Fig. 5

Sweetmeats can be snack items or dessert food of the traditional main meal. Common ingredients for sweetmeats are cereal (rice, millet) or other grain flours, palm sap-based sweetener, fresh coconut kernel and vegetable oil. Preparation methods include steaming, deep frying, and roasting. Final products are of various shapes, texture and taste and some are local specialties based on the ingredients of the eco-region. a Aggalā; Balls formed from flour of roasted rice and a sweetner, b Konda Kevum; deep-fried knotted oil cakes made from a rice flour and a sweetner mixture, c Mung Kevum; deep-fried, batter-coated oil cakes of mung bean flour, d Nāran Kewum; batter-coated and deep-fried balls made from sweetened mixture of coconut, pieces of roasted mung bean and cashew nuts or balls of sweetened Pittu, e Athirasa; deep-fried oilcakes made from the flattened balls of rice flour and a sweetner dough, f Undu Walalu; sweetener infused deep-fried product of black gram flour and rice flour mixture, g Aasmi; deep-fried (2 times) product of a mixture of rice flour and viscous plant extract with sugar syrup decorations, h Kokis; deep-fried rice flour and coconut milk batter using a mold, i Aluvā; roasted rice flour and sweetner syrup mixture cooked, flattened and cut into pieces, j Kalu Dodol; dark brown/black soft, delicate sweet made of rice flour and coconut milk cooked together until a soft dark caramel color solid and then flattened and cut into pieces, k Sow Dodol; a cooked mixture of rice flour Pittu and a sweetener until a soft cake is formed and then cut into pieces, l Helapa; steamed dough of rice and finger millet flour with grated coconut and sweetener that is wrapped in kenda (Macranga peltata) leaves. Preparation details of these products are in Table 2