Sughiyan/ Green gram bean sweet snack

Sughiyan is a fried sweet snack made with green gram dal/cherupayar. It is a typical Malabar evening snack and my Dad's favourite. We never used to make this at home as me and my brother was not fond of it during our childhood. I think I have tasted it only once or twice before. Since Ramzan is coming up, I was looking for nombu thurakkal snacks and Sughiyan caught my attention. And, since we are relocating soon, I wanted to finish off all those grocery items in my kitchen store.

The below recipe yields sughiyan with a crispy outer shell and soft and delicious inside. It has that earthy taste from green gram dal, sweetness from jaggery and wonderful scent of cardamom.

Ingredients:

1. Green gram dal /Cherupayar- 1 cup
2. Jaggery - 150gm
3. Cardamom - 1 
4. Salt a pinch
5. Coconut, shredded - 1/2 cup
6. Flour - 1 cup
7. Turmeric powder or Yellow color - a pinch/ 1 drop ( optional)
8. Ghee/ clarified butter - 1 tbs
9. Oil for frying
10. Cashews and raisins - 10 each ( optional)

Note:

• This recipe give 10 medium sized Sughiyan
• Don't over cook green gram dal. Dal should be soft when pinched but it must retain its shape
• I have made sughiyan even without using optional items. It still tastes as good
• Turmeric or yellow color is added to get yellow color of the batter. It doesn't impact the taste
• Using unniyappam chatti for frying helps to retain the ball shape without breaking. And also helps to reduce the frying time and wastage of oil

Method:

1. Cook green gram dal in a pressure cooker till cooked. Don't over cook the dal. We don't want to mash it to paste. 
2. Take out the seeds from cardamom and powder it
3. Heat ghee in a pan.
4. Fry cashews and raisins in it
5. Add cardamom and coconut and give it a toss
6. Melt jaggery in half a cup of water and strain it through a fine mesh to remove dirt
7. Mix cooked green gram , salt and jaggery to the coconut mixture and cook it till the liquid is almost dried up
8. Switch off the flame and keep it for cooling
9. When it is still warm, make lime size or small balls out of it
10. Keep it in fridge
11. Take flour in a deep bowl 
12. Mix with a pinch of salt
13. Add water, around 1 cup to the flour and make a lump free batter
14. The batter shouldn't be too thick or thin. Consistency should be similar to dosa batter
15. If you are using turmeric or yellow color, add it to the batter now. I didn't use both 
16. Now heat oil in a kadai or unniyappam chatti
17. Dip each ball in the batter and fry it in medium flame
18. All sides of sughiyan should be fried well

Hot fried sughiyan with hot tea or coffee on a cool rainy evening with your family..mmm

This Recipe is an entry to The KitchenAid India Navratri Challenge for The Hub @ Archana’s Kitchen.