ರಾಗಿ ಮಣ್ಣಿ/Finger Millet Halwa

Ragi/Millet is most well known for its rich calcium content than any other cereals. In South India it is the most common food fed for growing children. This is even given as one of first cereals to babies for its rich nutrition filled with calcium and iron and protein content. Moreover it is easily digestible from young age to old age even suitable for diabetic patients due to its low sugar content. It is also considered as a poor man’s food too due to its low price compared with other grains available.

Though the nutritious content many of them do not love this as one of the common daily food due to the bland taste or due to not knowing how to make use of them in the right way. I have tried several ways to make use of this grains in our daily food but somehow it has still been a rarely used grain. Making kids love the food has taken the top priority and though there are several ways of cooking Ragi like Ragi Malt, Ragi Roti, Dose, Ragi Mudde, Ragi Kai Unde… Ragi Manni is one of the best ways that my kids love which forms a semi solid state and feel of taste is similar to jelly.

All you need

Ragi - 2 cups

Jaggery - 4 cups

coconut grated - 1 cup

cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp

salt if required

Method

• Soak Ragi for 3-4 hrs after washing cleanly
• Grind Ragi with adequate quantity of water
• Strain the liquid and grind the pulp again with 1 cup water
• Strain the liquid again, straining the milk from Ragi must be done 2-3 times until the milk goes very light. Discard the millet pulp
• Heat Jaggery with half cup water until dissolved and strain to remove any dirt
• Add the Jaggery solution to the milk extract from ground millet
• grind grated coconut to extract the milk about half cup
• Add the coconut milk to the Jaggery+ Ragi milk and keep on medium flame stirring now and then
• The Ragi will start to form slight lumps as you keep stirring the whole liquid will form as a smooth lumpy halwa consistency.
• Now add a tbsp of ghee and cardamom powder stir well
• Remove from fire and spread on a plate greased with ghee
• Let it cool or alternately you can refrigerate for half an hour
• Now the halwa would have set and ready to cut and serve.

note: This can also be made from Whole Wheat/ Raw Rice

RCI_Karnataka with ತೆಳೆವು/Neer dose, ಮನೊಹರ/manohara and maddur vade

My origin is from north kanara or uttara kannada with RCI for karnataka thought of sharing some glimpses of this part of karnataka.  Though I spent most of my childhood and education near Bangalore my moms native sagar(my moms place), sirsi where my Doddamma, my In-laws stay and mathikoppa near Ekkeri, vardahalli where my another aunt stays are very close to my heart and would love to visit during our summer vacation. The main cultivation wise near my native they grow paddy, betelnut, coconut, cashew nut. I think not many have tasted the fruit of cashew. So every year my aunts family who have their own plantation are busy in the process of picking betelnuts drying them and selling them eventually during the season. I am not much aware of the technics but me my sis and cousins would stroll round the village to have fun plucking the fresh fruits, veges and of course used to drink lots of tender coconut water. Only wish I had the pictures so that I could post them along. If we happen to peek in their lifestyle is so different and really very amazing though they have to go along quite a tough path. They all are so healthy even at this age cross my fingers but the fact is the nature and type of living makes a lot of difference.

The chief language of the district is Kannada, with minorities of Konkani, Marathi, and Tulu speakers. The population is predominantly Hindu, comprising of many communities like Havyaka, Nadavas, Gowda Saraswat brahmins, Vokkaligas, Sherugars, Namdharis and Vanis.

The Havyakas are united by their unique language. They speak a dialect of Kannada known as Havyaka Kannada. It is similar to mainstream Kannada but draws more words from ancient Kannada. However, most mainstream Kannada speakers find it difficult to understand Havyaka Kannada. The Havyaka dialect is supposed to be quite old. Its origins, like many other things in India, are shrouded in mystery. Notably certain Havigannada(Havyaka Kannada) speakers , more so in Uttara kannada, use neutral gender in place of feminine gender while addressing females. But Havyaks in certain part of Karnataka, like Kundapur, Thirthahalli, Kodagu do not speak Havigannada.

