Sweet Specialties of Nellore
Located in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, Nellore is the administrative headquarters of Sri Potti Sri Ramulu Nellore district. With magnificent historical significance and a very rich spiritual as well as religious legacy, Nellore is famous not only for being a beautiful city but also for its sweet specialties. If you are an ardent sweet lover, then you should try out the traditional sweets fond there. And if you are passionate about bringing the taste home and making your loved ones savor too, then you need to know the recipes of some of the famous sweet delights of Nellore, as discussed below.
Some Sweet Recipes from Nellore
Bobbatlu
It is a traditional sweet dish of Nellore made of sweet potatoes and jaggery. You can find it at many of the sweet shops here though it is pretty easy to make and you can try it at home.
Ingredients
For The Outer Cover Or Layer:
- 1 ½ cups (of a 240 ml cup) whole wheat flour
- 1 ½ cups plain flour (Maida)
- 1 tablespoon of either chiroti sooji or holige rava
- Water as required
- 2 tablespoons oil
- Flour for the purpose of rolling
For The Stuffing:
- ½ kg sweet potatoes
- 200 grams jaggery or palm sugar as per your permissible limit of sweetness
- ¼ tsp cardamom powder
- 1 tablespoon ghee for stuffing
- Ghee or oil for roasting as required
- You have to knead flour and chiroti sooji with water and form soft dough. The kneading continues as you add water to it making it more flexible. Once this is done, a moist cloth should be used to cover it till you make the stuffing ready.
- After washing and peeling off the skin the sweet potatoes need to be boiled in water till the cooking becomes full. Then keep these aside to get cooled.
- You have to next mash the potatoes and add cardamom powder and grater jiggery into it.
- The mixture needs to be cooked keeping the flame low. As the jiggery begis to melt, you have to add ghee and the cooking continues till the mixture becomes thicker. In order to prevent the mixture get burnt, you have to keep on stirring it. After you do this for almost 8 minutes, you have to keep it aside for cooling. When the mixture gets cooled, you have to grease your palm and start making balls of almost equal sizes and keep them side. With the dough that you have made, you would be able to make 12 balls.
- The platform needs to be smeared with flour. The balls should be rolled in dry flour in the shape of chapatis. Each chapatti should be folded half way and again a further half way so that you can form a triangle.
- You need to sprinkle some flour and roll it in order to give the shape of a puri.
- Then you have to place a sweet ball on one of the edges. The other two edges need to be brought together. You would find that that an opening remains after this is done. This opening should be brought over the three edges and then pressed.
- You should then flip the other side and sprinkle some flour and roll it gently. This needs to be repeated. These are called poli or bobbatlu.
- Then you have heat the flat utensil called tawa and place the poli when it is very hot. You should keep on adding bits of ghee when you find bubbles.
- Then you have to flip the other side of the bobbatlu and keep frying till both the sides become golden in color. If you want to serve them soft, then you need to stack them but f you want to serve them crispy then those have to be served immediately.
Ariselu
It is a traditional sweet of Andhra Pradesh and mainly prepared for their traditional festival called Makara Sankranthi. It is also prepared for weddings. There can be three of variants in Ariselu.
Ingredients
- 2 Kgs laavu paata bhiyyam or old fat rice
- 1 Kg bellam or jaggery
- 100 grams Nuvvulu or sesame seeds
- 1 Kg of either ghee or oil
Instructions
- You need to soak thee rice for two days and keep cleaning it twice each day so that it does not catch an unpleasant odor.
- The soaked rice needs to be removed from water and then placed on a clean and dry cloth in a shade so that it can get dried. After this, you have to mix the rice and turn it into a smooth powder. You should then a vessel with a thick bottom and after putting it in high flame, you should add 1 Kg of mashed jiggery and ¼ liter of water. When the jaggery melts, the syrup needs to be filtered carefully.
- Meanwhile you must fry the sesame seeds and dry it in a pan for 5 minutes. Keeping the flame at a medium range, you must keep on stirring with a spoon. While this goes on, a tempting fragrance is emitted.
- You have to stir on a continuous basis and cook the syrup of filtered jiggery. It then becomes thick.
