Andhra Snack and Sweet Platter ~ Fried Cashews

Some 'platters' are going to be posted here this week, as part of the 'Indian Thaalis and Platters' themed month long marathon. I could not decide what to present under this theme among the jumble of ideas I had. Initially I wanted to do a colorful poori platter, a thought I have been nurturing for years now. I however discarded the idea when I cooked three pooris under breakfast theme. Some of the ideas I kept contemplating included a millet platter, steamed dishes one, a platter with variety of pohas, pakoda platter, vrat ka khana, a breakfast platter with Karnataka style 'bhaaths', 'rice' platter, parathas, dosas, guilt free snacks, sandwiches, fusion food and so on. I kept on listing the dishes that could go under each category but ended up altogether with something else when it was time to implement the ideas.

The first one in the series is a traditional platter that would have served as snack time food for kids, up until a generation ago in the state of Andhra Pradesh besides some of them being festive food. This is what my mother and her siblings would have as an after school treat, all freshly homemade and stored in big tins to snack on for a week or two. It was a time when people moved around a lot instead of being couch potatoes and no machines to substitute for their work. It was a time when kids played around instead of being glued in front of televisions and computers. Also a time when low-cal food wasn't a fad yet and hence no guilt attached to eat these high calorie foods. In fact, traditionally sunnundalu is considered to be one of the highly nutritious foods to consume.

I am not into frying that much and it would be a big fat lie if I say that I make these traditional goodies as regularly as my grand mothers used to make. Thanks to a wedding I attended in Los Angeles this February, this platter happened. The bride's parents who happen to be my cousin and his wife had brought all those sweets and chegodi from India and I happened to get a big batch of those. The rest of the savory snacks are store bought. The idea of this traditional platter occurred when I remembered that these were the snacks my mother grew up on. The only exception being jeedipappu burfi / cashew burfis that I included in this platter because I had them though my grandmother never made them. The cashews would be a special treat for guests.

I have ariselu, ladlu and cashew burfi under the sweets category.

Ariselu / Athirasalu - This is a traditional sweet prepared using freshly ground rice flour and jaggery syrup. Freshly ground flour is the key here. Store bought rice flour doesn't work in this recipe. Small portions of the dough is patted and deep fried. This stays fresh at least for two weeks or more. This sweet is commonly prepared in south India, Maharashtra and even in some eastern parts of India and go by different regional names. 

Boondi laddu - These laddus are one of the traditional sweets of India and popular through out the country. These laddus are made with fried, tiny chickpea flour balls added to sugar syrup and shaped into balls. 

Cashew burfi / Jeedipappu burfi - Burfis made with a cooked mixture of ground cashews and sugar.

Sunnundalu - A highly nutritious laddu from Andhra Pradesh which is prepared using black garm / urad dal, both with husked and skinned variety. It can also be made with moong dal. The recipe can be found here.

I have chekkalu, chakli, chegodilu, mixture, spicy cashews under the savory snacks. Chekkalu are fried rice flour crisps that are also made in other parts of south India. Both chakli and chegodi are rice flour based snacks that are deep fried. Chakli are spiral shaped where as chegodilu are tiny rings. Where as mixture is literally a mixture of boondi and spicy sevs with a tempering of curry leaves and peanuts.

The fried, spicy cashews are homemade which are quick and easy to make. They are a savory treat though high in calories. Any spice powders according to preference may be added but I added only salt and chili powder here as my grandmother used to make. Also remember not to fry the cashews in big batches. Cashews turn golden brown quick and by that time all the cashews are flipped / tossed, some may get burnt.

Ingredients:

Cashew nuts

Oil / ghee as needed for shallow frying

Salt to taste

Chili powder to taste

Directions:

* Heat ghee / oil in a pan and don't bring it to a smoking point. Add a handful of cashews.

* Fry them on low heat until golden brown on both sides, flipping them in between. Transfer them onto a plate lined with paper towel and fry the remaining cashews.

* Turn off the stove and transfer any remaining ghee / oil that was used to fry to another cup. Add the fried cashews back to the pan and add salt and chili powder. 

* Toss the pan well so that the cashews are coated well. Serve them immediately or store them in an airtight container.

