Anarsa

Anarsa is a sweet made by grinding soaked rice, combining it with jaggery or sugar, and frying it. In Maharashtra, it is shaped into flat rounds and coated with poppy seeds, while in Bihar, rounded versions and versions coated with sesame seeds are also found. Tiny holes form in the fried rice dough, and the aromas of sugar and frying oil come together.

Marathi anarsa. Photo: Prashant.gaykar, 2009; location unknown. Reduced-size version from the source; content unchanged after retrieval (Source / CC BY-SA 4.0).

It begins with soaking the rice

The rice is soaked for several days with the water changed along the way, then drained and ground into flour. This means the starting moisture level differs from methods that use ready-made dry rice flour as is. How the rice is dried before grinding, the fineness of the sieve and the form of the sugar added all affect how the dough holds together later.

One recipe presented by Maharashtrian home cook Madhura Bachal combines the soaked, ground rice with jaggery and then rests the dough. Soaking the rice in water and resting the sweetened dough are separate steps. The number of days the rice is soaked and how long the dough is rested after the sugar is added vary from maker to maker.

Sugarcane jaggery at a market in Punjab, India. Photo: Giridhar Appaji Nag Y, 2007. Original image used (Source / CC BY 2.0).

In the example of cook Poornima, who tried a Bihari recipe, the rice is soaked for 3 days, dried in the shade, and finely ground while still slightly damp. The dough mixed with jaggery is rested for 1 day, then flattened, coated with sesame seeds and fried. The seeds on the surface can be a guide to telling regions apart, but the flat shape itself is not limited to Maharashtra.

Pouring oil over the flat dough

A small piece of dough is taken, poppy seeds are pressed onto one side, and it is spread out with the fingers. In some methods, instead of submerging it deeply and frying it quickly over high heat, the cook keeps its shape while pouring oil over it so the top also cooks. As it cools, the sugar and rice dough settle, giving a light, crisp surface and a dense interior. In Suhasini Ekbote’s home method, ghee is poured over the poppy-seed side, which faces up, and the sweet is fried without being turned over. The fried sweets are stood on edge to drain excess ghee, and they become pleasantly crisp as they cool.

Not only the amount of sugar but also the adjustment of moisture is important. If the dough is too stiff, it is hard to spread; if it is too loose, it loses its shape in the oil. From the stage of making the rice flour until just before frying, the process of watching the dough’s condition continues.

Regional differences under the same name

Some Bihari anarsa are made with sesame seeds and finished in a nearly spherical shape. Compared with Maharashtra’s flat, poppy-seed-coated anarsa, they differ not only in the seeds but also in thickness and in how they cook through in the oil.

There are also round anarsa filled with khoya.

Round anarsa. Photo: Ukr07, 2015; location unknown. Reduced-size version from the source; content unchanged after retrieval (Source / CC BY-SA 4.0).

Adhirasam from South India is also a related sweet made by frying a dough of rice and sugar. However, the methods differ in steps such as cooking a sugar syrup and combining it with rice flour, so simply swapping one name for the other does not explain how it is made.

Preparing for Diwali

Anarsa is one of the sweets prepared for Diwali in Maharashtra. Because the rice is soaked starting several days ahead, preparation begins before the day of frying. Madhura Bachal also presents it as an offering for Lakshmi puja during Diwali. Ekbote learned from her mother and grandmother and has prepared Diwali sweets and snacks at home every year since her teens. Anarsa, too, is finished by soaking the rice, making the flour, resting the dough and frying the pieces one at a time.

Anarsa in Nepali homes and sweet shops

In Nepal, too, a fried rice sweet coated with sesame seeds is made under the name anarsa. An account written by a Kathmandu-based writer on the day of Bhai Tika in 2009 describes homemade anarsa arriving from the writer’s mother-in-law. That family’s anarsa were flat sweets made by mixing rice flour and sugar with water, coating the dough with sesame seeds and frying it in ghee. They were made in large quantities as gifts for family members, and the household that received them divided them up and froze them.

It is not a sweet made only in home kitchens. A 2021 record of a shopfront in Asan, in Kathmandu’s old city, shows anarsa for sale alongside sel roti, malpuwa and other sweets. Beyond the differences between Indian states, rice sweets with the same name can also be found in Nepali homes and town sweet shops.

Glossary