Holige / Obbattu / Puran Poli

Hello ! had taken a long break, would try to put atleast one recipe once a month.  

Holige a popular dish in Dakshina Karnataka, for any festival, special occasions, Holige is prepared.  It is called by different names in Maharashtra as 'Puran Poli', in Andra Pradesh as 'Bobbattlu', in Karnataka in Kannada as Obbattu or Holige in Tulu. I would say Holige is very easy to make but need a very good practice, it does not need much of ingredients but yet it has a special significance of its own. The method of making Holige is divided into two parts the outer covering that is called as Kanaka (Kannada) and inner filling is called as Hoorna (Kannada). My son call's it Sweet Chapatti, how much I tried to make him call it as Holige but still he is happy with his Sweet Chapatti.

Ingredients:

For Kanaka (Outer covering)

Maida / Plain flour - 450 gm.

Turmeric - a pinch

Salt to taste

Rice Flour - 1/4 cup

Hoorna (inner filling)

Chana Dal - 250 gm

Jaggery - 250 gm

Cardamoms - 10 Nos.

Oil - 10 tsp

Method

Hoorna (inner filling)

Hoorna should be prepared first (one can make it other day and keep it in fridge)

Wash and soak chana dal for 4 hours, once soaked cook it in a cooker for 3 whistles with little water.

Grind grated jaggery and dal without adding water.

Now boil / cook the ground paste (it is cooked again because after adding jaggery it would be little watery), keep stirring otherwise it will stick the bottom of the pan.  Add Cardamom powder and mix well. This hoorna should be semi solid / firm so that we can easily shape it in to a ball. Once done keep aside to cool.

For Kanaka (Outer covering)

Take Maida add salt and a pinch of turmeric and knead to a soft dough add oil and knead it again cover this dough with wet cloth while making Holige.

Take a lemon size hoorna ball and a maida ball of 3/4 size of hoorna.

Grease your palm and flatten the dough to small Chapatti, now stuff the hoorna ball in maida Chapatti and cover it well

Roll it with the rolling pin by rubbing little rice flour, taking proper care that it does not breaks, one can even rub the oil on this ball, keep it between a plastic / aluminum foil sheet, and roll over with rolling pin like chapatti.

Place this holige on the griddle / tava with medium flame, turning this holige within regular interval.

It is fried on both sides. Take it out on a plate, rub it with ghee generously, and serve it hot.

Can preserve this for 7-10 days well covered in fridge or outside but take care it should be free from moisture and air.

Things to be taken care:

Would suggest if you are preserving this please don't apply ghee after cooking, if one wants to then warm it up just before eating and rub the ghee, one can feel that it is just made.

Moist Date Cake

Wishing everybody a Very Happy New Year

AH! Delicious, Healthy, Moist, Eggless and easy to make Date cake.  I came across this recipe a few months back and have made this cake many times and everytime it is mind blowing.

Ingredients:-

1 cup all purpose flour (maida)

18 dates (Khajoor) (approx. 1 cup)

1 cup milk

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup oil

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tblsp spn cashews chopped

1 tblsp Raisin

1 tblsp apricot chopped

Method :-

Preheat oven to 190 degrees C., grease the baking dish and line it with a butter paper.

Remove the seeds from the dates, chop and soak it in warm milk for 30 minutes.

Grind the Dates to a smooth paste, add sugar and grind again.  Keep the mixture aside.

Sieve flour, baking soda and baking powder together for 2 to 3 times so that it gets mixed well and it also helps in making the cake lighter.

Microwave cashews and apricot for 15 second and rub it with little all purpose flour and keep aside.

In a bowl add oil and date paste and mix well.  Add all purpose flour a spoon at a time and unfold it slowly.  Last, add cashew, apricot and raisin and again unfold slowly.

Pour the mixture into a baking tray. Place the tray in the oven and bake the cake for 40 minutes or till the knife / screwer / wooden pick inserted comes out clean. (Can check this after 30 minutes of baking, it largely depends on the oven).

Remove cake tray from oven invert it over a wire rack, let it cool.

Serve…

Things to be taken care :

The color of the cake largely depends on the dates used.

Do not cut the cake till it cools completely otherwise it will crumble into pieces.

String Beans Stir fry / Lathande Upkari

Lathande Upkari / String Beans Stir Fry or commonly called in Hindi as Chauli/Chowli/Chowlee a very well known dish in Dakshin Kanara. 

Ingredients :

Lathande / String beans – 250 Gms.

Mustard Seed – 1 tsp.

Zeera – 1 tsp.

Curry leaves – few

Green chilli – 1

Oil – 2 Tbsp.

Urad Dal – 1 Tbsp.

Scraped coconut – 2 Tbsp.

Salt to taste

Coriander for garnishing

Method:

Cut the String beans into small pieces as shown in the picture and wash it under running water.

Take a heavy bottom pan, add oil, when oil heats up add mustard seed, zeera and let mustard seed splutter, add curry leaves, urad dal, green chilli and fry till urad dal changes colour i.e. light golden brown.  Add beans and salt and mix well cover and let it cook for 5 minutes (gas should be kept of low flame). Open the pan and add scrapped coconut, again cover and cook for 1 minute. Finally put off the gas and garnish with chopped coriander.

Things to be taken care:

Water is not added, if added it changes the taste and colour i.e. why Lathande Upkari is cooked in low flame so it cooks itself on steam.

Note:

Onion and tomato’s are optional one of each can be added i.e. onion after tempering and fry till its transparent and fine pieces of tomato can be added while adding coconut.

Butter Chakli / Benne Chakuli

Wishing you all a Very Happy Deepavali, I made this crisp chakli for this diwali, a typical benne chakuli available in any mangalore store through out the year but it gives a special feeling when made for diwali.

Ingredients:

Rice - 2 Cups

Urad dal (Black Gram) -1 Cup
Butter - 50 gms.

Jeera - 2 Tbs

Sesame seeds (Til) – 2 Tbs.

Milk of one coconut

Salt to taste

Oil to deep fry

Method:

Dry roast urad dal till light brown i.e. till it releases nice aroma in a heavy bottomed pan, let it cool and grind it into a fine powder.

Wash and soak rice of 1 hour and grind to a fine paste with coconut milk.

Lightly dry roast and crush jeera, dry roast sesame seed. 

Add powdered urad to rice paste, add jeera, sesame seed, salt and butter and kneed like chapatti dough, not too hard or too loose.

Put some dough into the chakli mould after applying little oil within the mould, press the chakli's of desired size on a plastic sheet or butter paper.

Heat oil in a deep vessel and gently lift chaklis and drop it into hot oil. Deep fry in medium flame till light golden brown. Remove, let it cool and store in air tight container.

Things to be taken care:

Chakli should be immediately made after the dough is prepared.

Carefully grate only the white part of the coconut avoiding the brown skin as it will change the colour of the coconut milk which inturn will change the colour of dough.