Comments

'Kodo Millet' Paramannam / Arikala Paramannam

After last week's A - Z Karnataka Recipes theme, I am moving onto the theme of festival recipes this week keeping in mind the upcoming Sankranthi festival. Somehow savory and sweet pongal versions and paramannam kind of dishes have become synonymous in the southern parts of India with this harvest festival. However my mother was mentioning recently in one of our chats that she doesn't remember a single Sankranthi festival meal where her mother had prepared a pongali / paramannam. Her mother would prepare ariselu / athirasam or boondi laddu. Of course, ariselu, a traditional sweet dish uses the harvested rice and would have made perfect sense for the season if one didn't mind the extra labor involved in pounding the rice and the deep frying part. My mother has somehow moved the dish to the Diwali category since it is prepared commonly during then in Bangalore area and also times it during our visits to India since it happens to be my husband's favorite sweet dish. 

My mother is also content preparing a sweet pongal dish like this albeit a traditional version using rice on Sankranthis. My version today uses kodo millet which tastes utterly delicious, almost similar to rice and comes handy if avoiding rice. The recipe can be easily doubled and the preparation is quite simple and easy one. If you have any other millet handy like proso, barnyard, foxtail or little millet, they can be substituted for kodo millet here. Even quinoa, cracked wheat can be used. Or stick to rice, the original version. A little dal is always added while making rice based sweet dishes for auspicious occasions since the plain rice versions are made during death anniversaries. The color of the dish depends upon the color of the jaggery being used in the recipe. No need to fret or run to store in case if one doesn't have jaggery on hand. It can be easily replaced by sugar. Actually I enjoy the sugar and the coconut combination in the traditional rice version more. And coming to edible camphor, a tiny pinch is all that matters for that divine taste which resembles the temple prasadms. A tad more would result in an overbearing flavor. Ghee can be used as generously as one would wish. And finally don't skip the coconut if possible since it enhances the flavor of the dish. 

Ingredients:
1/4 cup kodo millet
1 tbsp. split yellow gram / Bengal gram (Moong dal or Chana dal) 
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup grated fresh coconut
1/2 cup powdered jaggery
1/8 tsp. ground cardamom
A pinch of edible camphor
1 to 2 tbsp. ghee
1 tbsp. raisins
1 tbsp. cashews

Directions:
1. Rinse kodo millet and dal with water and drain. Pressure cook kodo millet and dal adding 1/2 cup milk for 3 whistles. Add a small spoon to the millet container while cooking to prevent milk from boiling over. (It can be cooked directly in a pot as well on medium flame and the liquid quantity may need to be adjusted as needed (usually more). Milk can be replaced with water in this step to avoid the milk from boiling over while cooking. Keep stirring to avoid millet sticking to the bottom of the pan while cooking or use a non stick pot to make the job easier.)  

2. Heat ghee in a small pan and add raisins and cashews. Toast them until cashews turn golden brown and raisins turn plump.

3. Transfer the toasted raisins and cashews with a slotted spoon on to a plate. To the same ghee, add the cooked millet, coconut, jaggery, and cardamom.

4. Mix well and add the remaining milk. Stir well. Cook on medium flame stirring intermittently until the mixture starts to bubble. Simmer on low heat for about 3 - 4 minutes until all the jaggery melts and incorporates into the mixture. Finally add edible camphor if being used and turn off the stove. Add the toasted cashews and raisins as well. Stir well and serve warm. It tastes good even when cold. Leftovers can be refrigerated and warmed before serving.  

Some points to be noted:
1. I directly added jaggery to the millet mixture since it was clean. In case the jaggery appears not clean, melt it separately in a small pan adding small amount of water and filter the solution. There is no need to add too much water since we don't need the paramannam to be very diluted.
2. Sometimes the milk may split when added to jaggery directly and cooked. It has not happened to me but in case if you suspect that to happen and to be on a safer side, the addition of milk can be omitted in step 4. Instead, the milk can be boiled and cooled separately and added to the mixture after turning off the stove.

Comments

Godhuma Sojjappalu / Cracked Wheat Halwa Appam

My final post of this week, which featured 'Sweet' series. Next week, I am onto savory snacks from the state of Gujarat. So far in the series,
Malaadu / Hurigadale Unde
Dry Gulab Jamun
Coconut Burfi / Kobbari Mithai
Almond Halwa / Badam Halwa
Elaneer Payasam

Sojjappalu is one of the sweets prepared as a neivedyam on festival days in Andhra Pradesh. The 'sojja' refers to the semolina halwa filling used in the appams. I sometimes prepare these for Varalakshmi Vratham, substituting with other fillings. I made the filling with cracked wheat halwa this time which was equally delicious. I made a small portion but this can be easily doubled. The cracked wheat halwa filling I prepared here is sweet to eat as it is but becomes a mildly sweet filling for appalu. If one prefers appalu on a sweeter side, then increase the sugar quantity and cook until the halwa thickens.

