Recipe for delicious Andhra famous sweet Chandrakaantalu

Chandrakaantalu are one of the most famous sweet dishes of Andhra Pradesh which is the special of this state. This sweet item is much relished by the Telugu people both the old and the young alike. In this article you will find the easy way of preparing this famous sweet item.

Chandrakaantalu is one the famous sweet item of Andhra Pradesh and is a treasured sweet item which is very dear to the Telugu people. This sweet item is a healthy combination of pulse, coconut and sugar. Though this item needs to be deep fried yet it has nutritive value and this has an average shelf life. Though this sweet item requires less ingredients, yet it is a time consuming one, so you need to be patient while preparing this dish. Mostly this sweet item is prepared during religious festivals and offered to the god after worship. Here is the ingredients required for preparing this sweet and the method for preparing the same:

How to prepare Chandrakantalu

Please note that the quantity of ingredients for making this sweet item depends on your requirement and the number of people you want to serve this sweet. However, in this article only one measure of the main ingredient (pesarapappu) is taken and accordingly the measure of other two ingredients as well.

Ingredients required

1 cup of green gram / pesara pappu

1 cup sugar - you can take little lesser sugar say three-fourth cup in case you want less sweetness.

1 cup grated coconut / coconut powder

Cardamom powder about 4-5 gm

Enough edible oil for deep frying

Dry fruits like slit cashew, raisins, almonds and pistachio. Pleaae not that these dry fruits are optional only and not compulsory. You can use these just for giving an additional attractive look and taste as well. It depends on you taste and like whether to use these dry fruits or not.

Method for preparing the sweet

First you need to take one measure of green gram, wash it thorough under running tap water and then soak this dal for at least one hour.

After an hour completely drain off the water from the dal and then grind it in a grinder to make it into a thick paste. If required you can add one or two spoons of water depending on the working of the mixer. Remember that you should not make it into a thin paste but it should be of thicker consistency only.

Now you can place a thick bottom pan over low flame and pour the paste made of green gram in the pan. You need to add sugar and coconut powder / grated coconut to this paste and stir it well. Let it remain over low flame only.

You will the sugar slowly melts and starts bubbling out. Make sure that the flame is low only and you further keep on stirring the mixture till it starts leaving the sides of the pan and becomes thick enough.

Meanwhile take a large flat plate and grease the plate with little ghee. Once the paste is done, you can remove it from over the flame, add cardamom powder to it and stir it well. Now spread the paste at even thickness over the greased plate, the way you do for preparing Mysorepak. Generally, it is spread in half inch thickness.

After spreading the paste evenly over the greased plate, you can cut it into desired shapes either diamond shape or square shape or any other shape you like.

Now heat enough vegetable oil for deep frying these cut pieces. Once the oil is hot, reduce the flame to simmer.

Now carefully remove each piece from the plate, however make sure that each piece is intact while you separate the pieces. And then deep fry these pieces in oil till these pieces turn golden brown in color. Make sure that you are frying these over low flame only to avoid cracking.

Once these are done, remove the pieces from the oil, place these over a plate and if you wish you can place the dry fruits over each square or diamond piece for decoration. Remember that this is only to add to the beauty of the sweet and to add taste to it but not compulsory and also not traditional. It depends on your taste and like whether to place these dry fruits over chandrakantalu or not.