HAYAGREEVA

This is a protein rich, easy to make, delicious sweet dish of Karnataka.  Needs no pre-planning since the ingredients are mostly readily available in our kitchens. Usually made during festivals, but it is quite rare. Never to be found in restaurants! 

There is an interesting mythological story behind this dish. The name Hayagriva comes after the God Hayagriva, a horse headed avatar of God Vishnu.  Haya-greeva, (horse-neck) also known as Haya-vadana (horse-face) is worshiped as a God of knowledge and wisdom.  The story goes that the Saint-composer Sri Vadirajaru used to offer this sweet daily to Vishnu by keeping it on his head and Vishnu used to come in the form of a beautiful white horse and consumed the offering !

This is how you can make it:

Ingredients:

Bengal gram dal                   1 cup
Water                                    2-3cups
Jaggery                                 3/4 to 1 cup (Powdered)
Ghee                                     1-2 teaspoons
Cashew nut pieces               1 table spoon
Raisins                                  1 table spoon
Almond pieces                      1 table spoon
Dry coconut pieces               1 table spoon (optional)
Poppy seeds                         1 teaspoon
Cardamom                             4-5 (powdered)

Procedure:

Take dal and 2 cups of water in a pressure cooker/pressure pan and cook till dal is very soft. It will be good if the dal retains its shape and so take care that the dal is not overcooked. Now add jaggery, and a little more water and bring the mixture to boil.  Boil for about 4-5 minutes and turn off the stove when the mixture is still liquidy. Because on cooling it becomes thick. Now add add ghee  and cardamom and mix well. 

Fry cashew, almond and coconut  pieces and raisins in ghee. Dry roast poppy seeds.  Garnish the dish with these.

 Tastes better after 4-5 hours. You can warm and serve. This quantity

 serves about 4.  Can be served along with the main menu or had just as a sweet dish anytime.

BADAM POORI

This is a very simple and tasty dish which my daughters love. Other than the taste, its crispiness is one thing which makes people love it.  Preparing is also quite simple  and in spite of that  I have not come across this item in any sweet meat stalls. You can try this.

Ingredients:

For the flour:

Maida                                                 1 cup
Chiroti ravae/samolina                       1 tablespoon
Salt                                                     1 pinch
Butter/Refined oil                                1 table spoon
Water                                                   About half a cup
Refined oil                                           2 cups, for frying
Pure ghee                                            1 teaspoon (add to oil while frying)

For the syrup:

Sugar                                                   1 cup
Water                                                    About 1/4 cup
Cardamom powder                              1/4 treaspoon
 
Method:

For the flour:  Mix well maida, chiroti ravae, salt and butter in a bowl.  Add water little by little and knead till you get a consistency which is almost like the flour you knead for pooris.  What I mean is, it should be a bit hard, and not like that you knead for rotis or parathas. Smear with oil or cover with damp cloth and and keep aside for about half an hour.

For the syrup: Take sugar in a shallow container. Add water just to cover the sugar and  bring it to boil. Boil till you get a two or three string consistency. Add cardamom powder and mix.

Next step:

Now, take small balls of the flour and knead into  thin pooris.  It is a good idea to smear the rolling board and the pin with a little oil before rolling so that the flour doesn't get stuck to the board or the pin.  (You can even roll a big poori and cut it to any shape by pressing on it a sharp edged cup or the lid of small box). Take oil in a pan and  deep fry these pooris on a medium heat till golden brown.  Take them out into a plate.

Now start frying the next batch of pooris. In the meanwhile, dip all the already fried pooris in the syrup and take them out one by one with a tongs and arrange separately on a plate so they don't stick to one another.  Leave them to dry. 

Repeat the process till flour gets over.  When dry store in air tight boxes. 

From one cup of flour, you can make about 20-25 badam poories of   about 1-2 inch diameter each.

The badam pooris get a glazed finish and remain crisp for days provided the syrup  is of proper consistency.

