Sajjappa - a traditional dessert from my home town to celebrate the festival of lights

Happy Deepavali to all my readers who are celebrating the festival of lights. If you are not into celebrations, you can still enjoy this traditional sweet from Karnataka. This is very popular in Mysore/Bengaluru region and I haven't seen or heard about it from other regions in India.

How do I begin to explain Sajjappa to someone if you haven't heard/seen/tasted this deliriously delicious sweet :-). If you are familiar with Obbattu/holige made with coconut filling, I could compare sajjappa to that in terms of ingredients. If you knew what a kachori is, I would say Sajjappa is a kachori with sweet filling (close enough but lot of differences). If you had tasted kobbari mithai, I could say sajjappa tastes like a distant cousin of it with added crunch. But if you were not familiar with any of these typical Indian dishes, I would simply say, "this is a sweet to fight for, a sweet to be enjoyed in leisure, a sweet that fills your cravings for all sweets and leaves no gaps :-)." Sounds convincing? You should try these atleast once.

When Nammamma made these as part of festivals or celebration menu, I have literally fought with my little brother for my fair share and secured it. This is one sweet from childhood that I continue to relish even after all these years. Sadly it is slowly fading away from most homes and a couple of times I tried the store bought ones on my India trip, they came no where close to the satisfaction bar. I had given up on these until I decided to try at home a couple of years back. After a couple of failures, disasters, heart breaks, phone calls etc and an unshakable perseverance, I have finally gained the skill level to make these without as much as batting an eyelid :-)

There are a lot of notes/tips in this post, guess how/why I am so knowledgeable? Been there, done that and salvaged more than once. So read through the entire post and once you are armed with the wisdom, go ahead and try out this slowly fading away dessert that deserves to be handed down generations to come. Since my generation seems to be philosophically bought in to the idea of 'less oil', I went ahead and tried baking sajjappas. 400F, lay the sajjappa on a parchment paper in a cookie sheet, bake 8 minutes on one side, turn and bake for another 4 minutes. Delicious, crispy outer cover yet moist filling, these were in no way inferior to the deep fried ones. In the spirit of Deepavali, I deep fried most while baked a couple of batches but next time onwards, I might just stick to the baked version.

Some potential mishaps and how to recover from them: 

• Keep that smile intact on your face and march towards the final goal no matter how bad the situation seems to be :-), this applies while making sajjappa or any other time in life too. I am in a free advice giving mood & mode today. Rest of the points below are totally practical and meant to help you get out of sticky situations, so go ahead and read them. 
• If you used more water while making the filling, just keep it on medium heat until it evaporates and becomes a soft mass. When you take a spoon of the hurana and give it a shape, it should hold and not collapse. There is no syrup consistency for this dessert.

• On the other hand, if the filling becomes too hard after it cools down, take it in a wide plate or on your counter top, add few drops of water and start kneading to make it soft. Hard consistency of the filling will make it poke out of the cover while pressing it and causes sajjappa to burst open in the oil, not a pretty sight :-)
• Trick to a great sajjappa is in the right balance of the filling and cover, the cover should be thick but not too thick so it remains crispy. Very thin covering will expose the filling while frying them. 
• If you removed the filling a tad early and it is still very sticky, get it back in the pan and continue heating for a few more minutes and test if the ball sits holding its shape and when you touch it with water smeared fingers, it doesn't stick to your fingers. 

• I really loved everything about the baked sajjappa, the fact that it is so much lower in calories compared to the other version is a HUGE BONUS. Give it a try. 

What do you need to make Sajjappa? 
Below quantities make about 25-30 sajjappas depending on the size
Hoorana or filling:
2.5 cups coconut
2 cups grated jaggery
1/2 cup chiroti rava/sooji (finer than upma rava)
4 green cardamom
2 cloves
1 Tsp gasagase/poppy seeds
2 Tbsp water
Optional:
ghee roasted raisins and cashews - chopped into tiny pieces

Kanaka or outer covering:
1.5 cups chiroti rava/sooji
3/4 cup AP flour (maida)
1/8 Tsp salt
1 Tbsp oil
3/4 cup water
Others:
Oil to deep fry

How do you make Sajjappa? 
Making Hoorana or Filling: 

• Grate or powder jaggery. 
• Bring coconut to room temperature if using frozen. 
• Powder cardamom & cloves. 
• Heat a thick bottom pan on medium heat. 
• Add 2 Tbsp water and powdered jaggery. 