Somehow, I find the preparation of sojjappalu simple compared to the bobbatlu / poli recipe. An outer layer dough is prepared using all purpose flour and a sweet filling of halwa is prepared. The sweet halwa filling is encased in a dough disc, rolled into a palm sized one and are deep fried to golden brown. They are not rolled as thin as a poli and they puff up while getting fried. There is no need to worry in case if they don't puff up. They end up getting flattened once they cool down, just as pooris do. I usually pat them into a thick disc but this time, I rolled them thinner. 

(1 cup = 240 ml)
Ingredients: (Yield - 5 to 6 appalu)
1/2 cup maida / all purpose flour + extra for dusting
A pinch of salt
1 tsp. oil
Oil / ghee to fry appalu

Ingredients for filling:
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup fine cracked wheat
1/2 cup sugar *
1/8 tsp. cardamom powder
1 tsp. ghee
* The filling is sweet to eat as it is but becomes a mildly sweet filling for appalu. If one prefers appalu on a sweet side, then increase the sugar quantity and cook until the halwa thickens.

Directions to prepare the outer covering:
* Combine flour, 1 tsp. oil and salt in a mixing bowl. Add water as needed and form a firm, pliable dough (I added about 2.5 to 3 tbsp. water.) Cover the dough and rest it for about 30 minutes or so.


Directions to prepare the sweet filling:
* Toast the cracked wheat on medium flame for a couple of minutes and keep it aside.

* Bring 1/2 cup water to a rolling boil in a pan. 

* Add the cracked wheat to the hot water and stir well to combine. Lower the heat and cover the pan. Cook the cracked wheat for a couple of minutes.

* Add sugar, ghee and cardamom to the cracked wheat and continue to cook.

* The sugar melts and loosens the mixture. Cover and continue to cook.

* Turn off the stove when the mixture is well cooked and comes together as thick mass. If the mixture appears runny, cook further until the mixture thickens. Leave the mixture to cool.

Directions to prepare appalu:
* Divide the dough into 5/6 equal portions and roll them into smooth balls. Similarly, divide the stuffing into 5/6 equal portions and roll them into balls. Grease your palms with ghee if needed.
 
* Dust the work surface with flour if needed. Roll a dough ball into a thin circle of about 4 inches diameter. Place the stuffing at the center of the circle and bring the edges of the rolled dough together. Roll them into discs. Or grease your fingers if needed and pat into a circle of 1/4 inches thickness.
 
* Heat oil / ghee in a frying pan. Pinch a small portion of the dough and drop into the oil to check the readiness. If the dough sizzles and comes to the surface then the oil is ready to fry. Slide the rolled disc into the hot oil carefully from the side of the pan.

* Fry on low flame, flipping in between until the disc turns golden brown on both sides. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on a plate covered with an absorbent towel. Repeat the steps with the remaining dough and the filling.

* The appalu puff up while frying but they get flattened once they cool down.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#104

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Comments

A - Z Andhra Recipes ~ Q for Qubani Ka Meetha

It's time for the 'Q' post in this A - Z marathon, based on Andhra vegetarian recipes. Picking a dish for this particular alphabet was easy-peasy, as my daughter would say. Though there is not a single ingredient in an Andhra kitchen which starts with 'Q', there are however a couple of popular 'Q' dishes if one travels to the capital city of Hyderabad. And I picked the sweet one among those, a popular delicacy from the region called 'Qubani ka Meetha'. It is a dish that is almost synonymous with the Nizam city and a cherished one among the Muslim community there. This was on my 'to do' list for about two decades now and thanks to this marathon, I could prepare it recently.

'Qubani' means apricots in Urdu and 'Meetha' means sweet and so the name 'Qubaani ka Meetha' literally translates to a sweet dish prepared using apricots. Apricots are not local to the region and hence there is no Telugu name for either the fruit or the dish. While Hyderabadi 'Fine biscuits' I posted earlier in the marathon has a English name, this 'Q' dish has a Urdu name. Those are the only names by which these dishes go by and both names have no regional translations / substitutes and so, they helped me in maneuvering around the 'regional names clause' for these particularly difficult alphabets. I am reserving to use that clause exemption for more difficult alphabets which are coming my way next week.

