Porulvilangai/Porivilangai Uruandai

Poruvilangi or Porulvilangi Uruandai is a healthy and nutritious sweet ball. The name Porulvilangai literally means that the ingredients are a mystery. Though it resembles any other laddu in appearance, but the texture is very different. These balls are very hard, infact, you need to use a small hammer or a grinding stone to break it.

Poruvilangai was one of the things which my grandmother would always keep ready when we went for our summer vacations as it was my mother’s favorite. As a child I never really liked them, just because they were too hard. These are a favorite with my in laws and my mother in law makes them on and off. She tells me that, in her times, when people used to go on long train journeys, they would prepare these and carry it along. These hard balls have a very long shelf life and stay fresh for a couple of months.

The main ingredients used in its preparation are Whole Wheat grains, Boiled Rice/Puzhungal Arisi, Green Moong/Pacha Payaru, Dry ginger, cardamom and coconut bits sweetened with Jaggery. The measurements and ingredients seem to differ from one household to another. I came across recipes making use of Channa dal, roasted gram dal and even groundnuts. The recipe I am sharing is handed down to me by one my mother in law’s relative who is has been regularly preparing these for a very long time now.

Poruvilangai, like I mentioned earlier are supposed to be very hard, hard to the extent that they need to be broken with pestle. The reason it was made like this was so it could have a long shelf life, as these were made in large quantities in those days. But now, children don’t and adults don’t seem to like it so hard, so the balls made from the recipe I am sharing today, are not so hard. I won’t say they are soft and crumbly, but they can be broken by our teeth. Refer the notes section, if you want to make the stone hard poruvilangais.

What you’ll need

1. Boiled Rice/Puzhungal Arisi – 4 Cup
2. Whole Wheat Grains/Gothumai – 1 Cup
3. Green Moong/Pacha Payaru – 1 Cup
4. Jaggery – 6 cup, powdered
5. Dry Ginger/Sukku – a big piece
6. Cardamom – about 10
7. Coconut – 1 cup, cut into small pieces

Method

Roast and Grind

1. Dry roast the rice, whole wheat, green moong until golden. Keep stirring and roast on medium heat to avoid burning and for even roasting.
2. Break the dry ginger into smaller pieces used a pestle, heat that also for a minute or so, for easy grinding.
3. Spread all the roasted ingredients on a newspaper and allow to cool slightly.
4. Then grind them along with the dry ginger and cardamom in batches in a mixie, sieve it and keep aside.

Prepare Jaggery Syrup

1. Heat a heavy bottomed kadai, with the jaggery and water enough to immerse the jaggery. Heat it on medium flame, else the syrup will thicken even before the jaggery dissolves.
2. Once the jaggery has dissolved completely, strain for impurities and pour it back into the kadai.
3. Add the coconut pieces to this.
4. Keep heating on medium flame, stirring once in a while, we need to get the soft ball consistency or thakkali pagu. It is ok if you remove the syrup just before the soft ball consistency.  (Check Notes)
5. To check for the soft ball consistency, take some water in a plate, and add a drop of the syrup into it, if it settles and you are able to roll it into a ball then the syrup is ready. Remove from heat.
6. I removed mine from heat, just before the soft ball consistency.

Prepare the urundai

1. Keep a medium sized bowl with a cup of the flour in it. This is for rolling the prepared urundais.
2. In another wide bowl, take a cup of the flour and add about 2 ladles of the syrup. Mix it quickly with a wooden spoon or spatula, and try forming balls, if you are able to form the balls, then quickly roll them into balls and put them into the bowl with flour. If you are not able to form balls then add another spoon of syrup and try.
3. The balls may feel soft while rolling, but they harden on cooling.
4. Repeat the above procedure until you are done with all the flour.
5. Some syrup may be left over, you can refrigerate the syrup and use it later again to make the urundais, by heating it with little water.
6. Healthy and tasty poruvilangai urundais are ready.

Notes:

1. If you have the facility to get the grains milled in flour mill, then that would be good. Else use the mixie and sieve the powdered flour. I ground mine at home in a regular mixie.
2. The jaggery syrup is the one that is responsible for the hardness of the urundai, so if you want them a little softer, you can remove the syrup just before it reaches the soft ball consistency. Or if you want really stone hard urundais then keep the syrup a little longer than soft ball consistency. I removed mine, just before the soft ball consistency.
3. The urundais will feel soft while shaping, but on cooling, they will harden.
4. I had some jaggery syrup left, it is difficult to give exact measurement of the jaggery syurp.
5. The ratio is 1:1, for one cup of powder, use 1 cup of powdered jaggery.
6. The main flavoring agents are sukku and cardamom, so don’t skip that.