Boli for Thiruvananthapuram Sadya

Today is Thiruvonam. So, let me bring you something special. For South Keralites, boli is an integral part of Kerala Sadya, served along with Vermicelli payasam or Rice Paal payasam. This sweet yellow colour boli is quite common in southern Kerala, while it’s unfamiliar to most of the Malabar people who serve yellow boondi with Palada or Vermicelli payasam for Kerala Sadyas. In rare occasions, boondi is also served in South Kerala sadyas. Boli, which resembles a pappadam, is yellow (because of the yellow colour added)  and is a good combo for Palada or any type of kheers. Also read: Okkarai – Chana Dal & Jaggery-based Tamil Nadu Diwali Sweet Recipe.

Boli is not at all a Kerala dish

Yes, you heard it right. Boli is not at all a Kerala dish. It’s a Tamil Nadu sweet, mostly made by Brahmins, but accepted by Malayalis for its taste and aroma. It needs a lot of dedication and hard work to prepare bolis, and you may need to try at least 2-3 times to make your bolis perfect. But your hard work is paid, because it’s a very delicious sweet that can be used as a snack as well. Its variant is stuffed boli, and both are good. So, let me provide you with the recipe of Thiruvananthapuram Sadya’s own boli. Also read: Complete dishes of Thiruvananthapuram Sadhya.

Ingredients to prepare Boli:

1. Bengal gram (Kadala Paripp) – 1/2 kg
2. Maida – 2.5 cups
   Salt – A pinch
   Gingelly oil – 50 gm
3. Sugar – 1/2 kg
   Yellow food colour – As needed
4. Nutmeg powder – 1/2 tsp
   Cardamom powder – 1 tsp
5. Ghee – 100 gm
   Finely ground rice powder – As required

How to prepare boli?

1. Soak Bengal gram for a while. You can do it for at least two-three hours.

2. Add 3.5-4 cups of water to the soaked Bengal gram and cook it in a pressure cooker.

3. Bengal gram should be well-cooked. For that, after the first whistle, reduce the flame and simmer it for 5 more whistles.

4. When its pressure drops to zero, drain its moisture completely, and keep it aside for a while. During this time, we can prepare the maida mixture.

5. Take 2.5 cups of fresh maida in a bowl and add a pinch of salt. Mix both ingredients together.

6. Add yellow food colour, enough water and mix the contents again well. The yellow colour should mix uniformly.

7. The prepared maida dough should not be as tight as chapatti’s. It should not be too loose, either. The water content of maida dough should be enough to cover Bengal gram balls, and roll like chapati.

8. Press the maida dough well into the bowl and pour full gingely oil on its top.

9. The dough should be fully immersed in the gingely oil. Use your hands and fully immerse the maida dough in the oil.

10. Keep it aside for 20-30 minutes. We can prepare Bengal gram filling for our boli during this time.

11. Place a non-stick pan in the flame and add cooked Bengal gram along with sugar to it. Stir continuously. Add a little yellow colour as well. You can also add a little ghee to it to make it tastier. If so, heat the ghee first before adding the gram and sugar. (If you don’t want excess colour, you can avoid yellow colour here or use turmeric powder. But to get the trademark yellow colour for the dish, include this step as well.

12. Once the mixture is heated, it turns loose. Stir continuously until the water content is almost absorbed. Never make the mixture too dry. If so, your bolis may turn rough and hard, and may not be easy to roll.

13. Add cardamom powder and nutmeg powder and mix well. Turn the flame off. In fact, the combination of cardamom, nutmeg and gingelly oil gives a sweet and distinct aroma to the boli.

14. When the Bengal gram mixture cools, grind it to a fine paste without adding water. You can choose a traditional method or an instant mixer.

15. Make lime-sized balls from it. We get almost 30 balls of equal size from this amount of Bengal gram mixture. This is the filling used for preparing boli.

16. Now we can prepare maida balls. Balls should be gooseberry-sized, almost 1/3rd size of the Bengal gram balls. Oil content will make maida flour slippery and help you in making perfect bolis.

17. Now the next step needs a little practice and a little bit of patience as well. Cover each big-sized Bengal gram ball with small gooseberry-sized maida balls.

18. Maida is elastic in nature, and when combined with oil, it makes the job pretty easy. A little practice is needed to cover Bengal gram balls with maida balls.

19. Your bolis turn perfect and would be in perfect shape if Bengal gram balls are completely covered and uniform.  The filling mixture should never be shown outside. If so, it will break while we spread it like a chapati.

20. Take rice flour in a plate and place each ball in it and flip once. Repeat the same process for all 30 balls.

21. Now the next step is to roll each ball into flat, round-shaped bolis similar to raw pappads used for frying. They should be thin and rolled uniformly, with filling completely covered by maida. You can use a chapati board for this purpose.

22. Similar to chapattis, sprinkle a little bit of rice flour to spread them fine. Excess flour gives white patches on yellow bolis. So keep it minimal. Through practice, you can achieve it for sure.

23. Heat a non-stick tawa. Take one by one and put them in the tawa.

24. When blisters appear on its surface, sprinkle a little ghee on the top and flip once.

25. Sprinkle a little more ghee; just wait for a second and fold it once. Place it on your plate. It takes only a few seconds to cook each boli.

26. Continue the process until you complete 30 bolis. Your soft and tasty bolis are ready to serve.

A few things to note at the final stage of Boli preparation

1. Avoid rice flour as much as possible.  The less flour you avoid in the final stage, the more perfect and soft your bolis would be.
2. Soon after you put boli in the tawa, you need to wait just for a few seconds, until blisters appear on its surface. Otherwise, it turns hard and changes colour too.
3. Bolis appear yellow only due to the lemon-yellow colour used. You can avoid adding colour if you don’t want to.
4. Yellow bolis stay fresh outside the refrigerator for a maximum 3-4 days. If you want to keep it for long time, it’s better to keep them in the fridge in airtight containers.
5. They taste best when it’s pretty hot, and it’s the best combo for palada or vermicelli payasam, or any type of kheer. Read Rice Kheer recipe here.

Stuffed Boli – A derivative of normal boli

You can also make your bolis a bit different and rich by stuffing the Bengal gram – sugar mixture, but not fully ground. If so, stuff them while you heat boli in tawa, spraying ghee.

An alternative method to make Bengal gram-Sugar mixture

Sometimes it is a little bit tough to grind Bengal gram-sugar mixture into a fine paste without any grains. You can also grind cooked Bengal gram to a fine paste, before you fry it in a tawa, adding sugar, cardamom and nutmeg powder. It’s your choice.  

Palada & Vermicelli Payasam – Best Combos of Boli

In Thiruvananthapuram Sadyas, Vermicelli Payasam is mostly served as the sweet milk dessert, after serving two batches of rice & 2 or 3 sets of jaggery pradhamans. At first, Boli is placed on the banana leaf, and Vermicelli Payasam is poured on top. On rare occasions, boondi is served instead of Bolis. In sadyas from mid-Kerala like Ernakulam and Thrissur, normally boondi is served. That’s why Boli becomes a signature dish of Thiruvananthapuram Sadya. Palada is the trademark dish of Thrissur Sadya, and Boli is an excellent combo for this dessert, though this combo is rarely served in Sadyas in any part of Kerala.

You can also read yet another boli recipe here. What I find interesting is that Maida balls are prepared first, and then dipped in gingelly oil for 15 minutes, just before you roll them to prepare bolis. Have a look at Annie’s recipe too, published in Vanitha Onam Edition 2017. 

Also read: Maampazha Semiya Payasam recipe