- When the cooking is done, the flame should be put off and after outing it in a vessel, you should add 2 tablespoons of ghee and 100 grams of fried sesame seeds. The rice flour then must be added to the syrup slowly and mixed thoroughly so that no lump gets formed till the whole thing thickens.
- While this goes on, you should heat 1 Kg ghee or oil, any of the two, in a small pan.
- You should take a small dough of the mix of medium thickness in a small vessel and keep the rest of the dough closed so that it does not get dried up.
- For preparing the Ariselu, you have to take a little dough and prepare round with hand. Then it should be slowly left into the pan and fried till it becomes golden. In order to soak the excess oil, it needs to be placed on a tissue paper.
Obattu
Obattu is a traditional sweet made in Nellore especially on the auspicious New Year festival called Ugadi. It is loved and praised by all.
Ingredients
For the outer cover or layer:
- 1 cup flour
- a pinch of salt
- a pinch of turmeric powder
- 2 tablespoons oil
- ¾ cup jaggery
- 1/8th teaspoon cardamom powder
- 2 tablespoons ghee
For The Stuffing:
- ¾ cup of Poornam Bengal gram dhaal or pulses
- ¾ cup jiggery
- 1/8 tablespoon cardamom powder
- 2 tablespoons ghee
Instructions
- In order to make the covering, you have to mix all the ingredients with water, measuring ½ cup or ¼ cup in order to make the dough soft and flexible. You should apply oil on it and allow it to rest for about an hour so that the gluten can form.
- For the stuffing to be made, you have to soak the dhaal first into water. Then it needs to be put into a pressure cooker and you have to wait for 4 whistles for it to get cooked. Let it cool then.
- Now you have to take a vessel with thick bottom and transfer the cooled dhal and add jaggery into the vessel. The mixture needs to be blended well. The flame should be kept low and the mixing has to be continued till the moisture gets removed. It has to be cooled again.
- Now the whole thing should be transferred into a mixer so that smooth dough can be obtained.
- For the covering dough, you have to make a ball of the size of a lemon. For the filling, you need to form a small ball.
- You have to roll the covering while you use flour for dusting.
- Keeping the filling inside, you have to cover it from all the sides and also pinch some more dough and roll it into a ball.
- Both the sides need to be cooked on medium flame for two minutes.
- Before serving it warm, you should apply ghee on both the sides to make it tastier.
Famous Sweet Shops of Nellore
In case, you are not fond of making sweets on your own, you could visit some of the famous sweet shops in Nellore. The list is as follows:
Murali Krishna Sweets
Bellam Pootharekulu, Pootha Rekulu, Basanti, Dry Papidi, KObbari Kajjikailu, Kaju Pak, Badam Pak are some of the famous sweets found here. The entire array of sweets is so tempting that one cannot stop at having a single variant.Address: 52/42, Dargamitta,
Nellore- 524003
(Near Netaji Pilot High School)
Phone: (0861) 2336616
Ramana Sweets
The speciality of this sweet shop is Malai kaza which somewhat resembles Gulab Jamun; the only difference is that although Malai is there inside it but there is no syrup. A must try sweet.t is a must-try sweet!Address: 14/163, Devi Reddy Vari Street, Anamvari Street,
Nellore- 524001
(Near AC Subba Reddy Statue)
Phone: (0861) 2333302
Santhi Sweets
Address: 16-1433, Srinivasa Agraharam,Nellore- 542002
(Near Sri Lakshmi Prasanna Motor Driving School)
Phone: (0861) 2325986
Kalesha Sweets
Address: 11/813, Santhapet, Nellore- 524001
(Near Royal Tailors)
Phone: (0861) 2335125
Madhura Sweets
The very name of the sweet shop indicates how tasteful and delicious the products are! Madhura Sweets is one of the top sweet brands in Nellore. Kaju sweets, bakery products, milk sweets, general sweets, cakes, pastries and other yummy sweets can be found here.Address: 6-1-3345/99, Subedarpet,
Nellore - 520861
(Near Kanaka Mahal Centre)
Phone: (0861) 2328092
Mayuri Sweet Palace
Address: Ramesh Reddy Road, Ramesh Reddy Nagar,Nellore - 524001
(Opposite RTC Bus Stand)
Phone: (0861) 6520696, (0861) 6519751, 09704660708