Coconut Burfi / thengai burfi (Burfee / Barfi ) is a sweet confectionery from India and it is made with coconut, sugar, ghee and nuts. It is my brother’s favorite sweet and my mother makes this burfi at home for every Diwali. But the process of making coconut burfi slightly differs from one home to other home. In my sister in law’s home, they add rose essence to burfi and in one of my friend’s home, they add saffron to it. But I love to eat it plain without any flavors in it. This easy to make traditional diwali sweet can be made with very less ingredients. They are so moist, chewy and in every bite, you can feel the burst of coconut juice and ghee flavors . Even beginner can make this coconut burfi for diwali without any difficulty. Try this coconut fudge or nariyal barfi in your home and let me know how it turned out.

    Ingredients

1 Cup of Fresh Coconut
1 Cup of White Sugar
1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp of Water
1 Pinch of Cardamom Powder
1 Tbsp of Ghee (Melted Butter)
10 Roasted Cashews, Chopped
7 Roasted Almonds

Method

• Grind the coconut in a mixie without adding water, to get a fine powder but little coarse .
• Grease the tray with ghee and keep it aside.
• Take a wide bottomed non stick pan, add sugar and water, mix well until the sugar dissolves completely and starts bubbling as seen in the picture.

• Keep stirring, until you get a single string consistency. This can be examined by taking a drop of syrup between index finger and thumb as you see in the picture. Once you get the single strand consistency, add the coconut, mix well with sugar syrup.

• Keep on stirring until you get bubbles at the edges, now add the ghee, followed by the addition of cashews and cardamom powder, mix well. Again keep stirring until the coconut mixture thickens and starts coming off from the sides of the pan. Now turn it off the flame.

• Pour immediately to the greased tray, after 20 mins, cut into squares or any desired shape.

•   Cool completely and store it in an airtight container.

Tips

• Single strand consistency is most important. So always keep an eye on it while stirring.
• If you don’t get roasted cashews, roast the raw cashews in a tsp of ghee and add it to the coconut mixture.
• Don’t use dry dessicated coconut to make this burfi, it won’t taste good as fresh coconut burfi.
• You can use any nuts of your choice to this burfi.
• Always cook the whole process in medium flame.
• Adjust the amount of sugar according to your taste.
• While scraping the coconut don’t use the brown part of coconut.
• You can also roast the coconut in ghee before adding it to the sugar syrup.
• If you want colored burfis, add saffron or edible color like orange or green or both.

Health Benefits of Coconut

• Quick energy boost.
• High in dietary fiber.
• Improves heart health.
• It has anti-bacterial,anti-fungal & anti-parasitic properties.
• Coconut oil can improve blood cholesterol level, boosts brain function.

I usually start most of my days either with poha or oats upma or cereals. When I was talking to my friend, the other day, she gave me this aval vadai recipe, since this aval vadai does not need any grinding and soaking part, immediately I want to give it a try, for my evening snack. Me and my husband really liked it, because it tasted almost like medu vada with crispy texture on outside and soft on inside. You can make this poha vada recipe either as a snack or for navarathri celebrations or diwali or krishna jayanthi. Also make this quick easy aval vada for unannounced guests. I bet kids will love this vadai for sure. Serve this easy aval vadai either with coconut chutney or tomato ketchup and hot tea.

Ingredients for aval vadai

    Yield : 9 Vadai 

• 1 Cup of Thick Variety of Aval / Poha  / Flattened Rice Flakes
• 1 Cup of Water
• 1 Medium Size Onion, Finely Chopped
• 2 Green Chilies, Finely Chopped
• 3 Tbsp of Thick Curd (Yogurt)
• 2 Tbsp of Rice Flour
• 2 Tsp of Besan Flour / Kadalai Maavu
• 1 Inch of Ginger, grated
• 1 Tsp of Whole Black Pepper
• Pinch of Asafoetida
• 1 Sprig of Curry Leaves
• 2 Tbsp of Cilantro (Coriander Leaves), Finely Chopped
• 1 Tsp of Salt or to taste
• Oil for deep frying

Method

• Soak the aval(poha/rice flakes) in water for 5 mins. Drain as much as water from aval, mash well with hand or with back of the spoon.

• Heat oil in a shallow pan.  Take a zip lock bag or Milk cover or banana leaf or polythene sheet and have 1 cup of water in bowl on side.

• Just wet your right hand in water, place the batter ball in the center of zip lock bag greased with water. Make a hole in the middle of the batter and carefully transfer it to the hot oil. Deep fry them on medium heat, until it turns golden brown on both sides. Continue the same process for each vadai.
• Serve hot with coconut chutney or peanut chutney or tomato ketchup and tea.

Tips

• You can use thick or thin variety of aval / poha.
• To make this vadai, use white or red rice flakes.
• If you feel your batter is watery, add little more rice flour.
• Adjust the spiciness according to your taste.
• If you don’t have besan flour, just use rice flour.
• Addition of rice flour gives crispy taste to vadai.
• You can also add 1/2 tsp of cumin or fennel seeds, for easy digestion. Instead I added asafoetida for digestion.

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