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Poornalu served on a black plate.
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Poornam Boorelu Recipe | How to Prepare Poornalu | Purnam Burelu

Poornam Boorelu Recipe for making poornalu, a traditional festive delicacy in South India. It’s a deep fried rice flour dumpling stuffed with aromatic lentil and coconut mixture.
Prep Time5 hours
Cook Time30 minutes
Total Time5 hours 30 minutes
Course: Dessert / Festival Sweet, Sweet / Festival Recipe
Cuisine: Indian (South Indian)
Keyword: Poornam Boorelu, Poornalu, Suzhiyan
Author: Padma Veeranki

Ingredients

Batter for Outer layer:

  • 1 Cup Urad dal Black Gram Dal
  • 2 Cups Raw Rice regular sona masoori
  • Salt to taste

For the filling or Poornam:

  • 1 Cup Split Bengal Gram Chana Dal or Chanaga Pappu
  • 2 Cups Water to pressure cook lentils
  • ½ Cup Desiccated Coconut
  • 1½ Cups Powdered Jaggery
  • ½ Cup Water to dissolve jaggery
  • 1 tsp Cardamom Powder

To Deep Fry:

  • Required oil for deep-frying

Instructions

Batter for Outer Covering:

  • Soak rice and lentils separately for 5 hours or overnight.
  • Wash soaked rice and dal and drain away the water.
  • Add required water while grinding the lentils first to a smooth textured batter.
  • Take care that the batter is neither thick nor thin. I'm using an ultra wet grinder.
  • Remove the lentils batter to a large bowl and now similarly grind the rice to a smooth batter.
  • Remove this batter to the same bowl and mix both the batters using your hands adding salt to it. It should be similar to dosa batter consistency. Set aside in the refrigerator and prepare the filling.

Preparing Filling or Poornam:

  • Wash and soak Bengal gram dal (minimum ½ an hour).
  • Discard soaked water, add 2 cups of fresh water to the drained dal and pressure cook over high heat for 3 whistles. Then simmer to low heat for 5 minutes and turn off the heat.
  • Open the pressure cooker once the pressure subsides. Drain any excess water in the dal and mash it.
  • Take jaggery powder in a saucepan and add ½ cup of water to it.
  • Heat over medium heat till the jaggery melts. Turn off the heat. (This is mainly done to remove any impurities in the jaggery)
  • Transfer cooked lentils to a wide pan,
  • To this add ½ cup of desiccated coconut.
  • Now strain jaggery syrup into the mixture in the pan.
  • Cook the mixture over medium heat till all the moisture evaporates.
  • You get a thick consistency as shown in the pic below. Now turn off the heat.
  • Add cardamom powder and mix well. Let the mixture cool completely.
  • Make small sized balls out of the mixture. And set aside.

Deep-frying Poornam Boorelu:

  • Remove the batter from the refrigerator and add a pinch of soda and mix well.
  • Mean while heat oil in a deep frying pan or kadai over medium heat.
  • Once the oil is hot enough, do a test with a pich of the batter. If the oil is hot enough the batter rises to the top immediately.
  • Dip each ball of stuffing (poornam) in the batter carefully using fingers or a spoon and coat it well and swipe off the excess drippings and drop them gently into hot oil. Ensure the Poornam is completely covered. I usually use my fingers but today to click pictures, I had to use a spoon.
  • Pour oil using the slotted spoon from the sides (like how we do for vadas) which helps in puffing up the boorelu nicely.
  • Turn it to the other side and fry until light golden brown.
  • You can repeat frying for a minute or two for an extra crust,
  • Serve them hot/cold or at room temperature. I love to have them hot,

Recipe Video

Notes

  • Batter for the outer layer should neither be thick nor very thin. The Udad dal batter should be thicker than a dosa batter, but slightly thinner than Idli batter.
  • If the outer layer is very thick it will reduce the sweetness of poornalu as the outer layer would be thick.
  • If the batter is of thin consistency, the Boorelu will disintegrate.
  • In case your batter becomes runny, you can save it by mixing little rice flour to the batter and bring it to the right consistency. But do not use too much, it will result in hard poornalu. This will make the outer covering slightly hard based on how much flour is used.
  • While cooking channa dal, take care not to over cook it. Cooked dal should be firm to touch and should be cooked completely.
  • The consistency of the filling should be little tight (not very soft) otherwise there is possibility that the filling might come out of the outer layer and may splutter while frying them.
  • If your filling is slightly soft then try to refrigerate it for few hours or you can even microwave the mixture for a minute and leave it aside. This will help in hardening the mixture a bit.
  • Fry the Boorelu in hot oil, otherwise the batter will absorb a lot oil.
  • For a Vegan version avoid ghee in the recipe.