HONEY CANDY/THEN MITTAI

       This Honey Candy colloquially called 'Then Mittai' is a nostalgic food which brings back childhood memories out of the Glass Jars from a Village or a roadside Shop - Petti Kadai.  When speaking about Petti Kadai which are small shops(Kadai) built like a box(Petti) round the corners of a small street in a locality.  Majority of the locals looked upon to the Petti Kadai, it was once a local shopping centre where you get anything right around the corner of your street any time of the day. It caters to serve the local demand to an extreme that you can see a regular number of crowd swarming around the place for their petty necessities.
      The ambience of a Petti Kadai is unique to itself with colourful long strands of Small Sachets right from Coffee Powders, Pickles, Shampoos all hanging around, almost covering the top level of these compact shops, that the shopkeeper bends down to address us. I always have wondered their ruthless usage of such a small & compact area in an efficient way. All the more the only person who owns and runs the business spins around from day to night to cater to your needs literally anything and everything from its recesses.
     Neatly stacked Glass Jars filled with colourful local delicacies, candies and savouries are always a treat to the local kids(even grown-ups), that every one of them would surely have a memory of their own to share about these Petti Kadais and their favourite delicacies catered only at these local compact shops. Every Glass Jar would be filled with what we call as Petti Kadai Palaharams -

• Soft and Juicy Then Mittai, 
• Flavour filled Thengai(Coconut) Burfi, 
• Nutritious Kadalai(Groundnut) Mittai, 
• Rock hard Kammarakkat Mittai, 
• Soury Pulippu/Orange Mittai, 
• Handmade Kai Murukku, 
• South Indian Mixture, 
• Colourful roll of Poppins, 
• Crispy Balls of Pori Urundai, 
• Crystallised Sooda(Mint) Mittai.  

These humble yet tasty and nutritious home-made sugar confectioneries with its various colour and shapes, sold without wrappers urge us into an utter temptation to grab and gobble them up.

HONEY CANDY/THEN MITTAI

     For me, all these confectioneries were somewhere away in another world.  I never had a chance to buy and eat them during my childhood days. According to me, they were a kind of colourful delights in a roadside shop. The first time I tasted Then Mittai/Honey Candy and Kammarkkat were along with my son. A few days back my son send me a video from Youtube - Then Mittai Recipe in Tamil - Tamizh Samayal, of how to make Then Mittai and said looks good, try it.  Until then I had never thought I would make Then Mittai at home nor had an idea what the ingredients were.  I had always thought that Then Mittai, as the name suggests, was sweetened with Honey, but to my dismay, there was no mention of the ingredient.  I guess it was named Honey Candy/Then Mittai just because of its juicy and nectary nature.



    I planned to make it when my son was back for a holiday from his University. Soft and Juicy Then Mittai was way far easy than I imagined and even for the first time it came out well. I added Orange food colour to the batter instead of red, but my kids said that looked good rather than the red colour. I strictly followed the measurements and instructions mentioned in the video.


Cuisine : South Indian
Recipe Type : Confectionery/Sweet
Difficulty : Medium
Author : SM

Soaking Time(For Batter) : 4-6 Hours
Preparation Time : 25-30 Minutes
Cooking Time : 30 - 45 Minutes
Soaking Time(For Honey Candy/Then Mittai) : 20-30 Minutes

INGREDIENTS :

For Honey Candy/Then Mittai Batter :

Idli Rice - 1 Cup
Black Gram Dhal(Urad Dhal) - 1/4 Cup less 1 Tbspn
Sago Pearls - 1 Tbpsn
Salt - a Pinch
Soda-bi-carbonate - 1/8 Tspn
Red/Orange Food Colour - 1/8 Tspn

For Sugar Syrup :

Sugar - 1 Cup
Water - 1/2 Cup
Lemon Juice - 2-3 Drops

METHOD :

For Sugar Syrup : 

• Add Sugar and enough water to immerse the sugar in a large pan.
• Allow it to boil until it reaches just less than one string consistency.
• Boil the sugar syrup for just 5-6 Minutes.
• Switch off the flame and Add 2-3 Drops of lemon juice finally.
• Leave this sugar syrup aside.
• Adding lemon juice to the sugar syrup prevents the syrup from crystallizing.

For Honey Candy/Then Mittai :

• Soak Idli Rice, Urad Dhal and Sago Pearls for about 4 Hours.
• Then Grind the soaked ingredients in a Wet Grinder/Mixer Grinder into a smooth batter.
• Use 1/4 of Water along with a pinch of Salt to Grind the ingredients. 
• Remove the batter from the Grinder.
• Add Soda-bi-carbonate and Food colouring to the batter and mix well.
• Meanwhile heat Oil in a Deep Pan on a medium-high flame.
• Once the oil is hot reduce the flame.
• Dip your hands in water and make small balls out of the batter.
• Directly drop the batter balls into the hot oil.
• Fry them on a very low flame until both the sides are well cooked or until the sizzling sound stops.
• Immediately add the fried Honey Candy/Then Mittai into Hot Sugar Syrup.
• Follow the suit for the rest of the batter. 
• Mix the Honey Candy/Then Mittai in hot Sugar Syrup until each candy is well coated.
• Let it soak for about 20-30 Minutes.
• Once soaked allow the Honey Candy/Then Mittai to dry on a plate.
• If preferred, sprinkle some powdered Sugar over Honey Candy/Then Mittai.
• Stays good for a week at room temperature.

HONEY CANDY/THEN MITTAI

NOTES :

• Use 1/4 Cup minus 1 Tbspn of Urad Dhal(Black Gram Dhal) for the batter.
• Adding Sago Pearls gives slightly transparent and Juicy Honey Candy/Then Mittais.
• No need to ferment the batter.
• Fry the Honey Candy/Then Mittais immediately once the batter is ready.
• Fry them on a very low flame, otherwise, you may not get the desired texture.
• Let the Honey Candy/Then Mittai and Sugar Syrup be hot while mixing them together.
• Heat the Sugar Syrup at intervals while adding the fried Honey Candy/Then Mittais.
• Allow it to soak for at least 20-30 minutes.