CHRISTMAS CAKE

This wonderful cake needs some planning and the ingredients required are also more. The process of baking this is a bit laborious too, but I feel it is really worth the trouble. You know how happy I get watching people enjoy my cake.  This has made me bake more and more.  Anyway, I suggest you do try this out.

You need to take:

Maida/fine whole wheat flour                      1 cup
Baking powder                                            1/4 teaspoon
Sugar   powder                                            3/4 cup
Eggs                                                            2
Butter                                                           2 tablespoons
Vanilla Essence                                           5-6 drops
Dry fruits                                                      1 cup (like cashew, almond, walnut, dates, raisins, glazed                                                                                cherries, tutti frutti)                               
Rum                                                            About 100mls., to soak the dry fruits
Cinnamon powder                                      1/2 teaspoon
Clove powder                                              1/8 teaspoon
Candied orange peel                                   1 teaspoon, very finely cut.               
Instant coffee powder                                   3 level teaspoons
Sugar caramel *                                        (made from about 3 tablespoons of sugar)

                         

In this picture you can see the dry fruits I have taken :

Procedure:

Soak dry fruits and nuts in rum for at least 2 to 3 days.

Soak spices in warm water just before you start preparing the cake batter.

Sieve maida/wheat flour with baking powder.

Now preheat the open for 10 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius. 

In the meanwhile get the batter ready. 

Break eggs into a bowl. Add vanilla essence and beat till fluffy using a hand mixer.

Add butter and whisk it well. Then add sugar powder and continue mixing. Add soaked spices, sugar caramel* and coffee and beat well.

Mix in maida/wheat flour.  If you feel that the batter is hard, add some milk to get a dropping consistency. When it is very well mixed, add cut orange peel, dry fruits and nuts. Mix them well with a spoon.

Transfer the whole mixture into a greased baking trey. 

Bake in an oven at 180 degrees C, for about one hour.

Allow it to cool. Loosen the sides of the cake from the baking trey. Reverse the trey,  tap the bottom and transfer the cake on to a plate. Reverse it again on the plate.

Your Christmas cake is ready! 

(* To make sugar caramel: Heat sugar in a pan. It first melts. In a while it starts turning brown and starts foaming. Immediately add water and turn off the stove. The resulting solution is the sugar caramel)

GODHI/WHEAT FLOUR DOSAE

This is one of the simplest dosaes, an idea got from a young friend. This is instant and you can prepare whenever you think of since you have all the ingredients ready on you kitchen shelves for sure.  If you have no patience to roll chapathis, you can spread the batter and make dosaes!  You can include this in your menu for breakfast/evening snack/dinner !

You take:

Wheat flour                                       1 cup
Milk                                                   1 cup
Salt                                                   1/2 teaspoon
Ginger grated                                    1 teaspoon
Green chili                                         1 or 2 finely chopped
onion                                                  1/2 medium, finely chopped
Coriander 
       or                                                1 tablespoon chopped
Kasoori methi                                    1 tablespoon
Tamarind paste thick                         1/2 teaspoon
Cumin                                                1/4 teaspoon
Oil                                                       For roasting

procedure:

Take wheat flour in a bowl and add milk and whisk it till you get a dosae batter consistency. Add salt. Add all other ingredients and mix well. And it is ready to be spread on the tava! Spread one teaspoon oil on the tava, spread the batter and shallow fry on both sides just as you do for other dosaes.  Golden brown, thin, crisp dosae is ready ! You can have it hot with chatni pudi or any chatni, or without any of these.

A Note: You can mix just wheat flour, milk and a pinch of salt and make a plain dosae and have it with honey too.

This quantity will yield 4-5 dosaes.

AKKI PAYASA / KHEER

As many of you might know, this is a very popular dish. Usually it is an important item of a festival menu. Easy to make this,  but may be a bit time consuming. But it doesn't require you be around all the time, provided you have a big and thick bottomed pan to cook it.  It might take about half an hour for the whole process.