Qubani ka meetha was conceived in the Nizam kitchens, on his behest. I heard an anecdote about the origins of this dish recently on a cook show, which coincidentally was showcasing some Hyderabadi delicacies. It was mentioned that the Nizam of Hyderabad who went to Kashmir to meet the Mughal emperor, fell in love with the apricots he was served there. It is said that the emperor later parceled him dried apricots so that the Nizam can enjoy them to his fill, through out the year. The Nizam sent those apricots to his palatial kitchen and asked the chefs to come up with something interesting. Obviously it had to be something delicious and thus the qubani ka meetha was born. I don't know how authentic the story is, but qubani ka meetha was indeed a creation of Nizam chefs. The dish probably reached the common masses later and is now an integral part of the celebrations, especially weddings among the local Muslim community.

Qubani ka meetha is a very straight forward and simple preparation that involves only two ingredients, dried apricots and sugar. Even a novice cook can master the dish in the first trial itself and can boast about. It takes about 15 to 20 minutes to cook the meetha, on low simmer and one need not hover around, especially if using a non-stick pan. I probably stirred the meetha only twice or thrice during the entire cooking. 

Dried apricots are soaked in water overnight to re-hydrate them. The stones are removed and the pulp is cooked along with sugar in the soaked water until it reaches the consistency of a compote and then pureed. Inside each stone there is an edible seed which tastes and looks like an almond albeit smaller in size. Those are collected and are used to garnish the meetha. Qubani ka meetha was served with malai / cream traditionally but now it can be served with custard or even vanilla ice cream. Qubani ka meetha is always prepared subtly sweet because of the custard / cream garnish which adds additional sweetness to the meetha. I prepared some thick custard to serve the meetha with. 
  
Ingredients: (yield over 2 cups / 4 servings)  
400 gm. dried apricots (72 apricots)
5 tbsp. sugar (Taste and adjust. The meetha should be subtly sweet.)
Custard / Cream / Ice cream to serve

Method:
* Wash the dried apricots thoroughly and soak them overnight in water, covered. The apricots should be completely immersed in water.

* By morning, the dried apricots would have swelled and the fruits would have become softer. The re-hydrated apricots are going to look like those in the above image. Do not throw away the water used to soak the apricots, which would have changed color by now. Collect the water in another bowl and reserve it. It is needed later to cook the apricots.
* Collect the fruits in another bowl and remove the stones from each fruit. If you have any eager hands to help, let them chip in. (The dried apricots may be lighter or darker in color and don't discard the darker ones thinking that they are rotten.)
 
* Do not throw away the stones yet. There are edible seeds in them which are going to be used later in the recipe.
 
* Add the stone-less fruits and the soaked water reserved in the earlier step to a pan, preferably a non stick one. Cook stirring intermittently until the mixture turns mushy. 
 
* The soaked water would be enough to cook. However in case, if the mixture needs some more liquid and if you have run out of soaked liquid, add plain water as needed. The fruit pulp attains a darker shade while cooking.
* With the back of the spoon, just mash the fruit pulp into a single mass. Add sugar, stir and cook until it melts. At this point, the mixture is cooled a bit and pureed. I chose not to puree it. Or the apricots can be pureed at the beginning itself before cooking them

* While the apricots are cooking, collect the apricot seeds for garnishing. Gently break open the apricot stones using a mortar and pestle (or what ever gadget works for you). The stone will break open easily revealing a tiny almond sized apricot seed/kernel inside. Throw away the hard shells and collect the seeds.



* Garnish the cooked meetha with apricot seeds.
* Serve qubani ka meetha with custard / cream or ice cream.

So far on my 'A - Z' Andhra Cuisine,
A for Alasanda Vada
B for Bellam Garelu
C for Chiyali
D for Dondakaaya Kaarapu Kaaya
E for Endu Kobbari Podi
F for Fine Biscuits 
G for Gongura - Mamidikaya Pappu
H for Halwa Holigalu
I for Idli Karam Podi
J for Janthikalu
K for Kobbari Koora

L for Lauzu
M for Matikkaaya Kaaram Koora
N for Nimmakaaya Kaaram
O for Ottotti
P for Perugu Vadalu 

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 63.
 
An InLinkz Link-up

Comments

A - Z Andhra Recipes ~ L for Lauzu / Kobbari Lauzu

I am doing 'A - Z' recipes from Andhra cuisine this month, presenting dishes with regional names in an alphabetical order and it's time for the letter 'L' today. It is one of those alphabets that got me stumped, when thinking in terms of finding recipes with a Telugu name. When I mentioned about the same to the other adult at home a couple of months back, the following conversation ensued.