• Mix until jaggery dissolves completely. 
• Add all the rest of the ingredients listed under 'hoorana' and give a good mix. 

• Let it cook for a few minutes until water evaporates and you see a soft mass in the pan. 

• Wet your palms, take a spoonful of the filling, roll it between palms and drop it into a plate. The ball should hold its shape though squishy and will not stick to the wet hands. 

• At this stage, switch off and let cool. 
• You can use it to make sajjappa once cool or refrigerate it for later use. 

Making outer cover: 

• Take all ingredients listed except for water & oil in a bowl and mix them well. 
• Add water slowly and bring everything together. 
• Depending on the quality of flours, you may need a little less or more quantity of water. The dough needs to be soft. 

• Once the dough comes together, knead it for atleast 10 minutes. 
• You will feel the coarse texture of rava turning smooth and soft as you need and the dough reaches an elastic consistency. 
• Pour 1 Tbsp oil on top of the dough, gently pat it into the dough, cover and let it rest atleast 2-3 hours or overnight. 

Making sajjappas:

• Heat oil for deep fry in a deep and wide pan.
• Knead the dough once more and divide into 25 equal portions. 
• Bring the filling to room temperature if refrigerated and divide into 25 equal portions. 

• Put a drop of oil on your palm, place the dough and press it to make a flat disk. 
• Put the filling portion in the center of the disk and pull all the edges gently to cover the filling. 

• Put the seam side down on a lightly oiled aluminium foil/banana leaf/plastic sheet and press gently into a circle of about 1mm thickness. 

• Ease this gently into the hot oil, flip a couple of times to get it golden brown in color all around. 

• Take it out onto a paper towel lined plate and let cool a little before digging in. 

• Baked version: Preheat oven to 400F, spread a parchment paper in a cookie sheet, arrange the flattened sajjappas leaving a little space between each other. Bake for 8 mins on one side, flip and bake for 4 mins on the other side. The baking times may need to be watched and adjusted based on your oven.

Notes:

• Nammamma makes it with only coconut & jaggery, since all she has to do is break as many coconuts as needed and grate them:-). I use store bought frozen coconut and was on my last packet so followed what my friend's amma used to do and added rava to make up for the deficiency of coconut.
• I was 1/2 cup short of jaggery and instead of making a trip to the store, used Turbinado sugar I had in the pantry, didn't make any difference in color, texture or sweetness. 
• Proportion of chiroti Rava to maida is 1:1/2, this yields a crispy outer covering.
• While deep frying, keep the heat on medium and fry until both sides turn light golden brown. 

• Adjust quantity of jaggery based on your sweet preference and also the quality of the variety you use. 
• Let the dough soak for atleast 2 hours, kneading it is important. Rough texture of rava turns smooth and soft as you add water and knead. 
• Overnight resting is great too if you want to make ahead, keep it outside on the countertop where it is cool.
• You can refrigerate the hoorana if you make it ahead but bring it to room temperature before making sajjappas.

Sabudana Vada - a completely sold out affair at Navaratri Bommala koluvu

Happy Navaratri to all my celebrating readers. May this festival season bring you lots of joy and contentment.

Navaratri started last week and since there was only one weekend I could get before Vijaya Dashami, we went ahead, set up our bommala koluvu and invited friends over last Saturday. As always, it was lot of fun, music and food. Over the last 3 years since we have been here, I have made a lot of young friends through my Balavihar classes and they have become family. Some kids move onto the other classes but they come and visit our Navaratri koluvu and they all have come to realize that there is no escape from singing at my place :-). New kids start off a little shy and try to squirm out by making excuses but they give up as they see others singing. After all, Navaratri has to be celebrated the right way with joy, music and dance, don't you all agree?

Now, Navaratri though is celebrated all over India, the practices are different as you move from place to place. In some states, Navaratri is celebrated with a lot of Vrat (festival) related restrictions on food. People do not eat onions, garlic among many other things. While these festival celebrations may seem restrictive to many, this is how nammamma made food most days of the year even when it was not a festival day. I on the other hand am a total onion fan, I like them in all forms, so it takes me a little rethinking during festivals. It is always a success when a visiting parent or an elderly person asks about onion in the menu and I can confidently say that all dishes on the table fit the 'no onion' criteria:-)

In an effort to make a 'no rice' dish, I made my millet pongal which was a hit but these sabudana vadas took home all the glory and crown. Sabudana vadas are considered vrat dishes in Maharashtra and Gujarat though I am not an expert on the subject. Everybody seemed to like it going by the empty bowl we had at the end of dinner. Since Saturday, I have had atleast 4 requests for the recipe, so here it is.

