Cook the rice with 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 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 soft ball stage. This means that when you pour a drop of the syrup to 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 can also be served at room temperature or reheated before s