Karthigai Pori is a traditional sweet treat made from puffed rice (Pori) mixed with a flavorful jaggery syrup. The preparation begins by sieving the Pori to remove any impurities, followed by combining it with roasted pottukadalai (split roasted gram) in a bowl. Coconut pieces are then dry roasted until lightly browned.
A thick jaggery syrup is prepared by dissolving jaggery in water and boiling it until it reaches a ball consistency. Once the syrup is ready, cardamom and dry ginger powders, along with the roasted coconut, are added and mixed in. The warm mixture is combined with the Pori using a large spoon, and once cool enough to handle, it is shaped into orange-sized balls dusted with rice flour or ghee.
If shaping into balls proves difficult, it’s perfectly fine to leave the mixture loose, which is also referred to as Karthigai Pori. This festive treat is not only delicious but also a delightful part of celebrations.
It is not ordinary Pori. It is made from Aval or Poha by dry frying it and available during Karthigai in grocery stores in India.
Recipe
Karthigai Pori
20
servings15
minutes30
minutesA traditional Tamil sweet made during the Karthigai festival
Ingredients
Aval Pori (Flattened rice flakes) – 8 cups
Jaggery powdered – 2 cups
Pottu kadalai – 1 cup
Coconut (cut into small pieces) – 1 cup
Cardamom Powder – 1 teaspoon
Dry ginger powder (Sukku podi) – 1/2 teaspoon
Directions
- Sieve the Pori using a sieve with slightly big hole (Rawa Salladai) so that the dust and other particles get removed from the Pori. Put the cleaned Pori in a large bowl, add pottukadalai and mix well.
- Dry roast the coconut pieces till it become slightly brown and the moisture is fully evaporated.
- In a kadai put the jaggery and add 1/2 cup water and make a thick syrup. (If you pour little syrup in a bowl of water, it should form a ball shape when you roll it with your fingers. That is the right consistency). Add cardamom powder, dry ginger powder and fried coconut pieces and stir well.
- Remove from stove and add the Pori and mix it thoroughly using a big flat spoon.
- When it is warm enough to hold by hand, take the mixture and make orange size balls dusting your hands with rice flour or with little ghee.
- Tips:
- If you cannot make balls, do not worry. You can leave it loose and actually this loose Pori is only called Karthigai Pori.
Notes
- You can make the above using Nel Pori (Paddy flakes) which is also available in shops during Karthigai.
Hi Kamala, I chanced upon your blog accidently and have come to love it. I like all the traditional preparations that you have narrated here… especially the kootus and kuzhambus. I am going to try them all over the next few days. Yesterday I prepared the Karthigai Pori and it came out very well. To my surprise I could roll them into perfect balls too! I prepared 16 balls last evening and now there are just about 4 left in the box. My husband and my two yr old son loved them.
I had one question about this. Everything came out well, just that the balls feel a little sticky. Could you tell me how to avoid this?
Thanks for this wonderful recipe and a great blog.
I
Hi Shri,
Thank you for visiting my site. Nice to hear you prepared this recipe and came out well. The stickyness may be due to the syrup or due to the weather condition prevailing at your place. If you take out the syrup little earlier, you may feel the sticky. To avoid this you can dust your hand with rice flour and make the ball. It will serve two purposes. It will avoid sticking in your hand while you make balls. The other thing it will absorb the wetness in the syrup and make the ball firm and it will not stick.
Dear madam,
Today is karthigai… i followed your instruction religiously and just completed making the karthigai pori. It has come out well. Of course we will taste it only after nevidhyam, in the evening. The tips that u have given, to use rice flour while making balls is like “icing on the cake”….. Thanks sooooo much, both for the recipe and the wonderful tips. A wonderful blog indeed…
Regards…. Valli.
Thank you Valli Kumar for the kind feed back.
Dear Kamala,
Wonderful recipe..nice taste…though I was able to catch only two urundais…probably my jaggery may have been hardened..great taste enjoyed making!!!! Happy karthigai to all of u!!!!
Thank you Srividya Sekar. Hope next time you will be able to make perfect Pori Urundai. Happy Kathigai.
Hi maami for the first time in my life i made this.It turned out very well.Felt very happy.Thank you so much.
Thank you for the feed back and happy to note that this Pori turned out ver well.
Hello mam.hope u r doing good I still see ur blogs for recipes though so many you tube channels have come .u can also start u tube channel jus doing all these recipes that u have written .now I came to see porinurundai .though I have written this recipe and kept urs only .i don’t know ur age but I think u are an elder person .take care mam .asu have lots of veg traditional recipes.