Ugadi Habba- Obbattu and bevu-bella

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Oily kitchen and lots of fun is what I remember of my childhood Ugadi days. My father would insist on preparing only obbattu for all the Ugadi fest and he would never compromise on any other replacement for that. Of course once in a way our house used to be filled with guests and their choice of food. But obbattu was always there. It was never prepared again until next Ugadi. It always has a special place in the festive  menu. It was much more easier to make obbattu during family gathering as it would require a good working force.  Frying 40 odd obbattus at one time was quite tiresome for the older lots.  But younger hearts would just bother to eat and not a soul would go for help.  All the older members would gain energy from nowhere to make this sweet as delicious as it looks.  Probably the energy would come from one pinch of bevu – bella they would have in the morning to greet the New year.

The new year is celebrated in three states on the same day.  Andhrapradesh, karnataka and Maharashtra.  They make this obbattu also in almost similar way.

Obbattu comes with two parts, one is kanaka, made of maida is the outer layer.  Other is Hoorna, which made of lentils and jaggery, is the stuffing part.

Keep ready,

Plantain Leaf - 2 squarely cut without the middle partition.

To make Kanaka,

Maida – ½ Kg, Sieved

Chirotti Rava - 2Tbsp ( smaller than medium Rava)

Oil – 1 cup

Turmeric – ¼ tsp

Salt – 1Tsp

Water

To make Hoorna,

Toor dal(Yellow Lentils) - ½ Kg

Jaggery – ½ Kg, Broken into pieces

Fresh Coconut – 1 full, grated

Small Cardamom – 6, deseeded and powdered

To start with,

Mix Maida and Rava with water, along with Salt and turmeric until the consistency is softer than the chapathi dough. Hands gets sticky.  Add up oil little by little, and keep Kneading till the oil just blends with the dough. The more you knead the softer the obbattu. Try pulling little amount of dough, so that  it should not break and it should come out like elastic thread. Now the dough is soaked in generous amount of oil and kept aside.

Add Toor dal to the boiling water. Allow it to cook till it is just done. But the lentil should not be broken and completely mashed. It should be left slightly dry. Filter the lentils and keep aside the filtered dal water.

Boil little water and add up the the jaggery. Once it is melted filter the dust off. Combine Coconut and cooked Lentils, mix it with molten jaggery on a sim fire. Keep on stirring and frying lightly till the content becomes like Halwa, so that its mixed and blended well. Take out from the fire. When it is cold, make lime sized balls and keep aside.

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Now take squarely cut plantain leaf, pat lime sized maida dough roughly your palm size with your fingers. It can not be done with rolling pin instead use the fingers and slowly spread towards side, so that it forms somewhat a round shape. Keep the Hoorna ball in the middle, wrap the same with Kanaka. Now the ball is stuffed inside kanaka. Pat the same, starting from the centre outwards. Make sure that you have applied generous oil on the plantain leaf as well as on your hand.

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Place the plantain leaf on preheated Tava or griddle, so that the obbattu side is on the tava and slowly lift the plantain leaf with the help of a flat spatula. So that is done. Fry the Obbattu till it becomes golden brown on both sides.

You can reuse the the plantain leaf to make more Obbattus.

How to eat,

People love to eat Obbattu with hot Ghee and warm milk.

Hesarubele Undey – Moong dal laddoo

At last…. I posted!

laddoo

Six long months of hesitation to write, coping with slow broadbands, remembering photography, making time for a decent cooking other than routine fast food stuff,…. world was never same for me after moving back to India.

Though i could not post or pass a word of comment to all my blog friends, i often used to make sure that i am still remembered!!(oh yeah i am selfish) I was scared, frightened, where all of you, one day, one by one just knock me off from your blog rolls.

Hoping to continue posting… i have come up with a sweet dish for this new year as a first dish after a long break, first ever sweet dish of my blog.

To start with my where abouts, we are residing in JP nagar, 10th floor of an apartment building. I am off with those  cosy little houses we lived in Gulf, still it was a great life which i always miss.

My aunt who had visited us to celebrate New Year, made these lovely delicious Laddoos made of Moong daal.  I have no clue how much caloried ingridients goes into this. It was a cool stuff anyway.

What goes in while making laddoos,

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Yellow gram dal (Moong dal)  2 cup

Sugar   1 and 1/4  cup

Ghee       1/4 cup

Kaju and kishmish(nuts and raisins)   1 cup

Cardamom (Ilaichi)   4 cloves (powdered)

Milk    2 tbsp

How to make:

Roast moong dal in a thick bottmed vessel or a frying pan till golden.  Fine powder it in the mixer.  Powder the sugar too.  Keep aside.  Heat ghee in a Kadai, dry roast moong dal powder in ghee till the powder leaves aroma.  Mix this powder with sugar and Nuts and raisins roasted in a tbsp of ghee.

Make Lemon sized balls, keeping your hand wet with milk.  Prepare balls when the mixture remains hot and warm.  Relish the laddoos, after it gets cooled.