Traditional Anarsa Recipe With Curd (Apoopa)

Maharashtrian Sweet pastry cooked in ghee

Poonam Bachhav
Traditional Anarsa Recipe With Curd (Apoopa)
15163 ratings.

Traditional Anarsa Recipe With Curd is an authentic Maharashtrian sweet dish. It is a pastry-like snack and is made from soaked powdered Rice, Jaggery or Sugar , Poppy seed and Ghee. It is one of the most common sweets made for Diwali Faral.

Anarsa also known as Apoopa are made specially during the Adhik Maas and are donated with Ghee Deepa as Dana in brass plates and is called Apoopa Dana. My mother-in-law taught how to make it with sugar, instead of jaggery that is more commonly used.

Serve Traditional Anarsa Recipe With Curd as a diwali treat along with Kesar Shrikhand Recipe and Beetroot & Spinach Nimki Recipe (Namak Para).

If you like this recipe, try more recipes like

  1. Pink Dragon Fruit Kesari Recipe (Sooji Halwa with Dragon fruit)
  2. No Bake Rice Mawa Cake Recipe (Burfi Recipe)
  3. Moong Dal Ghughra Recipe (Gujiya/ Karanji)

Course: Snack
Diet: Vegetarian
Prep in

30 M

Cooks in

32 M

Total in

62 M

Makes:

2-3 Servings

Ingredients

  • 1 cup Rice , Soaked for 3 days, changing water everyday
  • 3/4 cup Caster Sugar
  • Ghee , to cook
  • 1/2 tablespoon Curd (Dahi / Yogurt)
  • 4 tablespoons Poppy seeds

How to make Traditional Anarsa Recipe With Curd (Apoopa)

  1. To begin making Traditional Anarsa Recipe With Curd (Apoopa), wash and soak the rice in water for 3 days. Change the water every day. On the 4th day, drain the rice and spread it on a colander. 

  2. After 2-3 hrs, grind this rice to a fine powder in a mixer. (If grinding in a flour mill can allow the rice to dry completely, but if grinding at home in a food processor or grinder do not allow the rice to dry out completely, otherwise it may take long time for grinding).

  3. Sieve the rice powder through a fine mesh ( the one used for sieving all purpose flour)

  4. Now weigh this rice powder. The castor sugar to be added has to be half the quantity of rice flour. Reserve some 50 grams of this rice powder and add the castor sugar in the remaining rice powder and mix well.

  5. Add 1/2 tablespoon curd and 1 tablespoon ghee to it and knead the mixture. Be careful while adding curd as addition of more curd will make the sugar in the mixture to melt and the mixture will become sticky. Keep the dough covered for 1 day or so. 

  6. Next day take a plate or plastic sheet and sprinkle poppy seeds on it.

  7. Now apply ghee to your palm to avoid dough sticking, pinch out a small portion from the dough and make small lemon size ball from it and press it lightly on the poppy seeds. Flatten the dough into a roundel.

  8. In case if the dough ball holds its size but becomes too hard after frying, it means we have to add little caster sugar to the dough.

  9. Heat enough ghee in a deep frying pan. Keep the medium flame throughout frying process.

  10. Fry the Anarsa in the ghee with the Poppy seeds side up. Keep on splashing ghee over the upper side of the Anarsa with the ladle without disturbing the Anarsa. Fry till the Anarsa is golden brown. The poppy seeds side of the Anarsa will have a sort of mesh on it once it is fried. Be careful with the ghee temperature here. Heat it on a medium flame or else the Anarsa will break.

  11. Remove the Anarsa and drain the ghee. To drain the ghee keep the Anarsa in a vertical position. Similarly shallow fry rest of the Anarsa , keep on adding ghee after frying 2-3 Anarsa in the frying pan.  Cool down all the Anarsa till they become crisp. Store it in an airtight container. 

  12. Serve Traditional Anarsa Recipe With Curd as a diwali treat along with Kesar Shrikhand Recipe and Beetroot & Spinach Nimki Recipe (Namak Para).

Traditional Anarsa Recipe With Curd (Apoopa) is part of the Mother's Day Recipe Contest 2017