Chalimidi

Chalimidi is a traditional Andhra sweet dish made with freshly made rice flour and jaggery. An easy recipe usually made during festivals.

Author: Pavani

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Prep Time: 10

Cook Time: 30

Soaking Time:: 10

Total Time: 10 40

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: andhra

Servings: servings

Ingredients

¾ cup Raw Rice, washed and rinsed
1½ cups Water
3 tablespoons Ghee, divided
¼ cup Coconut flakes or dry coconut slices
2 tablespoons Cashews
¾ cup Grated Jaggery
½ cup Water
½ teaspoon Ground Cardamom

Instructions

Combine rice and water is a mixing bowl. Soak rice for 10 hours or overnight. In the morning, drain the rice completely and spread it out on a kitchen towel to dry for about 30 minutes. Rice should not become very dry, it should be slightly damp.
Transfer the dried rice into a blender and grind into fine powder. Use a fine sieve to make a very fine rice flour. If there are lot of coarse grains left in the sieve, then grind and sieve them again. You should have a very fine rice flour.
In a small pan, melt 2 tablespoons ghee. Add coconut chips, cashews and cook until nicely toasted, about 2~3 minutes. Turn off the heat and set these aside until ready to use.
In a medium size saucepan, combine jaggery and water. Cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally until the syrup thickens and reaches soft ball stage. To test the consistency of the syrup - add a drop of hot syrup into a bowl of cold water. It should easily form a ball without dissolving in the water. It will flatten out when removed from the water.
Once the jaggery reaches the soft ball stage, turn off the heat and remove the pan from heat. Stir in the toasted coconut and cashews along with little bit more ghee. Stir in about ¼ cup of rice flour at a time and mix well after every addition. You may not need all of the rice flour, so make sure to add it in small installments. Keep adding flour and stirring until it comes together into a chalimidi mudda or forms a non sticky ball. It should still be creamy like khova. Divide the mixture to smaller pieces and place them in an airtight container. Let cool completely before covering with lid and storing.

Notes

Using homemade rice flour gives the best texture to the chalimidi. Store bought flour will be slightly dry and you won't get the same mouthfeel with it.
But if you want to make chalimidi with store bought rice flour, then use slightly less of it. For ¾ cup jaggery, you will need about 1~1¼ cup of rice flour. This will ensure that the final texture is not too chalky.
Do not rice flour all at once. Add it in batches while stirring until the mixture is not sticky anymore.
Sweetness of jaggery varies from batch to batch. So check the sweetness and use according to your taste preference.
Consistency of the jaggery syrup is the crucial step in this recipe. This is not the time to check your phone, do not leave the side of simmering syrup.
Keep a bowl of cold water next to the stove. Once the syrup starts to thicken, keep checking the consistency to make sure that soft ball stage as reached.
To test the consistency of the syrup - add a drop of hot syrup into a bowl of cold water. It should easily form a ball without dissolving in the water. It will flatten out when removed from the water.
You can also make chalimidi with granulated sugar. Follow the recipe as written including sugar syrup consistency is exactly the same.
Leftover chalimidi can be stored in an airtight container for 4~5 days at room temperature and up to 15 days in the fridge.
Any leftover rice flour can be used to make these wheat rava dosa or wheat flour kuzhi paniyaram or murukku.

Nutrition

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