GHAVAN - NEER DOSA - WHATEVER U SAY

In Malvani , it is called GHAVAN. Made from only rice and no fermentation required for this Dosa. It is prepared on an Cast Iron Griddle , something which can be found in every Malvani house. We have grown up consuming these dosas with a cup of hot CHAI. On festival days , it is accompanied with RAS , which makes it prefect as sweet dish also. On my recent trip to Malvan, i found out how lucky we are !!! We were visiting Tarkarli beach and in one of the nearby Hotel , 2 ghavans were sold for Rs.25/-. OMG and people were paying for it!! I think i have always understimated these pretty white beauties. Same day morning , my mom had prepared these white beauties with green mango chutney for breakfast. My husband did not count how much he ate. After looking at the price , he was little embarassed. But it actually doesn't cost that much. Here is the recipe :-

GHAVAN:-

Ingredients :-

Rice :- 1 cup (Soaked in water for 4/5 hrs)

Salt :- As per taste

Oil for applying to griddle

Recipe :-

• Grind the rice to paste with water . Add more water till you get liquid consistency. Add salt to it.
• Oil the griddle uniformely and pour the batter. Cover it and let it cook for 1 mins.
• With the help of a spatula , lift the dosa from one side till centre and fold it on the other half.
• Finally remove from the griddle and place it in dish. It taste best when served warm with chutney.

One can also serve the same with SWEET COCONUT RAS as a sweet dish.

COCONUT RAS :-

Fresh Coconut :- 1 cup

Cardamoom :- 3-4 crushed

Jaggery :- 3/4th cup

Cummins :- 1/2 teaspoon

Recipe :-

• Grind the coconut and cummins seeds.
• Add water to it and squeez the coconut milk.
• Now add jaggery and cardamom powder and mix it till jaggery melts in coconut milk. Add a bit of turmeric powder.

The Coconut Ras is ready to be served with GHAVAN.

PURANPOLI

MODAK - BUT THIS TIME ITS FRIED

As I have already mentioned on my blog that Lord Ganesha is my favourite God and we do Puja on Sankashti Chaturthi every month and offer HIM piping hot Steamed Modak . For past few such chaturthi's my steamed modak were not turning the way it has to be , thanks to the store brought rice flour . Last Chaturthi I decided to prepare fried Modak. We thought even Bappa needs some change in taste. (Bappa or we ? Anyways) . So I logged on to my favorute marathi site Marathiworld.com to find a recipe. The site is in marathi. So those who can not read the same in marathi , following is the translation :-

Fried Modak:
INGREDIENTS :
Grated Coconut :- 2 cup
Jaggery :- 1 cup
Cardamom Powder :- 1 tsp
Maida :- 1 cup
Semolina ;- 1 cup
Pinch of salt
Hot Oil :- 2-3 tsp
Cashew Nuts :- Optional (Since I belong to konkan , i always have a good supply of cashews so i keep using the same in many of the recipes in which it will add flaour to it)
For Frying :-
Oil or Vanaspati or Ghee
Recipe:-

• Mix the jaggery , a bit if ghee (clarified butter) and scrapped coconut in thick bottomed pan till the mixture is uniform and has no lumps of jaggery.
• Mix Semolina , salt and Maida thouroughly and add 3 tspn very hot oil to it and mix well . Knead the flour , preferable in milk or water and cover and keep it aside for an hour.Knead the flour well and make small puris.
• Take the puris on your palm and put the filling on it and bring together the ends in form of plates and form a tip and seal the same. Repeat the procedure for rest of dough balls.(Cover all the modaks with wet cloth to avoid drying resulting in cracking)
• Fry all the Modaks in oil or ghee or Vanaspati till light golden.

Modaks were really good and tasted amazing. A must try for those who are not lucky enough with Steamed Modak.

AAMRAS - MANGO , MANGO & MANGOES.........

