Monsoon sweet.

[Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi]

A heap of small spheres is piled atop a metal tray, each coated with sesame seeds. The white seeds cover the caramel-coloured surfaces so densely that the spheres look almost like til ka laddu. A few have cracked open.

This is the scene at a mithai shop counter in east Delhi, where anarse ki goli appears for a brief period each year.

This sweet delicacy is limited, at least in the capital, to a handful of mithai shops and to the short rainy period in July and August, with some believing that its season is centred around the festival of teej.

In western Uttar Pradesh, anarsa has an additional seasonal identity. A Delhi resident from the region recalls it being made in her village at teej but also at holi, alongside gujiya. There, it is simply called anarsa, and is larger than Delhi’s anarse ki goli. She says that making anarsa is labour-intensive. Rice is soaked for a day or two, then “koot ke, chhan ke,” pounded and strained, before being deep-fried “like a poori.”

Delhi’s anarse ki goli is about the size of a mini gulab jamun. A mithai shop cook generously reveals its preparation. White rice is soaked in water for a day, then washed repeatedly until the debris and much of the starch have been removed. The rice is now spread on a cloth and left to dry for a few hours before being ground into fine flour. Sugar and water are boiled in a large cauldron to make chashni, into which the rice flour is added and cooked until it absorbs the syrup. The sticky dough is left overnight to set. The next day, it is divided into small portions, rolled by hand into round golis, and completely covered with sesame seeds and deep-fried, preferably in desi ghee.

Another Delhi resident remembers a time when anarsa was available at many more mithai shops across the city. Perhaps fewer shops make it now because of the hard work involved, she says.

The ingredients may offer one explanation for why Delhi’s version is associated with the monsoon. It contains sesame and rice. Some anarsa aficionados believe that sesame is considered warming to the body, while rice is considered cooling, and the two together might suit a season when the day weather irregularly oscillates between heat and dampness.

Whatever the reasoning, a suitable anarse ki goli is towards the soft side with a light crunch and not overly sweet. Some like a faint coconutty flavour. It can be eaten on its own or with chai, accompanied by the pitter—patter of the raining baarish.