Neetha Bhoopalam sharing a festive recipe -Ganesh Chaturthi special

We have featured this interesting mum earlier too. Among her busy schedules at home with rituals and celebrations, Neetha BN shared with Mums and stories an authentic Karnataka recipe for the occasion of Ganesh chathurti.

Neetha Bhoopalam is a restaurant and brand consultant, a culinary trainer among the various pursuits she taken in life.

Wishing Neetha and all our readers a happy festive season.

Recipe- Hoornada Karjikayi – a sweet dish of dal filled kadubu:

Stuffing :

Toor dal – 1 cup

Water – 4 1/2 cups

Jaggery – 1 cup

Turmeric: 1tsp

Khus Khus : 1 1/2 tbsp

Ghee : 1tbsp

Raisins and cashewnuts : 2 tbsp

Method:

1.Bring 4 1/2 cups of water, turmeric to boil. Add toor dal, cover and cook.

2.Watch the vessel carefully as the water might spill, Reduce the flame and cook for next 15 minutes. Spoon out little dal and check whether the outer rim of the dal is cooked, if it is then switch off the gas and let the dal sit in hot water.

3 Strain the water and add  chopped/pounded jaggery to it. Mix it over low flame till jaggery melts. Let it cool again.

4.Grind cooked Dal in a mixer grinder with very little water (only if required) to make a smooth yet thick paste of dal and jaggery.

5. Pan fry khus khus and powder it. Heat 1 tbsp of ghee and fry cashew and raisins till they are brown in color. Add powdered khus khus, fried cashew and raisins to the dal and jaggery paste and mix well.

Ingredients for the outer layer :

Madia Hittu/ Plain Flour : 1 cup

Chiroti Rava or Fine semolina : 3tbsp

Hot oil : 1tbsp

water to mix

Mix all the above and make very tight dough.

1. Take small portion of the dough and roll it to make a circle of 8 cm diameter.
2. Place the stuffing/hoorna in the middle and fold over. You now have a half moon shaped karjikayi with you. Seal the edges by pressing the dough with your finger tip. You can fold the edges and press with back of the fork to give it a nice edge or just leave it plain.

Heat oil in a thick bottomed pan on a medium flame. Deep fry karjikayi till they turn golden brown.

Enjoy them hot with little ghee on them!