Bhakshanam

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.

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.

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.