One of the most ancient Madukeshwara temple in Banavasi. If any friends/guests would visit the first one which my Dodappa would ask lets take them to Banavasi.The annual December cultural festival, Kadambothsav, is a huge gathering, organized by the state government, and featuring folk dancers, drama troupes, classical musicians, art exhibitions, while drawing together performers, artists, and writers from all of south IndiaBanavasi has long been a cultural centre, especially the Yakshagana art form. Today local artisans craft and sell the classical folk art Yakshagana masks here. Read more about Banavasi here

source:Wikipedia

JOG Falls

If you happen to go karanataka don’t miss the jog falls which is located near Sagar in Shimoga dist. This year the falls were breathtaking. These are  some of the photos sent by my friend. The best time would be in mansoon to visit these falls.River Sharavati falls  from the height of around 253 mts  and splits itself into four major falls called as Raja, Rani, Rocket and Roarer. Whenever i visited it would be dry never had been able to visit at the right time. Trekking up and down is really fun i made it only once during summer.

 

Coming to the dishes

Morning breakfast normally we are lovers of dosa, like uddina dose(urad dhall dosa thick ones), Bele dose(thin dhall dosa), Banana dosa(balehannu doddana), halasina hannu(jackfruit) dose, mogekai dose(cucumber dosa even made sweet and plain), Neer dosa(tellevu), uppitu/upuma, avallaki/poha various kinds. Plain iddilis are quite rare. We have sweet kadabu, chappe(plain) kadabu different kinds of steamed dumplings, rotis(phulkas)of wheat, jowar and rice, chapatis and thalipeetu of jowar, rice, wheat, ragi or mixed too.

Neer dose/Thellevu

All you need

par boiled  Rice - 1 cup
raw rice - 1 cup
fresh grated coconut - 1 cup

Method:

• Soak rice the previous night in water

• Next morning grind the rice and coconut to a fine paste

• The mixture should be thin like butter milk like we do for rava dose

• Heat the tava wait until it is hot

• Pour the batter like for rava dosa, the batter will spread itself and make sure to pour other sides just like rava dosa

• Once it has cooked just remove and serve immediately. Do not over turn the dosa

• The texture will be thin and spongy. Serve hot along with spicy chutney

Beluli chutney

All you need: 2 pods of garlic, 1 tsp jeera, 1 tsp urad dhall, 2 -dry chillies, 1/2 cup grated coconut, tamarind and salt as per taste.

Method: fry garlic, jeera, urad dhall chillies in 1 tsp of oil. Grind with all the other ingrediants. No tadka is required.

Avallaki Manohara

This sweet is normally made with fried boondi too. I just loved this sweet very first time i had at my mothe in laws place and was totally flat at it. But as i queried my mother in law she told we could as well make with poha. So this was a great way for me to skip the making of boondis.So here i go

 

All you need
Thick poha - 1 cup
jaggery - 1 cup
grated coconut - 1/4 cup
seseme seeds - 1 big tbsp

Method:

• Deep fry Avallaki(poha) in oil keep aside

• Dry roast seseme seeds until fragrant

• In a saucepan take jaggery add 2-3 tbsp water, grated coconut and let it boil until 2 thread consistency

• now turn off fire, add fried poha mix well add the seseme seeds and give a nice stir taking care not to break the poha

• Wait for 15 minute to cool it will seperate out like sweet boondis but a little crispy. This can be stored for a week.

• At my native they prepare with the natural jaggery ( neer bella/joni bella) color will be dark brown will write about this in my next post

Maddur vade

This has been blogged at various bloggers but I could not resist so I had make some maduravada vade maddur vade

All you need
Maida - 1/4 cup
Chiroti Rava/ fine semolina - 1 cup
Rice flour - 1/4 cup
coriander leaves - 1/2 cup
curry leaves - 1/2 cup
green chillies - 5-6
onions - 2 big
salt to taste

Method:

• cut chillies, onions. coriander leaves, curry leaves finely

• Mix all the three flours well with salt

• heat 1 tbsp of oil and add to the flour

• Add the chillies, onions, coriander leaves and curry leaves to the flour

• Add water and mix until to get a dough of consistency for vadas

• Pat on your palm or a plastic/waxed paper to a round circle and deep fry vadas in oil serve hot.

note: This is dough can be made a little stiff like for puris. Roll them to small puris, deep fry and can be stored like crunchy snack. Goes very well along with hot tea/coffee.

