Soak the rice and urad dal in sufficient water for a minimum of 3-4 hours or overnight.

Mix the rice and urad batters, and add a ¼ teaspoon of salt. Set aside in a warm corner while you prepare the okkarai/poornam

Lightly roast the dal until it's barely browning and fragrant.

Then soak the roasted lentils for a minimum of 3-4 hours, or until you can pinch one through and break it without any effort.

Drain completely. Transfer to a food processor or blender and pulse until you have a smoothish paste. You may need to scrape the sides down a few times to achieve a consistent texture.

Now heat a heavy bottomed pan and add a few tablespoons of sesame oil to it. Before the oil is too hot, transfer the chana dal paste to it, lower the heat, and start mixing: press-scrape-turn, over and over, exposing every inch of the soaked gram to heat little-by-little so that it all cooks evenly.

Don't be afraid to scrape the bottom of the pan with full vigor. Use a metal spatula, if it helps.

Add a few more spoonfuls of oil, one spoonful at a time, if the mixture sticks too much to the bottom of the pan. I used about 1/4 cup in total, but you might be able to get away with less.

Do all this on low heat, taking your time over it.

On the side, set the cup of jaggery to heat with a little water. Allow it to come to a bubble. There's no need to work towards a 1 or 2-string consistency; what you need is a thickish syrup.

Also get the flavorings ready: a pinch of edible camphor, some cardamom pods. You can also add a 1/2 teaspoon of dry ginger, if you like. Crush these together well and add them to the jaggery syrup.

When the okkarai/poornam is starting to look a little less raw (it deepens in color), much less pasty and a lot more crumbly, add the jaggery syrup, and continue thecchufying, pressing-scraping-turning to incorporate and then to ensure that any residual moisture evaporates.

Continue cooking until the okkarai/poornam once again is starting to look slightly like a crumbly halva. Now switch off the flame and add the fresh coconut. Mix well.

When the mixture is not-too-hot-to-handle, fashion by hand into small balls. Set these aside.

Now heat the oil in a cast iron or other heavy bottomed pan. Keep a plate lined with paper towels nearby.

When the oil is hot but not smoking, quickly dip each susiyam ball into the batter and drop into the oil.

Hold the balls lightly, or your fingers will make impressions that become “holes” or indentations in the coating. Try to get as many balls in, in quick succession so that you can turn and remove them also, in a go.

The susiyams will brown quickly on the bottom. Turn them to brown evenly on the top as well.

Lift out with a slotted spoon, and deposit these onto the paper towel-lined plate.

You’ll need to fry in batches, depending on the size of your frying pan.

Serve susiyam hot, straight out of the frying pan, with your afternoon tea or coffee. Or, cool them just a little and use them to top vanilla ice cream!