These vadas are known for retaining more oil than the regular vadas, adding the flour helps reduce this a little bit and make sure you put the fried vadas on to a plate lined with paper towels for the extra oil to drain out. I made them again today as a few of the friends came by this evening. As I was planning the menu, DD said that I needed to make these vadas again and her excuse was, "amma if you don't make them, the people that come today will miss the most delicious snack in this whole wide world" :-). After such blatant flattery, I can't say 'no', so ended up making another batch of sabudana vadas. I tried shallow frying a batch of them, turned out very tasty though the texture is very different from the deep fried stuff. Look at the end of the post for 'how to'.

These taste yummy either hot or cold, the crunchiness of the outer layer stays put because of the sabudana even after they become cold making it a perfect snack for parties.

Here are some previous Navaratri posts and posts if you are in a mood to read - a must have Usili/sundal and a no recipe read about Mysore Dasara.

What do you need to make Sabudana Vada? 
3/4 cup sabudana (will become 1 cup once it soaks)
2-3 medium sized potatoes (see 'how to' below for details)
1-1.5 Tbsp rajgira or Bajra flour
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
3-4 green chilies
1 Tbsp grated ginger
2 Tbsp coarsely crushed peanuts (increase if you like more crunch)
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 Tbsp lemon/lime juice
1 Tbsp chopped fresh coconut (Mysore Twisht :-), optional)
oil to deep fry

How do you make Sabudana Vada? 

• Wash Sabudana in running water twice and soak it in water for 6-8 hours or overnight until they plump up and become soft to touch. 
• Drain the water through a colander and let the sabudana stand for 30 minutes or so until all the water is gone. 
• Boil potatoes until soft, peel and grate them - you can mash them but it is better to grate as it gives a smoother texture. 
• Toast peanuts on stove top or microwave, let cool a little, pound them in a mortar & pestle or blender to coarse powder. You want small bites of peanuts, make sure you do not make them too small or powdery. 
• Crush the green chilies into a paste. 

• In a wide bowl, mix all ingredients except for oil until they come together. Depending on the water content, you might need a little bit more or less flour. Do not add too much flour as it changes the taste. 
• Taste and adjust salt, green chilies as needed. 
• Heat oil in a deep pan until a small piece of dough dropped in comes up immediately. 
• In the meantime, break lime sized dough, make a ball and flatten into a patty. 

• Drop the prepared patties in to the hot oil and let them cook for minute before flipping them over. 
• Fry until both sides turn light golden in color. 

• Take them out onto a plate lined with paper towels, enjoy with a chutney or sauce. 

Notes: 

• Potatoes when grated should make 2 cups, choose the number based on the size of potatoes. Too much of potatoes make them oily & soggy. 
• Remove outer skin of peanuts before pounding them into bits. I like the mortar & pestle since the skin tends to come out easily which you can separate and continue to pound. Else, put the toasted nuts in a ziplock bag and give it a couple brisk rubs for the skin to fall out. 
• If you can't find Rajgira or Bajra flour, go ahead and add rice flour. The idea is to absorb the moisture in the dough as much as possible. 
• Ginger plays the key role in enhancing the taste & flavor of this vada, do not skimp on it. 
• More cilantro makes the vadas happy :-)

• As both potatoes & sabudana are bland in taste, green chilies are your only ingredient of spice, adjust according to taste. 

Low Calorie alternate: 

• If you are on a diet or wanting to avoid deep fried stuff, go ahead and shallow fry the patties on a tava. 
• Use a cast iron pan preferably and add a generous spoon of oil to the bottom before placing the patties. 
• Let the patties turn golden brown on both sides, cooking it on medium high. 