This goes for RCI Karnataka hosted by our dear blogger Asha from Foodieshope which is orginated from Lakshmi of VeggeCuisine

Thanks Sandeepa, Bharathi  and Tee for the inspiring awards.

ವರಲಕ್ಷ್ಮೀ ಹಬ್ಬ/Varalakshmi festival

 This post had to be posted long ago took so long to appear. It was busy month visiting my friends houses in the evenings and sweets and sweets and kara with all the yummy frieds crisp vadas. Basically every other day we ended up with lot of yummy food.

Here comes my lakshmi pooje. Usually it is celebrated on the 2nd friday of shravana. This year I celebrated on the 3rd friday due to time constraint. I had decided to take photos at each step but failed to get everything in time. The previous day I make ready with the cleaning the pooja room and get ready with all the items. My day started at 5 in the morning. By the time I started my son is wide awake thinking his mum is gonna leave him to work asking her to come to bed and pat him with the cosy cosy look …. oh no so i carry him on my waist try to make him sleep he is not happy try various ways this went on until 6.45. Well finally got him to wake up and start with the day with oil bath and sent him for an hour to play now got time. Just rushed and prepared kadale haigreeva, kesari and kadale usuli. Made ready to fry Ammanavra Vade. By then gang is back is back amma i am here. Washed him up sit for the pooja along with him.

Varalakshmi pooja is given in various websites. This custom I follow as given in the book Varakshmi pooje book. Pooja starts with kalsha stapane,ganapati pooje, chanting strotras on lakshmi and finally naivedyam. For naivedyam panchgajaya, panchamruta, kadale maddi/haigreeva, usuli and amman vade is considered auspicious and most liked by lakshmi. The kalasha is decorated stapane made on a bed of rice. This year I failed to buy banana leaves on which the plate of rice is placed.  My son was a playfull and let me continue with the pooja. At last when I bought the items for naivedyam one by one vada and usuli started to dissapear  who else our little krishna Anku was all the while eyeing it and gulped as it was placed  In the evening i had invited my friends around my place and was really tiring day. For the evening I prepared vangibhath, rava iddilis and ginger-coriander chutney, rave kesari bhath and fried vadas so was like a full day work. It so happened i expected guests even before planned I could not take a photo too :0.

Haigreeva/kaddale maddi

All you need
channa dhall - 1 cup
toor dhall - 2 tbsp
jaggery - 1.5 to 2 cups
cashew/almonds/raisins - handfull
cardomom powder - 1 tsp

Method

• Wash channa dhall and toor dhall pressure cook until soft but still in shape
• Mean while in another bowl mix jaggery with 1/4 cup water boil until jaggery dissolves strain to remove any impurities
• Return the jaggery mixture to heat again until slightly sticky mix in dhall mixture and let it simmer until all liquid evaporates
• Fry cashew/almonds/raisins in Ghee until golden brown and add to the dhall mixture
• mix in cardamon powder add a tbsp of ghee and mix.

Ammavara vade( most recommended to try)

This is one of most flavoured urad vada and only vadas made during lakshmi festives with a hole  at my home. my son ate the maximum vadas and in no time I started to feel whether it would be enough for my friends coming over. Luckily it was just nice since some of my friends were not able to make it too This is my entry for RCI hosted by one ofmy favorite blogger Asha from foodieshope!

All you need
urad dhall - 1 cup
chiroti rava/semolina - 1.5 to 2 cups
rice flour - 1/4 cup
coconut grated - 1/2 cup
dry chilles - 4-5
coriander seeds - 1 tbsp
jeera seeds - 1 tsp
Methi seeds - 1 tsp
mustard seeds - 1 tsp
tamarind paste - 1 tsp
jaggery - 1 tbsp
curry leaves - cut finely
ajwain - 1 tbsp

Method:

• soak urad dhall in water for 1 hour
• grind coconut and masala like chillies, coriander,jeera,methi, mustard to a fine powder
• Grind  urad dhall along with the fine powder, tamarind salt and jaggery to a fine paste using minumum water
• Mix rice flour and Rava to the urad dhall paste . i did not measure rava i added as much to make the paste thick like for vadas
• mix ajwain and curry leaves (very important) to the paste
• Deep fry the vadas until golden brown. make sure you make it slightly thick with a hole in the centre else the taste will be raw and will not fry well.

