Ingredients:

• 250g – Maida
• 50g – fine sooji/rawa
• oil
• 300g – Jaggery
• 250g – groundnuts (peanuts), dry fried, husk removed
• 50g – desiccated, Coconut powder
• 1 tbsp – til/sesame
• 1/2 tsp – Cardamom powder
• 1 tbsp – fine Badam flakes
• A pinch of salt
• Plastic sheet/oliga reku made of thin aluminium sheet

Method:

1. Powder groundnuts fine; keep it aside.
2. Mix both maida and sooji with 1 tbsp of oil, a pinch of salt and some water to prepare a soft, stretchable dough.
3. Keep it covered under a moist cloth for 1/2 hr (sprinkle some oil over dough to prevent drying)
4. Melt jaggery on stove with some water (1 string consistency).
5. Add groundnut powder, til, desiccated coconut powder along with cardamom powder.
6. Remove from fire (no need to put it on fire after adding). This is called `poornam`.
7. Mix the ingredients thoroughly and make lemon-sized balls, keep aside.
8. Make same number of balls from the maida dough (oil your hands to make balls).
9. Take a ball of dough to make a round, put the prepared poornam in the centre.
10. Gather the edges so that poornam is completely covered.
11. Place on a plastic sheet (smeared with oil); gently pat with fingers to form a thin poli/oliga of about 5 to 6 inches (you can use a rolling pin too)
12. Lift the sheet, release the oliga on to your palm.
13. Drop it on a pan, sprinkle oil on and around the oliga and fry till light golden colour on both sides.
14. Prepare the others in the same way and stock them on a plate.
15. Serve them with melted home-made ghee.
16. Some like it with milk and sugar (sprinkled over).
17. Instead of maida and sooji you can use oliga rawa if available.

Recipe courtesy of Uma Devi Ramachandra