Oondlakal

Okay, so perhaps I am cheating slightly with this, but having struggled to find an Aamchi dish starting with an "O", I have decided (after consultation with the elders in the family of course!) to make Undlakal into an "O" recipe - that is allowed, right? Otherwise, you might have to suggest a recipe I can try with an "O".

To put it simply, Oondlakal feels like the Aamchi equivalent of dough balls. It is certainly an any-time-of-the-day snack; something my amma (amamma/grandmother) would have at one of her "high teas" (which mostly ends up with food enough to cover all meals in a day!)

They are quite simple to make. I know I sound like a stuck record when I say this for most of the recipes I have tried but it really is. A huge plus point is that it caters to both, the sweet and the savoury tooth. I made half of it sweet (using jaggery, cardamom powder, and coconut) and the other; savoury (using green chillies, coriander, and coconut). While the dough balls are meant to be quite firm and are then deep fried, mine remained slightly soft (not enough flour, or not cooked long enough, perhaps?) and I shallow fried them in a pan. So the didn't quite retain their perfect round shape, but even so, they were tasty!

The photo doesn't do justice to this dish, especially it was a dull, overcast autumnal day (sigh, a sign of dull and cold wintry days ahead), but trust me, it did not take us long to polish both the versions off. That was my first time making and tasting this dish, and it was delish!

Ingredients

Dough balls

3/4 cup of rice flour

1/2 cup of wheat flour

2-3 cups of water

1 tbsp Coconut oil

Sweet mixture

1/2 cup desiccated coconut

1/2 cup jaggery powder

1-2 tsp ground cardamom

1/4-1/2 cup water

Savoury mixture

1/2 cup desiccated coconut

1 green chilly

1 tsp coconut oil

1/4 tsp asafoetida or hing

Salt to taste

Handful of fresh coriander

Method

Dough balls

1. Boil the water in a saucepan and add coconut oil. Note: Hot water from a kettle will speed the process up.

2. Once boiled, sprinkle the two flours into the pan. Mix well to get rid of any lumps and until a smooth dough is formed. It should come together and away from the sides of the pan. Leave the dough to cool for around 10-15 minutes.

3. Smear some oil on your palms and take small amounts of the dough to roll into small round dough balls (roughly 2 cm in diameter).

4. Shallow fry the dough balls in a pan. I was finding that the oondlakal balls started to stick to the pan but by lifting the pan ever so often and giving the oondlakal a good shake they would stop sticking, and would roast evenly too. They should be well cooked and nicely browned. Note: by all means, you can deep fry your oondlakal. Perhaps they will retain their shape better, and will definitely become more crispy!

For the sweet and savoury mixtures

5. For the god (pronounced "goad") soyee (means sweet grated coconut) mixture - mix the jaggery, desiccated coconut, and cardamom powder. Add just a little water to this mixture and cook it slightly over the flame, to melt the jaggery and evenly mix it with the coconut.

6. For the savoury mixture, finely chop the green chilly and fresh coriander. In a pan heat the coconut oil, and add the asafoetida (hing). Saute the chopped green chilly, the desiccated coconut, and then add the salt and chopped coriander.

Dough balls + Mixture

7. Once the oondlakal (dough balls) and the sweet and savoury mixtures are ready, mix half the oondlakal with the sweet mixture (god soyee) and the other half with the savoury mixture.

And that is it.

A cup of tea, and a bowl of oondlakal. Mmmmm. Or, would you rather have it as dessert after a nice Aamchi meal? Let me know how you prefer your oondlakal?

Narla Kheer

I am playing major catch-up with my challenge. I think I underestimated the impact of full time lawyer-ing and being new parents on energy levels, and more importantly how quickly days are turning into weeks and months! How are we already in the last quarter of the year? I cannot seem to decide whether I want 2020 to go faster, or slower as it has been a rather bittersweet one- notwithstanding the ongoing pandemic which we obviously want to see the end of, this year has brought us the biggest bundle of abundant joy, who will be one soon and I already don't want him growing so fast!

Anyway, thanks to all my avid followers (I hope there are at least a few!) who would have been waiting with baited breath for my posts, I have now got back on track. On to my "N" dish, for which I have made Narla (i.e. Coconut) kheer. If you haven't come across this one before, don't be fooled by the word 'kheer', as it is not a sweet dish at all. In fact, we Aamchis also call it the "cheppe kheeri" . "Cheppe" in Aamchi means bland and it sure is - which is why I have never been a huge fan (if it ain't spicy I not likey!). But, complement hot cheppe kheer with a spicy pickle like appemidi/ appinmidi (a type of pickle made with tender (baby) mangoes) it is prettttty divine, and extremely comforting!