• These will not be crunchy like the deep fried ones but you can sleep peacefully (eating a couple more) knowing that the chances of all that fat settling down in the middle of the body is addressed :-)

Dasara Navaratri - Celebrating the win of God over evil

Growing up in Mysore, Navaratri had a special charm, Mysore is the capital of the erstwhile Wodeyar kingdom and even though their is no king now, the traditional Dasara procession and the celebrations go on in full swing. The entire city lights up during the season - literally and figuratively, you can visit temples and attend poojas for spiritual pursuit, you can sit and watch a multitude of music and dance concerts in the Darbar hall, you can walk around the Dasara exhibition or the Kannambadi katte (KRS dam with the musical fountain) or just hang around anywhere in the vibrant city. The Mysore Palace darbar hall has many of the stalwarts of Carnatic & Hindustani musicians performing over the 10 day festival. We as a family enjoyed good music and dance and would attend as many concerts and recitals as we could during the season.

Vijayadashami day sees the world famous Mysore Dasara procession, people sit and wait at vantage points since early morning for the procession to start. All our cousins used to descend on us in Mysore as it is typically school holidays and while all of them went to see the Dasara procession, strangely I have never seen one personally. It was always 'I live here, I can do it next year' attitude and something else took precedence and also the fact that we had so much fun at home that sitting and waiting for the procession seemed like a waste of time for a fluttering kid.

One of my school friend's father was a forest ranger and the elephants that came to lead the procession and carry the Goddess Chamundeshwari's idol always were brought to his house which was 4 houses down the street. The majestic Drona who faithfully carried the Goddess's idol for many years was a treat to see upclose. We used to run to their house with plates full of bananas, rice, jaggery and coconut pieces to get a chance to feed those elephants and pet them for a few minutes. Elephants eating whole coconuts, elephants making bunches of bananas disappear in one go,  elephants drinking buckets of water,  elephants dropping big loads of hot poop on the road - we didn't need much to entertain us when we were kids :-).

We have a custom of arranging and displaying dolls in the house during Navaratri and hence it is also called as 'Gombe/Bombe habba' (Doll festival), Creativity is the only ingredient needed here and those days no one had collection of dolls from all the countries they had visited :-), the display was mainly composed of small Channapatna wooden pieces and if you were lucky, you would have a few more expensive dolls (No touching those - ha). One of my sister's friends had a big train that ran on a winding track and was operated by a mechanical key. We used to sit and wait in their living room until all the invitees filed in and the room was full and they would operate the key to make the train go around their gombe arrangement complete with all lights & choo choo sounds :-)

The best part of Navaratri was the evening Gombe aarthi and the gombe baagina, this is when all kids would go to different houses (mostly on invitation but there were gate crashers too) and come back with a goodie bag full of 'goodies' to munch on. Nammamma had invitees come over every evening starting from Sapthami (Saraswathi pooja day) - I follow the same tradition. There would be sweets & savories every day to share and evenings made colorful with everyone dressed in festive attire. All little girls would be made to sing a song or bhajan in front of the doll displays. Great opportunity at public singing for new students of the art :-) with very good intentioned, well meaning moms prodding, glaring and making sure their kids opened up.

Gombe aarthi is more about little kids unlike other festivals where married ladies take center stage. Amma had the same conversation every morning with me,  'How many friends are you inviting?' and I would say '10-15' but when evening came the number would somehow magically go into 40-50 range :-). Here is what happened, I would go to call a friend and see a few more friends of that friend hanging around and invite them too but fail to let amma know about it. I have  put her in trouble with her calculations of the gombe baagina very frequently and derailed her best laid plans. Thinking back, I really don't know how she graciously managed to serve and feed all those kids that came in, she probably had some kind of 'Akshaya Patre' (the mythological 'never empty' pot) in her kitchen. And I did get an earful after everyone left but then the story would repeat itself all over again next day or next year :-)

Navaratri also is special for me personally because BH & I met each other on the first day of Navaratri many years ago. He came to meet my parents in Mysore for the first time during the busy Dasara time. I realized his fear of heights when I first took him to the Mysore exhibition and tried the Giant Ferris wheel. I have had the pleasure of visiting that exhibition with little baby girl, tired with excitement but completely wide eyed at the lights and sounds around her. I have some awesome black & white pictures of my cherub taken at a nondescript stall.  When we set up the dolls every year, as we unpack them from their boxes we talk about where we got them from, who gave it to us and think about family & friends near and far.