Usually they use Basmati rice for this, but I use Jeerige saNNa (Jeera rice), which is very small in size and has the same flavour as Basmati.

Ingredients:

Jeera rice                                                                   1 fistful
Thick milk                                                                   1 1/2 litre
Sugar                                                                          2-3 tablespoons
Saffron                                                                        About 10 strands
Almond slivered and roasted                                      2 tablespoons                             
Pure ghee                                                                   1 teaspoon

Procedure:

Soak saffron in about a tablespoon of hot milk.

Wash rice. Take milk in a large thick bottomed pan (to prevent milk from overflowing while boiling),  When it starts boiling, add rice.  Cook on a slow flame.

During the process, keep scraping out the cream that gets collected around the vessel, and put it back to the contents.  Cook till the contents reduce to 1/3 the volume, stirring in between taking care that it does not get burnt at the bottom. Add sugar. I add very less sugar, i.e about 2 tablespoons. Cook for one more minute. Add ghee. Add in the soaked saffron along with the milk and mix well. Transfer the contents to a bowl. Garnish with almond pieces. If you like you can add cashew nuts and raisins also.

You can make changes as per your convenience. To reduce the cooking time, you pressure cook the rice in milk, and add 1/3 of a tin of condensed milk and boil it. Here you need not add sugar.  Or, after pressure cooking you can add milk powder and boil it. Here you need to add sugar.

And if you want the payasa to be rich and thick, you can add powdered almonds.

I find that the payasa tastes better if cooled and as it gets older :)

Serves 4-6 or more, depending upon whether you serve it with a heavy/light  lunch/dinner !

Why don't you try it out today?

HOLIGE (OBBATTU)

Here comes the Holige, ajji's speciality and her master piece! This is prepared mostly during big festivals, but for ajji the arrival of any guest or demand  by grand children or friends itself is a festival ! And so, in spite of it being a time consuming and  an  elaborate process, how many lakhs of Holiges ajji has rolled so far, I cant guess!

I am not sure whether you really try your hand at this. But assuming  that you  prepare this one fine day (since you also like it a lot), I am posting this recipe.  If you dont have time, you can prepare this in installments too, i.e., prepare the stuffing the previous day and roll the holiges the next day.  You can even  store different quantities of stuffing in different containers in the freezer, and use it many times- whenever you feel like.  If the stuffing is ready, it is just like rolling stuffed parathas.  But this is a bit more delicate since it is extremely thin unlike parathas, and should be handled carefully.  But practice makes you roll them perfectly.  It is quite healthy also since the main ingredient is the togari bele/tur dal.

As you know, ajji makes one of the finest holiges of the world.  She has treated hundreds of friends and relatives with these.   And this Vijayadashami, we were with ajji and thatha in Mysore and there were holiges getting ready for the festival ! I caught the process on my camera.  And we all hogged them too with... yes, with pure home made ghee! The picture above shows it! Some of us had them with just ghee, and others with ghee, hot milk and also Elakki baLe haNNu (the special variety of banana, available in Mysore).  As you know eating holiges with banana is a speciality of thatha's family. Previously they used Rasa baLe,  a very special variety of bananas, but unfortunately it has become very very rare to find them nowadays.

To make holiges you have to have the kaNika (the flour) and the hoorNa(the stuffing).

 And ajji used:

For hoorNa:

Togari beLe/toovar dal                                                     1 cup
Jaggery syrrup                                                                  1 cup (1 string consistency)
Water                                                                                1 cup
Cardomom powder                                                          1/2 teaspoon
Clove powder                                                                   1/4 teaspoon
Jaikai Nut/meg powder                                                     2 pinches
 Jaipatre/Mace powder                                                     1 pinch
Coconut grated                                                                 1/4 cup




Procedure:

Pressure cook dal with water till done.  Cool to room temperature.

