From Okkarai to Susiyam

We have very little consensus in India on most things, and most especially on what to call things, giving them each and all our own names based on how we found them or how we think of them or what they’re analogous to. Chutneys and rasams and even rices are cases in point. And now this little teatime snack and roadside nibble and srardham naivedyam called suzhiyam, சுழியம். Or susiyam, சுசியம். Seeyam, சீயம். Suyyam. Suviyam. Sukhinam. Sukhiyam, sughiyan. Sugunta in Telugu. Sugeelu or Sukkinunde in Karnataka. Sukrunde in Konkani. If you look, you’ll find more variants of the name, possibly as many as we have communities and dialects. I’m really not sure why.

Susiyam, as I’m electing to call it, is also claimed by a few different regions: south Tamil Nadu, Kanyakumari area; Chettinadu [default proxy owner of all things yummy and Tamilian]; and the whole state of Kerala–where, apparently, it’s made from paasi payar or whole mung beans rather than kadalai paruppu/chana dal/Bengal gram in most Tamilian variants. The Telugu variants can use toor dal. I once nurtured the impression that it is really only the far eastern countries, especially those coming under the ambit of Chinese and Japanese influences, that made abundant use of mung and beans in general in sweet dishes; that wasn’t at all our thing. Particularly with susiyam’s Kerala avatar, I stand corrected.

So, what’s susiyam exactly? It’s a little laddoo made from cooked chana dal that’s sweetened and mixed with coconut and cardamom, then dipped in a rice-urad dal batter and deep fried. Like a vada, but sweet; like the gulgule of the northern and eastern states. Tamil Brahmins and many in Karnataka will say that it’s a srardham naivedyam or thevasam must, an all-important offering to our “pitrus” or forefathers–but nobody I’ve asked, including priests performing rituals for my father and insisting on the importance of susiyam, has been able to tell me why. The closest I have come to an explanation lies in one particular name: sukhiyan or sughiyan means “one who relishes all good things,” so this humble urundai is both food and embodiment, offering and personification of those in whose memories it is now being made and consumed. The fact that the susiyam combines lentils (urad, chana) and grains (rice) is also of some significance for ancestor-worship rituals.

The susiyam’s urundai [spherical] form renders it close to the sorts of sweets we like to offer Vinayaka for chaturti, so it’s sometimes made then, or during Deepavali. The poornam or fillling is a familiar one, very like what’s used to make polis/ oligalu/obbatlu [another dish with a thousand regional names!], and also very like what gets cooked a bit differently to become okkarai, so it’s very possible that susiyam is just a way to make use of leftover filling during festival times in a way that makes it a fit teatime snack.

So, having just made a batch of okkarai from my previous post, I thought why not also susiyam?

The process is very simple. You essentially make okkarai, but before you add nuts and allow the cooked dal mixture to cool and get crumbly–stop. Add a generous cup of freshly grated coconut. This will rehydrate the okkarai somewhat, and that’s what you want.

Now when the mixture is still warm, quickly shape into small urundais or balls. These are good enough to eat as they are, but there’s one more step. Dip these in a batter made of raw rice and urad dal, which have been soaked and ground as for any dosa or idli batter–or just use any old dosa or idli batter, no matter if it’s on the other end of sour.

The result is a wonderfully sweet-soft-on-the-inside, tang-crispy-on-the-outside susiyam that might well explain why people call this sukhiyam, because it sure does bring happiness.

Here’s just how.

Follow my earlier Tirunelveli okkarai recipe up to this point:

Now add a cup of freshly grated coconut & mix well.

Once the mixture cools slightly, fashion into small laddoo balls like so…

Set these aside, out of reach of any lurking children who might sneak them away when you’re not looking.

Dip the balls into batter — you can make your own by soaking and grinding rice and urad dal, almost exactly as you would for dosas, or you can use a pre-made or old batter. Whatever you do, do not follow recipes out there that ask you to use white flour/maida. That makes these into bajjis and essentially kills the susiyam-ness of the susiyam, which needs that dosa-batter-like coating to turn beautifully golden brown and crispy.

Anyway, dip into batter, drop into hot oil and fry till a deliciously golden brown.

Drain on paper towels, and serve hot with your afternoon tea or coffee!

Sukhiyam, sukhiyam…