We had a great time last evening with friends visiting and there was a lot of singing too by little girls and mommies and a grandmother who sang beautifully. As I have been scrambling with the arrangements and cooking, I completely forgot all about my food blog (!!!!) and so I have no pictures to share which means I will post the recipes some time later when I make them again and take proper pictures. Here is what was on the menu though - Puliyogare, Vegetable upma, moong dal pakoda, carrot payasa, kabuli chana usili, chutneys along with fruits for dinner and kodubale, 7 cups burfi, sajjappa and mucchore for the baagina.

Enjoy the remaining days of Navaratri and have fun.

Lemon Rice - very basic, very delicious

Lemon rice has been one of my favorite lunch box recipes for ages. There is something about recipes that makes them click as lunch box recipes and I know what I am talking about since I have been carrying lunch box from my high school days. I love single pot rice items including the humble, every day staple like yogurt rice, I take variations with poha, quinoa. BH is on to salads or oats with vegetables and chickpeas. Our lunch boxes get dressed up with ildis or chapathis/paranthas but never with Dosa :-).

When I got married, amma not only cooked for all of us office goers at home but since she heard that I was used to lunch boxes from nammamma, she started making lunch for me specially. The son never was in the habit of carrying lunch from home so it was a new experience for her making lunch. She went out and bought a 3 tier lunch box (the steel tiffin carriers you see in India) which I never had before and started packing me lunch. I was, to say the least very uncomfortable with this arrangement for one I could never finish all that was stuffed into those boxes and secondly I felt extremely guilty for not only leaving home without any daughter-in-law chores done but also making my MIL prepare lunch for me.

Being the new DIL, I didn't have the heart or guts to tell her not to take the trouble of getting my lunch ready. However I told her that I would carry the breakfast for lunch too with some mosaranna (yogurt rice) to fill that 3rd box. She had made Dosa one morning and packed dosa and chutney with the usual mosaranna. BH & I, while on our way to work, decided on a whim to take a day off and go on a picnic. We packed some naan and curry from a dhabha, called home to let them know and went away. At lunch time, I opened my lunch box also and the dosa had become a cardboard and was in stark contrast to the buttery curry and melt in the mouth hot naans. I always said no to lunch boxes on the days we had dosa breakfast from then on :-).

Back to the lemon rice, this is a very humble (see the ingredients list and you will know what I am talking about) and standard item in most South Indian homes with regional variations. This is called 'Chitranna' in Kannada. Once you have the basic recipe, you can play around with this lemon rice to either dress it up or down depending on your preference and the occasion. Look for some ideas at the end of this post. I made this lemon rice for the Ganesha habba recently and the post has been in my draft ever since.

What do you need to make Lemon rice? 
1 cup rice (preferably Sona masoori variety)
1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice (more or less based on tartness you prefer)
1 Tblsp grated coconut (fresh or frozen)
1/4 Tsp turmeric powder
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
For seasoning:
2 Tblsp oil
1 Tsp mustard
1 Tsp Urad dal
1 Tsp chana dal
1 Tblsp peanuts
1 Tblsp cashew nuts (optional)
6-8 curry leaves
3-4 green chilies - chopped into small pieces
1/2 Tsp asafoetida

How do you make Lemon rice? 

• Cook rice (rice cooker, open vessel or pressure cooker) so the grains are completely cooked but separate. 
• Spread the rice in a wide plate, add salt and let it cool.
• Heat the oil in a pan, add the mustard, dals, peanuts and cashew nuts (if using) and fry until mustard starts to sizzle. 

• Add the chopped green chilies, asafoetida, turmeric and curry leaves and continue to fry until green chilies form small blisters, switch off and pour it over the rice. 

• Add the grated coconut, lemon juice and mix everything together gently so the rice doesn't get mushy. 

Notes: 

• Use fresh lemons for the lemon juice if you can, the taste is different when you use bottled or preserved lemon juice. 
• Make fresh rice for this simple recipe to taste truly delicious. 
• You can skip coconut but I would strongly recommend using it.
• When you cook rice, add a few drops of oil to get a fluffy texture. The rice should be cooked well, else the lemon rice turns dry.
• Add turmeric towards the end to the seasoning to avoid burning. 
• Add the lemon juice to the mixture only when the rice has cooled down.
• If you are using frozen coconut, thaw it and bring it to room temperature before using.
• Use longer pieces of green chili to make it easier for little hands to pick them out. I slit them vertically before cutting them into pieces to increase the chili heat.
• Increase the amount of turmeric powder upto a 1/2 Tsp for a brighter yellow color, I like it mildly off white. Too much of turmeric brings a faint bitter taste.

