Tambittu Arathi

Tambittu Arathi is an authentic sweet dish prepared to offer Divine God / Godess on auspicious days/festivals. There are many varieties of Arathi’s like Hasi Akki Tambittu, Hurida Akki tambittu, Hurigadale tambittu…which is very auspicious for certain pooja rituals which is followed from generations, here is one among them, which is very easy and a tasty dish prepared with rice flour, roasted gram, jaggery and other simple ingredients.
Ingredients:
Rice flour – 1 cup
Roasted gram – 2 cup
Roasted peanut – 1/4 cup (optional)
Jaggery – 1 cup crushed (adjust to your taste)
Water – 3/4 cup
Dry copra – 3/4 cup
Poppy seeds – 1 tsp
Sesame – 1 tsp (optional)
Cardamom – 4 no’s
Ghee – 1 tbs

Method:
Dry roast peanut until golden brown and crisp, once done allow it to cool, then Deskin the roasted peanut, make a powder and keep ready.
Heat a pan, add poppy seeds in it, dry fry until it starts to splutter, remove it from the flame immediately and set aside, then fry sesame to light brown and keep ready.
Peel cardamom remove the seeds from it, add it to the Roasted gram, blend it to a fine powder together and keep ready.
Heat a pan, add jaggery and 3/4 th cup of water in it, bring it to boil.
Boil until jaggery gets dissolved, (if necessary strain it with a strainer to remove dust in it), boil it once again, bring it to one string consistency. Boil it for 3 to 4 min the consistency of the jaggery syrup must not be too thick.
Take a wide vessel add peanut powder, roasted gram powder, grated copra, roasted sesame and poppy seeds, rice flour, toss it well. Add hot jaggery syrup into it, mix it with a spatula.
When it is warm enough, grease your hand with ghee mix well as there are no lumps in it, make a soft dough which must not stick to hands.
Put the dough on a flat surface, divide it to 2equal portion, shape it to the desired shape/ make laddus when the dough is warm. It thickens when cooled.
Make a depression on top and pour in ghee. Place a cotton wick soaked in ghee in the lamp and light it.
Relish the Prasadam with the blessings of the Almighty.
Note –
Usually rice flour is made at home to prepare Tambittu, rice is rinsed, drained and spreaded On a cotton cloth under a shade, once it gets dried then powdered and seived to make Hasi akki tambittu. For Hurida Akki tambittu rice is dry fried and powdered. To make the above recipe you can add regular rice flour / home made rice flour too.