Then first run grated coconut in the mixer to a fine powder. (The coconut taken out from the freezer and thawed just till it becomes powdery, gets ground to a fine powder easily). Now add cooked dal, jaggery syrrup and run the mixer.  Transfer the contents into a microwavable bowl and microwave for for about 10 to 15 minutes, stirring  in between.  The consistency of the product  should be that of the chappathi flour you knead for making chapathis and so, you have to remove this from the microwave when it is still a little softer than the chapati flour.  On cooling you will get the proper consistency.  Now add all the remaining spices and mix thoroughly with hand. 

For kaNika:

Wheat flour                                                   1 1/4 cup finely sieved
Maida                                                            1/4 cup
Turmeric powder                                          1 pinch
Refined oil                                                    1 tablespoon
Water                                                             about 1/4 cup

Procedure:

Take all the ingredients except water in a bowl.  Adding water little by little, knead to get a consistency like that of chapati flour.  Smear with 1 teaspoon of oil and leave for some time.  This process of adding 1 teaspoon of oil and kneading again and again should be done 5 or 6 times in a gap of at least 4 or 5 hours.  The flour becomes very very soft and rubbery.

It is important that the consistencies of both kaNika and hoorNa should be almost the same so that after stuffing and while rolling, it doesn't get torn. If you take a lemon sized ball of hoorNa,  it is enough if you take half the size of kaNika.  KaNika is a thin covering on the hoorNa, that is all. 

Now, see the magic of 84 year young hands in action.....stuffing and then rolling !

After rolling, spread about half a teaspoon of oil on the top of it and transfer it on the tava so that the oiled surface touches the tava. Spread half a tea spoon oil on the other side too.

This is how it looks immediately after transferring on to the tava.

Roast on a medium heat till you get light brown colour as you find in the picture.  The stuffing is already cooked, and the covering is very thin and so there is no need to cook it for a longer time or till fully brown.  If you take it out soon, the holige remains very soft.

You can see the holige bloated in this picture.  If it bloats, the holiges are extra soft.  It is okay even if it doesnt bloat.  You can take it out from the tava, once you get such dark marks on them.

Stuffing and rolling should be such that on rolling the stuffing is uniformly spread till along the circumference or else the edges become hard and it is not a nice feeling while eating.  Again, this can be attained with a little bit of practice or if you take interest in the procedure.  

PESARATTU (HESARUKALU DOSAE)

Pesarattu, made of  hesaru kaLu/whole green gram/moong, is a typical Andhra dish.  It is a very nutritious and tasty dish,  and easy to make too. It is quite filling and so is good as a breakfast, evening snack or  dinner. This does not require any other planning except that you need a few hours for the moong to get soaked.

To prepare this, you need:

Hesaru kaLu/whole moong                        1 cup
Rice flour                                                    1 table spoon
Green chilies                                               2
Ginger                                                         1" piece
Coconut grated                                           1/2 cup
Curry leaves                                                5-6
Salt                                                             1 teaspoon
Cumin seeds                                               1 teaspoon
Onion                                                          2 medium (one of them finely chopped)
Coriander leaves                                         2 tablespoons, finely chopped
Oil                                                               1/4 cup


Procedure:

Soak hesarukaLu for three to four hours.  Drain water. Grind it together with ginger, one onion, green chilies, coconut and salt to a coarse paste.   The consistency of the batter is a little thicker than the usual dosae batter. Now mix in chopped onions coriander leaves, rice flour and cumin.  Spread one scoopful on the tawa just as you spread for other dosaes. Make a few holes in the middle. Add a bit of oil into the holes and also around. Fry, reverse and add one more teaspoon of oil and roast the other side also. Adding oil into the holes makes the center part also get cooked well and makes the dish crispy too.

Take it out from the tawa. Serve with any chatni, pickle or chatnipuDi.  If it is hot and spicy, you don't need any other side dish with this.

With this amount of hesarukaLu, you can make 5 or 6 dosaes.