Manoharam

Ingredients

• 2 cups moong dal
• 1 cup boiled rice
• oil for deep frying
• 2 tbsp ghee
• 1½ cups jaggery
• 1tsp ginger powder
• ½ cup coconut, cut to small pieces

Directions

1. Soak moong dal in water for about 2 hours and then grind to get a thick dough.
2. Lightly fry boiled rice, grind to a fine powder, add half of the powder to moong dal dough and mix well. Reserve the remaining powder.
3. Heat oil in a wok or kadai.
4. Press the dough directly into the oil, using a cookie or chakli press, to make ¼ cm thick strings, and cook until lightly browned, turning once.
5. Transfer to a plate lined with paper towel, to absorb the excess oil. Break the strings to 1-2 cm long pieces.
6. Heat ghee in a kadai, add jaggery and enough water to get a thick syrup. Add coconut. When the syrup starts bubbling, turn off heat and add the sev, ginger powder and mix well.  Add the reserved rice powder and stir to coat so that manoharam is not sticky to touch.
7. Cool completely and then store in an air tight container.