"Aamras & Puri " . Such a beautiful combination and a very quick sweet dish or dessert. I am a kinda person who enjoys eating mangoes with both the hands with mango squeez running along the hands. It has its own magical ,mysticals( whatever u call sort)taste. This can be attributed to my upbringing in Malvan , where as a kid we had all the liberty to pick the mangoes from the trees and eat it like that without even caring to wash it. Some may find it really awful but i have sincere suggestion for those to shed all the inhibitions of the sophisticated social world and live only one day out the reach of the fast city life . You ll enjoy and your souls will be refreshed. Thats the reason a summer holiday in Malvan is must for me & my husband just to refresh our senses.
This year the mango crop was not so good attributed to untimely rain.One can say it was a recession in Mango field also. But still we (my husband specifically)enjoyed the season thanks to my father. He made sure that we are no where affected by the recession in Mango field.
He is perfect at preparing the AAMRAS. The bowl full of Aamras which u are seeing in picture is prepared by him.He not only gets the mangoes for me and my brother but also takes a stock of them in every 1-2 days(.Since sometimes becuase of heat the mangoes get rotten inside the box .) That's major advantage for me staying nearer to my brother's place. Usually the AAMRAS is prepared by sqeezing the mangoes with hand and combing it with sugar as per your taste.But my father's recipe is as follows :
INGREDIENTS :
Mangoes :- 2-3 fully riped
Sugar :- As per taste
Milk :- 2 tablespoon
Cashews :- 3-4
Cardamom :- for flavour
RECIPE :

• Peel off the riped mangoes and squeez it in grinder.
• Add sugar, milk , cardamom powder and cashews.
• Grind it till smooth.
• Chill well .

Aamras is actually served with PURI'S in Maharashtra. But we prefer to have it as a dessert.

Full mango flavour is on.....

Lord Ganesha's Favourite - MODAK

Lord Ganesh is my favourite god. Whenever I look at HIM , I feel that all my tensions are relieved. I can never imagine that HE can ever be angry on anyone. HE is so cute, adorable and still has that command over you . My bonding with HIM goes back to my growing up days. Since I belong to Konkan region , we are grown up worshipping him during the Ganesh Chaturthi . As a kid , we used to gear up for Festival like anything. At my place , we keep Ganesh idol at home for 11 days. During all these days , the fun quotient used to be very high & still it is . The preparation would start 1 month prior to the festival. The house is used to be cleaned and painted every year before festival. We, kids used to enjoy every bit of it . It may be a ordeal for our elders to clean such big houses.

I still remember and miss those days. We used to get up early in the morning and get ready to go along with papa to bring the idol at home. In konkan , the idols are made of clay and not of plastar of paris and are very heavy , require at least 6-7 people to lift them. Ours is a joint family . My granny, mother and all aunties used to start their food preparations since morning . There is used to be a great spread of at least 5 vegetables, gravies , dal , snacks and the highlight of the menu…. MODAK!!! The favourites of Lord Ganesha....

We prepare Modaks of rice flour and they are steamed. I prepare Modak every month on the day of "Sankashti Chaturthi".
Ingredients :-
Rice Flour :- 1 Cup
Coconut :- 1 Cup
Jaggery :- 1/2 Cup ( add as required)
Ghee :- 2 tsp
Cardamom powder to flavour
Cashews,raisin :- Optional
Recipe :-

1. Boil 1 and 1/2 cup of water in a heavy bottomed pan. Add salt and ghee to it.


2. Add rice flour to it and cook it covered on low flame for 4-5 mins. (UKAD is ready)


3. Add jaggery to wok and cook till it melts. Add scraped coconut and cardamom to it. Mix it thourughly.


4. Add cashews and raisins (Optional. I like the cruch while eating it). Your SARAN is ready


5. Take the cooked rice flour in dish and knead it properly. Divide the dough into small balls.(Generally I make 21 modaks for naivedya)


6. Roll each ball to size of small puri.Place it on your Palm(apply oil generoulsy to your palm to avoid sticking of the dough) Fill it with saran.


7. Bring together the ends in form of plates and form a tip and seal the same. Repeat the procedure for rest of dough balls.(Cover all the modaks with wet cloth to avoid drying resulting in cracking)


8. Oil a colander and arrange all the modaks in it. Boil water in a big pot and keep the colander covered with dish on it and steam it 10- 15 mins. ( Those who have a steamer can steam the modaks in it.)

The NAIVEDYA is ready to be offered to Lord Ganesh.

During rainy season , the HALDI leaves are available. The modaks are to covered with these leaves and steamed. It gives them such exotic aroma. Mind blowing.......... Generally we stored the dried leaves also and put them in while steaming.. it also helps