Narla or Cheppe Kheeri is made with rice, freshly extracted coconut milk, and with the subtle and gentle flavour of turmeric leaves. The leaves of turmeric taste nothing like the spice (which is quite strong and derived from the root-like stem of the turmeric plant). The richness of the coconut milk and the aroma of the turmeric leaves ("haldi paan") gets amalgamated into the rice on cooking leaving a very smooth, creamy, and fragrant dish.

As I understand it, this is a monsoon dish as turmeric leaves grow in abundance in this season. Further, narla kheer and paattholi (a sweet dumpling made with flour, coconut and jaggery, and steamed in turmeric leaves) are key to the offering made to Devi Parvathi for Gouri puja or Taiyyi (the day before Ganesh Chaturthi).

In our most recent episode of #thoystories with Renuka Nadkarni, Renuka demonstrated this recipe so wonderfully and explained the significance of the dish in great detail.

The little one is turning out to be quite a foodie, but unfortunately narla kheer wasn't so much to his liking. Maybe its an acquired taste (one that he will acquire when he starts having it at every Gouri puja going forward), but perhaps it will grow on him at some point (like it has with me).

Ingredients

1/2 cup rice

1 cup of coconut milk (canned)

2 cups of water (preferrably hot)

5-6 haldi paan/turmeric leaves

1 tbsp desiccated coconut

Method

1. Wash and cook the rice with two cups of water and 1-2 turmeric leaves in the pressure cooker for 3-4 whistles. Note: You want the rice to be slightly over done and soft and the cooking with turmeric leaves infuses the flavour into the rice at the outset.

2. Once the rice is cooked, add the desiccated coconut and coconut milk. Note: As I used canned coconut milk, I found that the desiccated coconut adds a little bit more texture and makes it look more authentic.

3. Add the remainder of the turmeric leaves and let it simmer until some of the coconut milk is absorbed.

And that is it. Yet another incredible simple recipe! As I mention above, the perfect combo is narla/cheppe kheer with some spicy appinmidi!

Madgane

The one occasion for which Madgane (‘mud – guh – neigh’) will definitely be made in all aamchi households is Ganesh Chaturthi/ Chauthi or Chavathi/ Ganpati, as it is a firm favourite of lord Ganesh. I have never been a huge fan of madgane, but this year is different . It was Aatmay's first Gouri Puja and Ganesh Chathurthi and we were very enthusiastic about celebrating it properly for him.

Despite everything we had on our hands, we attempted to make a complete smorgasbord of dishes for both pujas, including chaklis and somashes/kaanjis, the latter being baked. The extensive use of coconut ensured that most dishes were vegan friendly. I'm glad Aatmay, who is on track to becoming a foodie like me, also had the chance to try the food and seemed to relish everything!

Thankfully, Chauthi fell on a weekend and so I could help with preparing some of the dishes. I made the kholmbo (aamchi version of sambar) - not just because it is one of my all time favourites but because I wanted to make it my way (aka spicy!) and the madgane. Quite surprisingly, this time I ended up liking the madgane.

Madgane is not a very difficult thing to make, and I worked on the Rasachandrika recipe to make it even easier. The main ingredient used in its preparation is split chickpeas or chana dal. The other ingredients are jaggery, coconut milk, cashews, and green cardamom. That's it. It has a lovely mild sweetness owing to the jaggery and the use of coconut milk gives it a richness which however doesn't feel too heavy or intense unlike many traditional sweets. The dal and cashews add to the texture.

This recipe is in the Rasachandrika on page 141 under "Bengal gram kheer (madgane) but the recipe below is my modification of it (i.e. the 'under time pressure' recipe!)

Ingredients:

1 cup chana dal (washed and soaked overnight, or at least for a few hours)

1 cup powdered jaggery (could be altered to your liking)

1/2 cup cashew nuts

1-1.5 cups coconut milk

3-4 green cardamoms/elaichi or 1/2 tsp green cardamom powder

Method:

1. Cook the soaked dal in double the amount of water , in a pressure cooker for 3-4 whistles.

2. Coarsely chop the cashew nuts and keep aside.

3. Add the powdered jaggery, the coarsely chopped cashewnuts, 1-1.5 cups more of water and cook further for another 2-3 whistles. Note: I added the jaggery right at the outset and cooked the dal straight for 5-6 whistles, followed by adding the cashews and cooking for 1-2 whistles. But, I was constantly worried that the dal or jaggery would stick to the bottom of the cooker and get burnt. Hence my suggestion is to first semi-cook the dal, then cook it fully with the jaggery and the cashew nuts so it absorbs the sweetness.

3. Add the coconut milk, and green cardamom powder and mix. Note: if you do not have ready cardamom powder, you could just add 3-4 green cardamoms to the dal before you start cooking it.

4. Boil the madgane properly and serve

And that is it - sweet and mild. Enjoy!