out to drain the extra oil. Regular draining on the paper towel is fine since this recipe doesn’t drink oil.

Preparing Rice flour for this recipe

• DO NOT USE the store bought rice flour for this recipe.
• We have to soak rice and then drain.
• Next we have to dry the rice spreading on a cotton cloth. Rice should not be completely dry. It should have some moisture left. When you touch the rice, few grains should stick to your palms.
• Now transfer the rice into a mixer jar and grind it to a fine powder.
• Sieve the flour, do not discard the coarse particles, grind it again and then sieve.

Jaggery Syrup

• Making jaggery syrup has 2 steps here.
• Mix jaggery and water then boil to melt. Strain the melted jaggery into a wide pan or kadai.
• 1st step: Boil the melted jaggery until it becomes little thick. Check the consistency by dropping a little syrup into a bowl of water. Try to collect it with your fingers, it forms a soft ball.
• 2nd step: Add the coconut to the jaggery syrup. This makes the syrup little watery again. Keep boiling the syrup until it reaches to 1 string consistency. Then turn off the flame.

Preparing dough

• Add the ground rice flour to coconut jaggery mix. Mix well to form a smooth dough.
• Rest the dough for 1 day to set. Now it is ready to make kopra / kobbari vada or arise.

Recipe Card

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Step by step photo instructions

1. Soak 2 cups rice and soak for 5 hours or overnight.

2. Drain off the water and spread over dry cloth. Allow to dry for 30 minutes. Make sure the rice is still moist, do not dry completely.

3. Now transfer the rice to a mixie/blender and blend to fine powder.

4. Sieve the rice flour, making sure there are no traces of rice grains. keep aside.

5. In a sauce pan, add jaggery and water. Melt the jaggery.

6. Filter the melted jaggery into a pan/kadai to remove any dirt collected on the bottom.

7. Boil the jaggery syrup on low flame and check the consistency, by dropping syrup into a bowl of water, it should form a soft ball. Else boil for another minute and check.

8. Now add grated coconut and mix well. The jaggery syrup become watery again. keep mixing around 5 mins until the coconut jaggery mix gets to 1 string consistency.

9. Now turn off the flame and add the ground rice flour.

10. Mix well everything to combine flour and coconut jaggery mixture to form a smooth dough. The moisture from the flour helps to bring the dough together.

11. Cover and rest for 1 day making sure the dough sets completely.

12. Grease the butter paper (or plastic sheet) with oil and pinch a small ball sized dough. Roll the dough ball in poppy seeds or in sesame seeds.

13. Pat and flatten to form a slightly thick disk.

14. Deep fry in medium hot oil. Fry on medium flame until the bottom part is cooked well. keep splashing oil on top to cook evenly.

15. Turn over the athirasa/kobbari vada, and fry on both sides until both sides turn golden and slightly crisp. Drain off onto a paper towel.

16. Do not fry too much, as the adhirasam will burn and turn black.

17. Enjoy kopra vada / kobbari vada / atharasa / adhirasam for 2 weeks by storing in an airtight container.

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