Him: Finished planning all the recipes for your marathon?
Me: Any ideas for the alphabet 'L'?
Him (glaring at me like I am going bonkers): Laddu??
Me: is not south Indian
Him: (looking at me this time like I have really gone batty) Not south Indian? They are in the region for generations and people prepare it for every special occasion.
Me: So? 
Him: Who told you that you need to post recipes which are specific to the region? Sometimes neighboring states share the recipes.
Me: The laddus are made all over India.
Him (trying to convince me some more): O..K.. How about Tirupati Laddu?
Me (Sitting straight now): They have a recipe for it?
Him: You are the blogger. Go look for it.
Me: I don't think so. I think they may have a secretly guarded recipe or something like that. On second thoughts, they might not, looking at the quality of the laddus they are churning out lately. I don't even want to try it.
Me (reminiscing some more): I used to love those, that used to be made decades ago and now I hate the quality and now I don't even feel like trying them.
Him: O.K, then. You have lehyam.
Me: What ??? Like that ayurvedic paste? They prepare it at home ? Your mom did?
Him (looking at the new crazy me): Why would she?
Me: Why would I ?
Him: You are the blogger and you need the post.
Me (sheepishly checking all over the web): All I see are posts by Tamilians
Him: So, now lehyam becomes a Tamilian recipe? Cook something with lavangalu (cloves) then.
Me: What was I thinking, asking you for ideas?
Him: Was trying to help here. 
Me: I had cooked the dish already. Was just checking to see if you had any better ideas.
Him: 😕

Obviously, the laddu my husband was referring to would be a glaring choice to any Indian and that idea instantly pops when looking for 'L' recipes. Not any laddus but the delicious, succulent ones prepared using chickpea flour and sugar syrup aka boondi laddu. The same when prepared with a fine sieved ladle would become mothi choor laddu. And the laddus made at Tirumala Tirupathi Temple in the state of Andhra Pradesh is the epitome of the kind. And of course my husband was on the right path and indeed I was going to post a laddu recipe though not the boondi one. Obviously I had to let go the option for the above mentioned reasons and look for the other Andhra variety laddus. The available choices were thokkudu laddu, sunnundalu and chimmiri undalu which have been done already to death on my blog. I think I have posted already 4 varieties of sunnundalu and 3 to 4 varieties of chimmiri here. 

And so I went with the remaining and obvious choice of kobbari lauzu which is also called lauzu, in short form. The freshly shredded coconut and jaggery are cooked until they hold shape and made into balls or laddus. The color of the jaggery used determines the color of this laddus. Usually the variety of jaggery I get locally is very pale in color and so my laddus are light colored. This one makes a quick and yummy dessert, redolent with cardamom flavor and comes handy when you have extra coconuts to use. Sugar can be substituted for jaggery in the recipe. We call the cooked mixture of coconut and jaggery lauzu but it seems in some areas it refers to not the laddu but the burfi and so I have provided the recipe for it too. 

Ingredients: (Yield 7 Laddus )
1 cup fresh / frozen shredded coconut
3/4 cup powdered jaggery or sugar
1/4 tsp. ground cardamom

Method:
* Add all ingredients to a thick bottomed pan or a non-stick pan and start cooking on medium low flame until it thickens and is rollable. Keep stirring continuously to avoid the coconut mixture sticking to the bottom of the pan / getting scorched. Also do not let the mixture brown.
* Let the mixture cool. Grease your palms with ghee and make into balls. This lauzu can be refrigerated and stored for at least a couple of weeks. 
* If burfi need to be made, continue cooking the mixture until it starts to leave the sides of the pan. Grease a plate with edges and pour the mixture onto the plate. Flatten the mixture with the back of a spatula. Score into squares while the mixture is warm. Break down into pieces when cool and store it in an airtight container.

So far on my 'A - Z' Andhra Cuisine,
A for Alasanda Vada
B for Bellam Garelu
C for Chiyali
D for Dondakaaya Kaarapu Kaaya
E for Endu Kobbari Podi
F for Fine Biscuits 
G for Gongura - Mamidikaya Pappu
H for Halwa Holigalu
I for Idli Karam Podi
J for Janthikalu
K for Kobbari Koora

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 63

An InLinkz Link-up

Comments

A - Z Andhra Recipes ~ H for Halwa Holigalu / Halwa Bobbatlu

It's time for 'H' dish in my A - Z Andhra Cuisine journey. The only Andhra dishes that I could think of starting with 'H' were halwa and holigalu, if I did not travel to the capital city of the state, Hyderabad. Coincidentally, the name of the city also starts with 'H' and have some famous 'H' dishes like Hyderabadi biryani and Haleem, which unfortunately have no relevance to my vegetarian cooking. There are no fruits, vegetables or ingredients starting with 'H' in Telugu and I was forced to think around the only available two choices. 

