Obattu (stuffed pancake with toor dal, cardamom and jaggery)
TOOR DAL FILLING
Toor dal: One cup
Jaggery: One tbsp
Tumeric: Two pinches
Cardamom: One eighth teaspoon
Oil: One teaspoon
Maida: Three fourth cup
Fine rava: Three fourth cup
Tumeric: One fourth cup
Salt:One tablespoon
Oil:One tablespoon
Method:
Sieve maida, fine rava, turmeric and salt together.
Make a soft dough using water
Transfer the dough to a utensil. Add water to it, so that the dough is immersed in the water completely.
Keep aside for two to three hours
Drain the water completely.
Add two or three tablespoons of oil. Knead the dough, using your fingers till the dough becomes soft.
When you pull-up small quantity of the dough, it should stretch without breaking. If it does not stretch, add little water and knead again.
Smear the dough with little oil. Cover with a bowl upside down. Keep aside for at least one hour to make soft holiges.
Wash toor dal. Add about four cups of water, two pinches of turmeric and 1 teaspoon of oil. Cook till the dal is just tender. Do not cook till the dal is soft.
Separate the water from the dal, using a strainer. Keep aside the water to make sambar.
Break the jaggery into small pieces
Fry the jaggery pieces and toor dal in a thick-bottomed kadai. After few minutes, turn the flame to low and keep mixing. Otherwise, the mixture will get burnt quickly.
First, the mix becomes little watery. After sometime it becomes thick.
Add cardamom powder. Mix. Switch off the stove. If you are going to use tilter/grinder, set aside the mixture to cool.
Grind this mixture to a paste. This is called filling/hoorana.
Transfer the filling to a bowl. Keep this bowl in a utensil containing cold water. Cover the utensil with a wet cloth.
For Obattu:
Make lemon-sized balls from the filling.
Take a holige paper or butter paper. Spread little oil on the entire paper.
Coat your fingers with oil. Take a portion of the dough, which should be about three-quarter size of a lemon. Place it on the holige paper.
Spread the dough, so it is the size of a poori
Place one ball of the filing in the centre of the dough. Cover the filling completely with the dough, by lifting its edges and placing them on the top of the filling.
Reverse the dough and press it lightly.
Spread the dough into a thin holige, using your fingers or a rolling pin .
Heat a tawa. Spread little oil.
Reverse the holige paper which has the uncooked holige and place it on the tawa, so the holige will be placed directly on the tawa. Remove the holige paper.
Wait for 1-2 minutes. When the holige color changes, sprinkle few drops of oil and flip the holige. Cook till both sides turn to golden brown.
Nimmakaya Annam (Lemon Rice)
Ingredients:
Rice: Two cups
Curry leaves: four to six
Lemons: Three lemons (approx 6-7 tbsps of juice)
Roasted peanuts: Three teaspoons
Salt to taste
For Tempering:
Oil:One tablespoon
Mustard seeds: Half teaspoon
Urad dal/minappa pappu/split gram dal: One and a half teaspoon
Channa dal/senaga pappu/bengal gram: One and a half teaspoon
Chillis, tear and de-seeded: Two nos.
Pinch of hing
Grated ginger: Half teaspoon
Haldi: One fourth teaspoon
METHOD
Heat oil in a vessel, add the mustard seeds and as they begin to sizzle, add the dals and allow them to turn slightly red, add curry leaves, green chillies, grated ginger, red chillies and stir fry for few more seconds. Add asafoetida and turmeric powder, roasted peanuts and combine. Turn off heat.
Add salt to taste and three fourth of the lemon juice and combine well. Add the seasoning and combine that it coats the rice well.
Taste and if you feel that it needs more tang, add more lemon juice accordingly.
The writer is a chef at JW Marriott
