Thursday, August 16, 2012

Festival Recipes : Pooran Poli | Puran Poli | Holige | Obbattu | Bobattu

This Marathi dish takes a lot time to prepare and needs a lot of patience and practice to reach the perfection. Puran Poli is a very famous Maharashtrian recipe. In kannada this recipe is called as Simply Holige or Bele Obbattu and Bobattu in Telgu. This is also very famous in Konkani people.

Preparation Time: 60 minutes

Servings: 8

Ingredients:
  • 2 cups Chana dal, soaked in water for around 2 hours.
  • 2 cups Jaggery
  • 1 tsp cardamom powder
  • 2 cups refined Maida/Plain flour
  • 3/4 table spoon turmeric powder
  • 3 table spoon oil
  • Salt for taste

Method:  Preparation of Hoorna(in Konkani/Kannada)
  • Cook Chana dal in pressure cooker till it turns soft. Drain out excess water until the dal is absolutely becomes dry.
  • In a non stick pan, put Chana dal, Jaggery and mix it well. Cook till all the jaggery gets melted and the mix becomes dry.
  • Grind the mix in a mixer to get a smooth paste without putting water.
  • Add cardamom powder and mix well with hand to get a smooth mixture.
  • Form balls of 20 equal size as shown in the picture and keep it aside.

 Preparation of  Kanik (in Konkani/Kannada)
  • Mix refined flour, oil, water and turmeric powder. 
  • Make very soft, sticky dough. 
  • Knead very well. 
  • Use oil to knead. 
  • Divide into 20 equal portions.
  • Cover and keep it aside for 2 hours.

 Preparation of Puran Poli
  • With greased palms, take one portion of dough(Kanik) and flatten it with another hand to form a disc of the size of the palm.
  • Place a ball of "chana jaggery" paste(Hoorna) in the centre and fold the disc from all sides to cover the paste completely.
  • Put 1 cup of Maida/Plain flour on a paper and put all the prepared balls on the flour one by one. 
  • Roll the balls over flour so that flour gets stuck to the ball from all the sides. 
  • Apply oil to a sheet of clean transparent plastic paper, keep the ready ball on it and roll it like chapathi.
  • Fry on hot tava till it gets golden brown color.


  • Serve hot/cold with ghee.

 PS:  Use of milk instead of water for making the maida dough makes puran polis very soft. Along with chana dal, toor dal also can be used which makes the puran poli more thin and soft. 

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Konkani Randap : Thausali | Taushya Kadamb | Cucumber Cake | Cucumber Idli


This dish is loved by Konkani people for breakfast or as a evening snack. This is a very healthy and satisfying dish. Cucumber is called a Taushe in Konkani. As it is cooked like idli in cooker, this delicacy is also called as cucumber idli. In the backyard, we can grow these turmeric plants and leaves can be used while preparing this dish. If these leaves are not available, then one can use ghee before pouring the batter into the pan. In the pan, before putting batter, turmeric leaves are placed, which leaves a great aroma. Even one can use two leaves and put the batter inside and fold it across, as I have explained in my instructions. This dish can also made with mangalore cucumber. In Konkani it is known as magge. The recipe goes the same, instead of cucumber, mangalore cucumber will be used.

Preparation Time: 20 minutes ( excluding the standing time).

Servings: 4

Ingredients:

  • 2 cup finely chopped cucumber
  • 1 cup rice rava
  • ½ cup grated coconut
  • 3 spoon sugar
  • Salt as per taste
  • Turmeric leaves ghee

 Method:
  • Mix cucumber, rava, grated coconut, sugar and salt.
  • And leave it for around 30 minutes.
  • Don’t add water to batter as the cucumber leaves water which is more than sufficient for the consistency.
  • Spread the turmeric leaves as shown in picture.
  • Fold the leaves after adding batter and put them one by one in idli cooker.
  • Steam it for around 10-15mins(similar to idlis without adding the weight)
  • Serve hot with chutney.

PS:  The amount of sugar can be varied depending upon ones taste. If turmeric leaves are not available then, spread ghee around the vessel. Pour the batter and after cooking cut them into small square pieces.

Twitter Delicious Facebook Digg Stumbleupon