Hesarubele panchakajjaya / Split green gram panchakajjaya

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Panchakajjaya is a sweet dish popular from coastal Karnataka made mostly during Ganesha Festival as offering (Naivedya). There are five main ingredients in this, green gram, jaggery, coconut, Ghee and Cashews.  It's believed that panchakajjaya is Lord Ganesha's favorite food. Here is my mother's recipe that I follow.

Ingredients:

Hesaru bele / Split green gram: 1/2 cup
Grated Coconut: 1/2 cup
Jaggery: 1/4 cup
Cashew: 10
Clarified Butter/Ghee: 1 tbsp
Cardamom powder: 1 pinch

Method:

1. Dry Roast green gram in a pan until they are golden in color and keep aside.

2. Heat ghee in the same pan and fry cashews and transfer into a plate and keep aside.

3. In the same pan mix freshly grated coconut, jaggery and cardamom and cook for 2-3 mins. Jaggery will melt and combine with coconut.

4. To this mixture add roasted green gram and cashews and mix.

5. Alternatively you can grind the roasted green gram into a coarse powder and mix with coconut and jaggery.

5. Serve as an offering to lord Ganesha.

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Gari Gari Shankarpali | Sweet Crispy Fritters

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Shankarpali is a great tea time snack. A little sweetish with a wee bit of salt makes this a perfect sweet cum savory to munch on anytime of the day. It can be stored at room temperature for 2-3 weeks. You can pack it for picnics or munch on while watching movies. Here is the simple and easy recipe to make these crispy shankarpalis.

Ingredients:

Maida/All Purpose Flour: 4 cups
Clarified Butter/Ghee: 3/4 cup
Sugar: 1 cup
Water: 1 cup
Salt: 1/2 tsp
Baking Soda: 1/4 tsp

Method:

1. Heat Sugar, ghee and water in a pan until the sugar melts completely. Turn off the flame and let it cool down completely.

2. Mix in flour, salt and baking soda and add the cooled water part by part and start kneading the flour. Make a thick dough. Adjust the quantity of flour if the dough is soft. Cover the dough and keep it for one hour.

3. Roll a lemon sized dough into 1/2 cm thick sheet and cut it into diamond shaped pieces. Deep fry in hot oil on medium flame until golden brown color.

4. Remove on absorbent paper towel and store in the airtight jar. You can store it for 15 days at room temperature. I wonder who's going to leave them for 15 days ;-)

Notes:
1.Keep the flame on medium always to evenly fry the shankarpali.

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Kodubale | A special snack from Karnataka

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Kodubale is a special snack from Karnataka - a festive snack usually made during ganesha festival or deepavali. The list pof ingredients is quite simple but just need a little effort to roll and fry them. Once you start munching on this crispy snack all the effort will seem worth it :-) It's a very addictive snack and I must say the tagline 'no one can eat just one' suits kodubale aptly.

I have adapted the recipe from Swayampaka channel. It's an easy recipe. Do give it a try and impress your family members :-)

Ingredients:
Chiroti Rava/Semolina/Small Sooji: 1/4 cup
All purpose Flour/Maida: 1/5 cup (little less than 1/4 cup)
Rice Flour: 1 cup
Oma/Ajawain/Carom seeds: 1/2 tsp
Salt: 1 tsp
Asafoetida/Hingu : 1/4 tsp
Oil: 3 tbsp + for deep frying
Fresh Coconut: 1/2 cup
Dry red chillies: 8-10 (Byadagi / kashmir non spicy variety)

Method:

1. Heat a pan and add all purpose flour and semolina and warm them for a min. Transfer to a mixing bowl, when it is still warm add 1 tsp oil and mix it well and keep it aside.

2. In a mixer jar grind together coconut and dry red chillies with a little water.

3. Add the ground coconut paste, rice flour, asafoetida, salt and ajwain seeds to Rava and maida mixture and combine everything well.

4. Heat 2 tbsp oil until it's smoking hot and add to the mixture and mix them with a spoon. Do not touch with bare hands as the oil will be too hot.

5. Once its cooled down a bit, knead into a soft dough with hands by adding very little water at a time to get a soft kodubale dough. Keep it covered for 15 minutes.

6. Heat oil in frying pan or a deep wok on medium heat.

7. While the oil is heating, take a spoonful of dough and hand roll it into 1/2" thick rope size and join the ends to make a circle. Repeat the steps and make about 6-8 kodubale in one batch.

8. Drop them into hot oil one by one and deep fry on low- medium heat for about 2-3 minutes and flip it and fry the other side also until both sides turn into golden brown color. 

9. Remove on a kitchen towel, bring them to room temperature and store in an air tight jar.

Notes:
1. Make the oil very hot before adding to the flour mixture and it should make sound when poured on the flour mix.
2. Be careful while kneading the dough as the hot oil can scald your palm.
3. Keep the flame on low-medium while deep frying and give it enough time to fry, otherwise the kodubale will be crisp from outside but raw inside.
4. If the dough breaks while rolling, touch a little water or oil and knead the dough well and roll again. If it doesn't help add a little all purpose flour/maida and try again.
5. Fry Kodubale immediately after rolling if not it will break while frying.

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