21 September, 2017
BELDANNA/BELLADA ANNA/JAGGERY RICE
Bellada anna is necessarily made on the auspicious occasion of Dasara/Dussehra/nava raatri festival. To start with the festival today ie… the very first day of dasara I made bellada anna/beldanna, which translates to jaggery rice (bella = jaggery & anna = rice). In my native place only jaggery, rice, ghee and grated coconut (either dry or fresh) is used in this recipe, but my mom and grandma used to add in cashews and raisins also later. Some people even add roasted black sesame seeds. However it tastes too yummy in any method. We get this as ‘Prasada’ in many temples in south India, which tastes heavenly. Below is my method of preparing beldanna/bellada anna. Usually beldanna looks brown in color, but the jaggery which I got this time is very light in color so… the preparation is also looks light brown in the pic ! And by the way I have used both grated fresh and dry coconut, though quantity of dry coconut used is very very less.
Ingredients :
- Cooked rice – 1/2 cup
- Jaggery – 1/3 cup (adjust as per required sweetness)
- Grated fresh coconut – 1/4 cup
- Black sesame seeds (roasted) – 1 tsp
- Ghee – 1 tbsp (adjust)(actually more amount of ghee is used in this recipe,but I use this much, so adjust accordingly)
- Cashew nuts – 6 to 8
- Raisins – 8 to 10
- Grated dry coconut – 1 tbsp
PROCEDURE :
- Dissolve jaggery and pass it through the strainer to remove the impurities and bring it to boil in a pan
- Add 1/2 tbsp of ghee and grated fresh coconut into the jaggery syrup and add in cooked rice as well and combine everything well
- Also add in roasted black sesame seeds if you are using, stir everything well till it leaves the edges of the pan
- Mean while prepare the tempering using remaining 1/2 tbsp of ghee, cashew nuts, raisins and dry coconut
- Pour the prepared tempering over the rice jaggery mixture, combine well and remove from the fire
- Yummy, delightful beldanna is ready to use
