Bobbatlu-Poli

I made bobbtlu for sri ramanavami and brought them to work to create a festive environment here. Everyone liked them very much. It is quite a time consuming process but it is worth the effort. here is the recipe

Ingredients
1 cup Chana dal(bengal gram Dal)
1 cup Jaggery or sugar(adjust to your taste)
1 1/4 cups maida/all purpose flour
1 tbsp clarified butter/ghee
1/2 tsp cardamom powder
3 to 4 Tbsps fresh grated coconut (optional)
salt to taste
Oil
Method
1) Mix the maida/all purpose flour with pinch of salt and enough water to make a very soft and sticky dough. add 1 -2 Tbsps oil and knead the dough well, cover and keep aside.

2) Pressure Cook the chana Dal until soft. Drain water and cool. Grind the Dal with Jaggery or Sugar to a smooth paste. In a heavy bottemed wok, cook this paste at low heat so that the paste becomes hard enough to make into a ball. Remove from heat, mix the cardamom powder, grated coconut, pinch of salt and combine well. Make a small lemon sized balls and keep aside.

3) Take a plastic sheet (I used a ziploc cover) grease it with a little oil and use it to shape the bobbatlu. Grease your fingers with oil and take a small portion of the dough (smaller than a lemon size) and expand it little bit, keep the Chana-Jaggery ball and cover it with the dough and press again to form a circle shape of about 6 inches diameter.

4) Roast both sides in a Tawa/flat Pan until brown spots appear.

Serve warm with Ghee (Clarified Butter). Some people mix this with milk also and eat.

You can store them in air tight container in refrigerator upto 1 week.

Sending this to Mithai Mela Hosted by Srivalli of Cooking 4 all seasons.

Mango Pulihora

Ingredients

2 cups cooked rice
1 cup Raw mango(Remove skin and grated)
1 Tbsp oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp Urad Dal/Minappappu (Black gram lentil)
1 tsp Chana Dal (Bengal Gram Lentil)
2 dry red chillies
5-6 green chillies slit lengthwise
pinch of turmeric powder
pinch of asafoetida
few curry leaves
salt to taste

1/4th cup Roasted peanuts/cashew nuts
Method

1) Cook the rice in such a way that each grain is seperate and cool. basmati rice works best.

2) Heat Oil, add mustard seeds and once they splutter add Urad Dal, chana Dal and fry until they turn light brown. Now add green and red chillies, turmeric powder, asafoetida and curry leaves and fry for few seconds.

3) Add teh grated mango and fry for 3 to 4 mins. Add salt and roasted nuts and mix. Turn off Heat and mix this with the rice.

Serve hot with appalam/vadiyalu/Raita of your choice

Ugadi Pachadi

Ingredients:

1 cup of fresh raw mango finely chopped along with skin
1 tbsp margosa flowers/leaves (Neem flowers)
1/2 cup grated jaggery
1/2 tsp red chilli powder (Adjust to your taste)
3-4 Tbsp tamarind paste
salt to taste
1 Tbsp fresh finely chopped coconut pieces (optional)


Mix all the above ingredients with little bit of water to acheive a sauce like consistancy. adjust the jaggery and salt

Happy Sri Rama Navami - Panakam-Vadapappu- Chalimidi

Happy Sri Rama Navami

Sri Rama Navami is a Hindu festival, celebrating of the birth of Lord Rama, falls on the Navami, ninth day of the Chaitra month of Hindu lunar year in 'Shukla paksha' or waxing moon, thus named Chaitra Masa Suklapaksha Navami, and marks the end of nine-day Chaitra-Navratri celebrations.The festival commemorates the birth of Rama who is remembered for his prosperous and righteous reign.

Hindus normally perform Kalyanotsavam (marriage celebration) with small murtis of Rama and Sita in their houses, and at the end of the day the deity is taken to a procession on the streets. This day also marks the end of the nine-day utsavam called Chaitra Navaratri (Maharashtra) or Vasanthothsava (Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh & Tamil Nadu) (festival of Spring), which starts with Gudi Padwa (Maharashtra)

Panakam, Vadapappu-chalimidi are the special items we prepare for this festival.

Panakam Ingredients

3 Cups Water
2 Tbsps Jaggery (adjust to your taste)
1 crushed cardamom
1/2 tsp dry ginger powder or 1 Tbsp grated fresh ginger
1/2 tsp crushed pepper corns

Method

Mix water and Jaggery and let the Jaggery dissolve in water. Filter the water and add crushed cardamom, dry ginger powder and crushed pepper corns

Vada Pappu(Soaked Split yellow moong dal)

Ingredients

1 cup split yello moong dal
2-3 Tbsp grated coconut
Salt to taste.
Fresh chopped coriander/cilantro for garnish.
1 chushed green chilli
1 Tbsp lemon juice

Method

Soak the Moong Dal in water for half an hour, drain the water. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well.

This is not cooked and eaten raw with Chalimidi

Chalimidi

Ingredients

1 rice flour (Soak 1 cup raw rice in warm water for 3 to 4 hrs, drain and dry the rice in a dry cloth until it is completely dried and make a coarse powder)

½ cup grated jaggery or sugar.
½ tsp coarsly crushed cardamom.
2-3 Tbsp grated coconut (optional)
Water to make dough

Method

Mix the rice flour, Jaggery and crushed cardamom by adding 1 to 2 tsp water to make a soft dough.

Alternatively you can make a cooked chalimidi and this is what my mom makes at home.

Make a warm syrup of jaggery (or sugar) and add the rice flour in low heat and mix to form a soft dough. Add cardamom and coconut at the end and mix well.

Notes: You can use readymade rice flour also to make the rice flour making process easy.

Kajjikayalu (Karanji)

This is one of the sweet/snack my mother use to make in huge quantity and store for us upto 3 weeks when we were kids. We can use various stuffing of your interest. Usual stuffing would be Roasted chick peas powder mixed with sugar, dry grated coconut and cardamom powder.
I used crushed dry fruits and nuts as a filling.

Ingredients

1 Cup maida/all purpose flour
2 Tbsps Ghee
salt to taste
Oil for deep fry

For Filling

1/2 cup Roasted chick peas coarsly powdered (you can use Sooji/poppy seeds also)
1/2 cup sugar (adjust)
1/2 tsp cardamom powder
3 to 4 Tbsps Dry grated coconut
2 Tbsps crushed cashews/walnuts
Method
1) Mix the flour, 1 Tbsp ghee, salt with enough water to make a dough. It should not be too soft. Make a small balls, cover and keep aside.

2) In a pan, heat another Tbsp ghee and fry the grated coconut for 2 to 3 mins and keep aside. If using soori/Rava roast that also in ghee until it turns golden color. Mix the coconut, roasted chickpea powder/sooji, sugar, cardamom powder, crushed cashews/walnuts and keep this filling aside.

3) Roll each ball of the dough into a thin circle of around 6 inches, put 1 Tbsp filling on one half and cover with the other half. Fold the edges and press nicely so that filling will not come out during deep frying. you can wet the edges if required and press.

4) Heat oil in a pan and deep fry 3 to 4 at a time based on the size of the pan. Fry both sides untill they turn brown. You can fry more than what is shown in the picture above.

Cool and store in air tight container. They will stay fresh for 3 to 4 weeks.