ಶ್ರಾವಣ ಮಾಸದ ಶುಭ ಆರಂಭ/Shravana ……starts with holige

The month of Shravana is considered the most auspisicious month of the Hindu calendar. The star shravana is said to rule the sky. This month becomes a busy for ladies especially on tuesdays and fridays who call  married ladies for sumangali pooje or Arisina kunkum. As kids we would enjoy going along with our mom to visit other houses eating the sweets and sundals/kadale vogarne. So every tuesday and fridays we would have sweet dishes and vadas of different kinds. Every day is Shravana is considered auspicious for different dieties. Newly married ladies are advised to perform gowri pooje on tuesdays during shravana.

 

Naga-panchami is the first festival falls on the 5th day of sharavana which is worshipped in honour of snakes or nagas. To know more about nag-panchami check out here.

The Below is from here
Each day in the month of Shravana has a special significance .
Monday: is the day of Lord Shiva worship. 
Tuesday: Gauri is worshipped in every home, by women for the good health of their family. Additionally ladies perform kumkum pooja too
Wednesday: are dedicated to Vithala, a form of Vishnu or Krishna. 
Thursday: are also days for worshipping Buddh and Guru.
Friday: every home worships Lakshmi and Tulsi, also perform sumangali pooje.
Saturday: are for Saturn (Shani). It is also known as Shravan Saturdays, with the object of object of obtaining wealth. These days are known as Sampat Sanivara (wealth Saturdays). i remember in shravan the temples would be full of yell deepa( black seseme tied in black cloth deepa offered to Shani God to obtain peace and harmony)
Sundays: are meant worshipping the Sun god. Sun worship was general in the Vedic period and even now it is so. Especially in Shravan, every Sunday the Sun is worshipped without fail. 

As for me I do enjoy celebrating these festivals and even my neightbourhood friends make me active in involving in these celebrations. But wholly i celebrate the festives with great pleasure when it is on weekend else I  atleast make sure the kids know the importance of the day and why is it celebrated. I myself was not aware of many festivals until I got married when i explored to find out more about them. Living far from your own culture sure makes us more to explore the roots of our culture.

This year Shravan Maasa started for me with a sweet dish Holige though usually I make of Channa dhall this year I made of Coconut.

All you need
for Dough
Plain flour - 1 cup
wheat flour - 1/4 cup
oil - 1/2 cup
pinch of tumeric(optional)
salt to taste

Hoorna- filling

grated coconut - 1 cup
jaggery - 1cup
rice flour - 1/4 cup
cardamom - 1/2 tsp
poppy seeds (optional)

 

Method

• Make the dough mixing all the ingredients to form a smooth dough just like for parathas and let it soak for 2 hrs or more
• make a fine paste of grated coconut and keep aside
• Boil jaggery with around 2 tbsp until it dissolves, strain the soln and heat again until it is slightly sticky
• now add the grated coconut and rice flour stiring continuously at times the qnantity may not hold well add more rice flour/coconut if it is too watery
• Stir until it forms a mass add cardamom stir and let it cool
• Check the dough take a small amount of it and spread on covering your palm using a little oil it is easily spreads without breakage then the dough is right
• Make small balls out of the hoorna and keep aside
• Spread the dough well covering your left palm keep a small lemon sized ball and cover the dough
• Take either a alluminium foil/waxed paper  to roll the holige
• If the dough the hoorna are well done you can make very thin holiges this goes with practise
• Heat on a non stick tava and fry until golden brown
• Allow to cool and refrigerate and use for 1 week.

The slide is showing the very first holige as you try the next few will be very thin and crisp.the outer covering as you roll must be like a transparent film. Don’t worry if you don’t get it right for the first time trial and error are part of learning phase.  I did not have time to take the rest of the snaps of hoorna and dough which have been provided in various sites do check them out at Shilpa’s version here.