A halwa without any prefix in Andhra usually means the one made using semolina / rava, that is also served as 'prasadam' during Satyanarayana Vratham (a religious food offering). The same halwa when prepared using orange food coloring becomes rava kesari, since kesari refers to the color orange in this context. This halwa can be eaten as it is, or used as a stuffing for traditional Andhra dishes such as appalu and boorelu / sukheelu which are called sojjappalu and halwa boorelu respectively. I had to let go the idea of 'halwa boorelu' option because of the deep frying part.

Holigalu aka bobbatlu or poli in Andhra is the sweet stuffed flatbread and is equally popular traditional dish in some of the other Indian states as well. The dal - jaggery / sugar (where the dal used can be split chick peas, moong dal or lentils) and the coconut - sugar stuffing are most commonly used ones while all the other stuffing variations are spin-offs conceived by creative minds. I could have used the traditional sweet split chickpea and jaggery stuffing to end up with 'Holigalu' post for my 'H' dish as I haven't posted it yet. However using the halwa stuffing seemed more convenient and quicker since no one in my home bothers about holigalu except me and so toiling around in kitchen made no sense. Besides I get to use both the words 'halwa' and 'holigalu' in the same dish. ☺

My mother who loves holigalu since her childhood is an expert in churning out super thin, flaky holigalu like Kannadigas do and everyone in my parents' home love them. Even my little nieces enjoy them and keep begging my mother constantly to prepare them. It is quite opposite in my home and no one cares even to touch them and so, I don't even bother trying. This is my second trial of poli making in my two decades of married life. The coconut stuffed one and the lentil / kandipappu version, I have posted were prepared by my mother. I neither used as much as oil as my mother uses in today's recipe nor achieved her results but I was happy with what I ended up with. And any kind of halwa without the garnishing of nuts and raisins can be used for the filling.

Ingredients for the outer layer: (make 7)
1 cup all purpose flour + extra for dusting if needed
2 to 3 tbsp. fine semolina
A pinch of salt
2 pinches of turmeric powder
1 tbsp. oil
Scant 1/2 cup water

Ingredients for halwa:
1 cup water
1/2 cup semolina
1/2 cup to 3/4 cup sugar *
1 tbsp. ghee
1/4 tsp. ground cardamom
Ghee to make holigas
(* 1/2 cup sugar will yield subtly sweet holigas.)
 
Method:
* Combine flour, semolina, salt and turmeric in a mixing bowl. Add water in increments (or as needed) to form a firm but plaible dough. Add oil and knead the dough for about five minutes. Cover and let it rest for about an hour or so.

* Heat ghee in a pan and toast semolina on medium flame continuously stirring, until it starts to change the color. Transfer the semolina onto a plate and keep it aside.
* To the same pan, add water and bring to a boil. Add semolina in a slow flow, rapidly stirring so that no lumps are formed. Next add sugar and cardamom to the pan, stir once more and cook covered, on low flame. Turn off the stove when semolina is cooked. Take off the pan from the stove and let the halwa cool. Shape the mixture into lime sized balls.
 
* Divide the dough for the outer layer into 7 portions. Roll them between your palms into balls and gently press into discs. Roll a disc thinly, dusting the work surface with flour if necessary (I didn't have to use any). Place the filling at the center and bring the edges together and press lightly, so that the filling will not spill out. Again roll the disc as thin as possible.

* Heat a griddle and place the rolled out disc on it. Toast it using a tsp. of ghee, flipping intermittently until you see brown spots on both sides. Repeat the steps with the remaining batter. 
* Serve them warm with a dollop of ghee. Leftovers can be refrigerated / frozen.
Reheat the frozen / refrigerated holigas on a griddle or in a microwave before serving. No need to thaw them.

So far on A - Z Andhra Cuisine,
A for Alasanda Vada
B for Bellam Garelu
C for Chiyali
D for Dondakaaya Kaarapu Kaaya
E for Endu Kobbari Podi
F for Fine Biscuits 
G for Gongura - Mamidikaya Pappu

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 63.

An InLinkz Link-up

Comments