Ganesh Chaturthi Menu

1. Khara Kadabu
2. Hirekai Chutney
3. Kosumbari
4. Hoornad Saru
5. Cucumber Majjige Huli
6. Sweet Kadabu

1. Khara Kadabu

For the rice dough:
1 cup water
1 tsp oil
A pinch of salt
1 cup rice flour

• Boil water with oil and salt.
• When the water boils, add the rice flour, stir to make a dough and turn off the heat.
• Allow to cool.
• Shape the dough into little balls and roll it out into a circle.

Stuffing

There are several options for the stuffing, here is one that we tried.

1 cup channa dal
4 green chilles, chopped
half a bunch of coriander leaves
1/2 onion, finely chopped

• Soak the channa dal in water for 3 hours.
• Drain the water from the channa dal entirely.
• Grind the channa dal with the green chillies and coriander without adding any water. The consistency of the ground channa dal should be coarse.
• Mix the onions and add salt to taste.

Assembling and cooking the kadabu.

• Roll out the dough into a little circle.
• Place the stuffing in the centre , fold over and seal. Use a dash of water to seal the kadabu if needed.
• Wrap the kadabu in parchment paper or banana leaf.
• Steam. We used the following pressure cooker settings for an electric cooker. High pressure for 10 minutes and used quick release of pressure.

2. Hirekai Chutney

Peel of 1 ridge gourd
1 onion sliced (optional, we didn’t use it)
1 tbsp channa dal
1 tbsp urad dal
4-5 dry red chillies
1/8 tsp tamcon paste
few curry leaves

• Pressure cook the ridge gourd peels.
• Roast channa dal, urad dal and red chillies
• Fry onion.
• Grind roasted dals, red chillies, onion, ridge gourd, curry leaves, tamcon paste together.
• Season with mustard seeds

3. Kosumbari

1 cup moong dal
2 tbsp coconut
1/2 cup grated carrot
seasoning
4-5 green chillies
mustard seeds

• Soak the dal in water for an hour. Then, drain the water completely.
• Mix grated carrot.
• To prepare the seasoning, heat oil, add mustard, green chillies and curry leaves. Add the seasoning to the dal and carrot mixture.
• Add grated coconut to the mixture.
• Squeeze lime over the kosumbari.

4. Hoornad Saru

To prepare the hoorna:

1 cup kadale bele (channa dal)
1 cup powdered jaggery
2 tablespoon grated coconut

• Wash the kadale bele and cook in pressure cooker.
• Melt jaggery, until it appears frothy.
• Add coconut, dal, cardamom and clove to the jaggery. Stir and continue heating until a thick consistency is reached. (i.e. until the water has evaporated from the dal mixture)

For the rasam:

2 teaspoon rasam powder
1/2 teaspoon tamarind paste

• To the above hoorna mixture, add 4 cups water, rasam powder, salt, curry leaves and tamarind paste.
• Let the mixture boil and then simmer for 15 minutes.

5. Cucumber Majjige Huli

1 cup sour curds
1 cup cucumber (the round variety)
1/4 cup channa dal
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
2 teaspoons jeera
6 peppercorns
a pinch of turmeric
1/4 cup grated coconut
4 green chillies
small piece of onion (approximately an eighth of an onion)
2 pods garlic
1 inch piece of ginger
4 curry leaves

• Grind  channa dal, coriander, jeera, peppercorns, turmeric, grated coconut, green chillies, onion, garlic, ginger and curry leaves together to a fine paste.
• Boil the cucumber.
• Cook the vegetables with the ground paste.
• Add sour curds and seasoning. To prepare seasoning, heat oil, add mustard and curry leaves.

6. Sweet Kadabu

Stuffing

1 cup grated coconut
1 cup jaggery powder
4 cardamoms

• Heat the jaggery and melt it.
• Add the cocounut to the melted jaggery, constantly stirring until them mixture thickens.
• Mix in the cardamom

For assembly and cooking, follow the same procedure as the khara kadabu.

Gujarati Dal

We got this recipe from my mother who in turn got it from a friend. Thanks to Manju aunty for this delicious and flavourful dal.

1 cup toor dal (soak for 15 mins)
2 tomatoes, finely chopped
pinch of turmeric (optional)

for the masala:
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp dhania powder
1 tsp grated ginger
1 green chilly
3 tsp jaggery

for seasoning:
2 , 1 inch sticks cinnamon
2 cloves
1 tsp methi seeds
1 tsp mustmustard
1 tsp jeera
good helping of hing (optional)
1 red chilly
6-7 curry leaves
put them in this order

• Add seasoning to heated oil and continue heating until it splutters.
  
• Add the seasoning to the soaked dal, tomatoes, turmeric, water and pressure cook till done. (8 min, high pressure, quick release)
  
• Whisk dal well.
• Add the masala to the dal and boil.

Ragi Dosa

1 cup ragi flour
1/2 cup grated coconut
1 onion, finely chopped
3 green chillies, finely chopped
11/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
2 cups warm water

• Mix all the ingredients with warm water.
• Cook on both sides on a lightly oiled pan.

Raw Jackfruit Palya

We tried this Mangalorean recipe for lunch and like it. We used frozen green jackfruit. We followed the recipe below as is.

http://www.recipezaar.com/204035

Cucumber Dal

This is a modified Andhra recipe, we found at http://www.nandyala.org/mahanandi/archives/2006/10/09/lemon-cucumber-dal-budamkaya-pappu/.
We made it without the onion and garlic so as to let the flavour of the cucumber stand out.

3 yellow round cucumbers
1/2 cup toor dal
4 green chillies, finely chopped
Juice of a 2 inch piece tamarind
Curry leaves

Seasoning
1 tsp jeera

1. Peel, de-seed and cut the cucumber into approximately one inch pieces.
2. Cook cucumber with a little water and the tamarind juice. You can microwave it for 5 minutes.
3. Cook the dal with a pinch of turmeric, a drop of oil and the green chillies.
4. Once the dal is cooked, add the cooked cucumber, curry leaves, seasoning of jeera, salt and simmer.