South Indian Sweets Recipes
My mom loves festivals. It gives her a free reign to make sweets :) She can live on sweets alone while the rest of her family are savory junkies. So every special occasion was a fair trade between us. Spare us the sweets and we will relieve you of savories. Out of the many sweets, only few caught my fancy enough to take a bite or two. Among those were these Suyyams. The filling wasn't sweet enough for me to run away and the Bengal gram-jaggery combination worked for me.
South Indian Sweets Recipes
I would help myself to 1 or 2 and return to my world of crispy goodies. The child like delight on my mom's face while she ate "her sweets", was alone worth a basket of my savories.  So when I was missing her few days back, I made these to just recall her face filled with happiness and unparalleled joy while she ate them slowly to savor every single bite.
If you like Puran Poli (Ubattu), then you would like this too. The recipe is almost the same though the method different. While those are prepared as flatbreads, these are fried to make dumplings with the iron and protein rich filling. These are mildly sweet and can be enjoyed just as they are. No refined sugar, no unnecessary fat - just good eating. Uncomplicated and hearty, these are enjoyed on special occasions like Diwali, New years etc.
  • Cook time:
  • Prep time:
  • Serves: 5 people
  • Yields: Makes around 15 Suyyams
Ingredients
    For the Cover
  • 1/2 cup All Purpose Flour (Maida)
  • 2 tbsp Rice Flour
  • Pinch of Salt
  • Pinch of Turmeric
Tips
Variation: Instead of deep frying, you can also use a Aebleskiver (Pancake Puff) Pan - known as Kuzhi Paniyaram Pan in Tamil.
Method
1. The method for preparing the filling is same as you would do for Puran Poli.  Place 2 cups of water in a saucepan and bring it to a boil.
2. While its heating up, wash and rinse the bengal gram lentil well.
3. Add it to the saucepan
4. and cook until you are able to press the bengal gram with the tips of your fingers. Takes around 10 minutes.
5. You will find most of the water absorbed, but make sure to drain out any additional water from the lentil.
6. In the same saucepan, add the cooked bengal gram, jaggery, coconut and cardamom.
7. In medium heat, cook for 3-5 minutes until the jaggery almost melts. Mix well and set aside to cool down a bit.
8. While that's cooling, heat up some oil for deep frying. Add the ingredients for the cover in a bowl.
9. Add enough water to make a thick batter.
10. The consistency of the batter should be similar to that of a idli batter or Dosa batter - thick enough to coat the filling with a layer of batter. Set aside.
11. Transfer the cooled down filling to a food processor.
12. Grind it without adding any water.
13. Using the same saucepan ( So you finally realized I am not going to change the pan? ;)), add 1-2 tsp of Ghee (or dry roast/use coconut oil) and add the cashews to roast.
14. When done, add it to the lentil jaggery mixture.
15. Stir to combine.
16. Make small balls (abt the size of a small lemon/lime) and drop it to the batter.
17. Coat it with the batter
18. and drop it in the oil for frying.
19. It cooks pretty fast. You can add as many as your vessel can hold. Make sure not to drop your oil temperature to low. You want med-high heat.
20. When it gets an appearance of a crispy texture, remove it. My mom's version usually isn't that golden. It has in fact more of pale white reddish tones, but well I am a turmeric junkie :) Place them in paper towels, though there shouldn't be any oil per se if you fried right.
So lets dig in :) South Indian Sweets Recipes

Recipe Reference

Family recipe

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6 Comments

By Sudha on Dec 3, 2014

we call this MOOLLIKU in Konkini, a fav and common sweet Prasadam in all our temples

By foodchilli.com | DIWALI SWEETS on Nov 21, 2012

[...] Suyyam (Susiyam) [...]

By Charul @ Tadka Masala on Nov 10, 2012

This is something completely new for me. Can I use something esle than maida for the cover?

Well, I would personally use Whole wheat pastry flour if I had to make a switch --DK

By I love sweets on Nov 10, 2012

I liked this sweet very much very very much i made it is dusshera with my friends they all liked this sweets

By Bhuvaneshwari on Nov 9, 2012

hi DK, like madhuram, i too recollect it to the urad dal batter and simple coconut-jaggery poornam :) shall try this version for diwali for my li'l prince

By Madhuram on Nov 7, 2012

Sugiyam was my favorite too. But to tell the truth I have not made it myself. Every Saraswathi Pooja I think I should make it but end up making something else. In our house we use urad dal batter though, instead of maida. Also we use plain coconut-jaggery poornam instead of bengal dal.

Isnt that Boorelu? Food blogging makes me realize the boundaries lines mean nothing in the gastronomical world! --DK