Aravanai is a prasadam offered at the Srirangam temple to Sri Ranganathar and Thaayar. This is the last prasadam that is offered in the temple just before the gods are getting ready to go to bed. It is called the Palliarai prasadam and is offered around 10 PM.

After the month-long Baking Marathon, I am back to routine with my regular postings. Though I am having major withdrawal issues, I am happy to be cooking normal food. This week I will be blogging about prasadams that are famous in temples.

How much ever we try it is very hard to bring that temple flavors at home. Even for a simple recipe like Thayir Saadham / Curd rice, what we get as a prasadam in the temple is so flavorful compared to the exact same thing that we make at home.

The first prasadam recipe that I have is called Aravanai. Aravanai can be easily mistaken for the more popular aravanai payasam that we get as a prasadam in Guruvayoor temple or any temple in Kerala. This Aravanai though is slightly different and is offered to Sri Ranganathar and Thaayar.

This is the last prasadam that is offered in the temple just before the gods are getting ready to go to bed. It is called the Palliarai prasadam and is offered around 10 PM. The devotees get to taste this prasadam quite late at night (close to 10.30 PM).

This Srirangam temple prasadam is very similar to chakkara pongal and is made with rice and jaggery. For chakkara pongal, we use a little bit of moong dal / payatham paruppu and make the rice very mushy. For the aravanai, it is important that the rice is separated and not mushy at all.

Also, there are no lentils used in the Srirangam temple prasadam. My paati makes something similar during Aadi perukku and I used to love it. My mother never made the vellam saadham and always made chakkara pongal or akkaravadisal. So it was always my special request whenever I visited my paati (grandmother).

Ingredients to make Aravanai

Rice - ½ cup (uncooked)
Vellam / Jaggery - 1 cup
Cashew nuts - 10
Cardamom powder - ¼ tsp
Ghee - 3 to 4 tbsp

Procedure to make Palliarai prasadam

Cook the rice with the required water and let it cool down to room temperature. Once the rice is cooked, add a teaspoon of ghee and spread it on a plate to cool down. Make sure that the rice is not mushy and that the grains are separated.

In a pan, heat a teaspoon of ghee and fry the cashews until golden brown.

Powder the jaggery and measure one cup. Add this to a heavy-bottomed pan along with ¼ cup of water.

Cook the mixture until the vellam dissolves and comes to a syrup consistency.

For making this sweet we need the syrup to come to the softball stage. This means that when you pour a drop of the syrup into a bowl of water and roll it in between your hands, it should form a ball and not become stringy.

At this stage, add the cooled-down rice and mix well.

The mixture will liquefy quite a bit once the rice is added. Keep cooking it on medium flame until the mixture thickens.

Add about 2 tablespoon of ghee when it cooking. Once the mixture comes together and becomes thicker, add the fried cashews and cardamom powder. Mix well and turn off the flame.

I like the aravanai when served warm. This Palliarai prasadam can also be served at room temperature or reheated before serving.

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