Mosaravalakki & Sihi Avalakki

I am posting a couple of poha (beaten rice) recipes from Karnataka. A few poha dishes are usually prepared on Krishnastami day, Lord Krishna's birthday. Butter, yogurt, milk, poha are said to be his favorites and hence delicious dishes with some of these ingredients are prepared on the auspicious day. While sihi avalakki is a sweet dessert prepared using poha, mosaravalakki is prepared using yogurt and poha. I had posted previously some other dishes like Paalakaayalu, Rava laddu, Gojjavalakki which are prepared on Sri Krishnastami.

************************************************************************************* SIHI AVALAKKI
Sihi - Sweet and Avalakki - Poha in Kannada.
My mom usually used to make this sweet version of poha for a quick, evening snack. This actually needs no cooking. You just mix up all the ingredients and end up with a dessert after a few minutes of waiting.

Ingredients to make sihi avalakki:
1 cup thin poha
1/2 cup powdered jaggery
1/2 cup grated fresh coconut
1/2 tsp cardamom powder
A few raisins

Note: This dish is subtly sweet. You can increase the amounts of coconut and jaggery according to your tastes.

Preparation:
Usually, thin poha (paper avalakki) is used to make this sweet dish. If using thin poha, mix all the ingredients lightly in a bowl, cover and let it rest for some time for the flavors to blend. The coconut moistens the poha and makes it softer.
The thick variety poha (gatti avalakki) available here in USA is lot different than the one we get in India. It becomes kind of mush with little soaking. I sometimes substitute 'this' thick poha to make this sihi avalakki. If using this poha, wash it twice with water to remove any impurities and drain all the water. Cover and leave it for five minutes. Then add all the remaining ingredients and let it rest for 10 minutes for the infusion of flavors.

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MOSARAVALAKKI

Mosaru is curds / yogurt and Avalakki is poha in Kannada. Mosaravalakki, as the name suggests is poha mixed with yogurt and is well popular in Karnataka. This also needs no cooking unless you are planning to make the dish more colorful and spicy. Though thick yogurt (the kind which you can slice with a knife) is preferred to make this, I have opted for home made yogurt using 1% milk. You just add yogurt and a dash of salt to the (well soaked and water drained) poha and you end up with a no fuss kind of quickie breakfast. Or for a flavorful tindi (that's what you call breakfast in Kannada), add some seasoning to the poha - yogurt mixture as below.

Ingredients to make mosaravalakki:
2 cups poha
1.5 - 2 cups of yogurt
Green chillies - 1
Grated ginger - 1/2 tsp
Freshly grated coconut - 4 Tbsp
Mustard seeds, chanadal & urad dal - 1 tsp each
Few curry leaves
Chopped cilantro
salt to taste
Oil - 2 / 3 tsp

Preparation:
The thick variety poha is used to make this dish. The poha available in India (as I have seen in South) needs more soaking (10 - 15 minutes). The variety available here in USA needs no soaking. Wash the poha twice and drain all the water. Let it sit covered for five minutes. Then add yogurt, coconut, ginger, cilantro and salt to the poha.
Mean while heat the oil in a small pan and add chanadal, urad dal and musatrd seeds to the oil, in that order. When the dals turn red, add green chillies and curry leaves. Saute for a few seconds more and turn off the stove.
Add this seasoning to the poha yogurt mixture and mix well.
Serve immediately. If using later, refrigerate it to avoid the yogurt go sour.

I am sending this to two events.
It goes to 'Sri Jayanthi' event hosted by Latha of 'The Yum Blog' & also to 'RCI - Karnataka' hosted by Asha of 'Foodie's hope'.

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