Variations: 

• Add cubed, par boiled and shallow fried potatoes for a carb rich lemon rice. 
• I add cooked green peas to the rice for some proteins. You can use frozen peas, just thaw them to room temperature and add them in the seasoning with the green chilies.
• Garnish with finely chopped cilantro or coriander leaves for added flavor.

Gowri Ganesh Festival series 3 - Undrallu

Here I am with my concluding part of the Gowri-Ganesha festival series. I will post my other naivedya dishes over time as I want to take a break from the heavy festival food and go back to regular food for a while :-).

Continuing from where we left off in the last post, after the afternoon visits to see Ganesha idols, evenings used to be reserved for going with Amma to those homes that had actually invited us. The attraction and the difference with this one was guaranteed goodies at the end of the visit J, this was the time amma also completed any remaining ‘baagina’ work with her friends. Coming back home had us do another round of pooje, prepare Ganesha for the immersion (the same night or later) and eat dinner(if one could really force anything at all after all the constant eating throughout the day) and go to bed. 

The celebrations come to an end with the traditional immersion which is a big part of the Ganesha send off. Since we had the silver Ganesha, we never did the immersion which was cause enough to feel left out in the friend's group :-). Amma's small turmeric paste Ganesha would be dunked in a vessel of clean water and once it dissolved in water, the water went to her Tulsi(holy basil) plant. I think it was one of the most environmentally friendly ways looking at all the painted and non clay Ganesha idols that pollute our waters now. But as kids we felt like we missed out a lot of the festival by not going to the water with our Ganesha idol and so would be very thrilled to jump out at the first opportunity to tag along with a friend and family.

The Ganesha idols will be carried in procession, bigger the idol, larger the procession and louder the noise and immersed in designated ponds or lakes around Mysore. There used to be a lot of singing and dancing marking an end to the festivities (until Mysore woke up brightly to the Dasara celebrations in a month or so)

If only I could have held those years in my fist..It felt good to relive those memories on paper (Err.. on blog) and feel it in the present. I do a very abbreviated Gowri-Ganesha habba now and remember the old times fondly every year. Like any other Indian festival, these were made colorful with new clothes, good food, lot of visiting and sharing goodies. Last year, this was the first festival we celebrated in our new home. 

I have really enjoyed writing about my Gowri-Ganesh habba series. I am aware that this is by no means any new information to many of you as far as the festivals are concerned but it felt good to just reminisce about those childhood days. Thank you all for your comments and support. 

Here is a delicious, easy to make Ganesha favorite as we conclude this year's celebrations. This is a healthy, no oil savory recipe which I make quite often at home for breakfast. After two Kannadiga recipes, here is a typical Telugu dish made for the Ganesha festival. You can use regular store bought idli rava in this recipe but I recommend making it at home for better taste.

What do you need to make Undrallu?

Makes about 35 golf ball sized Undrallu 

2.5 cups rice rava(I use regular sona masoori)

5 cups water

1/2 cup chanadal

1 Tsp mustard

1/2 Tsp cumin

1-2 dry red chilies - broken into small pieces

2 Tblsp grated coconut (fresh or frozen)

3-4 curry leaves - chopped small

1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)

1 Tsp ghee/clarified butter

Preparing Rice Rava at home: 

• Wash and soak rice in water for 20-30 minutes.
• Spread it on paper napkins or thin towels and let it dry inside the room until the moisture is gone (about 2 hours)
• Pulse it in the mixer to get a coarse rava (Upma rava consistency).
• Store in airtight containers for later use.
• 2 cups of rice yields 2.5 cups of rice rava.

How do you make Undrallu? 

• Roast the rice rava on medium heat for 3-4 minutes, stirring frequently. 
• Soak chana dal in water for an hour or until the dal plumps up. 
• Heat ghee in a pan, add mustard, cumin and let it sizzle. 
• Add red chilies, curry leaves, grated coconut and chana dal and fry for a minute. 

• Add the 5 cups of water, salt and let the water come to a gentle boil. 
• Pour the rice rava in to the boiling water while constantly stirring the mixture to avoid lump formation.

