Description:
Sweet somas is a light crescent shaped traditional sweet that is prepared during Diwali festival. One major advantage of this sweet is it has good shelf life and can be stored for weeks. At home Amma and MIL will usually start a week before deepavali and make these in batches along with other sweet and savories. Its not only for special occasions but can be had anytime of the day, makes a good evening snack too. The stuffing for this sweet at our place is usually combination of semolina, dry coconut and sugar both amma and mil make this way but there are many other versions where they include roasted gram, poppy seeds along with sugar. Here is the recipe.
Sweet Somas / Somasi / Sweet Somasi / Kajjikayalu Recipe / Karanji / Deepavali Sweets / Diwali Sweets / How to make Sweet Somas?
| Ingredients for Dough | |
|---|---|
| Maida | 1 cup |
| Salt | 1/4 teaspoon |
| Ghee | 1 Tablespoon |
| Water | 1/4 cup + 1 Tablespoon |
| Ingredients for Filling | |
| Semolina / Rava | 1/4 cup |
| Fresh grated Coconut | 1/4 cup (tightly packed) |
| Sugar | 1/4 cup |
| Cardamom | 2 crushed |
| Cashew nut | 20 (finely chopped) |
| Ghee (for roasting rava) | 1 teaspoon |
| Ghee (for roasting coconut) | 1/2 teaspoon |
| Other Ingredients | |
| Water (for sealing) | 1/4 cup |
| Oil (for deep frying) | 3 cups |
Method:
For the outer-covering…
Mix Maida, salt and ghee in a bowl. Slowly add water to make a stiff dough. (With the given quantity of water it will be little hard to form a stiff dough at but keep kneading until you form a soft but stiff dough. This trick yields nice crispy somas.
Cover and let the dough sit for atleast for 2 hours.
For the stuffing….
Finely chop the cashewnuts. Powder sugar and elachi in a mixie and keep aside.
Roast rava in 1 teaspoon ghee until they turn slightly golden. (about 5 minutes over low medium flame) Once done remove and set aside to cool.
In the same pan add 1/2 teaspoon of ghee and roast the grated fresh coconut until dry. Make sure you keep the flame at the lowest setting possible. Once they turn light brown, remove from pan and set aside to cool. If using dry dessicated coconut then it may turn golden very quick(within minutes) so make sure to keep the flame low to avoid browning too much. Fresh grated coconut takes about 4-5 minutes over low flame.
Combine powered sugar, roasted rava, roasted coconut and cashews. Filling is all ready.
Divide the dough equally by making small dough balls.
Roll out to make a thin poori.
Place a little of the stuffing mix( about 2 teaspoons) in the center of the poori. ‘Wet your finger and run it along the edges of the poori and fold into half.
Now make sure to press gently to seal. Cut the edges using a somas spoon (the spoon with wheels). If you dont have one, then you somas mould or just use a fork to press.
Repeat the process for the rest of the dough balls and keep all those shaped somas in plate covered with a towel to avoid drying.
Now heat enough oil and start deep frying. The oil temperature should not be too hot, it may burn the somas, make sure its about medium hot and keep the flame between low-medium setting to fry perfectly. (Fry only 2 or 3 in one batch)
Once you drop the somas in oil, it will sizzle and come up to the top. Flip once and then when both sides turn golden, remove and drain excess oil in a paper towel.
Let them cool completely, then store them in air-tight container for upto 2 weeks.
Notes:
Yield- 12 somas.