Sweet and lovely Manisha from Indian Food Rocks has awarded me this The Power of Schmooze award. I am very greatfull to her and really not sure whether i deserve it . Thanks Manisha it has given me an additional boost with hectic routine.

The Power of Schmooze Award is for bloggers who “effortlessly weave their way in and out of the blogosphere, leaving friendly trails and smiles, happily making new friends along the way. They don’t limit their visits to only the rich and successful, but spend some time to say hello to new blogs as well. They are the ones who engage others in meaningful conversations, refusing to let it end at a mere hello - all the while fostering a sense of closeness and friendship.”

I would like to pass this on to

Bharathy
Vanamala
Suma
Cute Sia from SpiceCorner my passionate inspirer thinks that i rock and given me this Rocking Blogger Award. . Thanks dear for the rocking award.

I would like to pass on to all the rocking bloggers
Lakshmi
Grihini
Priyanka
Athika
Seec
I would like to add a thanks note to all my family, friends, the wonderfull blogger buddies whose coment always means an inspiration an award itself when i first started to blog, visitors who leave a note once a while and also the ghost readers who some might not feel free to comment and some who would not want to comment who have less idea of what a comment would mean to us bloggers too who have made me go along with blogging so long. Thanks a lot it means a lot to me to continue…..

Thanks a lot for all my friends who kept a note and messages enquiring about my well being. Last week i was down with infection along with the work load I might be on and off with blogging from this month. I will try to visit your blogs when I find some time. Do continue visiting and blogging

ಕಡಲೆ ಬೇಳೆ ಹೋಳಿಗೆ/Puran Poli

Holige is commonly prepared during ugadi/Deepavali. The afternoon before the festive is day the women folks would be very busy preparing this delicious holige. Now we can even get in bakeries but the texture is thin and fine.

I remember when i was a child along with my sister would sit along with my mum and her loving sisters, who would chit chat with a lot of fun wow those were the days we all miss. one would make the kanaka with the hoorna, one would roll it and the other would bake it. As it falls to paper spread to cool it would just vanish guess who .

At the end we would always ask my mom can i bake one please…. and once they let us bake small small rotis with the remaining kanaka and we would take them and run to play with our kitchen set.

It has nearly been 2 years since i prepared holige, at first i thought hope it does not end up a failure.  well i would advise not to skip the step of grinding the dhalls as dhall looks cooked well but at times if have not mashed well you would end up getting holes in the holige .

Samagri

Hoorna

channa dhall - 2.5 cups

toor dhall - 1/2 cup

grated coconut - 1/2 cup(optional)

poppy seeds - 1 tbsp

cardamom powder - 1 tsp

nutmeg powder - 1/2 tsp

jaggery - 3 cups

For covering/kanaka

plain flour - 2 cups

wheat flour - 1/2 cup

turmeric powder - 1 tsp

salt and water

oil - 1 -2 tbsp

Hoorna preparation

• Wash both the dhalls and pressure cook for 6 whistles

• Strain the water from the cooked dhalls used for preparation of holige saaru

• Check the dhalls mash well until mushy to make it easy i grind it with jaggery

• After mashing add powdered jaggery if not added.

• If the hoorna is wet keep the mixture on fire on medium heat until the consistensy of the hoorna is reached

• The hoorna should be semi dry when formed a ball it should retain the shape like for  aloo parathas.

• Add nutmeg,elachi powder, poppy seeds, grated coconut and mix well

• Once cooled make into lemon sized balls

Kanaka preparation

• Mix maida and wheat flour with salt, turmeric powder and water

• knead the dough well the dough should be soft and sticky

• add oil to the dough and cover with a wet cloth let it rest for 2 hours.

Preparation of holige

• Take a plastic paper/banana leaf /even paper is fine

• applying some oil to your hands take some kanaka make it flat like we make for parathas

• take a lemon sizes hoorna cover it all sides uniformly

• Roll the holige applying some maida flour to roll

• heat a non stick girdle bake the holige until golden brown on both sides.

• serve with ghee/milk/sugar syrup as your taste