• Let it cook on low heat for 2-3 minutes. Switch off. 

• As soon as the mixture is cool enough to handle, dip you hands in a bowl of cold water and make golf ball sized balls from it. 
• Arrange in a steamer or a cooker pan, steam it for 10 minutes. 

• Enjoy hot Undrallu with any spicy chutney or pickle of your choice. 

Notes: 

• The mixture should not be left to become cold before the steaming, this makes the Undrallu chewy to bite. 
• Adding coconut makes them tastier and lighter. 
• You can use regular cooking oil instead of the ghee for a lower calorie recipe. 
• I usually add Byadagi chili pieces so they are not very spicy. 
• Rice rava to water ratio is 1:2 but feel free to use a little less or more based on the quality of the rava. The cooked mixture should be like a soft Upma, neither dry nor watery.

Gowri-Ganesha festival series 2 - Karigadubu

Hope you all had a good Ganesha habba celebration earlier today or yesterday depending on where you live. We did our pooja in the morning before starting work.

So continuing from last post on Gowri-Ganesha festivals, as kids we liked it when Gowri-Ganesha habba were on 2 different days. If they coincided, for one, you had to get up earlier so the Gowri pooje could finish earlier and the ladies could go home to do their Ganesha pooje. Secondly, all festival eating was crammed into that single day which meant we didn't have the extended second day habbada oota(festival food). Lastly but most importantly, it would mean one day off from school when the festivals merged which was a big bummer :-), this became a non issue when I went off to a convent school later.

Families that brought the clay Ganesha for the worship used to start their market visits a couple of days before. I just can't forget those crowded streets and the festival smell in the air. I get the same feeling shopping around Christmas time here :-). Our family didn't bring a clay Ganesha as our silver idols were kept for the pooja. This had a down side as it meant there was no immersion at the end of the festival for us :-(. Nammamma made a small Ganesha with turmeric paste to keep next to the silver idols.

The locality where we lived in Mysore during my school days, had a big community Ganesha right next to our house. There was a bunch of college students that would assemble together months before and start asking for donations. The organization grew in size and pomp every year and they kept extending the number of days of festivities. A day before the festival, they would stand up a temporary structure complete with a stage and an altar for the idols right in the middle of road, called 'Pandals' in colloquial languages. All traffic would be redirected. Blaring loud speakers touted the presence of a Ganesha Pandal at every road corner and go on 24 hours a day until the festivities came to an end 3/5/7 days later depending on the funds collected. On the day of the festival, the loud speakers would start with a devotional song on Ganesha and play some more for the first hour or so. Then for the rest of the day, we were entertained non stop with popular numbers from movies :-)  much to the dismay of elders. I still remember many of those songs in bits and pieces though I have absolutely no idea which movie it belonged to.  I still haven't figured out the relation between Ganesha habba and the movie songs.

For us kids, the best part of the festival was (apart from the food ofcourse) the Ganesha visit around the neighborhood. After the pooje and lunch at home, we used to set out in the hot afternoon with a group of like minded kids to visit as many Ganesha altars as we could with 101 being the magic number. You could find groups of kids on such mission all over the neighborhood. It used to be so much fun and exercise walking in the afternoons with friends trying to get people to open their doors for us. Most houses left the door open for the kids while some grouchy(I now feel it was genuinely a nuisance for older people trying to catch a wink of their afternoon siesta) old people would shout out from inside that we were not welcome. Nothing daunted us kids from our target of visiting 101 Ganesha altars :-), Oh the simple pleasures of childhood.

Once invited, we would go in, put some of the akshate(rice mixed with turmeric or kumkuma - used in Pooja) on top of the altar and do our prostration. Our quest for 101 Ganesha usually took us out of the familiar, immediate neighborhood into people's homes we didn't even know but there is strength in numbers and so noone was unduly scared. I don't think I can send my daughter off on such an expedition now :-(. I have been to houses that strictly forbade us from putting any akshate as it would spill all over the room, house owners that told us to be totally noiseless if there is such a thing involved when there are a bunch of giggling kids, houses that refused entry to us saying they didn't have a separate altar and houses that were actually nice and welcoming and saw us off with a piece of sweet or fruit.

And for people that wanted to see 101 Ganesha idols but didn't want to go from house to house in the hot Sun, Mysore had a short cut. There was a huge circle in the heart of the city which had 101 Ganesha idols during the festival. All you had to do was go there and do your prostrations.

