Aval - as sweet as it gets

The Malayali has an emotional and spiritual connect with aval (flattened rice flakes). There was a time when aval was made at homes when the women would pound rice and flatten them into flakes. The aval thus made had a special taste. But that arduous task exists no more.

It was actually folks from Tamil Nadu who brought aval to Kerala and turned them into a homely snack. There obviously exists a bit of social history behind the Tamil Nadu-Kerala aval trade. Folks from across the borders used to trade in everything possible, right from bottles, to tins, to old clothes, kasavu and to old aluminium and brass vessels. Money seldom exchanged hands. Instead, the barter was in the form of aval, hand-pounded and rich in taste.

While our Tamil neighbours went around collecting their ware, the Malayali set about experimenting with the aval they got. Hence, from the Mallu kitchen came dishes like aval nanachathu, aval ada, pazham nira, avalum pazhavum and a myriad other mixes. However, from among all these aval combos, there stood out one snack – the then (honey) aval. Though the recipe was named after honey, there was no trace of as much as a drop of honey in the dish. However, curiously enough, it did taste like honey. How about giving this a try?

- Melt jaggery and strain it for impurities

- Heat ghee in a bronze vessel (otturuli). When the ghee melts and turns hot add aval to it. Lower the heat and keep mixing the aval till it turns crisp.

- When the aval turns truly crisp, pour in the melted jaggery. Mix thoroughly. Add raisins and cardamom powder.

- Drizzle the aval with coconut scraping and mix the aval well once again. Honey aval is ready.

- Honey aval is offered as prasadam in some temples in north Kerala, especially in Ganapathy temples. The aval is usually tweaked to cater to local palates.