Here is a funny anecdote from one of my Ganesha visits, my family has heard me narrate this incident many times as I repeat it every Ganesha habba. But I have promised them that I won't repeat from now on and if they ever miss my telling the story (I strongly doubt that), they can always open up the blog and read it. I had an elementary school classmate who was terrified of dogs and typically we would knock on the outside gate and ask "Nimma maneli Ganesha koorsiddeera?"(Do you have Ganesha altar set up in your house?) as a way of asking permission to come in and visit. This girl in her mortal fear of dogs and an honest slip of the tongue once asked "Nimma maneli naayi koorsiddeera?" (Do you have dog on your altar) and had the offended house owner chase us down the street :-). I have lost touch with her and always think if she still has that dog fear.

I made the traditional Karigadubu (The word comes from karida or deep fried kadubu) which is believed to be the Lord's favorite. Nammamma and the other ladies in my family always made this with a filling of dry coconut and sugar called 'Kobbari-sakkare'. There are many other variations of this dish where the filling could be made with some dal & jaggery combination. I love the kobbari-sakkare filling as it keeps the kadubu crisp and crunchy. DD took one bite of it today and declared 'No wonder Ganesha has such a big stomach, he can't stop eating this' :-)

I have made 2 different shapes here, one is the traditional kadubu and the other is called 'Lakkote holige' because of its shape resembling an envelope. The ingredients are exactly same, just a different shape. I have some step by step pictures for both shapes. If you make the lakkote holige, you will additionally use a clove to hold the shape together.

Our Ganesha Naivedya - kadle kalu usali, undrallu, pulihora and Karigadubu

What do you need to make Karigadubu?
Makes about 12 karigadubu
For filling: 
1 cup grated kobbari (this is the naturally dried coconut available in Indian stores)
1 cup sugar
1 Tsp poppy seeds (optional)
4-5 cardamom pods

For the outer covering: 
1 cup maida/all purpose flour
1/2 cup chiroti rava (super fine rava)
pinch of salt
1 Tsp ghee/clarified butter
1/4 cup water
Others: 
Oil to deep fry
1 Tsp maida/all purpose flour for dusting

How do you make Karigadubu?
Making the filling(Hoorana):

• Dry roast the grated kobbari for a couple of minutes until it starts to give out a nice aroma, keep aside. 
• Roast the poppy seeds for 2 minutes until it starts to pop, keep aside. 
• Pulse sugar in your mixer till it is powdery. Add the roasted kobbari & poppy seeds and run the blender once to mix them in. 
• Peel and pound the cardamom seeds into a fine powder and add it in. 

Outer covering(Kanaka): 

• Mix all the ingredients listed under 'outer covering' into a slightly stiff dough. 
• Knead for a good 5 minutes, wrap it in a wet cloth/paper napkin and set aside for atleast 30 minutes. 
• Knead the dough for another 5 minutes, take out small lime sized portions of the dough and shape them into smooth balls. 
• Keep them covered until you are ready to use. 

Making the Karigadubu: 

• Heat the oil in a wide pan. 
• Take a ball of the kanaka, dip lightly in the all purpose flour and roll into an oval shape roti with the lengthy side being about 4 inches.
• Dip your fingers in water and coat the edge of the roti with it.
• Take a spoon of the filling and put it in the center of the oval shape, pull one side over the other and press the edges together with fingers to seal them. 

• Repeat for the remaining dough. 

• When the oil is ready, drop the filled kadubu gently into the oil and let it cook until it puffs up and the outer cover looks light golden brown, 

• Take them onto a paper lined plate. 

Karigadubu making sequence: 

Lakkote holige making sequence:

Notes: 

• The thinner you roll the outer cover, the crisper your karigadubu will be. You need to strike a balance between having a thin cover Vs tearing it apart. 
• Do not overfill the kadubu and ensure the edges are sealed to prevent it from opening up in the oil. 
• Adding ghee to the cover makes the kadubu light and crispy. 
• Kneading the dough twice is very essential to get a light, crispy kadubu as this process makes the dough soft.
• If you plan on keeping the karigadubu for longer, I suggest double frying. After you remove the kadubus from the oil, let it sit for 5 minutes, dunk them in the hot oil once again and fry just for a minute or so.